Homeschoolers get knock on door from police

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Monday, November 18, 2002 | By Art Moore

[JohnHuang2]

A public school superintendent has sent police in squad cars to the houses of homeschooling families to deliver his demand that they appear for a "pre-trial hearing" to prove they are in compliance with the law.

Bruce Dennison, regional superintendent of schools in Bureau, Stark, and Henry counties in Northeastern Illinois, has contacted more than 22 families, insisting that they need his approval to conduct education at home.

Dennison is exceeding his authority, according to Chris Klicka of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, who argues that homeschooling is legal in Illinois and families do not need school district approval to teach their own children.

"He's muscling the homeschoolers pretty heavily," Klicka told WorldNetDaily. "One truant officer told a family that he 'could take away the kids if he wanted to.'"

Also, a district attorney in the area has threatened to prosecute families that do not submit to requests to have their program approved, said Klicka.

But state law is straightforward and simple, Klicka insists. A 1950 Illinois Supreme Court decision, People v. Levisen, established that homeschooling falls under the requirements of a private school. Private schools are required only to teach the same branches of instruction as public schools and to do it in the English language.

Dennison was not available for comment.

The situation is one of many around the nation addressed by HSLDA in which school districts and government officials are seeking to wield greater control over home-based education. The U.S. now has as many as 2 million homeschoolers, according to some estimates.

The state of California is warning parents that they cannot educate their children at home without acquiring a professional teaching credential. Officials maintain this stance despite a statute that allows any parent to homeschool under a private school exemption. Homeschool defenders note that districts are motivated to keep as many children in public school as possible because funds are allotted per student.

Klicka said other superintendents in Illinois accept the procedure for homeschooling in the state that his group advises, which is to prepare a "statement of assurance."

If a family is contacted, according to Klicka, they say, "We've established a private school in our home pursuant to the Levison case. We're teaching the same branches of instruction as public schools."

But Christine Fortune told WND that two squad cars showed up at her house in Geneseo, Ill., in Henry County, in late October to deliver a letter demanding that she appear at a "pre-trial" hearing.

One police cruiser pulled into her driveway, another parked on the street. One policeman then accompanied a truant officer and case worker to her door, while the other police officer waited in his car.

"I was very angry," said Fortune, who homeschools her 14-year-old daughter Stephanie. "[My children] were really perplexed why the police were coming for me. It was way overkill for something that was not even a certified, subpoena kind of letter. It was just something they could have popped in the mail."

Fortune, who served as a substitute public school teacher in the country for about 10 years, said she had homeschooled prior to this school year without any interference.

Klicka said that if a superintendent had evidence that a family is lying or is fraudulent, he should refer it to the prosecutor, but "this superintendent is thinking, 'I've got to approve the curriculum, I've got to check up on the parents.'"

Homeschoolers are under no legal obligation to attend "pre-trial hearings," which have no standards or guarantees, Klicka maintains.

"They're not really 'pre-trial' because there are no charges filed," he said. "It's just part of the intimidation tactics."

When questioned, the district attorney had no idea what standards would be used to judge a homeschooler's curriculum, Klicka said.

On Oct. 18, just four or five days prior to the police-escorted visit to Fortune's house, the homeschool mother allowed a case worker from the school district to come into her home. HSLDA contends that mandatory home visits are violations of a family's right to privacy and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

"On the phone, [the case worker] said she wanted to review the curriculum and see if I needed any help – is how she was phrasing it," Fortune said.

The case worker was escorted to a room to see the computer-based curriculum Fortune's daughter uses.

"The beauty of that program is it's perfect for any questions she would have," Fortune said. "It has a record of grades and the things that have been done and lesson plans. I could have just produced that for her very easily, but she never asked."

Instead, said Fortune, the case worker "was fixated on attendance records."

That struck Fortune as being rather odd: "I said, 'I don't do that – we don't punch a time clock. I just write down what we do.'"

"I kept telling her," said Fortune, "'[My children] live here; they haven't been absent once from the home.'"

Since the police visit, Fortune has been referring all communication to HSLDA, which is helping another three of the more than 22 families who are in a similar situation. Membership with the Virginia-based group allows homeschool families to take advantage of their legal resources.

Klicka said he is advising his member families not to go to the hearings or allow home visits but to "stand on a simple letter declaring they are legally homeschooling as a private school."

---

[eno_]

Bruce Dennison is also an easy man to find.

[DWSUWF]

"...Bruce Dennison is also an easy man to find..."

