Huge Win for Out-Of-State Homeschoolers
Recently, my husband Robb heard a radio talk show on KSIV (Dick Bott) about a new landmark case in Pennsylvania where a home schooling mother won the right to continue home schooling her children in a custodial dispute. They actually declared the win as "watershed for homeschoolers."
This is because, atleast until recently, there has been a bias against the home schooling parent in similar custodial cases. It typically isn't even considered as a "legitimate" option. Actually, there have been, to date, very few cases where the judge has ruled in favor of the homeschooling parent. There was also a second similar case shortly afterwards in September of '08 in Montana.
I realize many people view these custodial cases as parental disputes and feel they have no bearing on the rest of us, however, unfortunately, potential future precedents are being established, not only in divorce cases, but in general home schooling cases. Many of the links below have posts from attorneys and public officials outlining the affect of these cases.
This caught my attention because over the last several years two of my home school friends have divorced or are in the processing of getting a divorce. In one case, the children are already back in school. The other case is on going and involves the Naeger family.
Many of you know Lisa. She leads one of the St. Charles' groups and is, as well, a dear friend of mine. Her case along with several others recent cases in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Montana are receiving a great deal of national attention. Fortunately, the outcome has been very positive in two out of the three cases. Hopefully, a new trend is in the making.
There are numerous references to Lisa's case in the links below. There are even links to the actual court opinions to both the PA and the NC cases so people can read the facts of the cases for themselves. I have even shared some of the details of Lisa's case with her permission on http://homeschool-discrimination.blogspot.com/ (I posted the details of Lisa's case under "comments" in the fourt post, under "Missouri Case." ) As I shared in my post, I feel this is an important topic because if some of the issues being brought up are admissable to the case they could potentially pose future threats to all Missouri homeschoolers.
Laura Kostial
Other related information can also be found Home School Justice has a lot on the above cases at
http://www.hsinjustice.com/ As does, WND