The California Education Code requires that if a child is to be home schooled, the parent has file with California paperwork establishing their home as a private school, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts while still teaching at home. I just don't know how much oversight is being given to this area.
Quote:
The case began as a child welfare dispute in Los Angeles County. Phillip Long, a father of eight, faced allegations from one of his children of "physical and emotional mistreatment," according to court documents. While taught at home by their high school-educated mother, the children were registered at the private Sunland Christian School, which periodically monitored their progress but didn't actually instruct the children. Many California home schoolers follow such an arrangement, officials and advocates say.
Attorneys appointed to represent two of the family's youngest children asked a juvenile court to require that the pair, ages 7 and 9, attend school outside the home so adults could monitor them for signs of abuse.
"Our concern was the kids' safety," says Leslie Heimov of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles. "There's a big difference between a social worker visiting once a month and (what) a teacher might be able to see on a daily basis."
A judge rejected that request, so attorneys appealed to the higher court, which ruled on Feb. 28 that enrollment in Sunland was a "ruse" that allowed the children to be taught at home "by a non-credentialed parent."
The appeals court ruled that the arrangement with Sunland was inadequate because the school "was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children's right to a legal education." It also ruled that Long and his wife couldn't claim to be home schooling their children for religious reasons. They had cited a 1972 case involving Amish families, but the court said that case allowed families to home school based not on "personal preferences," but on "a fundamental belief that salvation requires life in a church community separate and apart from the world and worldly influence."
Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus calls the ruling "an extreme position," adding, "We're confident the California State Supreme Court will not agree with (it)."
Schwarzenegger said in a statement Friday: "Every California child deserves a quality education, and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. -- This outrageous ruling must be overturned, and if the courts don't protect parents' rights, then as elected officials, we will."
Attorneys appointed to represent two of the family's youngest children asked a juvenile court to require that the pair, ages 7 and 9, attend school outside the home so adults could monitor them for signs of abuse.
"Our concern was the kids' safety," says Leslie Heimov of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles. "There's a big difference between a social worker visiting once a month and (what) a teacher might be able to see on a daily basis."
A judge rejected that request, so attorneys appealed to the higher court, which ruled on Feb. 28 that enrollment in Sunland was a "ruse" that allowed the children to be taught at home "by a non-credentialed parent."
The appeals court ruled that the arrangement with Sunland was inadequate because the school "was willing to participate in the deprivation of the children's right to a legal education." It also ruled that Long and his wife couldn't claim to be home schooling their children for religious reasons. They had cited a 1972 case involving Amish families, but the court said that case allowed families to home school based not on "personal preferences," but on "a fundamental belief that salvation requires life in a church community separate and apart from the world and worldly influence."
Pacific Justice Institute president Brad Dacus calls the ruling "an extreme position," adding, "We're confident the California State Supreme Court will not agree with (it)."
Schwarzenegger said in a statement Friday: "Every California child deserves a quality education, and parents should have the right to decide what's best for their children. -- This outrageous ruling must be overturned, and if the courts don't protect parents' rights, then as elected officials, we will."
) my kids reading, viewing, playing stuff from sex and violence, so it's probably hypocritical of me to think that her censoring her kids from Harry Potter, Halloween and Micheal Jackson was any more or less 'right' than mine. 