IDOE – IAHE Action

IAHE Action’s School to Prison Pipeline Response – Part 1

U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS INDIANA ADVISORY COMMITTEE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE IN INDIANA

This is the first installment in this series.

IAHE Action blogged about this hearing in March. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Regional Programs Unit sent Indiana Association of Home Educators (IAHE) the 600+ page transcript of the hearing and has given IAHE the opportunity to respond after IAHE Director of Government Affairs, Debi Ketron, wrote a letter expressing concerns about the hearing after receiving negative reports from those in attendance. Many times hearings only allow for three minutes of public testimony per speaker, so we feel compelled to publicly respond on our blog to be certain all issues related to home education in this February 17, 2016, hearing are thoroughly addressed in public.

Background from the hearing: “In each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia an Advisory Committee to the Commission has been established and they are made up of responsible persons who serve without compensation to advise the Commission on relevant information concerning their respective state.

Today our purpose is to hear testimony regarding the Civil Rights impact of school discipline policies and practices in Indiana. The committee is seeking information on school disciplinary practices and policies that may also have a desperate impact on students of color and students with disability and possibly the intersection of the two. The Committee is examining the dynamics that are leading to a disproportionate number of students of color being involved in the juvenile justice system and ultimately the adult justice system and the impact that has on a student’s educational experience and their ability to compete. Furthermore, the topic being discussed today has been coined the School-to-Prison Pipeline”….

We are sharing excerpts that would be of special interest to Indiana home educators. IAHE’s response is in BOLD.

TESTIMONY: Pg. 76 Testimony of Ms. Daniels with the National Council on Educating Black Children.

“Indiana does not have a home school statute on the books. They do have statutes that govern compulsory attendance from age 7 to 18. They do have laws that require students to attend school 180 days, and they do have laws that say a school that is non-public, non-accredited, and not otherwise approved by the Indiana State Board of Education is not bound by any requirement set forth in IC-21 with regard to curriculum or the content of educational programs offered by the school.

We began to look at this homeschooling because we interviewed three principals at one of our meetings and they talked about the fact that if a student gives them lots of problems within the school, they will refer that student to transfer into home schooling. I never heard that term before in my 50 years of teaching.”

IAHE Action’s response: Unfortunately the speaker omitted a very important piece of Indiana Code that states Indiana home educators must provide an education that is equivalent to the public schools. (IC 20-33-2-28)

IAHE has long suspected principals were referring problem students to home education. We are glad to see the speaker has publicly confirmed our suspicions. It’s even worse that principals are referring students who are expelled with a lack of parental support to home education. That should be criminal. It displays a complete lack of understanding of home education. Parents must be motivated, prepared and sacrifice to successfully homeschool. Parental involvement is what has made home education successful for tens of thousands of Indiana families over the past thirty-three years. Home education is a parent teaching their child throughout the day by modeling and assisting the student. The student in return must respect and obey the parent to begin copying the parent’s behavior and study habits. Parents unable or unwilling to model proper academic habits and children unwilling to respect a parent are not suitable candidates for home education. Homeschooling is not for every family situation. It is troubling to see principals coercing families into inappropriate educational options.

TESTIMONY: Pg. 80. “So we began to do some homework on that and the next two pages are talking about alternative statutes that allow home schooling within the state without a statute on the book. Basically someone said this is the Wild West, you can come and do whatever you want to do in this state when it comes to home schooling and, no, there is no regulations out there at all. So the whole thesis that we base this upon is we assert there is a lack of governance by the state of Indiana on home schooling and other mobility rate factors such as missing children. The Department of Ed tries our best to keep track, but only the parent has to report that they are doing the home schooling and sometimes that does not happen.”

IAHE’s Response: Indiana homeschool families are instructed by IAHE that they must send a letter when exiting their local public school or else they may be charged with truancy. In 2013, IAHE worked with the Indiana General Assembly to correct the public school issue of dropouts claiming to homeschool, but were actually truant. The school should have a record of where these high school students have gone since they must now have a parent and the principal sign a form that acknowledges the parent understands the legal requirements of home education in Indiana.

