California's public charter school program includes schools that fund independent study home schooling. Parents may use state funds for secular educational materials, but not for religious materials. A school staff member must approve materials purchased with state funds and must periodically review work samples to assure that state educational standards are met. California Constitution Art. IX, Sec. 8 prohibits the teaching of religious doctrine in public schools, and the California Education Code requires charter schools to be non-sectarian. Suit was filed this week in a California federal district court seeking an injunction that will allow parents to spend instructional funds for faith-based materials and will require schools to accept work samples that derive from a faith-based curriculum. The complaint (full text) in Woolard v. Thurmond, (ED CA, filed 10/11/2023), alleges that applying state law to prevent disbursement of instructional funds for faith-based materials and refusal to accept faith-based work samples violates plaintiffs Free Exercise and Free Speech rights. First Liberty Institute issued a press release announcing the filling of the lawsuit.
Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Friday, October 13, 2023
Monday, May 22, 2023
Oklahoma Passes School Choice Tax Credit Law
Last Friday the Oklahoma legislature completed passage and sent to the governor for his signature HB1934, the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act (full text). The bill creates a tax credit against Oklahoma state income tax for tuition and fees paid for private school education. The credit varies from $5000 to $7500 depending on the household income. It also provides a $1000 tax credit for home school expenses. The bill imposes annual caps on the amount of credits the state will recognize, which increases from $150 million to $250 million in 2026. Governor Kevin Stitt issued a press release celebrating the legislature's passage of the law.
Monday, March 27, 2023
Yeshivas Win Partial Victory In Challenge To New York's Substantial Equivalency Rules
In In re Parents for Educational and Religious Liberty in Schools v. Young, (Albany County Sup. Ct., March 23, 2023), a New York state trial court gave a partial victory to Orthodox Jewish day schools (yeshivas) that are challenging the state's "substantial equivalency" regulations. The regulations require that students in non-public schools receive instruction in required subject areas that is substantially equivalent to instruction received by public school students in the same district. While the court rejected petitioners' constitutional challenges, it held that the Department of Education exceeded its authority in promulgating rules that require parents to withdraw their children from schools that do not meet the substantial equivalency standards and enroll them elsewhere, and which allow local school authorities to shut down schools that do not meet the required standards. The court said in part:
[T]the statutory scheme places the burden for ensuring a child's education squarely on the parent, not the school.... [T]he Compulsory Education Law does not authorize or contemplate the imposition of penalties or other consequences upon a nonpublic school that has been found not to provide substantially equivalent instruction.
... [T]the court finds that respondents lack authority to direct parents to completely unenroll their children from nonpublic schools that have been determined to fall short of meeting each and every substantial equivalency criteria, nor do respondents have authority to direct the closure of such schools. Rather, the parents should be given a reasonable opportunity to prove that the substantial equivalency requirements for their children's education are satisfied by instruction provided through a combination of sources. For example, parents should be permitted to supplement the education that their children receive at a nonpublic school with supplemental instruction that specifically addresses any identified deficiencies in that education, such as by providing supplemental home instruction in compliance with the home schooling regulations as set forth in 8 NYCRR 100.10. Therefore, if a student is found to be attending a school that is not deemed "substantially equivalent", the home schooling rules shall apply if the parent chooses to keep their child enrolled at that school. As such, the parent may submit a plan that utilizes said school along with supplemental education as needed to create a satisfactory Individualized Home Instruction Plan....
Hamodia reports on the decision. [Thank to Thomas Rutledge for the lead.]
Monday, August 03, 2020
Attack On Connecticut COVID-19 Orders Rejected
... Barnes asserts that he is “impeded from attending church.”... However, because no Executive Order prohibits religious worship, Barnes cannot show that the conduct he wishes to engage is “proscribed by statute.” ... Furthermore, Barnes alleges no facts as to his intention to attend religious services or any specific occurrence where he was prevented from doing so.
Murphy also asserts an injury to his religious liberty, along with his freedom of association. He alleges that, “[b]efore the illegal lock down orders, my family participated in a homeschooling group, in which we met in a church. We have not met since this lock down.”... Like Barnes’ allegations, these allegations are too vague to establish an injury-in-fact.The court also found that plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits, saying in part:
Executive Order 7TT limits attendance of places of worship to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is fewer.... In South Bay United Pentecostal Church, 140 S. Ct. at 1613, the Chief Justice, in his concurrence in the judgment denying a temporary injunction, found that those same restrictions (in California) did not violate the Free Exercise Clause. The court reaches the same conclusion here. The challenged Executive Orders are plainly neutral, and plaintiffs have not proffered any evidence to suggest that the Governor has any animus towards religious organizations. Indeed, more severe restrictions apply to secular gatherings.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
European Court Upholds Removal of Children From Home Schooling
The Court finds that the enforcement of compulsory school attendance, to prevent social isolation of the applicants’ children and ensure their integration into society, was a relevant reason for justifying the partial withdrawal of parental authority. It further finds that the domestic authorities reasonably assumed – based on the information available to them – that children were endangered by the applicants by not sending them to school and keeping them in a “symbiotic” family system.ADF issued a press release announcing the decision.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Texas Supreme Court: Challenge To Home-School Rules Does Not Require Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies
The McIntyres claim that the District and its attendance officer unconstitutionally investigated them and filed criminal complaints against them. They do not claim to be aggrieved by the school laws.The dissent by Justice Green, joined by Justices Johnson and Brown argued:
[T]he Court today ignores our rules of statutory construction and holds that homeschool parents can avoid that exhaustion requirement simply by cloaking their school-law claims in constitutional language.According to a Christian Science Monitor report on the decision, the parents stopped teaching their children a standard curriculum because they believed they would soon be "raptured."
Monday, August 11, 2014
Texas Court Says There Is No Absolute Right To Home School Free of State Regulation
Most of the appellate court's lengthy decision dismissed various claims by the parents on procedural and jurisdictional grounds, including failure to exhaust administrative remedies, election of remedies and qualified immunity. Reaching the parents' 1st Amendment free exerrcise claim, the court rejected the parents' argument that the U.S. Supreme Court's 1972 Yoder decision gave them the right to withhold their children from any type of institutional school beyond the eighth grade. The court noted tha the situation of the Amish in that case was unique and observed:
No parents have ever prevailed in any reported case on a theory that they have an absolute constitutional right to educate their children in the home, completely free of any state supervision, regulation, or requirements.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Inter-School Athletic Eligibility Rules Do Not Violate Free Exercise Rights of Home-School Family
Wednesday, March 05, 2014
German Home School Family That Was Denied SCOTUS Review Gets Deferred Status From DHS
Monday, March 03, 2014
Supreme Court Denies Review In Home School Asylum Case
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Home Schooler Sues To Play On Christian School's Atlhletic Teams
Tuesday, February 04, 2014
Indiana Supreme Court Hears Arguments In Home Schooling Organization's Challenge To Retaliation Finding
Friday, December 13, 2013
Appeal In Ontario Court Seeks To Enforce Quebec Foster Care Order Against Alleged Jewish Religious Cult
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Insular Jewish Sect Leaves Quebec For Ontario To Escape Child Welfare and Education Officials
UPDATE: According to the Times of Israel, on Nov. 26 a Quebec juvenile court judge ruled that 14 children from the Lev Tahor community are to be placed in foster care for a month and examined by doctors and psychologists. Apparently this order can be used by Ontario authorities to get a court order to return the children to foster care in Quebec.