American military homeschoolers in Germany

In reference to a comment she left at my 'work blog' about a judge in Niedersachsen specifically mentioning homeschooled children of foreign military personnel, I emailed Scatty for details.  She sent me a copy of the ruling (a 'photocopied' PDF, not a PDF text file, so I can't easily copy it). 

One thing that strikes me as humorous is that, to the best of my knowledge, there are no American military installations in Niedersachsen.  There shouldn't have ever been any Americans up north, other than in Bremerhaven -- which is separate from Niedersachsen.  When Germany was occupied, Niedersachsen was in the British area.  The Americans have always been in the southern areas -- Bremerhaven and Berlin being exceptions.

Maybe it's the Brits who have exported home ed?

The quoted law in the recent judicial ruling is from "Schule und Recht in Niedersachsen," not "Schule und Recht in Deutschland," so I'm guessing the jurisdiction is limited. Then there's the NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) to consider. It is a treaty-type document and carries significant weight.

German schooling laws are particular to each state, as American schooling laws are.  There may be British troops in the state of Niedersachsen, and there may be internal E.U. agreements that affect schooling of children who are citizens of E.U. countries (that's if the E.U. is still a going concern -- I haven't kept up with it).  The NATO SOFA, though, specifically excludes visiting forces from the benefits and responsbilities of citizenship.

See Articles I, VII and X.

Article I
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'civilian component' means the civilian personnel accompanying a force ... nor nationals of, nor ordinarily resident in, the State in which the force is located.
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Article VII:
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In case where the right to exercise jurisdiction is concurrent the following rules shall apply:

The military authorities of the sending State shall have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over a member of a force or of a civilian component in relation to offences solely against the property or security of that State, or offences solely against the person or property of another member of the force or civilian component of that State or of a dependent;
===================================

(but homeschooling isn't an American offense)

Article X:
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Members of a force or civilian component shall be exempt from taxation ... on any tangible movable property the presence of which in the receiving State is due solely to their temporary presence there.
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Unfortunately, Annex K of the SOFA, in which specific social benefits such as health insurance are disallowed for members of a visiting force, is not online.

Still, I'm not a lawyer so I can't say one way or the other how a ruling from a judge in Niedersachsen can affect people under the auspices of the NATO SOFA who live in other German states.  It would be like a judge in California ruling on people in Idaho who are in the United States under the auspices of a much-reduced form of diplomatic immunity.  American military personnel, for example, don't pay taxes in Germany, they don't have their cars inspected by the TÜV, and they don't have to attend German driving school in order to get a license to drive.

Or maybe judges in the various German states have broader powers?

The question of German oversight of American homeschooling families has been addressed in the past. Again, to the best of my knowledge, the first time was 1989 in the Augsburg military community.  In none of the challenges was German law ever brought to bear, even though military commanders tried invoking it more than a few times.

Yet again, to the best of my knowledge, no school authorities have tried making an issue of local control of American military children, although one German friend in Frankfurt, whose children had dual citizenship, got into an animated discussion with a local principal.  Her husband was a contractor, and some of them were on thin ice concerning whether they were "ordinarily resident" or not, so that may have had some bearing on her situation.

Military commanders do not have statutory authority to instruct parents to make specific educational choices.  Without martial law, no commander can tell parents to use DoDDS or private schools or host nation schools, and worst-case disciplinary actions for kids enrolled in DoDDS are limited to losing the privilege of attending DoDD schools. The kids can't be required to use DoDDS, but they can be kicked out if they misbehave. 

If parental choice for all other schooling options is free from command control, so is homeschooling.  It's also curious that so much ink is being spilled over a practice that isn't causing any problems (that I've been able to find).

One potential problem (for those who would have the German system exercise oversight) is that if the German system accepted this responsibility concerning American military homeschoolers, then they might have to accept oversight of all the kids because 'being a homeschooler' is not a permanent condition.  The kids can easily move from one 'state of being' to another and all the noses would have to be counted to see who's going where.  Even at the present reduced troop strength level (in comparison to strength levels during the Cold War), I can't see the German system spending money to administer student oversight of DoDDS. 

Doesn't mean something can't happen**, only that host nation oversight seems an expensive and unwieldy thing to do, and would probably involve money being paid by the American authorities to offset costs.  Boy, what a goat rope that would be.

**(there were proposals at the Dependents Education Council meetings that agreements about homeschooling should be brokered with host nations; see links at The Military Homeschooler
click on Rationale for viewpoint of 'educational profiling' -- you'll have to look through the documents -- Ctrl F is useful in finding "home schooling")

Btw, thanks to Dana for linking to my article at NHEN.

Comments

[Dana]

Thanks! I don't think there are any military bases left in Niedersachsen, are there? It is mostly a curious thing...I know there are very active homeschool groups in other states in Germany, but I have a hard time believing that Germany would march onto a base and drag off families for home education, regardless of their interpretation of SOFA or anything else.

Someone who knows a lot more than me about it said that it could possibly be an issue for someone living off base...but still, why would Germany bother?

It is interesting that at least Niedersachsen believes US children on bases are under their authority, though.

[scatty]

The document in which this statement is contained was not written by a judge but by a legal expert of the Niedersachsen school authority. It is the school authority's reply to our grounds for suing them for exemption from compulsory schooling. The case is due to go before 5 judges of the Niedersachsen lower court in the next couple of months.

I have also found a British forces document which permits home education for the children of overseas forces members (no mention of any exception for people living in Germany or even Niedersachsen). I am going to research the other states' laws and see if any of them have a similar regulation.

[Larry Whorley]

I am an American who worked for the US army during the late 1980's in the Northern Germany area. At that time, we had an Army post (Garlstadt) in Lower Saxony as well as 35+ remote sites all over Northern Germany (e.g. Flensburg, Soegel).

[Valerie]

Thanks for the memory jog, Larry, I'd forgotten all about Garlstedt and all those remote sites.

So many installations closed after 1989's events that it's a real Trivial Pursuit keeping them all in mind (especially if you weren't assigned to one of them).

Thanks again for the reminder.