10 Years Later, Homeschool Family Gets Justice

HSLDA has advocated for homeschooling families for more than 40 years. For one quarter of that time, our litigation team has been laboring over a single case that was finally resolved in the family’s favor this summer.

Tina Carvalho reported a few weeks ago that her son Devez had, at long last, received a check from the Social Security Administration for payments it had refused to remit when he was a high school senior in 2014.

Though the money was certainly welcome, Tina noted it meant more to her to simply reflect on the fact that her son had received justice after a decade-long ordeal. “This has been a long, ridiculous process,” she said.

Devez began receiving Social Security survivor’s benefits when his father died in 2003. The payments (rightly) continued even after Tina withdrew Devez from the public school that was no longer a good fit for him and began homeschooling in 2012.

When Devez turned 18, the payments stopped.

Status in Doubt

After doing some research, Tina discovered that students are eligible to continue receiving Social Security payments until they graduate from high school or reach the age of 19 and 2 months. When she learned that her son had been disqualified because he was homeschooled, she decided to take a stand. She asked HSLDA for help.

“It was immediately evident that they were confused about homeschooling,” Tina said after her first interaction with Social Security officials. “They didn’t know what they were supposed to be doing. It was just the same thing over and over again.” 

HSLDA Litigation Director Peter Kamakawiwoole reached out to the Connecticut Social Security office in 2014 and learned officials were claiming Tina had not provided adequate proof that Devez was being homeschooled.

In the early 1990s, the Connecticut Department of Education developed optional guidelines that allow parents to file a notice of intent if they wish to do so. The form is not legally required, but Tina had chosen to submit a notice to her school district (which she provided to Social Security). And, in an effort to assist her, local public school officials even provided an additional letter, saying they had received and acknowledged the notice.

The Social Security office insisted that to qualify for additional payments Devez needed to register as a homeschool student with the local public school district (which is, of course, not true). At one point, officials suggested the teen sign up for a publicly funded distance learning program that had ceased operating in Connecticut some time before.

“Tina’s claim should have been very straightforward,” Kamakawiwoole said.

Long and Twisted Path

Instead, Tina and Devez were launched on an odyssey of reviews and appeals, during which officials seemed too distracted by legal tangents to focus on the salient issue. Years passed. Devez graduated and joined the workforce.

Meanwhile, Kamakawiwoole contended with Social Security officials in Connecticut and New York, eventually arguing the case before a succession of higher authorities including an administrative law judge, an appeal council, and a federal judge.

Then the case got sent back down the chain for additional review.

In an especially disheartening turn during a hearing in 2022, the administrative law judge started interrogating Tina about whether she’d spent the payments she’d received on expenses related to Devez’s education. He even asked for copies of receipts and checks. The judge eventually ruled that Devez had been overpaid and that he needed to reimburse Social Security.

Kamakawiwoole fought the ruling, and it was subsequently overturned. By then he determined it was time to pursue a different route for resolving the case, and he reached out to Tina’s state representative and US congressman.

Satisfactory Conclusion

The intervention by these elected officials bore fruit, and in July Tina received a letter from Social Security officials affirming that Devez did indeed qualify for payments while he was an 18-year-old high school senior.

“I am so grateful,” said Tina. “I never gave up, because I wanted to see my son get what he rightfully deserved. It wouldn’t have happened if HSLDA wasn’t here to help families.”

Kamakawiwoole shared Tina’s elation.

“This case was a reminder that just because homeschooling happens all the time, that doesn’t mean everybody understands how it works,” he said. “Eventually reason and truth won out, but it was a long process for this family.”