Patricia O'Dell is the homeschooling mother of 4 whose home burned to the ground just after Christmas two years ago and the state of Vermont is trying to prevent her from homeschooling her children. The state is also trying to force Mrs. O'Dell to put all 4 of her children into special education in order to account for the state and federal funding they have accepted for the past 3 years. Mrs. O'Dell's children are not the only 'ghost' students here in Vermont. Karen Maple, homeschooling mother of 3, spent 14 days in jail for defying the special education system when she discovered her two sons were also 'ghost' students.

Mrs. O'Dell's children are not the only 'ghost' students

Can you define 'ghost' students, please?

A 'ghost' student is a child that has been pulled from the public school system (special ed or otherwise) and is homeschooling with no connection to the public school anymore.

Although the child is homeschooling and is not using ANY of the school's services the school still keeps that child on their rolls (ADA numbers) and is still collecting state and federal funding (a felony) for that child.

When these schools get caught they make up all kinds of excuses for keeping these children on their rolls. Others simply use the truancy, child welfare laws to intimidate and try to force the parents into conforming and putting their child BACK into the school or at the very least into the special education programs.

A parent can still homeschool as long as they bring their child to the school a few hours a weeks to special ed programs. This way the school can claim they are providing services and they are within the law for accepting the monies.

The problem here is Patricia has refused ANY and ALL services from the schools and has no contact with the schools. The schools still collect the $24,000.00 plus for her 4 children who are NOT there! Thus, they are 'ghost' students!

Some of the schools here also do what is called 'double-dipping' where they accept medicaid funding for a special education student and also place the same amount of funding in the local school budget and get it that way. In other words they are getting the funding TWICE!

Alliance for the Separation of School and State

While the state, the same state that fosters and promotes abortion and homosexuality, beats up on Pat, the Lord will one day embrace her.

Alas

Homeschool ping.

bump

Thanks for the explanation!

Thanks for the ping on this. Is HSLDA involved? If not, they should be. Facing a hearing like this without an attorney that is familiar with home school laws is tatamount to a jail sentence. The attornies can speak "lawyer-eze" and she will come out ahead. Here in Kentucky we recently had several various judges overturning rulings made by each other at the behest of HSLDA. The final result was a victory for home schooling.

Thanks for the ping.......

My hope is that all goes well for Patricia and her children.

I am not conversant on HS'ing law in Vermont. I am glad though...to live in a state where it is very easy to HS. Although we are always on guard. The left...they never give up, and neither will we.

According to the special education laws here in Vermont

http://www.state.vt.us/educ/cses/sped/RulesPub.doc

2363.13 IEP Accountability

(b) These rules do not require that a school district, teacher, or other person be held accountable if a student does not achieve the growth projected in the annual goals and benchmarks or objectives. However, these rules do not prohibit a school district from establishing its own accountability systems.

Patricia is being held to higher standards and accountability or she won't be 'allowed' to homeschool (not that this will stop her from homeschooling). If the schools cannot be held accountable then why should a homeschooling parent?