Tag Archives: Topic: Home School

Religion Clause: Authorities in Gothenburg have formally notified the Namdars that they will be fined the equivalent of $2400 (US) per week if they do not enroll their children in a Swedish school by Feb. 1.

ADF Attorney Roger Kiska on the Hugh Hewitt Show. | MP3 audio 5:50 mins

ADF Attorney Roger Kiska appeared on the Zeb Bell Show. | MP3 audio 17:10 mins

TheHill.com: But more than most of his rivals, the surging GOP contender has also taken direct aim at the foundation of the American education system: public schools. The former two-term Pennsylvania senator and his wife home-schooled their six children, and he has been a longtime advocate of the approach favored by as many as two million Americans.

HSLDA: On Tuesday, December 13, the U.S. Senate’s Subcommittee on Children and Families held a hearing on S. 1877, a bill to require all adults to be mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect. HSLDA believes that this bill will create a police-state reporting environment that will lead to baseless investigations of innocent families, and actually hurt at-risk children. HSLDA opposes S. 1877.

HSLDA: New truancy enforcement laws have sparked criminal charges against several homeschool families in Nebraska. A Dawson County Sheriff’s deputy actually threatened to remove one family’s children unless they enrolled them in public school.

Swiss parents are not allowed to school their children at home via webcam. The Federal Supreme Court ruled that children’s social skills were not sufficiently nurtured by such an arrangement.

Baptist Press: “The government shouldn’t abduct and imprison children simply because it doesn’t like homeschooling,” ADF legal counsel Roger Kiska said. “That’s bad enough. But now the state is going even further by attempting to get the parents out of the way altogether. This simply cannot stand.”

HSLDA: Local and state education officials have threatened to take the Dudek family’s children to school by brute force, according to a letter to parents Jürgen and Rosemarie Dudek obtained by HSLDA. The letter from Hesse Regional School Office Director Anita Hoffman says that among the remedies the state may use against the family is to “take custody of the children from the parents” or to “transport the children to school by force.”

NYTimes.com: The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”

WorldNetDaily: hat word had come from officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association, which along with the Alliance Defense Fund already has elevated the dispute involving Christer and Annie Johannson and their son, Domenic, of Sweden to the European Court of Human Rights.

WorldNetDaily: The battle lines over homeschooling rights overseas and in the United States have been sharpened by the publication of a law journal article that concludes that Germany does persecute homeschoolers and that the first waves of its impact already have hit the U.S. The article, “Germany Homeschoolers as ‘Particular Society Group’: Evaluation Under Current U.S. Asylum Jurisprudence,” was written by Miki Kawashima Matrician and published recently in the 2011 Boston College International and Comparative Law Review.

OneNewsNow.com: Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Roger Kiska is defending the family in the European Court of Human Rights, which has not been friendly to the couple so far. “We’re asking the court to immediately reverse … Sweden’s decision, saying it’s highly illegal to take away the parental rights for this family, and it’s also very damaging to the best interest of the child, to Dominic,” Kiska reports.

Crosswalk Religion News Summaries: The Home School Legal Defense Association and the Alliance Defense Fund have been working to bring attention to the case and encourage the Swedish government to release Domenic back to his family. “The government shouldn’t abduct and imprison children simply because it doesn’t like homeschooling,” said ADF legal counsel Roger Kiska. “That’s bad enough. But now the state is going even further by attempting to get the parents out of the way altogether. This simply cannot stand.”

HSLDA on Christian Newswire: Both ADF and HSLDA are currently asking for letters to be written in an attempt to renew attention to the family’s case and to encourage Swedish officials to release Domenic back to his family. “The government shouldn’t abduct and imprison children simply because it doesn’t like homeschooling. That’s bad enough. But now the state is going even further by attempting to get the parents out of the way altogether,” said ADF Legal Counsel Roger Kiska. “This simply cannot stand. We will do everything in our power to help reunite this family.”

WorldNetDaily: That word has come from officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association, which along with the Alliance Defense Fund already has elevated the dispute involving Christer and Annie Johannson and their son, Domenic, of Sweden to the Europe Court of Human rights.

