When officials demand from homeschool families more than the law allows, there is always a cost. In a recent case involving several Oregon families, that cost amounted to $150 per student.
At least one family we know of paid that amount in spurious “activity fees” so their children could participate in public school extracurriculars, although Oregon law clearly states that homeschoolers have the right to sign up for public school extracurriculars.
Of course, the law addressing whether homeschool students can take part in public school activities varies from state to state, but in places like Oregon where the law is clear, HSLDA will advocate for members when their access to these activities is unlawfully blocked.
Officials in the Oregon school district seem to have misconstrued a change in the law a couple of years ago, which allowed them to start charging activity fees to charter school students.
This policy was mistakenly applied to homeschool students. But after we heard from member families about the new fees, we contacted district officials to set the record straight.
I informed officials that they were not legally authorized to charge homeschool families for participating in public school activities. And to their credit, officials quickly responded to say they were ending the practice. They even refunded the families they had wrongfully charged.
We were extremely happy to be able to help our members in this way. And I hope you don’t mind if I point out that, in this case, the families we helped saved the price of their HSLDA membership—plus a little extra!