Legal Help

Trouble in Tennessee is rare but it does happen occasionally. We have an incident page which tells about some of this trouble and will be added to as things become known.

Some things to consider:

• Being divorced or going through a divorce seems to greatly increase your risk of legal trouble. Homeschooling is not usually the real reason behind the trouble. Usually, you'll find that the breadwinner is no longer willing to financially ensure that the other parent can stay home and continue homeschooling. In our 'liberated' and 'no-fault' society judges rarely think twice about sending that stay-at-home parent off to work and thrusting the children into a a whole new world called public schooling.  Custody is often cited as the goal but frequently it's an attempt by one spouse to control another--and the children are the pawns caught in the middle. There is a wealth of research supporting the success of homeschooling. Socialization is no longer a legitimate issue considering all the activities that local support groups and communities provide now days. If the spouse cannot be reasoned with, the trick is to educate the judge about the rightness and legitimacy of homeschooling.
• Misinformed officials are out there. Your familiarity with our laws will be the best first line of defense.

  • Print the law,

  • read the law,

  • highlight the law,

  • keep the law on your desk.

• Nosey neighbors/tradesmen have occasionally been a problem. Again, knowing the law is imperative. Having a good relationship with these people, if possible, will also help.

The following organizations can provide you with some help. These are offered in an attempt to help you be an informed consumer. You are encouraged to gather accurate information, assess your individual needs and wants and purchase, or not, what suits your family's situation.

• Association of Home School Attorneys-USA is a network of attorneys and legal experts that are concerned with litigation pending and threatened against homeschoolers. Its primary purpose is to exchange legal information within the profession, and to educate and support attorneys and experts involved in homeschool litigation.

• Pacific Justice Institute
  http://www.pacificjustice.org/index.html
  "an organization whose purpose is to assist those in the battle for our religious freedoms, sanctity of life, parental rights and other civil liberties. PJI has the necessary, broad-based network in place to support attorneys, individuals, churches and organizations in this fight."

When child protection services call: a really excellent article to have read beforehand.
http://www.pacificjustice.org/resources/articles/focus.cfm?ID=ART513510669

• Rutherford Institute:
  
  1-804-978-3888, M-F, 8:30 - 5:30 Eastern
  E-mail: legal@rutherford.org
  "The Rutherford Institute is an international legal and educational organization dedicated to preserving human rights and defending civil liberties."

"The Rutherford Institute responds to over one thousand requests for assistance annually from parents whose rights were placed in jeopardy. Frequent issues involve state social service challenges to corporal punishment and charges of educational neglect because of parental choices to provide home schooling."

• (HSLDA) Homeschool Legal Defense Association
  http://www.hslda.org

HSLDA is not a legal requirement. 

There is some controversy in the greater homeschooling community regarding them. They do not provide "legal insurance" but membership in an advocacy group. They are not contractually obligated to represent you in the manner you might desire . They have represented non-members. We offer this link to HSLDA itself (they should be their own best advocates)

HSLDA membership is NOT required by any state law or regulation. HSLDA is NOT legal insurance. It's membership in an advocacy organization and they are not under any obligation to represent you IF you have any trouble. To their credit t hey have taken on cases for non-members.

HSLDA membership in Tennessee:

2002: Claiborne Thornton of THEA (the statewide HSLDA affiliated group) gave legislators the estimated number of Tennessee homeschoolers as 40,000 to 60,000. A bit later in another setting, Dewitt Black of HSLDA said they had 2,400 member families in Tennessee and also stated that there were an average of 3 children per family. So doing the math: 2,400 x 3 = 7,200. 40,000 divided by 3 equals 13,300 member families. 13,300 divided by 2,400 equals 18% of Tennessee homeschoolers are HSLDA members. Or 82% of Tennessee homeschoolers aren't members of HSLDA. It's much smaller using the 60,000 figure-only 12% are members. But no one knows how many homeschoolers there are so these numbers are just estimates.

2008: Dee Black of HSLDA testified before the Special Initiatives sub-committee of the House Education Committee on 3/19/08  that HSLDA had 3,000 member families in Tennessee. This is an increase of only 600 member families in 6 years. This would seem to be another indicator of the stability and relative trouble free homeschooling situation in our state.

HSLDA has given (and still does when it can) about $5/$15 of that $85.00 membership fee back to the organization that you join through. So there may be a financial incentive for groups to encourage your membership. There are folks that sincerely believe this is a wise use of their money. The usual pitch says something like "if it's not for you it's helping out families in other areas." One of the reasons I started the Incident Page at TnHomeEd was to help folks gauge their actual risk and help them determine if membership is worthwhile from that perspective.

HSLDA avoids domestic issues-which is where most of the homeschooling trouble comes from. You're more likely to have trouble if you are divorced/ing, or have relatives that disagree with your decision.

HSLDA also involves itself in issues that some consider outside of the homeschooling realm such as the soldier that wouldn't wear a UN beret (Michael New), gun control issues in Texas, UN Conventions etc.

It's my opinion that your BEST defense is your own thorough understanding of the laws/regulations and a sturdy backbone.

Additionally, you can purchase regular legal insurance to cover all your legal needs no matter what the circumstances. In Texas and California homeschool groups have formed their own legal protection funds.

So I encourage the "be a wise consumer" tack. Consider what is important to your family, understand what HSLDA does and doesn't do, weigh your risks and come to a decision.

"More information about HSLDA" can be found at: http://www.homeschoolingislegal.info/ and is a wealth of information about HSLDA from folks in the Virginia area where HSLDA is located. They don't pull any punches and are very critical of HSLDA. In order to make a more fully informed decision you will want to have read this before you join.

Custody and Homeschooling: Sadly, this too is an aspect of homeschooling. If you are having trouble in this area you may want to contact The Rutherford Institute (above), the California HSNetwork, below, which has a pamphlet regarding this subject. Raymond Moore and the National Home Education Research Institute have information concerning how well HSers do academically. See also Nicky Hardenbergh's excellent article: "Validity of high stakes standardized test requirements for homeschoolers: a psychometric analysis"

California Home School Network:: Write them for their brochure concerning custody and homeschooling.
1-800-327-5339
E-mail: CHNmail@aol.com

TESTING: It's not unusual when a family comes before a court the issue of testing the children is brought up and often ordered. If this is your situation you and your attorney should have Nicky Hardenbergh's "Validity of high stakes standardized test requirements for homeschoolers: a psychometric analysis" in your arsenal.

CPS Watch.com "Currently, CPS Watch has thousands of members in all 50 states and Canada. Members of CPS Watch come from very diverse backgrounds; parents, step parents, foster caregivers, social workers, attorneys and even judges make up the membership of CPS Watch. All are concerned about the manner in which CPS agencies are treating families."

Here's a link to their "Parent's Guide to 'The System'"

Other Resources:
The Cornell Law Librarians suggest a resource I've come to rely on for several years. Ann Zeise's "A to Z Home's Cool" site. Here is her Legalities page address: http://www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling/directory/Legalities.htm
At this page she links to such topics as educational neglect, teachers who want to tutor, content standards for states, the Association of Homeschool Attorneys, as well as special needs advocacy and much more.

Ann links back to this page at TnHomeEd for "Supportive links for interpretations, new legislation, and additional legal resources [for Tennessee]".