Christian Newswire: A judge dismissed the case against a homeschool family in southern Spain that was facing a possible order to send their son back to school. “This is an important victory for the González family and homeschoolers in Spain,” said Michael Donnelly, Director of International Relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA).

Rod Dreher at The American Conservative: [T]his phenomenon underlines a key aspect of the change taking place in America’s schools. The public schools are not going to be replaced by a single alternative system; new forms of education are going to appear.
A truly forward thinking community would try to accelerate this process, offering vouchers and other incentives to parents and community groups who are willing to create the schools of the future. Ultimately, parents should have the option to spend education money on whatever program they believe will best serve their children.

HSLDA: The González family, who reside near Alicante, Spain, were giving thanks to God and to HSLDA after a judge dismissed their case this week. The family were facing a possible order to send their child back to school after prosecutors brought the case over homeschooling. HSLDA filed a brief and spearheaded an international petition for the family.

The Globe and Mail: A new study, published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, found that students between age five and 10 who were home-schooled with a structured curriculum surpassed the public school peers on standardized tests.

WorldNetDaily: Harrold-Claeson has been involved in some of the most notorious child-custody cases, including the case of Domenic Johansson in Sweden. Her involvement so alarmed local judicial officials that they ordered the Johansson family to be represented by an attorney of the court’s choosing instead of Harrold-Claeson. That case is pending before the European Court of Human Rights, where the Home School Legal Defense Association and the Alliance Defense Fund, an international civil and religious rights organization, are arguing Domenic needs to be returned to his parents.

HSLDA: t also does not appear that the state legislature has authorized the state board to promulgate rules or regulations regarding homeschooling in West Virginia. In fact, if there is any change needed, it in the area of deregulation—not increased regulation.

HSLDA : There seems to be special resistance to homeschooling older children, desiring them to be socialized into the public school and wider culture. But, as several families told us, even younger children may be approved for homeschooling one year and disapproved the next year with little to no justification. In some families, approval is granted for one child and not a sibling, with little rhyme or reason given.

HSLDA: The Spanish-speaking homeschool movement began in Mexico but is expanding throughout the world. In May, El Hogar Educador mailed the spring issue of its magazine to 5,428 families in 28 countries.

Our Sunday Visitor: That leads to a subtle anti-clericalism, he said, because the children learn that priests cannot be counted on to hand on the faith. It shows in what he sees as a dearth of vocations from home-school families. “Why would you want to join the club if its members can’t be trusted to their jobs?” he said.

The New American: At the moment, the U.S.-based Home School Legal Defense Association and the Alliance Defense Fund are appealing the case to a European-level court in an effort to reunite the family based on violations of human rights and international treaties to which Sweden is a party. That case is progressing slowly, and no arguments have been heard yet. But the pressure is mounting as more and more organizations get involved.

LifeSiteNews: A Quebec judge has ordered a three-year-old and a five-year-old to attend state-funded day care following claims that the children lacked proper “socialization.”

HSLDA: Members of HSLDA since 1998, the Pepperdins asked us for help. HSLDA Senior Counsel Scott Woodruff prepared a letter to the Cornell admissions department explaining that parent-issued diplomas satisfy all federal requirements for financial aid. He pointed out that no state imposes requirements on the parental issuance of high school diplomas, and urged them to quickly clear up the issue.

HSLDA: . . . On April 20, 2011, the Supreme Court of Mississippi ruled in favor of HSLDA’s motion and vacated the order by Judge Walker. HSLDA succeeded in protecting the privacy of homeschoolers from this flagrant misuse of judicial power and blatant violation of the separation of powers set up by the Mississippi and federal constitutions.

The American Catholic: “Bishop’s presence at the homeschooling Mass would convey a contradictory message equating the importance of Catholic school education with Catholic homeschooling; therefore, Bishop Vásquez must respectfully decline the invitation. . . ”

WorldNetDaily: It’s been some nine months since family advocates pleaded with the European Court of Human Rights to look into the case of a Swedish child taken by police from his parents and isolated with government-sponsored foster parents because he was being homeschooled, and now a case number has been assigned. The move in Domenic Johansson’s case is significant, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association, because once a file number has been assigned, the case can begin to move forward. The HSLDA had joined with the Alliance Defense Fund, an international civil and religious rights organization, to seek help from the ECHR.

