If you’ve been reading the papers for political stories that aren’t about the presidential campaign, you might have noticed a story that had a headline with a variation of the following: “California Court Declares Homeschooling Illegal.” Shock, outrage and disbelief seemed to be the emotions du jour after the story was published. However, many papers reported the story inaccurately, or highlighted portions of the Appellate court decision that were taken out of context.
Reporters look for “the sexy” in a story, and boy did they find a good one in this court ruling! On page one, paragraph two of the actual decision, the court provided the media with their money shot: “California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.” However, if one bothered to actually read the rest of the decision, one would find that the court was quick to point out exceptions to this assertion. To wit:
Full-time public school education for persons between the ages of six and eighteen is compulsory under California’s compulsory education law (Ed. Code, § 48200 et seq.), “and each parent, guardian, or other person having control or charge of the pupil shall send the pupil to the public full-time day school . . . and for the full time designated as the length of the school day by the governing board of the school district” (§ 48200). Exemptions to compulsory public school education are made for, among others, children who (1) attend a private full-time day school (§ 48222) or (2) are instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught (§ 48224), or (3) one of the other few statutory exemptions to compulsory public school attendance (Ed. Code, § 48220 et seq.) applies to the child. Because the parents in this case have not demonstrated that any of these exemptions apply to their children, we will grant the petition for extraordinary writ.
