HSLDA advocated on behalf of a qualified homeschool graduate who was denied a phlebotomy license after officials questioned the validity of his high school diploma. This is the fourth time in three years we have assisted a graduate facing this problem.
Kingston (last name withheld to protect privacy) contacted us after being rejected by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), despite the fact that he recently completed phlebotomy training.
Two years ago, we explained the backstory when it comes to phlebotomists (health care professionals who are trained and licensed to draw blood) and homeschool high school graduates. Due to our advocacy, this problem has lessened in the past few years.
However, setbacks still happen. Kingston is a homeschool high school graduate, but unlike the three others graduates that HSLDA assisted in recent years, Kingston graduated from a large private school satellite program. These differ from a homeschool program where parents file their private school affidavit on their own.
Of course, this is perfectly legal in California, as we explain in our FAQs on how to homeschool in California.
Making Things Right
After hearing from Kingston, HSLDA quickly made contact with the CDPH. Because of our prior contacts with the department, we decided to reach out to our attorney counterparts there to see if we could quickly and informally fix this situation. And credit where credit is due: CDPH immediately responded with a remedy.
Their attorney apologized and said that they had not realized that Kingston was a homeschool graduate, due to his family’s use of a private school satellite program. They swiftly reversed their denial, and within a few days, Kingston had received his licensure from CDPH as a phlebotomist.
We are grateful to CDPH for their quick action to comply with California law. We congratulate Kingston on his hard work to be trained and licensed as a phlebotomist.
This may seem like a small case: one license, one contact, one quick fix. But freedom is rarely lost in a single stroke. It is worn away by small denials that go unchallenged, and it is protected by standing up in each case, however modest it seems. That is why HSLDA advocates for even the simplest matters, and why we stand ready to assist homeschool high school graduates—in California and across the nation—as they overcome any discrimination, intentional or accidental.