A number of public school principals seem to believe they are in the Wild West when it comes to homeschooling. By their irresponsible action of pushing a child with severe discipline issues into a form of education that requires obedience and self-control, public school principals have created a separate underclass of Wild West education. These are not traditional home educating families that have been a part of making home education a successful alternative to public education for over three decades. Traditional home educating families may participate in homeschool co-ops or attend homeschool days at museums. Current homeschool laws, when followed by committed families, are more than adequate to assure equivalent education in the home. The parent’s time spent with the child is what makes home education successful.

Teens call IAHE and tell us:

1.) I cannot learn in the public school. There is too much drama. I do not have parental support. I want to homeschool.

2.) I was expelled, and I want to homeschool, but there is no parental support.

It would be irresponsible for IAHE to counsel these children to homeschool without parental support. Why are “professional” educators doing this knowing full well the children are likely to be set adrift? Sounds an awful lot like passing the educational buck. As home educators, we know that home education is impossible without a responsible adult overseeing their child’s education.

Home education needs to be a parent-driven decision and not a public school-driven recommendation. It is a weighty responsibility that is not to be taken lightly. The casual attitude with which school principals refer troubled students with behavior issues to home education is reckless and not in the best interest of the child.

IAHE receives calls from parents whose children have been pushed out of public school. They contact IAHE to “enroll their student” for someone else to teach. They do not understand that as a homeschooler, the PARENT is the one who gladly takes full responsibility for teaching their child. Home education is an exciting adventure as we learn along side our children!
When these parents come to understand they are fully responsible, they are not at all interested in home education. Often the school has already reported their enrollment as a homeschooler to the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) despite the fact the family was wholly unfamiliar with this form of education. We refer the families back to the school or to the IDOE for a more suitable option.

Parents who have children with special needs that struggled in an institutional school setting have found success with their children when they began teaching them at home.

A parent deciding to home educate without pressure by the school is a different situation. A motivated and loving parent with an obedient, self-controlled child is required to be successful in this educational choice. Hundreds of thousands of parents have been successful homeschool teachers over the course of the past three decades. Countless low-income families have been very successful as well. Indiana homeschoolers are accepted into schools of higher education and do very well because they are motivated self-learners. One Indiana homeschooler was even chosen to clerk for the late Antonin Scalia. Indiana homeschool graduates are in all walks of life as doctors, lawyers, CPAs, teachers, graphic designers, scientists, authors, blue-collar workers, etc. Indiana’s low-regulations have given these families the freedom to focus on learning.

Support IAHE Action’s work of protecting Indiana homeschool freedom.

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30,000 “Homeschool” Dropouts?

During testimony for a School Choice bill in the House Education Committee last week, a school in northern Indiana was there to testify and claimed that they are serving many needy students including “homeschool dropouts”. The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has data that reports 10,000 students a year for the past three years have transferred to home school. IAHE has been told these are secondary students, but we are unable to confirm if the data that we have received from the IDOE is only secondary student transfers. IAHE was quite surprised to hear these numbers. IAHE volunteers are busy answering many phone calls each week to counsel new homeschoolers, but we certainly have not taken calls from 10,000 new homeschoolers.

For the past several years, we have had concerns about trends that we have observed. We have shared these concerns with legislators, but we had no idea of the magnitude until we saw the data this week.

We have seen an increasing number of new homeschoolers whom have told us that the public school reported their enrollment on the IDOE website because the schools insisted they had to have a homeschool number or “register” with the state in order to legally homeschool. The IDOE website is very clear that only a parent or guardian may report enrollment by completing the online form.

IAHE was contacted by a family that informed us that the public school signed the student up for “something” but the parent didn’t know what it was. The parent said she was then told to call IAHE. IAHE called the IDOE only to find that the school had reported their enrollment as a homeschooler. As we counseled this family, we learned that this parent really was not at all interested in home education, but unfortunately THE SCHOOL had already added her to the IDOE database of those who report enrollment as a home educator. IAHE then referred this person to their former school or to the IDOE to learn about other educational options that would be a good fit for this family.

IAHE is deeply troubled to see some public schools “reporting enrollment” on the IDOE website on behalf of students only to discover as we counsel them over the phone that these families are in no way interested in home education.