Christian Newswire: oday, the Supreme Court of Mississippi granted the Emergency Motion to Vacate or Stay Judge Joe Dale Walker’s March 23 order that required school attendance officers in the Thirteenth District to provide him with the names and addresses of all homeschoolers in the district.

Oregon Faith Report: Georgene Rice interviews Joseph Infranco with the Alliance Defense Fund to discuss greater implications of a recent New Hampshire Supreme Court Ruling that forced a home school student into a government run school against her mother’s wishes. The court made clear it was not addressing larger religious liberty or home school issues, but rather on the narrow facts of the case.

HSLDA: After years of turning down appeals from homeschoolers in Sweden, the Kammarrätten, an administrative appeals court just below the Swedish Supreme Court, has agreed to review the homeschooling cases of the Himmelstrand and Angerstig families. This is the first time in recent years that a higher court in Sweden has decided to review a lower court’s decision denying homeschooling.

HSLDA: Homeschooling in Italy is growing, and a website called Controscuola.it is helping. Run by homeschool mom Erika Di Martino, the tagline on the Controscuola website reads, “Education is compulsory … not school attendance!”

The link between the home-school movement and the tea party activists that have reenergized – and at times hijacked – the Republican party is not often made. But it was apparent here that home-schooling parents are a key constituency that is hoping to make a splash in Iowa, as three presidential hopefuls took turns courting the activists.

ParentalRights.org: On March 10, the Obama administration told the UN Human Rights Council that it supports the UNHRC’s recommendations that the United States should “ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child [CRC].” Moreover, the administration promised that it “intend[s] to review how we could move toward its ratification.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Rich Buhler Show to discuss this: NH Supreme Court sidesteps critical religious liberty issue in homeschooler case. | MP3 audio 14:00 mins

Yahoo News: “According to the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), allied with the mother’s attorney, the New Hampshire’s Supreme Court has previously stated that American home education is a tradition and a right.”

The New American: While home school advocates were concerned the case might set a precedent for other courts to force home schooled children to attend public school, Joseph Infranco, senior counsel for ADF, predicted that because the state court limited its decision to the facts in the case, the ruling could not be used “as a battering-ram against religious liberty or home schooling — and ADF will be vigilant to make sure that it’s not.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the George Rice Show to discuss this: NH Supreme Court sidesteps critical religious liberty issue in homeschooler case. | MP3 audio 11:31 mins

Baptist Press: Joseph Infranco, senior counsel for ADF, said, “Although we strongly disagree with the court’s decision for this family and do not believe the trial court should have considered religion as it did, we appreciate that the Supreme Court limited its decision to the facts of this case. This decision cannot be used as a battering-ram against religious liberty or homeschooling, and ADF will be vigilant to make sure that it’s not.”

“And the decision strikes me as constitutionally troublesome, whether implemented in broken families or in intact families.”

“The New Hampshire Supreme Court says a lower court acted appropriately in ordering an 11-year-old girl to attend public school after her father claimed his ex-wife’s strict Christian teachings were socially isolating the child.”

LifeSiteNews: “HSLDA responded, however, that the bill “would give the Illinois Department of Education literally unlimited power to dictate what information homeschoolers must submit.” The organization has strongly encouraged concerned parents to contact their senators . . . Three bills concerning homeschooling have been brought to the New Hampshire House this year . . . ”

Maureen Downey writes at the Atlanta J. Constitution: Take a look at Senate Bill 55 and Senate Bill 34, both of which require public schools to allow children who are not enrolled to participate in extracurricular activities. I understand the impetus and the impulse, but at some point, don’t schools have the right to ask: How much more can we do?

LifeSiteNews: The Alliance of Romanian Families (AFR) is intervening in the case of Domenic Johansson, the Swedish boy who was abducted by Gotland social services in 2009, asking that he be returned to his family, as international pressure increases on the Swedish government.

