A number of homeschooling families in New York were relieved to hear from HSLDA that an ongoing medical fraud investigation being conducted by the state Department of Health shouldn’t affect them.
Several families who live on Long Island contacted our legal team in May to inquire about notices they had received from their respective public school districts. These notices informed the families that their homeschool records had been subpoenaed by state officials.
HSLDA Senior Counsel Tj Schmidt said the parents he spoke to expressed concern because the subpoenas demanded a wide range of records and didn’t explicitly state what investigators hoped to find.
“The cover letter from each school district and the copies of the actual subpoenas sent to the families didn’t provide much context,” Schmidt explained.
The districts had been given several weeks to hand over copies of particular families’ homeschool paperwork to state authorities. Among the items the state demanded were Individual Home Instruction Plans for each student, which not only include personal information but provide details about curriculum and intended instruction.
Parents worried that this additional information might be exploited as grounds for harassment or legal action.
Plan of action
Schmidt consulted with other members of HSLDA’s legal team, including Litigation Director Peter Kamakawiwoole and President Jim Mason. They discussed how best to protect the privacy of HSLDA members without unnecessarily impeding the state’s purview to investigate apparent wrongdoing.
“It was a strange situation,” Kamakawiwoole said, “given that the families who contacted us really weren’t obligated to do anything because it was the districts who were being asked to provide the records. Still, it’s understandable why our members were upset, so we determined to find a way to help them.”
Schmidt contacted the state’s Department of Health and spoke with the head of the investigation bureau. Our attorney ascertained that the homeschool records had been demanded as part of a wider investigation into suspected fraud by a particular health clinic.
According to a newspaper report, in connection with the investigation “the state sent 120 subpoenas to 106 public school districts or individual private or charter schools.”
Schmidt explained the concerns expressed by HSLDA members to the Department of Health investigator. In response, the official said the department’s aim was merely to confirm the students in question were indeed being homeschooled. The official agreed that the department did not need to collect all the documents named in the subpoena and that a statement from school districts confirming that families had submitted the required homeschool paperwork would suffice.
Schmidt then pointed out that, by law, New York public school officials are required to issue a letter verifying the compliance of their homeschool paperwork. The state official said that receiving a copy of this letter would satisfy the goal of investigators and urged Schmidt to relay that information to HSLDA’s members.
Offering reassurance
Shortly after this conversation Schmidt quickly followed up with families who had contacted HSLDA regarding this issue.
“The response I received was pretty positive,” Schmidt recalled. “Our families generally appreciated being more informed and knowing there was something they could do to protect themselves and their children from possible government overreach.”
He added that HSLDA intends to keep monitoring the situation to ensure no homeschooling families are mistreated.
Kamakawiwoole also noted he was glad HSLDA could convey that investigators were taking a reasonable stance.
“We don’t often deal in cases involving mass subpoenas like this, but it does happen,” Kamakawiwoole said. “And for people not used to legal proceedings, it can be unsettling to see yourself referred to in a court document. I’m glad we were able to figure out what was happening and help reassure these families.”