Where’s The Legislation To Protect Homeshool Parents From Abuse In Ohio Mr. Governor?
Two families are facing criminal charges for not turning in home school paper work on time in Ohio. They are facing fines of a thousand dollars and possible jail time. Missing paperwork seems to deem home schooled kids as “truant” and In Ohio, even if you are new to the process and don’t understand all the paperwork. That is no excuse. In the case of one of the families facing jail time, this was their first year at home schooling, and were unaware that they had to fill out applications for home schooling each year. They are facing criminal charges of truancy which is a first-degree misdemeanor with a penalty of up to $1,000 in fines and up to six months in jail – and each day that a child is ‘truant’ it can be considered a separate offense.
Where is Governor Kasich on this issue? It appears according to the article (link below) that Ohio has this problem a lot yet, nothing seems to change. Missing paper work deadlines should not equal truancy with jail time and steep fines. Even schools in Ohio are allowed notification to correct any filing errors or lack there of, but there appears to be no slack when it comes to familes. But, Kasich has boasted on his presidential campaign policy page on education the following:
“Education is Local: Education is a state and local issue and should not be micro-managed by the federal government. The teaching curricula, choice of textbooks, and lesson plans that local educators use are the responsibility of local school districts—not federal bureaucrats. New laws enacted in Ohio by Gov. Kasich effectively defend against the threat of federal intrusion and privacy abuses that have raised concerns nationwide. As President he would put these same approaches to work for every student.”
Kasich has been a consistent supporter of common core. Not sure where he stands on home schooling, but if Ohio truancy criminal charges for miss filed paper work is any indication, it looks obvious that he is not very supportive. See Link: https://hslda.org/2015/10/19/john-kasich-candidates-on-common-core
In light of the present situation which is ongoing in Ohio, that does not offer me much comfort in what he will do as president to help improve things for home schooling parents. But, then again, each to his own. (See link below.) I did not see any specific advocacy statements for home schooling. Has anyone asked him where he stands on this issue and what he intends to do to help stop the abuse in Ohio?
The Home School Legal Defense Association, the world’s biggest advocacy organization for homeschoolers is fighting on behalf of the families. The HSLDA has fought battles on behalf of homeschoolers in the United States as well as overseas, taking on state and federal governments from Germany to Sweden to Arizona and California. (Did you catch that? It seems they represent advocacy for other nations as well. Remember all education is part of the U.N. sustainable development education for the 21st century , as I stated in a previous article.)
From the link below:
“HSLDA continued its explanation, “Even though both families continued to educate their children, their school districts decided to treat the children as ‘truant.’ The schools also waited to contact the families until the children had accumulated more than a month of ‘absences,’ instead of addressing the issue when the school began marking the children ‘absent.’”
Peter K. Kamakawiwoole Jr., a staff attorney for the HSLDA, told WND the organization is in full defense preparation mode for the families, even though it is hoped that cooler heads eventually will prevail.
“I wish I could say that this incident is an isolated occurrence, but unfortunately cases like this tend to recur every few years in Ohio: Families submit a document late, and rather than the school district following up with the family after a few absences are accrued, the district waits until many absences are accrued. When these families finally were contacted by school officials, they provided the missing paperwork, and the school filed criminal charges against them.”
He said the counts here, “contributing to the delinquency of a minor,” are usually used for parents who are abusing the system anyway – “aiding or abetting their child in the commission of a crime or a serious offense (obtaining a firearm, for example).”
Or the penalties are designed for those guilty of “chronic truancy,” which, he said, “is defined as more than 15 absences from school without excuse. The statute is clearly intended to deal with situations where parents are unwilling to correct persistent – and in some cases, dangerous – misbehavior by their children.”
“Unfortunately, that statute is being applied here to parents who had no idea that there was an issue – and at worst committed a clerical error – and more importantly, the children have literally done nothing wrong,” he continued.”
So where is Governor Kasich on this issue? Why is he on the campaign trail acting like he is very concerned with education and support of homeschool parents and allowing this type of legislation to govern home school parents ? It is an ongoing occurrence and one that could be fixed with proper legislation and a bit of governing.
The attorney for HLSDA Peter Kamakawiwoole Jr, also stated that, , “The tragedy is that these prosecutions are entirely avoidable. Ohio’s compulsory attendance statute has specific provisions which are supposed to apply when a school district believes that a child is truant, and those provisions require – among other things – that parents be provided notice when a district believes a child is truant, and affords parents multiple opportunities to correct the behavior of the child (or, in this case, to correct clerical errors). The compulsory attendance statute recognizes that parents can ultimately be prosecuted – but only as a last resort, after intermediary measures have been taken to correct the problem, and have failed.”
He said in the current cases, school officials have blown off those procedures and instead allowed the students to accumulate weeks worth of absences before ever contacting the parents. The state proceeded to prosecute even though the families had documentation showing they were in compliance with state law. Remember each homeschool household is considered a school that must abide by their own state laws that govern it.
The question is, when a child is truant in the public school system (as sometimes kids and young teens do skip school) how many of the parents of those children are slapped with criminal charges that lead to jail time and steep fines? How many parents are charged with truancy when their child does not turn in his homework at the public school? Is it looking a little suspicious here of the lopsided procedures to charge and penalize with stiff criminal charges that can lead to child protective services investigations?
This sure gives the appearance of home schooling under attack and being urged into another type of fold. Shouldn’t state senators and congressmen, and those who represent their states nationally improve legislation that protect home school parents? This seems to be more important than funding. I mean, what good is a bit of funding when the parent teacher is facing criminal charges on their personal record, facing jail time and paying big fines?
Dianne Marshall
U.S. homeschoolers face criminal charges for missing paperwork
Also see how home schooling was accused of contributing to the (false flag) Sandy Hook shooting. Is anyone connecting the dots yet?
https://www.wnd.com/2014/09/sandy-hook-commission-blames-homeschooling/
Then check out civil rights issues – Homeschoolers interrogated on guns, vaccines: https://www.wnd.com/2015/05/homeschoolers-interrogated-on-guns-vaccines/
Kasich stance on education: https://www.johnkasich.com/education/
