Tennessee Homeschooling Timeline
This information is in reverse chronological order.

The following is provided for educational purposes only. It is raw data, a work in progress and quotes are gleaned from various sources. If you have additional information you’d like to see added please forward hard copies of original documents or your own signed testimony to TnHomeEd, 3929 Ivy Drive, Nashville, TN 37216. 

These entries are in reverse chronological order.

Check the NEWS section for additional information.

Undated but before 1999:

From Mike Farris: 

For some time, violence in schools—usually physical assault experienced by their own child—has been a strong motivation for parents to home-school. I defended a family in Tennessee who began home-schooling after the blouse of the couple’s daughter was ripped open in her home-room class by a relentless suitor who would not take no for an answer.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/washingtontimes/familytimes/199905040.asp

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Teaching Home  April/May 1993 Page  center pages Tennessee/KY1 (page number)

The Teaching Home in Tennessee, Lana Thornton, Editor

House Education K-12 Sub-Committee votes against HB 595

By Claiborne [Thornton]

On March 10, 1993 HB595 failed in the K-12 Education Subcommittee. It can be reconsidered this year. The voice vote was 4-5 with Callicott, Tindell, Knight and Pinion voting yes; Winningham, Bell, Davis, Peroulas and Whitson no: and Owenby not present. Davis spoke for a long time before the vote, saying that he could not support the bill even if it required a Masters Degree to home school at the high school level. He did support home schooling in K-8.

Peroulas, Deberry and Davidson entered the room just before the vote. This is an ominous sign potentially signaling a stacked deck, because a committee’s Chairman, the Speaker ProTem and the Speaker are voting members of each committee and sub-committee. Later Davidson said he would support the bill in his committee and he asked me to talk with Legal Services evaluating the conditions for reconsideration of HB595 by the K-12. Because it is a subcommittee and a voice vote, Sally Sweeny said it can be reconsidered simply by being placed on notice again by the sponsor. Peroulas said she would reconsider; possibly vote to let the bill out of committee and vote against it on the floor. She will talk to Wood this afternoon.

SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE VICE CHAIRMAN RECONSIDERS HOME SCHOOLING

By Claiborne [Thornton]

The meeting on March 10, 1993 with Senator Womack went well. He favorably reviewed the suggestions we generated in response to his requests and promised to contact me the first of next week with his response. He had requested using testing in lieu of the request for a waiver and he was interested in insuring that state funding was sent to the local education agency. Also he suggested setting up a panel to review the requests for 9-12 waivers with six members, including 3 home schoolers and 3 from the DOE, TN Higher Education Commission, the State Board of Education or others. This panel would be empowered to consider and act on the requests for a waiver from the BA requirement.

MARCH 2, 1993 THEA LOBBYING DAY: The Agony & The Ecstasy

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Dec ’92 – Jan ’93 
Teaching Home Magazine: Under Legal News: page 29
By Michael Farris, President, Home School Legal Defense Association

Tennessee
Lawsuit Challenges Degree Requirement

HSLDA has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Tennessee challenging a state law requirement that home-school parents possess a baccalaureate degree in order to teach their children who are in grades 9-12. 

The lawsuit represents five families from various parts of Tennessee who have been threatened with prosecution for not having baccalaureate degrees after the state commissioner of education refused to grant any of them exemptions of the college degree requirement. The case, Floyd v. Smith, challenges, the degree requirement and also challenges the refusal by the state commissioner to grant exemptions from the state law as the law itself allows.

The Crites v. Smith case [826 S W 2^nd ____, 466 & 467—according to another source], which HSLDA unsuccessfully litigated last year, made similar challenges in state court. The Tennessee Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold the law, and the Tennessee Supreme Court refused to hear the case. This lack of success in the state courts prompted HSLDA to file the Floyd lawsuit in federal court.

Please pray that the federal court judge, Thomas Hull, would rule in favor of the home-school families in this case.  

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Dec ’92 – Jan ’93 edition of Teaching Home Magazine: pg. 31

Truancy Charges Stalk Families

Tennessee law requires that parents receive three days written notice before the superintendent reports a child as truant to the District Attorney. A school district in Gibson County did not follow this procedure, and the first notice Gale and Lora Hartstuff received was in the form of a court summons served by a deputy sheriff.

The Hartstuffs had notified their daughter’s high school principal that they had decided not to send her to the public school this fall but were enrolling her in New System School, Inc., a private religious school. The Hartstuff’s considered the matter settled, and as far as they knew, everything was fine. Until they were summoned to court, that is.

The Hartstuff immediately called HSLDA. Attorney DeWitt Black contact the officials on behalf of the family and pointed out that not only had the school officials failed to comply with the three-day notification law, but in fact, their daughter was not truant because the New System School, Inc., should qualify under Tennessee law as a church-related school. With the assistance of local attorney, Jeff Smith, HSLDA was able to get the truancy charges dismissed.

The Hartstuff are not alone. Other Tennessee families face similar difficulties. Please support them with your prayers.

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August 31, 1992: August 31 — Tennessee: HSLDA filed a civil rights suit challenging the college degree requirement for parents home schooling high schoolers in Floyd v. Smith. This case is still pending. (The name of this case has since been changed to Goggins v. Smith.)

http://www.hslda.org/about/history/1992.asp

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1985:

This year, home school statutes or regulations were adopted in Arkansas, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington, and Wyoming http://www.hslda.org/about/history/1985.asp