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"What is a public school system doing regulating homeschooling? There should be state law that takes that discretion away from local districts with political points to make and axes to grind. "

They are NOT regulating homeschooling. Re0read the article. The parents are REFUSING the LAW in their state that requires testing.

"There are multiple ways to assess academic progress, (Virginia law names several) and the school district should not be choosing it, not should they choose the test used if testing is the method picked. "

Great! BUT that is NOT what is in place in the state in the thread. What the law says NOW is what must be upheld.

"I have my son tested because it's convenient and he tests well. But I agree it is actually a poor measure of what he has learned...though it is one way to compare his progress with that of other children."

I don't agree that is DOES NOT measure what they know. It's simply a guideline and MANY homeschoolers in our area willingly take it to make sure their child is AHEAD.

They are NOT regulating homeschooling. Re0read the article. The parents are REFUSING the LAW in their state that requires testing.

Great! BUT that is NOT what is in place in the state in the thread. What the law says NOW is what must be upheld.

Ditto to that nmh. As a homeschooler I don't understand the uproar about this. These people are knowingly breaking the law. What if we all did that? There are other ways to go about getting laws changed...this family sounds pretty petty. I guess they think it's okay to raise the kids to be lawbreakers?

In MA, per the statute and related discussion of relevant court cases above, it gives too much discretion to the local school districts, IMHO, and is vague enough to invite a hodgepodge of regulations across the state with regard to what constitutes an acceptable plan of education.

In fact, it does not only invite such abuse, there IS a hodgepodge of regulations from district to district.

Even the MA statutes allow more than one way of evaluating progress. The problem here is DSS has custody and is demanding testing the parents object to. Ordinarily the parents would be permitted to choose another method of evalution. The "LAW" here seem only to be what DSS has laid down for this family.

The school district did not approve the education plan of the parents; why is unclear, although I suspect it is possible that they chose to reject an unschooling plan.
Unschooling does not violate the statute, per se' in fact, the statute expressly forbids the local district from interfering in the manner of instruction.

However, the local district is given far to much discretion in what kind of plan it will or won't accept, and is given several weasel clauses to throw up roadblocks for any parent that desires to homeschool.

DSS filed the "educational plan" with the district. Their students have rebelled against unscheduled and unwanted testing. DSS says the parents don't have custody and have no authority in the education of their children, and yet demands the parents instruct their rebelling children to take the test.

The whole situation is wrong, and my present opinion is that the school district improperly rejected the teaching plan of the parents because of a vague statute that invites abuse by localities with axes to grind.

The education of children is a responsibility that belongs to parents. In principle I think state oversight should be at a minimum.