Homeschooling is legal and growing in many countries but is virtually forbidden by law in Germany and a few others. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has reviewed and upheld this ban. Is home education a human right? How do these courts employ their jurisprudence of proportionality to find banning home education does not violate relevant…

States have the ability to regulate cyber charter schools just as they regulate traditional schools, private schools, and homeschooling. The situation becomes trickier in terms of religion. In homeschool settings, parents have the right to deliver religious education to their children. Under "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris" (2002), a cyber charter…

Home instruction is becoming more common and public school officials oppose it. They point to parents' deficiencies as teachers and the importance of group experiences for children's personal and intellectual growth. Both groups must learn to communicate and cooperate if legal action is to be avoided. (JOW)

Addresses the litigation giving rise to the right to home school and the emerging right of home-schooled children to attend public schools on a part-time basis. At present, the courts seem unwilling to allow families to use religion to first argue their way out of the public system and then turn around and use the same argument to get back in on a…

Discusses changing framework of American education in light of charter-school movement, school choice and voucher programs, and home schooling. Analyzes potential impact on public education of 2000 Supreme Court decision ("Troxel v. Granville"), involving parents' child visitation rights. Concludes that "Troxel" could…

Many parents critical of public education have removed their children from public schools and are schooling them at home. Home schooling has generated a number of lawsuits. Controversies have arisen over the definitions of "school" and of "equivalent instruction," parents' qualifications to teach, and religious exemptions from…

State attendance laws that provide for home instruction typically specify (1) home instructor qualifications; (2) curriculum; (3) amount of daily instructional time; (4) number of instructional days during the year; (5) required standardized tests; and (6) parental reports to verify legal compliance. Reviews court decisions and state legislation.…

Reviews history of the rights of parents to control the education of their children from colonial times to present (includes the development of case law). English and American common law recognizes parents' natural right to control their children's education. Concludes that, as long as academic standards are satisfied, a child's education should…

Reviews state policies regulating private education and home instruction that limit parental choice in education. Criticizes judicial response to parental challenges, suggesting that parental interests have been underprotected and state interests have been overprotected. Suggests reasonable bases for state intervention. (FMW)

Parental rights and state compulsory school attendance requirements are limited by constitutional constraints, as shown in three benchmark cases. The article also cites cases to show the impact of compulsory education laws on home schooling, which is increasing. The state retains the power to impose minimum curriculum requirements. Cites…

Contends that a constitutionally grounded fundamental right of privacy protecting parental choice of home education is built on a reasonable construction of existing Supreme Court case law and a reassessment of state interests vis-a-vis the parental right of privacy. (147 references) (MLF)

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that a state law compelling a child's attendance at a public school constitutes a violation of the parent's liberty interest under the 14th amendment. In Canada, however, courts have held that their equivalent to the 14th amendment does not encompass the liberty of parents to choose how to educate their children.…

Legal challenges to state compulsory attendance laws have emphasized four interrelated constitutional claims. Under provisions of the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, parents have challenged the state's authority to require public school attendance in lieu of home instruction and private, religious organizations have refused to comply…

Details the story of John Singer, who resisted Utah State directives regarding the education of his children for six years, and subsequently was shot to death in a confrontation with law enforcement officers in January 1979. Suggests that the State of Utah had little real concern for the Singer children but was interested only in confirming its…

Neil Devins, in part 1 of this chapter, discusses state regulation of home instruction. A different perspective on this subject is presented by Perry A. Zirkel in part 2. Parents have claimed that state regulations deprive them of their right, protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, to direct their children's upbringing.…