A couple of months ago, Deborah Niemann-Boehle and I did a seminar at the Chicago Homeschool Expo on knowing your rights and responsibilities as an IL homeschooler.

After covering what we’d do to prevent interference or complications with authorities, we were discussing what to do if a truant officer shows up at your door. One of our most vigorous pieces of advice was to politely ask them to send their concerns in writing, and that your response would be in kind. Most importantly, ensure that the authorities don’t come inside, unless they have a court order. (They rarely have a court order.)  In other words, know your rights and responsibilities, and you’ll be an empowered homeschooler.

A good question was then asked.

"Why not let them in?"

I assumed (possibly not accurately) that question was asked because if we have nothing to hide, why shouldn’t we prove it to the authorities? 

When you open the door to the Regional Offices of Education or local school authorities, you could set precedents for authorities to determine what (in 2006) Williamson County State’s Attny. Garnati calls "improper home schooling" along with their judgments of "established curriculum" . Homeschoolers don’t need that quagmire, and his demands are certainly not required in Illinois statutes.  Garnati’s attitude, along with what seems to be happening (still) in some southern Illinois parts, is one example of government officials running away with power after one homeschool truancy test case. 

Home-school mom charged with allowing truancy   The Southern

"It’s what I call an end around," Garnati said. "These are parents who have no intention of home-schooling their child. Unfortunately, there is no law on the books that criminalizes improper home schooling. What concerns me are those children who are chronically truant from school."

In Illinois, chronic truancy is 10 percent absenteeism from the classroom. In Williamson County, Garnati said, he files truancy charges against four to five parents each year. Harris is the first, however, who claimed to be home-schooling her child at the time charges were filed.

"Our priority is to get children back in school and not have to take the parents or kids to court," Garnati said.

Admitting that the Harris case is pretty much a "test" case, Garnati said he made his decision to prosecute after he and Marion school district officials had exhausted all other efforts to solve the problem.

Garnati claimed this:

Marion woman convicted of aiding son with truancy  The Southern

Following the charge, a Class C misdemeanor, Harris told The Southern that she had removed her son from school because she feared for his safety following some altercations with the school.
"I feel like I’m being singled out when I haven’t done anything wrong," Harris told The Southern in June 2005.
The child had been truant from home-schooling from Oct. 8, 2004, to March 28, 2005, Garnati said.
Garnati said he believes the majority of Williamson County parents who are home-schooling children provide a satisfactory education. Harris was the exception and not the rule, Garnati said.
"I’m not against home-schooling in any way," Garnati said. "In my opinion, 99.9 percent of parents who home-school do a great job. It’s a legitimate form of education. In this case, she was using home-schooling as an excuse."

After the Kim Harris test case conviction, Garnati and his cronies (also known as the Franklin-Williamson Regional Office of Education) sent out truant officers to homeschoolers’ homes, despite his assertion that he wasn’t after 99.9% of homeschoolers.  The lack of Illinois homeschool community attention given to the publicized arrest in the Kim Harris "test case" contributed to further problems for those local homeschoolers. 

Not only should we defensively refuse illegitimate entrance into our homes by officials, we should offensively find out facts and fight for our homeschooling rights before people like Garnati and the ROE people down there try to get their clutches on our children.  As noted in the above articles, they are not to be trusted in or out of our homes.
We all use unique home education styles in our individual homes, from ’school at home’ to ‘radical unschooling’. I’ve seen some troubling on-line homeschool forum viewpoints (from unschoolers to the other end of the spectrum of more structured curriculum users) that don’t support all families’ educational choice autonomy. That’s just within the homeschool community. Some homeschoolers assert that Creationists teach bad science.  Other structured curriculum homeschoolers proclaim that unschoolers make the rest of homeschoolers look bad. My theory is that each family should follow their values and educational needs, and the general end result will be adults who are independent thinkers that learned to question various aspects of our society.  I don’t find that a troubling issue. 

I think Rhonda Robinson raised a valid concern in 2006 about home visits about protecting our homeschool community. (Love the picture):

"Illinois Law is clear and simple. We are considered private schools. The local school district has NO jurisdiction within our homes. Unless of course, you grant them that authority. Second, there seems to be a disturbing trend of appeasement. The Joliet family was lucky enough to have had a teacher’s certificate. They however, were at least ready to fight in court, had her plea’s not have been heard. How might this story have turned out if they were unschoolers with a mother who had no teaching credentials? The Decatur family felt the right thing to do was to allow this official into their home and judge their homeschool."

What authority are we granting to school officials that isn’t theirs to have?  How are we making it easier for these overstepping authorities by trumpeting the best homeschooling way is our way; whether it’s radical unschooling all the way to the other end of the spectrum of ’school at home’?  Electricity Judging

 Related post:  Help

 

 

 

 

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