Bruce should get down on his knees and thank God that he lives in a country so well civilized that he has not been bundled off in the middle of the night to spend the rest of his life in a basement, chained to the wall naked, where he is fed rotten food laced with urine and treated to regular discipline with a cat o' nine tails.

[Wonder Warthog]

"They already have the power to test. That's a lot of power. If the child fails a test, then look into the cirriculum."

Nah, that's MUCH too logical and rational an approach. After all, this is really about STATE POWER, not actually educating children.

[lavaroise]

Sorry, I did not mean to target cops, but to target those in power (prosecutors and political police chiefs) who force cops to charge such category of people and not others. It is done big time in domestic violence and divorce cases, where good cops take the brunt shock of evil policies, having to choose between an honorable carrier waiting for the next administration change and people's livelyhoods.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

ILLINOIS

Updated August 2002

Compulsory Attendance Ages:	"between the ages of 7 and 16 years." 105 Illinois Compiled Statutes Annotated 5/26-1.
Required Days of Instruction:	176 days. 105 ILCS § 5/10-19 (Not mandatory for private or home schools).
Required Subjects:	Language arts, biological and physical science, math, social sciences, fine arts, health and physical development. 105 ILCS § 5/27-21 through 22; Ill. Admin. Code tit. 23, §§ 1.420 - .440. Also honesty, justice, kindness and moral courage. 105 ILCS 5/27-12.

Home School Statute: None.

Alternative Statutes Allowing for Home Schools:

1. 105 ILCS § 5/26-1. If a child is "attending a private or a parochial school where children are taught the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in public school," and where instruction is in the English language, the child is in compliance with Illinois compulsory attendance law. Home schools that meet these two requirements are considered legal private schools.

2. People v. Levisen, 404 Ill. 574, 90 N.E.2d 213 (1950) is a landmark case which held that a home school is a private school. A private school is "a place where instruction is imparted to the young … the number of persons being taught does not determine whether a place is a school." 404 Ill. at 576, 90 N.E.2d at 215. The Illinois Supreme Court emphasized the right of parents to control their children's education: "Compulsory education laws are enacted to enforce the natural obligations of parents to provide an education for their young, an obligation which corresponds to the parents' right of control over the child. (Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 400.) The object is that all shall be educated not that they shall be educated in any particular manner or place." Levisen, 404 Ill. at 577, 90 N.E.2d at 215.

3. The Levisen decision noted that once a truancy action has been filed against the parents in court, they must come forward with evidence to show that they are in compliance with the law.

4. In order to avoid truancy actions, home schoolers who are contacted may wish to file a "statement of assurance" with the local school district or send form ISBE 87-01, (the "Nonpublic Registration, Enrollment and Staff Report") to the Illinois Department of Education in order to show their good faith. This statement of assurance and the form, however, are voluntary, and parents are not required by law to initiate filing either of them. Parents who fill out either of these forms when contacted by school authorities do so simply to indicate that their private school meets the standards required above, distinguishing themselves from actual truancy violators.

5. HB 1726 (enacted in 1989) removed the authority to investigate educational neglect from the Department of Children & Family Services. Truancy investigations are left solely to school district. 325 ILCS § 5/3.

6. The U.S. District court in Scoma v. Chicago Board of Education, 391 F. Supp. 452, 461 (N.D. Ill., 1974) found the Levisen decision to be "reasonable and constitutional."

7. Further recognition of the right of home schoolers to operate as private schools came from Governor Jim Edgar who issued a proclamation on April 24, 1991, declaring May 5-11 as home education week. This proclamation has been reissued annually.

Teacher Qualifications: None.

Standardized Tests: Not required by statute.

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Copyright 2002,HSLDA, all rights reserved. May be reproduced only by permission.
THIS ANALYSIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE THE GIVING OF LEGAL ADVICE.
Call or write to receive a free copy of HSLDA’s newsletter and membership application.
Home School Legal Defense Association, P.O. Box 3000 Purcellville, VA 20134
Phone: (540) 338-5600 Fax: (540) 338-2733 Website: www.HSLDA.org

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[longtermmemmory]

My questions:

1. How does a truant offices have ANY jurisdiction for a child who is NOT enrolled in a school.

2. How do the police have ANY right to show up at a residence without a search warrant? Fourth ammendment etc.

3. Under the heading of curiosity: How much property taxes are involved with 22 families? -assuming it is one child per family, that means there must be 22 children which reduce the superintendents matching funds. Assuming about 3000.00 dollars in state and federal matching funds, this could be 66,000.00 dollars this superintendent is loosing. How much are property taxes in ill.?

