Homeschooling in the News

I cannot stress it enough -- know your rights and know what's going on in your community. Knowing your rights isn't enough if you don't use that knowledge to defend yourself--and knowing what's going on won't do you any good if you don't know your rights. Be aware.

We endeavor to keep you well-informed about issues in the community, but we can't monitor every action in every community. In many cases, we don't even know about an issue until after it's been resolved.

Homeschoolers in Mississippi recently had their rights challenged by Judge Joe Dale Walker of the 13th Cnancery District Court, who issued a court order in late March that ordered attendance officers to give him the names and addresses of all homeschooling students and parents in his jurisdiction. Thankfully, the families who received letters from those attendance officers obtained assistance from HSLDA, who challenged it in court. Thankfully, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in favor of the homeschooling families.

While seeking names and addresses may seem innocent and harmless, Mississippi homeschool mom Natalie West Winningham pointed out, "If I were a vigilante judge who got my hands on a database of homeschoolers’ names and addresses, perhaps I would cross-reference it with past criminal records, DHS cases, driving records, credit histories, tax information, etc. And if I thought I could get away with it, maybe I’d send someone to your home to interview you and hope that you don’t know your legal rights. I’m not saying that Judge Walker would do those things. But there are many possibilities and none of them are pleasant." (Quote taken from the article in The New American... Read more about the case and about Natalie Winningham on her blog, Ramblings Rants & Remedies)