Valley Oak
03-10-2008, 11:34 AM
The content of the following post is paraphrased from a communication sent out by Robert Tavonatti, Ed.D. and I have edited the original post.
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There was a news article in the paper recently with this headline:
"Home Schooling Found Unlawful by California Court of Appeal."
This has raised a lot of concern among homeschooling families of public charter schools and independent study programs about the effect it may have on their programs. I want to explain this ruling and how it affects us.
The California Education Code has a provision for the establishment of private schools. In order to establish a private school, one needs only to file paperwork with the County Office of Education establishing a private school. The education code states that a person teaching in a private school must be "qualified to teach." It does not specifically state that a teacher must be credentialed, and the definition of "qualified to teach" has been the subject of controversy for decades. Many families use this provision in the education code to establish themselves as private schools, and their own children are the only pupils in the school. This has long been the mechanism for families to home school their children and not be pestered by the law.
The California Appeals Court has now addressed this issue by saying that "qualified to teach" now means having a teaching credential. This ruling affects anyone who is enrolled in a private school where a credentialed teacher is not available. This could include one-family private schools, Christian schools that employ non-credentialed teachers (including some well established Catholic schools) and other private schools established under this education code provision.
This ruling does NOT affect accredited public charter schools, which adhere to all education code provisions governing their operations. All students in these programs are supervised by credentialed independent study teachers. The only way such programs would be in jeopardy is if the State legislature wanted to change the education code that defines independent study. This is not going to happen.
Any comments you may hear about this ruling possibly affecting public charter schools and independent study programs is sensational journalism being used to stir people up. It is not part of the Appeals Court decision.
I hope this answered your concerns.
--
Robert Tavonatti, Ed.D.
<!-- / icon and title --><!-- message --> ----------------
There was a news article in the paper recently with this headline:
"Home Schooling Found Unlawful by California Court of Appeal."
This has raised a lot of concern among homeschooling families of public charter schools and independent study programs about the effect it may have on their programs. I want to explain this ruling and how it affects us.
The California Education Code has a provision for the establishment of private schools. In order to establish a private school, one needs only to file paperwork with the County Office of Education establishing a private school. The education code states that a person teaching in a private school must be "qualified to teach." It does not specifically state that a teacher must be credentialed, and the definition of "qualified to teach" has been the subject of controversy for decades. Many families use this provision in the education code to establish themselves as private schools, and their own children are the only pupils in the school. This has long been the mechanism for families to home school their children and not be pestered by the law.
The California Appeals Court has now addressed this issue by saying that "qualified to teach" now means having a teaching credential. This ruling affects anyone who is enrolled in a private school where a credentialed teacher is not available. This could include one-family private schools, Christian schools that employ non-credentialed teachers (including some well established Catholic schools) and other private schools established under this education code provision.
This ruling does NOT affect accredited public charter schools, which adhere to all education code provisions governing their operations. All students in these programs are supervised by credentialed independent study teachers. The only way such programs would be in jeopardy is if the State legislature wanted to change the education code that defines independent study. This is not going to happen.
Any comments you may hear about this ruling possibly affecting public charter schools and independent study programs is sensational journalism being used to stir people up. It is not part of the Appeals Court decision.
I hope this answered your concerns.
--
Robert Tavonatti, Ed.D.