What is the extent of the problem of public school’s mislabeling of students? It appears some of the public schools are reporting to IDOE that many or all of their students who are withdrawing from school as home school students, and we believe they are mixing legitimate homeschoolers with those who should be labeled as expelled or drop outs, but not homeschooling. We have to question if this is being done by principals so that drop-outs are not flagged and therefore it won’t affect the A-F grade that is assigned to public schools.

Our bigger concern is whether this purposeful mis-coding of dropouts as homeschoolers is going to lead to more regulation of home education in Indiana. We have already heard that lawmakers and judges have a distorted view of home education in our state due to the problems some public schools have created by this mishandling dropout students.

We need your help. If you moved your student from public school to home school high school, please fill out this simple survey* to help us validate the data we have received from the IDOE. We have not included student or family identifying information on this survey because we do not desire to keep data on specific people or families. Please feel to share this link to our survey with others who have moved a high school student to home school. Thank you!

*Please note that if you are enrolled in a charter school or any other type of school that uses vouchers, choice scholarship money, or any form of government-funding, please do not fill out this form. Home schools in Indiana are parent-directed, home-based, and privately-funded which means home educators do not take or desire government-funding due to the associated regulations that necessarily accompany taxpayer funding.

Harassment of Homeschoolers

Over the past number of years, we have seen the language on the Indiana Department of Education website altered. It simply states:

Parents who choose to home educate their children may report their homeschool’s enrollment to the Indiana Department of Education (IC 20-33-2-21).

Formerly, questions from Indiana Code were asked, but children’s names were not requested. The form requested the parent’s and the public school’s information and:

1.) Number of students

2.) Grade level of students

It is very clear on the IDOE website that only parents may (not shall) report enrollment.

The simple language has morphed into a more detailed form that asks more questions than what is required by law.

With the many astericks for “required” information, parents are confused into thinking that they MUST report enrollment.

The words “Register” Your Homeschool are unfortunately on the Home School page of the IDOE website. This is confusing since the word “register” is not found in Indiana Code in relation to home education.

We are concerned that some public schools do not understand Indiana Code as it pertains to home education. From phone calls, IAHE is hearing accounts from new homeschoolers who have claimed that they felt intimidated and harassed by their local public school when they removed their student to home school.

Others have told us that the school would not allow them to begin homeschooling until they reported enrollment on the IDOE website. Some of these parents felt scared and intimidated by the school. They were also angry when they learned that reporting homeschool enrollment by the public school was not required by Code.

Others had sent a letter to inform the public school that they were going to homeschool their child. The school insisted that they fill out other forms that included information that was not required by law and had additional misinformation. Sometimes this was sent to the child after they had exited the school.

As we speak to school districts across the state, we have spoken to very nice people in their offices who do not understand the law as it pertains to home education. Their goal is the same as IAHE’s: both want students to receive a great education. Unfortunately, they are unwittingly requiring more than the law requires. IAHE is willing to have the opportunity to work with schools to help them better understand home education.

Have you removed a student from public school to home school? Please help us by filling out IAHE’s survey.

Is Registration Required for Homeschooling in Indiana?

Many homeschoolers in Indiana are under the mistaken belief they need to register their home school with the Indiana Department of Education (IDOE).

This is not the case. Nowhere in the Indiana Code (IC) is there a requirement to register.

The IDOE would certainly like to know about your homeschool because they are in the business of providing public education services to children. The language on the IDOE website is confusing and unnecessary, therefore IAHE Action does not recommend using the IDOE website.

While IAHE Action does not oppose homeschoolers notifying the IDOE of their intent to homeschool, we encourage homeschoolers to go to IAHE’s homeschool info page before deciding the best course of action.

Ian Slatter is the Office Manager at the Tindley Preparatory Academy, a charter school near downtown Indianapolis. From 2003 – 2011 he was the Director of Media Relations at Home School Legal Defense Association. While earning his MPA from Regent University, he worked as an assistant/writer at the Weekly Standard. He then moved to Capitol Hill and served as a legislative assistant and, later, communications director for Congressman Mike Pence. Ian and his wife, Alison, live in Greenwood, Indiana and have 3 children.