An appellate court on Friday said parents have the right to educate their children at home despite not having a teaching credential. The 44-page decision by the Los Angeles Second District Court of Appeals declared that “California statutes permit home-schooling as a species of private-school education.” It is a reversal of a March ruling by Justice H. Walter Croskey that parents without teaching credentials do not have a constitutional right to teach their children in a home-school setting. The ruling also jeopardized some independent-study programs. “I am pleased that the courts have clarified the right of California parents to home-school their children,” said Jack O’Connell, state superintendent of public instruction. “I have respected the right of parents to make educational decisions they feel are in the best interest of their children.”
The original ruling sent waves of indignation through the state’s massive home-schooling community, estimated at 160,000 students. The March ruling stemmed from a case involving children enrolled in an independent-study program through Sylmar-based Sunland Christian School. The parents, Phillip and Mary Long, were referred to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services for numerous allegations, including physical abuse. The children were educated at home by their mother and occasionally attended Sunland. A lawyer for the children requested they be placed in a full-time school where they could be better monitored, and the Second District Court of Appeals eventually agreed. Friday’s ruling does not affect the Long case, which is still winding its way through court. California law requires those who wish to home-school their children to file paperwork with the California Department of Education declaring themselves a private school. Parents must also hire private tutors or enroll their children in an independent-study program. Filing the affidavit doesn’t automatically certify a home-school as a private school, and the CDE leaves oversight of home-schools and independent-study programs to the individual school districts.
