David Hannington piloted supersonic bombers for the US Air Force and survived a service-related health crisis that nearly took his life. Then the federal bureaucracy moved to strip benefits from his homeschooled daughter, so he and his wife Sonja turned to HSLDA for help.

The Hanningtons homeschooled their two girls for most of their education. During a good portion of that time David served in the Air Force, flying the B-1 Lancer.

In 2002, David received a vaccination in preparation for deployment to Iraq. The procedure unfortunately triggered a rare but serious auto-immune reaction.

“He was in and out of the hospital and almost died several times,” Sonja recalled.

David ultimately completed a full career in the military. But he still suffers from neurological complications, for which he receives disability payments through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Federal law requires the VA to grant supplemental benefits to eligible veterans if they have children age 19 and younger who are still in school. However, when David and Sonja submitted paperwork to renew these benefits for their younger daughter’s senior year, the request was denied.

The rejection launched the family on a two-year ordeal of attempting to coax federal officials into remitting the extra funds their family was owed by law.

Been there before

The dilemma the Hanningtons faced is a familiar one at HSLDA. At any given time our legal team is working on dozens of similar cases involving homeschooled students whose benefits were cut off prematurely. These involve payments from the VA, Social Security, and court-ordered child support.

By default, these kinds of benefits usually end when a student turns 18, though they can be extended if the parent proves their child is still working toward a high school diploma. In the case of the VA, even though it’s a federal agency with regulations that apply across the country, parents must deal with officials operating in individual states.

As HSLDA Senior Counsel Darren Jones explained, “homeschool law differs from state to state, so officials at federal agencies aren’t always familiar with those intricacies. A lot of our success in these situations comes from coaching officials as to what constitutes adequate proof of homeschooling in their state.”

Over the years HSLDA has compiled a great deal of experience advocating in this area of the law. For example, in 2004 HSLDA President Jim Mason won a precedent-setting case in the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

‘Not approved’

Despite this long-ago court victory, confusion over the law is precisely what stymied the Hanningtons. After Sonja provided information to the VA about their daughter’s homeschool program, officials replied that it was not an “approved educational institution.”

Subsequent attempts to resolve the stalemate also failed, so in April 2024, David and Sonja knew it was time to reach out to HSLDA for help.

Our team walked them through the particulars of filing another claim, providing guidance on the use of specific documentation. David and Sonja filled out a VA form and also provided a copy of the annual letter of intent that they sent to the local public school superintendent in compliance with Maine law, as well as proof of student testing from the previous academic year.

Despite the additional information, the claim was once again denied. So HSLDA asked the VA to undertake what it terms a higher-level review. This request was granted, but the process dragged on for months.

Finally, in March of this year, the VA announced a positive outcome to the review. Officials agreed to remit back payments covering the supplemental benefits the Hanningtons’ daughter would have received from the time she turned 18, in February 2023, to when she graduated from high school in June 2024.

Making things right

Sonja said she feels the results vindicated her family’s decision to fight for their rights under the law. “A lot of families really depend on these benefits,” Sonja added.

Meanwhile, their girls are thriving as they pursue further education. David and Sonja’s older daughter is studying the works of C.S. Lewis via online classes from a Catholic college. And their younger daughter is studying film at the University of Rhode Island.

Over the years, Sonja said, she’s used her HSLDA membership to get help with transcripts, obtain graduation supplies, and request information about applying to college. Receiving help with the VA once again illustrated the value of an HSLDA membership to their family.

“Any time I've called, HSLDA is very quick to respond, caring, and very professional and knowledgeable,” Sonja said.

Jones remarked that he was glad to have helped.

“HSLDA has done a lot of work in this niche area of the law,” he said, “so it’s good to be able to apply what we’ve learned to assist homeschooling families—especially veterans who’ve sacrificed so much on behalf of our country.”