Home Schooling Law
Although it comes as a surprise to many parents, home schooling is perfectly legal throughout the United States, although individual states do impose their own home schooling law which must be strictly adhered to.
The provisions of home schooling law across the 50 states varies very widely with some states, such as Idaho and Texas, placing few restriction on parents and others, such as Massachusetts and New York, taking a fairly heavy handed stance on home schooling.
Over the years numerous attempts have been made to impose greater state control over home schooling, and indeed to make public school attendance compulsory, but the vast majority of these have failed and court decisions have been firmly in favor of parents since an historic Supreme Court ruling in 1925 which affirmed that the care and education of a child was the responsibility of the parents and not of the state.
Despite the legal position each state is permitted to regulate home schooling and so it is vital that parents undertaking home schooling acquaint themselves with the requirements of their state and follow these requirements to the letter.
In 1983 the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) was established to fight for the rights of home schooling parents and this is an excellent starting point for parents seeking to understand their legal position.
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