Ohio homeschoolers
face criminal charges for missing paperwork
'The fact that these families are even facing prosecution
is disturbing'
Authorities in Ohio have filed criminal charges against homeschool
parents in two families, with trials later this month that could result
in fines and jail time if convicted.
For missing paperwork deadlines.
The parents, whose identities are not being publicized at
this time, are facing accusations of “contributing to the delinquency of a
minor” for not having their paperwork filed appropriately – or on time.
The families are being defended by officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association, the world’s biggest
advocacy organization for homeschoolers. It has fought battles on behalf of
homeschoolers in the United States as well as overseas, taking on state and
federal governments from Germany to Sweden to Arizona and California.
The organization explained the paperwork pitfalls that
snared the now-criminal case defendants.
“Both families were somewhat new to homeschooling in
Ohio. One family filed a notice of intent when they began homeschooling last
year, but did not know they had to file another notice for this school year.
The other family filed their annual notice of intent, but did not submit an
educational assessment with their notice because they had not yet completed it,
and had been told by their school district that there was no deadline for
submitting the assessment.”
HSLDA continued its explanation, “Even though both
families continued to educate their children, their school districts decided to
treat the children as ‘truant.’ The schools also waited to contact the families
until the children had accumulated more than a month of ‘absences,’ instead of
addressing the issue when the school began marking the children ‘absent.'”
Peter K. Kamakawiwoole Jr., a staff attorney for the
HSLDA, told WND the organization is in full defense preparation mode for the
families, even though it is hoped that cooler heads eventually will prevail.
“I wish I could say that this incident is an isolated
occurrence, but unfortunately cases like this tend to recur every few years in
Ohio: Families submit a document late, and rather than the school district
following up with the family after a few absences are accrued, the district
waits until many absences are accrued. When these families finally were
contacted by school officials, they provided the missing paperwork, and the
school filed criminal charges against them.”
He said the counts here, “contributing to the delinquency
of a minor,” are usually used for parents who are abusing the system anyway –
“aiding or abetting their child in the commission of a crime or a serious
offense (obtaining a firearm, for example).”
Or the penalties are designed for those guilty of
“chronic truancy,” which, he said, “is defined as more than 15 absences from
school without excuse. The statute is clearly intended to deal with situations
where parents are unwilling to correct persistent – and in some cases, dangerous
– misbehavior by their children.”
“Unfortunately, that statute is being applied here to
parents who had no idea that there was an issue – and at worst committed a
clerical error – and more importantly, the children have literally done nothing
wrong,” he continued.
“The children were attending the school they thought they
were enrolled in, they were obeying their parents who expected them to do their
school work, and they were doing their lessons daily. These are simply not the
sort of families that the Ohio Legislature intended to be subject to these
sorts of criminal penalties.”
He said it’s hard to imagine a family being jailed for
months or fined thousands of dollars under the circumstances at hand.
But, he said, “Those are the potential stakes for
families when school officials choose to prosecute under this statute.”
He continued, “The tragedy is that these prosecutions are
entirely avoidable. Ohio’s compulsory attendance statute has specific
provisions which are supposed to apply when a school district believes that a
child is truant, and those provisions require – among other things – that
parents be provided notice when a district believes a child is truant, and
affords parents multiple opportunities to correct the behavior of the child
(or, in this case, to correct clerical errors). The compulsory attendance
statute recognizes that parents can ultimately be prosecuted – but only as a
last resort, after intermediary measures have been taken to correct the problem,
and have failed.”
He said in the current cases, school officials have blown
off those procedures.
Instead, he reported, officials allowed the students “to
accumulate weeks’ worth of ‘absences’ before the parents were ever contacted,
and then prosecuting them even though the families have documentation showing
that their homeschools are in compliance with state law.”
It’s an unsettling situation, he explained, one for which
the HSLDA is marshaling its members and resources to address.
“The fact that these families are even facing prosecution
is disturbing, and the fact that they could face significant fines or jail time
if convicted is disproportionate and draconian. It is our hope that by
defending these families and drawing attention to their plight, that we can
prevent this issue from recurring in the future.”
In Ohio, the criminal charge is a first-degree
misdemeanor with a penalty of up to $1,000 in fines and up to six months in
jail – and “each day that a child is ‘truant’ can be considered a separate
offense.”
Homeschooling
General criticism
Opposition to homeschooling comes from some organizations
of teachers and school districts. The National Education Association, a United
States teachers' union
and professional association, opposes
homeschooling.[43][44]
National Education Association
Reg
Weaver was the president of the National
Education Association, and is a director at the People for the American Way.
Note: National
Education Association is a national partner with America Votes.
People
for the American Way is a
national partner with America Votes.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the People for the American Way,
and Demos.
George
Soros was the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, a contributor for the American Bridge 21st Century, a member of the Democracy Alliance, and is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Cecile Richards
is the founder & president of the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, the president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, and was the founder & president
for America Votes.
Planned
Parenthood Action Fund is a
national partner with America Votes.
National
Education Association is a national partner with America Votes.
John Stocks is an
executive director for the National
Education Association, and the chairman for the Democracy Alliance.
American
Bridge 21st Century was a contributor for the National Education Association.
Demos
was a funder for the National Education
Association.
Reg
Weaver was the president of the National
Education Association, and is a director at the People for the American Way.
Raben Group was
the lobby firm for People for the
American Way, and the National
Education Association.
Melody C. Barnes
was a principal at the Raben Group,
a domestic policy council, director for the Barack Obama administration, and is Barack Obama’s golf partner.
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