World Net Daily: “Social-services workers in Sweden without warning have taken two children from their mother in a move described by an analyst as legal even if there is no evidence of problem . . .The HSLDA is working with the Alliance Defense Fund on a case before the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of the family.”

HSLDA: “While Alliance Defense Fund Attorney John Anthony Simmons is representing Mrs. Voydatch, HSLDA has been consulting with the ADF and its attorneys to ensure that the liberty of all homeschoolers is protected.”

LifeSiteNews: “The controversial Ontario Human Rights Commission has signaled their ‘takeover’ of the province’s education sector, a development that could threaten private schools and homeschoolers, said the Family Coalition Party of Ontario (FCP) today.”

ChristianNewsWire: “New Hampshire moved one step closer to homeschool freedom as House Bill 301, the Homeschool Freedom Act, sponsored by State Representative James Parison was formally introduced.”

Fox News / Live Shots: “Like many parents who home-school, Voydatch believes in the importance of teaching the basics of reading and writing. But she also believes in the importance of a religious education . . . ‘The judge,’ explained Simmons, ‘said that Amanda reflected her mother’s rigidity in matters of Faith, and that because of that rigidity she needed to be ordered into government run schools.’”

WorldNetDaily: “A Swedish father who was jailed by authorities for taking his son, in state custody because social services workers worried he was being homeschooled, home for a visit has been released from his incarceration . . . The case has been the focal point of work both by the internationally known Home School Legal Defense Association as well as the Alliance Defense Fund, which has brought a case before the Europe Court of Human Rights on behalf of the family.”

WorldNetDaily: “Army Major John Jackson and his wife Carolyn, devout Christian homeschoolers with a history of serving as adoptive and foster parents, had their five children taken away in April 2010 by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services – and despite the collapse of the evidence against the Jacksons, DYFS hasn’t returned the children to their parents.”

WorldNetDaily: “Judges at the European Court of Human Rights for more than six months have ignored a separated Swedish family’s plea for justice and reunification, and advocates for Christer and Annie Johansson say now it’s time for the citizens of the world to demand action . . . ‘I am absolutely astonished that they haven’t replied to any of the applications that [ADF attorney] Roger [Kiska] filed for Christer and family and sent him a case [number]. They haven’t replied to my fax letter of September 29, in which I inquired about the application,’ [Ruby Harrold-Claesson, the president of the Nordic Committee for Human Rights] said in a statement to the HSLDA.”

Regions.ru (Google translation from Russian): “The fundamental right of parents – to choose education for their children,” – said John Anthony Simmons, a lawyer associated with the Christian human rights organization «Alliance Defense Fund». – “The court has no right to send children to public school just because she thinks that her religious beliefs should be diluted by others. A lower court had done just that.

OneNewsNow: “Voydatch’s attorney, John Anthony Simmons, an allied attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, says the court modified the child’s school placement at the request of the father. ‘And the rationale that it used was that the child [and the mother] had religious beliefs . . . that were abhorrent to the father and that essentially were too narrow,’ says Simmons, ‘and that those opinions needed to be corrected . . .’”

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0RjeyRlxRA&feature=youtube_gdata

HSLDA: “In June 2010, HSLDA and the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a joint application at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on behalf of the Johansson family. Since the Johanssons’ case has been heard at every level of the Swedish court system, the ECHR is the family’s only remaining recourse.”

Last week, ADF allied attorney John Anthony Simmons appeared on the Vicki McKenna Show to provide an update on this case: In the Matter of Kurowski and Kurowski (Voydatch). | MP3 audio 17:50 mins

Religion Clause: “The New Hampshire Supreme Court last week heard oral arguments (video of full arguments) in a divorce case that has gained national attention through the publicity given to it by groups that see it as an important religious freedom test.”

Andrew Cohen writing at Politics Daily: “Unfolding Thursday in Concord, N.H., was yet another chapter in the sad story of a family involved in a high-conflict divorce. It is the frustrating example of two parents fighting one another for control of their child’s education. And it is a compelling lesson about home schooling and public education, religion and the role of the courts, in determining a child’s course of learning . . . The judge had applied the wrong legal standard, the ADF attorneys argued, and the guardian was biased against Brenda and Amanda because of their deeply held religious beliefs.”

