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Superintendent Insists on Unauthorized Meeting
A Home School Legal Defense Association member family in Grand Forks required legal assistance when their local public school superintendent insisted that he meet with the mother and the child who was being homeschooled. According to the superintendent, the purpose of the meeting was to review the homeschool curriculum selected by the parents and to interview the mother and daughter about the decision to choose homeschooling over a public school education.
The family had begun their home education program in the middle of the school year and had filed all required documentation with the local school district. Additionally, as required by North Dakota law, the mother was being monitored by a certified teacher because she had a high school diploma and less than two years of experience in home education.
Responding to the family’s plea for assistance, HSLDA Senior Counsel Dewitt Black wrote a letter to the superintendent, pointing out that state law does not require homeschooling families to meet with public school officials as he had requested. As a result, the superintendent made no further attempts to force the mother and daughter to meet with him.
Local school districts are without authority to establish any policies or procedures which add to or contradict the provisions of state law. In view of this, any HSLDA family who encounters public school officials attempting to impose additional requirements on their home education program should contact us for assistance.
— by Dewitt T. Black
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