Social worker at the door? What is the main reason for homeschooler concern about legal problems?

[see also Home Education Magazine column, "How rulings in homeschooling custody cases affect us all." (scroll down for article) ]

The past few days I have kept myself busy reading through the nine years of archives of the email list for the group, Association of HomeSchool Attorneys (AHSA).  I did this to find out the most common reasons for asking for help with legal problems concerning homeschooling, and I used the list as a sample of homeschoolers.

My reason for wanting to know what problems homeschoolers want legal help with stems from the record-keeping chapter I'm still writing for a blogged homeschool book for military families, Tossed by the Fates. 

Traditionally, one of the most common reasons given for keeping well-organized records of a child's education at home is in case the family is ever investigated for educational neglect, or finds a 'social worker at the door.' If this happens, it is said, the records will 'prove' that the parent is, indeed, providing a suitable education for the child.  Depending on state law, a well-organized record may or may not be a stand-alone defense (see your state law for exact requirements).

As I wrote that part of the chapter draft, the little editor-on-my-shoulder poked me with the sharp end of her blue pencil and asked how I knew that record keeping to stave off investigation for educational neglect really was the case.

Could not other reasons be:

• Staying on track
• A sense of order
• State requirement
• Raw material for 'high school' transcripts

From my own experience, I did not know whether preparedness for an investigation was a necessary reason to promote organized record keeping, so I went looking.

A big problem in digging up information to support my reasoning is that I have no access to prosecution records, court documents, or any database that tracks legal inquiries from homeschooling parents.  Given my lack of access, how could I collect any raw data?  My only resource was the email list for the AHSA, so that would be it.  I logged on to the list and read the messages, looking at the reasons for first inquiries.

In checking the reasons for first messages messages from new list members, it was not long before I could see the most common reason for needing assistance:  custody battles concerning children.  Yes, some members (13) initially posted with 'social worker at the door' queries, but the greatest number of requests for help came from custodial parents who were homeschooling but whose former spouse objected to the homeschooling.  So many new list members wanted help with custodial battles (as the reason for needing help was most often called) that in 2003 the AHSA list owner started a new list only for custody disputes.  Despite the new list (which attracted many list members), custody queries continued to show up on the original list.

After putting together the numbers, I went to an online graphing site, plugged in the numbers and, hey presto!, generated the charts at the end of this post.

I made one chart using the information I collected from the original AHSA list, and then I made another, adding the information from the AHSA custody list's front page.  I am not a member of the AHSA custody list, so I added up the total number of messages from the list calendar on the front page, and then divided the total by a completely-guessed-at average of five replies per original query for help.  I did not want to join yet another list and torture my eyes by reading through yet another list's archives.

• The information from the original AHSA list covers nine years:  2000 - 2009
• The information from the AHSA custody list covers six years:  2003 - 2009

A wild card in this representation of queries for help from homeschooling parents as a representative sample is that the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the largest provider of legal assistance to homeschooling parents, does not accept custody dispute cases.  I do not know what effect this condition has on the number of people who arrive at AHSA's email list, but the HSLDA policy raises the question of whether it inflates the custody number compared to other categories.

• A caveat to that wild card is that the cases accepted by HSLDA is at their discretion, and the word on the street is that if a non-member family is approached by a local child protection agency then HSLDA will treat this as a pre-existing condition and decline to add that family to its membership.
• A caveat to the caveat is that HSLDA lawyers have stated anecdotally that they have helped non-members.  I presume the non-members only approach HSLDA when they have a legal problem.
• A caveat to asking HSLDA for help is that I do not remember any of the people who asked for help saying that HSLDA rejected their request for membership.  I was not thinking about this while I was counting, so it may have slipped by me. I am not so dedicated that I am going to read through nine years of archives again.

The quick and dirty breakdown of the queries for help is:

• Custody
  73 = 29%
• Social worker at the door
  13 =  5%
• Truancy
  8 = 3%
• Officials overstepping the law 
  6  = 2%
• Educational neglect, homeschooling w/o certification, officials contesting homeschooling
  4 = 1% each
• Bogus reports to child services
  1 = .3%  (that's 3/100s, not 3%)

The following charts show a representation of the number of messages, and after that is the 'on the fly' breakdown of the types of requests (I pigeonholed them as I went along, since I didn't know what to expect). 

In the charts, the categories are lumped together up until 'five queries' is reached (because that is where single issues for 'larger' numbers of queries begin).  The 'pie slices' of one, two, three and four queries are multiple subject categories, but adding them one by one would have made the chart unreadable.  A listing of the query subjects comes after the charts.  

AHSA list chart

AHSA list plus AHSA-Custody list chart

On both charts, the large light-purple segment represents custody queries.

