Kentucky Sends Letters to Homeschoolers, Mistakenly Calling for Adherence to Already-Fulfilled Requirements

Homeschool families in Kentucky were concerned after they received letters from the school district telling them they had to meet requirements of which they were unaware.

According to OneNewsNow, two Kentucky counties sent letters to homeschool families “reminding” them of various requirements they must meet. Upon research into the case, however, the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) discovered that the districts were misinformed.

“In Edmonson County, homeschool families received a memo from their local Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP) in July about homeschooling their children this school year,” HSLDA reports. “While it was written as a ‘reminder’ to homeschooling parents, the memo insisted that they had to submit ‘as soon as possible’ and ‘upon receipt of this letter’ the following: 1) name of children, 2) dates of birth, 3) sex of children, 4) student’s address, 5) current grade (2014–2015 school year) [sic], 6) names and addresses of parents or guardians, 7) name, address and phone number of home school (if different from parents) and, 8) names of all teacher and/or tutors.”

The letter also required attendance records of students.

Despite the districts’ assertion that the families meet these requirements, HSLDA says that to legally homeschool, all this information would have had to be submitted before the school year even began--usually in mid-August. Therefore, the districts were misinformed in sending the letters to parents already legally homeschooling their children.

HSLDA Staff Attorney TJ Schmidt further noted that “No parent is required to meet with school officials when educating their children at home, nor are they required to provide curriculum information for review by school officials,” as the districts’ letters had asserted.

Publication date: October 10, 2016