[Clint N. Suhks]

Homeschool Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, who argues that homeschooling is legal in Illinois and families do not need school district approval to teach their own children.

Mike Smith bump.

Go uncle Mike!

[madfly]

ping

[NY.SS-Bar9]

Perhaps they should answer the knock at the door shotgun in hand?

Do the words "Ruby Ridge" sound familiar???

[tacticalogic]

After all, this is really about STATE POWER, not actually educating children.

It's state power, in pursuit of federal dollars. I know may supported GWB for increasing the federal budget for education, and in theory it sounds good. One of the unintended consequences is that the additional money provides additional incentive to the state govenments to engage in this kind of tactics in order to get at those dollars.

[sistergoldenhair]

Bruce Dennison is also an easy man to find.

Sure is. Looks like he has an agenda. Look here

[Eastbound]

"Who died and made them the guardians of the children?"

I don't think you really want to know, but here goes anyway:

If you mortgage your livestock and then go bankrupt, a trustee is appointed to make sure the herd is properly cared for until it is sent to market. Your status has changed from owner to manager.

For the federal debt, the surety for the loan is the income of the next generation. The 'herd' must be 'properly cared for' to insure it has health and longevity, trained in docility, and educated with suitable skills and talents necessary to fill projected workplace quotas to produce the product-of-the-day while earning sufficient taxable income to pay the debt -- or at least the interest.

Since the country went bankrupt long ago, the states have been assigned as guardians and trustees of the general population and are responsible for the health, education and welfare of the herd. Parents are considered only as producers of the herd, and are allowed temporary custody of their children only so long as they comply with specific, minimum standards of care for them.

I'm sure there are plenty of other folks here who can explain how this came about. I only wanted to try to answer your question, 'Who died and made them guardian of the children?'

Answer: Nobody died. Ownership was transferred.

[Slyfox]

You would think that this public school superintendent would have more on his hands to do seeing as how a sizeable portion of the students that are graduating from his schools have to attend remedial classes when, well IF, they get to college.

I just checked realtor.com which shows the SAT scores in the school districts. Although, Illinois has a good rating overall, 597 and 573, I checked all of the counties where this superintendant presides and all three couties came up N/A, which usually means that they are so much below the state average that they are ashamed to post it. So, I may just be blowing in the wind but I think this guy has way too much time on his hands PLUS he's probably been energized from some NEA meeting about those rascally homeschoolers. The law is on the books in favor of the homeschoolers. He'd best back off.

[dasboot]

I nominate Eastbound's number #32 for "Post-of-the Month". Any seconds?

[monkeyshine]

A public school superintendent has sent police in squad cars to the houses of homeschooling families to deliver his demand that they appear for a "pre-trial hearing" to prove they are in compliance with the law.

This is America. You don't have to prove you are in compliance with the law. It is up to law enforcement to charge you with a crime, and then for the people's attorney to prove your guilt.

[ApesForEvolution]

Lock and load bump.

Most school districts get $5,000+ from the state, of which a lot comes from upstream, for each student they 'procure'...

[ApesForEvolution]

You'd be amazed at the mess you create when you arbitrarily have the government assign a SS# to your child...all for a 'tax break' or 'handouts' from the government.

[Eastbound]

Thanks, dasboot, but I don't think you'll get a 'second.' Most would think I was only being cynical instead of offering a condensation of history.

[dasboot]

Well, I think your condensed version was a brilliant analysis. Of course it may be difficult for some to acknowkedge the truth of what you have written: it's a hard thing to realize that one is a kept being.

But your allegory is a perfect expression of the bare-bones construct of socialist, planned society. The first thing that came to my mind when I read it was Jocelyn Elders testifying that we had to ensure the sexual health of the next generation because they would be paying her social security. ("ravage disease....")

All this has been done with the best of intentions, yes; but the expression of these ideas is motivated by the acceptance of the notion that a superior human may own, in full or in part, another human or number of humans: pure hubris and evil.

I thank you for the rich tidbit of insightful knowledge, and look forward to scanning the threads for more.

[Eastbound]

Thank you for the encouraging words, dasboot.

Your point,

"All this has been done with the best of intentions, yes; but the expression of these ideas is motivated by the acceptance of the notion that a superior human may own, in full or in part, another human or number of humans: pure hubris and evil. "

Slick as well as evil. Sems like the Civil War was fought in vain. Now we all live on the plantation.