Posted on 12/16/2007 5:12:57 AM PST by Man50D
A homeschooling mom in Utah has been ordered by a judge to enroll her children in a public school district within 24 hours, and have them in class tomorrow, all because of a paperwork glitch that very well could be the fault of the district.
The mother, Denise Mafi, told WND that she already has enrolled her children in the district, under the threat from Judge Scott Johansen, who serves in the juvenile division of the state's 7th Judicial District, that he would order her children taken away from her.
As WND has reported previously, such threats are becoming more and more common in Germany, but that nation still lives by a Nazi-era law that makes homeschooling illegal.
Mafi told WND that not only is homeschooling legal in Utah, she's been at it for nearly a decade.
So what's the problem here?
It seems that an affidavit she faxed to the local school district for the 2006-2007 school year, documenting her homeschooling plans, was lost by the district. So when she went to court with her juvenile son to have the charges dismissed (under a case held in abeyance procedure) stemming from a clash among children, she suddenly was presented with four counts against her for failing to comply with the state's compulsory education requirement.
She thought she was meeting the court's demands earlier when she enrolled her two youngest children in classes, and put her two older children in an online curriculum connected to the public school.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
“In this state, she is not permitted to take the GED exam if she were to leave school. That means NO access to government scholarships at their state universities. They would have to pay for these courses on their own, and the usual path to state and federal scholarships and loans is blocked.”
Perhaps you can help me with this one. I simply don’t understand why home educators don’t enroll their kids in a private HS (via a correspondence study program) to get the HS Diploma. Why not spend maybe $1,000 over 3-4 years, get the HS Diploma, and render the issue moot?
No. She has a job, just doesn't have a partner to work with. Her job is to be a suitable helpmate for the children's father. If one doesn't exist, then get one by remarriage. If one does, then by reconciliation. He will charged with the command to provide, instruct, and disciple in the admonition of the Lord.
That said, until those details are worked out, the Body of Christ, the Church, should step in to provide for her and the children's needs, beyond anything her own extended family can't supply, not the Government with the people's money.
See? No need for the Government to support financially. No need for the Government to play "husband and father". No need for the Government to play "God".
That is exactly what I would have done. Your wife’s a smart lady.
Regards,
Yep, Land of the Free.
What would happen if she and her children crossed the state line into a free state? Are there any free states left?
I always wonder why the authorities aren't as concerned about public school parents whose children are out on the streets unsupervised and making trouble after school hours. I called children's services on one family whose kids were terrorizing my folks and their neighbors late into the night, but they refused to take action. I was informed they would only take action if the kids weren't going to school and were making trouble around the neighborhood during school hours. The double standard just boggles my mind.
Many do. Everything depends on homeschooling law, which varies from state to state. I live in a state with no homeschool regulations. Here, some parents use cyberschools or correspondence programs. Others put their kids into college courses early to earn dual credit. Still others just make up a high school transcript on their own based on their child's work, and it is accepted by colleges.
I'm glad I don't live in Utah.
You are correct that unsupervised children are unsupervised children. Perhaps you should have called the police instead of children's services?
I know things differ from locality to locality but around here there is a curfew for school-aged children, plus the police will enforce trespassing, disturbing the peace, etc. I don't think children's services would do much if called for that, although they might eventually investigate neglect.
We did call the police over and over again. Without evidence, all claims including harassment, vandalism, and drug-dealing are hearsay. My folks set up a security camera but were never able to catch much evidence on tape.
I also contacted the housing authority because the family was living in a home subsidized by the government under a home ownership program instituted by President Bush. I was told that once a family “buys” a home in the program, it is theirs. It cannot be taken away. Complaints made by neighbors are meaningless.
Then I called Child Protective Services. They only will investigate for claims of neglect, physical abuse, or truancy. Neglect is defined as extreme uncleanliness or not feeding the children. We couldn’t make those claims. They will not investigate for curfew. In fact, they said that, legally, curfew laws can’t even be enforced. Curfew laws are pretty much symbolic only. The courts have found them unconstitutional. The only hours that count are school hours. CPS only will investigate if the children are around the neighborhood during school time. But if they’re typically out at 1:00 in the morning? CPS would not investigate.
CPS also will not investigate a family over claims of drug dealing in the house. One of the kids was only 12 at the time, and he was drug dealing already. That is considered a police matter. Claims that the father is doing drugs don’t matter, either. Even though some of the older siblings had done prison time for drugs, CPS wouldn’t even consider looking into the family. The kids are still allowed to remain there. In fact, since our complaints, yet another child was placed in the home.
I don’t know the details on this particular homeschool story on this thread. But the double standards applied by the law and authority to homeschool vs. public school families never cease to amaze me.
Needs a bump
In California, we don’t have to submit ANYTHING to our public school district. But of course, I keep a copy of the affidavit just in case there’s a question. I don’t know that we should assume she doesn’t belong to HSLDA, just because it doesn’t mention them in the article. HOpefully they are helping her through this.
Every homeschool family should belong to HSLDA.
I can't imagine the law enforcement in my area taking such a lackidaisical attitude, but perhaps they would as well.
This is a glimpse of things to come, except there won’t be paperwork snafus.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
She says the school lost the paperwork, but she’s apparently not able to show that she actually turned it in either.
***The burden of proof is on the guvmint, not her. I’ve been in her kind of position and lost a lot of time & resources due to guvmint largesse like this over a different issue. These guvmint types love to think of themselves as the good guys and anyone whose paperwork isn’t kept in a lockbox for the last 7 years with PROOF of innocence is a bad guy. They seem to quickly forget the constitution.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
“Everything depends on homeschooling law, which varies from state to state.”
OK. Pardon my denseness, but why is the state in question an issue? There are schools that cater to out of state home educators. Who cares what state you get the diploma in so long as the high school issuing it is accredited?
It just seems to me that some home educators are going through a lot of grief when they could simply get a HS diploma without a great deal of expense.
After so many years of knowing better, I still went and read WND and then I came to this.
Thanks. I certainly have taken some heat from the fred followers over it lately.
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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts
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Many homeschooling families do this. With pre-planing it works well.
The problem comes when a parent wants to remove a bright child from government school and enroll him in college. By the time he finished the homeschool high school courses he might just as well finish high school ( for free).
In our case, we were among the first of the homeschooling families. I never expected my children to be ready for college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. What a surprise! We decided that it was better for them to go ahead with college (even without scholarships) than to delay college 2 to 3 years while they finished high school. For them to enter the workforce 4 years early means approximately $250,000 to $500,000 more in earnings over their working lifetimes.
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