A Kansas family received an alarming message from their local public school when they decided to pull their child from public school and take charge of his special needs by homeschooling.

The message said they were legally obliged to continue special needs services and therapies prescribed by specialists working with the school. The letter also threatened the parents with truancy charges, an investigation by the state Department of Children and Families, or a report to the county prosecutor if they did not comply.

“It doesn’t matter who you are or how great an education you provide your child, getting that kind of message from a school is frightening,” HSLDA Staff Attorney Amy Buchmeyer said.

Buchmeyer quickly resolved the crisis by explaining to the district officials that the family did have a plan to continue to provide for their student’s special needs but did not want to continue services through the public school.

Pressure on Parents

Despite the positive outcome, the case remains part of a troubling pattern of contact from school officials prompted by unique aspects of Kansas education law.

“Kansas is the worst of all possible worlds for a homeschool student with special needs,” explained Scott Woodruff, HSLDA director of legal and legislative advocacy.

Homeschools in Kansas are legally considered private schools, but the definition as it applies to special education is peculiar. Private school students have a right to access publicly funded special education services under the law. Because of the peculiarity of the law as written, the same is not true for homeschool students. Yet parents are still required to provide those services to their child when they leave the public school system.

Woodruff explained: “In effect, officials say: ‘We don’t provide special needs services. But if you, the parent, fail to provide them, we’ll come after you. No other state whipsaws families like this.”

There is also some question as to who has authority to enforce the law requiring homeschool parents to provide special needs services for their children. Is it the local school district? Some other state official? The law is not clear.

HSLDA is here to help. If you are a member and find yourself in trouble because of this issue, you can reach out to the HSLDA legal team for assistance.

“We can provide a flexible response that’s appropriate to the family’s individual situation,” Woodruff said.

Additional Help

If you have a student with special needs, HSLDA is here to come alongside you and help your child succeed.

Our special needs consultants are veteran homeschooling moms with a variety of degrees and certifications, and abundant experience in special education, reading remediation, autism, communication disorders, and more. They help members by recommending professionals outside HSLDA for specific services. And they also offer advice on how to assess children and choose curriculum and therapies to address their specific needs.

“We show parents how they can do this at home, by supplementing instruction or working with private tutors, medical specialists, and therapists,” said Faith Berens, HSLDA special needs educational consultant.

HSLDA’s consultants have been encouraging families and equipping them to meet the unique needs of their children for the last 15 years. We also offer grants to help defray the added expenses of private special education services.

“Homeschooling, due to its very nature, is an individualized education program,” Berens added.

The flexible nature of homeschooling makes it possible to tailor a special needs program to a degree that is hard for traditional schools to achieve. As a result, many families report to HSLDA that their students are not simply coping with their personal challenges—they are thriving.

We encourage HSLDA members who have questions about how to homeschool in Kansas to contact us.