On the ninth day before Christmas, numerous homeschool families in Penns Valley Area School District received a letter from the school district assistant superintendent titled “final notice.”
The letter asked for additional information (including copies of the parents’ high school diplomas and the actual standardized test results for students in grades 3, 5, and 8). It included this ominous language if families didn’t immediately send in the requested documentation: “Failure to do so will result in your case being referred to the district magistrate for further action.”
As homeschool families likely know, the demands in this letter were without basis in Pennsylvania law. Homeschool parents do not need to present a copy of their high school diploma, GED, or college diploma to the school district.
They also do not need to send standardized test results to the school district. While this was a requirement years ago, Pennsylvania law has changed for the better due to work by HSLDA, CHAP, and freedom-loving homeschoolers across the commonwealth. Today, these standardized test results are simply reviewed by the family’s evaluator.
And finally, Pennsylvania law spells out the exact process a school district may use if it believes a family has failed to file the correct information: The school district superintendent (not a school district employee or assistant superintendent) must send a certified letter to the family spelling out exactly what information is missing and giving the family 30 days to respond. School districts do not have the legal authority to skip this step and refer a family to the district magistrate.
After receiving the reports from our members in Penns Valley District, HSLDA immediately swung into action. We sent a letter to the school district the very next day. You can read that letter here.