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How to Avoid High School Gym Class in the USA Hate going to gym1, but need to pass it to graduate2? Need to find a way around this requirement? If your school is run as 'efficiently' as this Researcher's was then this should be no problem. Of course, it may not be immediately apparent. The first thing that you need to remember is that the gym teacher(s)3 is (are) your enemy. In order to defeat an enemy, you need to study them. Ideally this should begin during your freshman year4. Before you plan your escape, you should determine why you...

New Jersey--Daytime Curfew Bill Scheduled for Vote Monday Dear HSLDA members and friends: A daytime curfew bill that has already passed the Senate may have an impact on homeschoolers. The Assembly will probably vote on S155 on Monday, and it is very unlikely it will be defeated. Therefore HSLDA is prepared to help homeschoolers at the local level if problems arise from this legislation. As it is written, it authorizes municipalities to adopt curfew ordinances forbidding public and private school students--but not homeschool students--from being in public places during the hours their school is in session. If the bill...

Author 'really surprised': Several nations with poor attendance do well on academics Heather Sokoloff Canadian teenagers are among the world's worst offenders when it comes to skipping school, with one in four regularly not showing up for class, according to a new report on students' feelings about school. Only Spain, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand and Iceland report higher absentee and tardiness rates among 15 year-olds in the 28 countries surveyed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Students in the United States are more likely to attend class than their Canadian counterparts, with one in five admitting they...

California legislation sparked concerns parents could face child-abuse chargesProposed legislation that would have equated truancy with child abuse in California raised suspicions among homeschool advocates it represented a fresh attack on home-based education. The legislation, titled SB 950, would have added "habitual truancy" to the definition of child abuse by amending the Welfare and Institutions Code Section 300. According to the language of the bill, it called for children who have up to five unexcused absences from public school to be immediately taken from their family and put into the juvenile court system. Parents would no longer have been given...

LONDON (AP) _ A woman has been jailed for 60 days for failing to stop her teen-age daughters from skipping school _ a punishment that her family called unfair but education officials applauded on Tuesday. Patricia Amos, 43, was sentenced by magistrates at Banbury in southern England last week for not ensuring that her daughters Jackie, 13, and Emma, 15, regularly attended school. It is believed to be the first time that the courts have jailed a parent under powers gained in November 2000, when the maximum penalty for allowing a child to skip school was raised from $1,400 to...

LONDON (AP) _ As part of a truancy crackdown announced Thursday, students in some of Britain's rougher schools will be getting electronic swipe-card IDs to prove they've attended classes. The $95 million government initiative also will include compulsory anger management courses for unruly pupils and intensive sweeps throughout town centers by welfare officers and police to catch truants. More than 50,000 students skip school every day in Britain, and teachers' unions have long campaigned for government help in improving attendance and pupil behavior. Under the new package, some secondary schools will receive funds for the electronic swipe-card systems so pupils...

San Juan Unified School District officials show no sign of yielding in their truancy case against a home-schooling family and, to the contrary, are taking steps to crack down on all home-schooling. Joseph Tucker, the district coordinator of the Student Attendance Review Board plans to address the issue with state education officials next month, seeking to reform and clarify California compulsory education laws, according to the Sacramento Bee. A call to Tucker was not returned. As WorldNetDaily reported last month, Tucker referred the case of Sandra and David Sorensen to the Sacramento County district attorney's office for prosecution. The Sorensens...