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IPFS News Link • Education: Private Secular Schools and Home School

Unmarked Car, Home Visits Part of District's Effort to Win Back Homeschoolers

• https://hslda.org, Thomas J. Schmidt, Esq.

Each family told a slightly different story, but together they pointed to an all-out effort by local school officials to persuade these parents into sending their children back to the public school.

These contacts involved a variety of personnel and followed a pattern. Officials promised to ease students back into public school and make sure they had fun. If parents declined, officials increased the sales pressure.

One of the first homeschool moms to call us stated that a school nurse had telephoned to ask: "What can we do to convince you to send your child back to school in person?" When our member politely stated that her family wanted to continue to homeschool, the school nurse went into details about fun activities that students could be doing in school. Our member was also told that no testing would be required to re-enroll a child into school.

After our member insisted the third time that they would not be returning their child to the public school, the nurse stated that the district would call back in July and conduct home visits. The school official then asked our member how she would feel about that.

More Going On

When she finally got off the phone, our member learned that her husband had also received a phone call from the school district. Realizing that this was more than just curiosity from local school officials about their plans for next school year, and feeling like the school official's pledge of follow-up contacts was an implied threat, our member quickly called us.


www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm