- LOS ANGELES -- The ruling
arose from a child welfare dispute between the Los Angeles County Department
of Children and Family Services and Philip and Mary Long of Lynwood, who
have been homeschooling their eight children. Mary Long is their teacher,
but holds no teaching credential.
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- The parents said they also enrolled their children in
Sunland Christian School, a private religious academy in Sylmar (Los Angeles
County), which considers the Long children part of its independent study
program and visits the home about four times a year.
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- The Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California
law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private
schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.
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- Some homeschoolers are affiliated with private or charter
schools, like the Longs, but others fly under the radar completely. Many
homeschooling families avoid truancy laws by registering with the state
as a private school and then enroll only their own children.
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- Yet the appeals court said state law has been clear since
at least 1953, when another appellate court rejected a challenge by homeschooling
parents to California's compulsory education statutes. Those statutes require
children ages 6 to 18 to attend a full-time day school, either public or
private, or to be instructed by a tutor who holds a state credential for
the child's grade level.
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- "California courts have held that ... parents do
not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children," Justice
H. Walter Croskey said in the 3-0 ruling issued on Feb. 28. "Parents
have a legal duty to see to their children's schooling under the provisions
of these laws."
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- Parents can be criminally prosecuted for failing to comply,
Croskey said.
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- "A primary purpose of the educational system is
to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to
the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare,"
the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.
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- Union Pleased With Ruling
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- The ruling was applauded by a director for the state's
largest teachers union.
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- "We're happy," said Lloyd Porter, who is on
the California Teachers Association board of directors. "We always
think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what
the setting."
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- A spokesman for the state Department of Education said
the agency is reviewing the decision to determine its impact on current
policies and procedures. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack
O'Connell issued a statement saying he supports "parental choice when
it comes to homeschooling."
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- Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute,
which agreed earlier this week to represent Sunland Christian School and
legally advise the Long family on a likely appeal to the state Supreme
Court, said the appellate court ruling has set a precedent that can now
be used to go after homeschoolers. "With this case law, anyone in
California who is homeschooling without a teaching credential is subject
to prosecution for truancy violation, which could require community service,
heavy fines and possibly removal of their children under allegations of
educational neglect," Dacus said.
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- Parents say they choose homeschooling for a variety of
reasons, from religious beliefs to disillusionment with the local public
schools.
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- Homeschooling parent Debbie Schwarzer of Los Altos said
she's ready for a fight.
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- Schwarzer runs Oak Hill Academy out of her Santa Clara
County home. It is a state-registered private school with two students,
she said, noting they are her own children, ages 10 and 12. She does not
have a teaching credential, but she does have a law degree.
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- "I'm kind of hoping some truancy officer shows up
on my doorstep," she said. "I'm ready. I have damn good arguments."
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- She opted to teach her children at home to better meet
their needs.
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- The ruling, Schwarzer said, "stinks."
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- Began As Child Welfare Case
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- The Long family legal battle didn't start out as a test
case on the validity of homeschooling. It was a child welfare case.
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- A juvenile court judge looking into one child's complaint
of mistreatment by Philip Long found that the children were being poorly
educated but refused to order two of the children, ages 7 and 9, to be
enrolled in a full-time school. He said parents in California have a right
to educate their children at home.
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- The appeals court told the juvenile court judge to require
the parents to comply with the law by enrolling their children in a school,
but excluded the Sunland Christian School from enrolling the children because
that institution "was willing to participate in the deprivation of
the children's right to a legal education."
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- The decision could also affect other kinds of homeschooled
children, including those enrolled in independent study or distance learning
through public charter schools - a setup similar to the one the Longs have,
Dacus said.
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- Charter school advocates disagreed, saying Thursday that
charter schools are public and are required to employ only credentialed
teachers to supervise students - whether in class or through independent
study.
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- Ruling Will Apply Statewide
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- Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense
Association, said the ruling would effectively ban homeschooling in the
state.
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- "California is now on the path to being the only
state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental
right to teach their own children at home," he said in a statement.
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- But Leslie Heimov, executive director of the Children's
Law Center of Los Angeles, which represented the Longs' two children in
the case, said the ruling did not change the law.
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- "They just affirmed that the current California
law, which has been unchanged since the last time it was ruled on in the
1950s, is that children have to be educated in a public school, an accredited
private school, or with an accredited tutor," she said. "If they
want to send them to a private Christian school, they can, but they have
to actually go to the school and be taught by teachers."
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- Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not
the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place
daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their
ongoing safety."
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- Online resources
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- The ruling: To view the ruling by the Second District
Court of Appeal, go to links.sfgate.com/ZCQR.
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- E-mail the writers at begelko@sfchronicle.com and jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
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- This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco
Chronicle
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