CBN: “The New Hampshire Supreme Court is considering whether it should force the 11-year-old daughter of a divorced couple to attend public school . . . ‘The (lower) court went beyond the disagreement between the parents and offered the opinion that the child was being raised with rigid religious views and had not had the opportunity to be exposed to other points of view to challenge these views,’ ADF attorney [Joseph Infranco] said.” | Article includes a short CBN News video report that excerpts a phone interview with Infranco.

WorldNetDaily: “The Supreme Court in New Hampshire today was asked to reverse a lower court decision that ordered a homeschooled student who was ‘well liked, social and interactive with her peers, academically promising and intellectually at or superior to grade level’ into a public school because she was too ‘vigorous’ in defense of her Christian faith. ‘Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,’ said John Anthony Simmons, an attorney allied with the Alliance Defense Fund.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco writing at Speak Up Movement / Church: “A home school case being argued in the New Hampshire Supreme Court Jan. 6 is a window into the kind of subtle bias against Christianity that permeates our modern institutions. Only, in this case it’s not even subtle. The reasoning of a lower court is a jolting revelation of how Biblical Christian values may be publicly marginalized.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on AFR Focal Point with Bryan Fischer to discuss the NH Homeschool case. | MP3 audio 11:09 mins

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Vicki McKenna Show to discuss the Mt. Soledad veteran’s memorial ruling and the NH homeschooling case. | MP3 audio 19:16 mins

Charisma: “Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) allied attorney John Anthony Simmons will argue before the high court on behalf of the girl’s mother, who is objecting to the judge’s order on appeal.”

Christian Post: “Over 2 million children are being homeschooled in the United States, a new study finds . . . The New Hampshire Supreme Court is set to hear a custody case on Thursday involving a homeschooled girl that was ordered by a state judge to enter public school after a guardian ad litem testified that the girl vigorously defended her Christians beliefs . . . ‘Parents have a fundamental right to make educational choices for their children,’ said John Anthony Simmons, an Alliance Defense Fund-allied attorney representing the girl’s mother.” | ADF News Release

Alliance Defense Fund allied attorney John Anthony Simmons and ADF Senior Counsel Tom Marcelle will be available for media interviews following oral argument Thursday before the New Hampshire Supreme Court in the case of a home-schooled girl ordered into a government school by a state judge.

LifeSiteNews: “As the modern-day homeschool movement confidently marches forward into its fourth decade, colleges and universities are opening wide their doors to welcome its mature, prepared graduates to their ranks. Homeschoolers score an average of 37 percentile points above the national average on standardized achievement tests and typically score above average on the SAT and ACT, statistics that apparently have caught the eye of college admissions personnel.”

LifeSiteNews: “In a new study released today the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) estimates there are over 2 million children being homeschooled in the U.S. in 2010.” | The NHERI research is available for download here.

NYT Discussion: “Will the idea succeed in the new Congress, given some conservatives’ longtime opposition, on the grounds that the credits might open the door to more government regulation of education? How would such a system work? Is it a threat to public education, as its critics claim?”

See especially the contribution of the Home School Legal Defense Association’s William A. Estrada: “A federal income tax credit for educational expenses would help all parents provide greater resources for their children. Tax credits are superior to vouchers because the family keeps its own money and is not the recipient of federal funds. This eliminates any First Amendment concerns if a family purchases religious educational materials, or any danger of federal control coming along with the money.”

WorldNetDaily: “Unspecified psychological studies or evaluations have been ordered for a jailed father who, in violation of the procedures of the government-run social services that instructed police officers to abduct his then-7-year-old son because he was being homeschooled, took him home for a visit . . . ‘Despite the ill-advised decision on the part of Mr. Johansson, the only menace here is a government drunk with its own power,’ said Roger Kiska, legal counsel for the ADF.”

ADF attorney Joe Infranco appeared on the Janet Mefford Show to discuss this: Swedish government’s 18-month-long seizure of 9-year-old boy pushing parents to emotional brink. | MP3 audio 19:17 mins