List entries for nine years:  253 initial queries total  (not including the estimated 145 queries on the AHSA custody list)

73 queries

• Custody/divorce  35  (Aug. '03 custody list started)  38

15 queries

• General homeschool query

14 queries

• Special needs services denied by school

13 queries

• Social worker investigation

11 queries

• Complying with state-specific rules

9 queries

• Legislative

8 queries each

1. Special needs services imposed by school
2. Truancy

6 queries each

1. Officials overstepping the law
2. Unspecified request on behalf of a non-member of list

5 queries

• Foreign

4 queries each

1. Discrimination against homeschoolers
2. Educational neglect 
3. Homeschooling w/o certification is "illegal"   (CA - Eastin '02) 
4. Officials contesting homeschooling

3 queries each

1. Civil disobedience to challenge law  2 NH  1 Mass.
2. Late paperwork 
3. News stories critical of homeschooling 
4. Non-profit, establishing 
5. Public program questions

2 queries each

1. Complying with judicial ruling
2. Criminal case re: child 
3. Dual enrollment 
4. Job offer for attorney or legal assistant
5. Katrina 
6. Officials doing the paperwork shuffle

1 query each

1. Adjusting to public school
2. Age of compulsory attendance 
3. AHSA compared to HSLDA 
4. Alternative program pressured by state 
5. Bad school 
6. Child in custody 
7. Child labor laws 
8. Conflict with charter 
9. Conflict with reviewer 
10. Co-op obligations 
11. Daytime curfew 
12. Documenting transcripts 
13. Expert witness needed 
14. Family Defence Center 
15. FERPA 
16. Foster parenting 
17. Harassment via bogus reports to child services 
18. Homeless in shelter 
19. Homeschool group incorporation 
20. Homeschool group and IRS 
21. Homeschooling info requested as periphral to a loss of income lawsuit (if you have time to hmschl, you have time to work) 
22. Home School Legal .com 
23. HSLDA overstepping  (asked for all names from a state; that listing included non-member names) 
24. IDEA 
25. Immunizations 
26. Legality of compulsory education laws 
27. Military 
28. Minimum age for home alone 
29. Mixup of names in letter of intent 
30. Muslim lawyer needed 
31. Who is NHELD 
32. Obtaining child's 'permanent record' from school 
33. Obtaining standardized test 
34. Precedent 
35. Pvt. School liability for adjunct homeschoolers 
36. Pvt. Tutor option legal? 
37. Re-entering public school 
38. Religious conflict in Alabama (Jewish family) 
39. Religious exemption 
40. Religious school 
41. Reporting educational neglect 
42. Reporter query 
43. Research 
44. State residency during visit 
45. Social security payments 
46. Scholarship 
47. Supreme Court appeal 
48. Therapist request 
49. Websites with inaccurate hmschl information 
50. Working parent schedule

Comments

[Valerie]

Another caveat to my conclusions about these numbers is that this breakdown applies within the group of people who needed legal help, not to 'homeschoolers as a whole.'

The 100% of the pie chart does not represent the 100% of people who have homeschooled since the AHSA lists were started, but rather the 100% of the people-with-problems who found the AHSA lists.

The percentage of homeschoolers who have had legal problems is unknowable.

[Valerie]

From Deborah Stevenson of NHELD:

Bulletin #71 Homeschooling And Divorce 09/02/09
http://www.nheld.com/BTN71.htm
=========================
While it is true that the United States Supreme Court, in several well-known cases such as Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510, 534-35 (1925); Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205, 232 (1972), and the like, has found that parents do have a Constitutional right to the upbringing and education of their children, the Court also said, within those decisions, that the state has the right to regulate homeschooling.

In addition, the state, through the courts, also has the right to resolve disputes between parents during a divorce. In fact, during a divorce, when parents cannot come to an agreement between themselves, the parents actually voluntarily grant authority to the state court the right to decide all aspects of the upbringing and education of the child. Essentially, to a certain extent, they waive their Constitutional right and cede authority to the state court.
=========================

More at site

[Karen]

While I'm happy that the issue of homeschooling and divorce is being discussed, the discussion tends to be on the theoretical side. The NHELD bulletin may have been informative at a basic level, but isn't very helpful. What would be helpful is a listing of mediators and attorneys who are familiar with homeschooling (or truly willing to become so), who won't dismiss it out of hand.

As someone who has been through the process and who has friends who have as well, I can say that trying to find professionals who are willing to learn about homeschooling is difficult. (Side note - this is true of finding mental health providers as well, which can be a related issue).

When one doesn't have a lot of money to start with and must go though this process, it becomes difficult to change professionals when it becomes apparent that the person who sounded reasonable in the interview process proves to be uninterested in expanding their knowledge.

One of the reasons that there are continuing requests on the ASHA site about custody is that the AHSA Homeschooling and Custody list is basically a place for homeschoolers facing these issues to ask other homeschoolers. There is very little input from attorneys. Traffic on the list is largely a collection of "Does anyone have any advice on...?" followed by personal experience, anecdote and conjecture by people from many different places. Many times people don't have knowledge that the homeschooling, custody and alimony rules differ outside of their state. It is a low traffic site, and only minimally useful.

I am a member of the AHSA-HaC list. If you'd like, after next week I can break down the types of questions and average number of responses there. There are only 745 messages on the list in total. Let me know.