Court Report

Three Families Push Back Against Discrimination: ‘We Want This to End’

Years of legal action, sharp back-and-forth with a deputy attorney general, multiple regulatory board hearings, and finally a lawsuit—just so New Jersey homeschoolers can style hair.

Michael Tobin

General Editor/Writer

“They were condemning us,” said homeschooling mom Kelli Barsony. “Telling us that our daughters were a safety hazard to the salon. Every time we turned, it was like a slap in the face that what you did [as a homeschooling family] didn’t matter.”

Kelli’s daughter Morgan fulfilled every requirement for a cosmetology license, yet she was barred from her chosen field. Homeschool graduate Leah Mumau faced the same discrimination.

It’s a sobering reminder that despite decades of victories for graduates across the country, some officials still do not view homeschooling as a valid education method. Left unchecked, they will continue to discriminate against homeschool students and graduates. That’s where Home School Legal Defense Association comes in.

In the case of these two women, HSLDA was able to successfully intervene on their behalf and perhaps shift the tide of policy in New Jersey away from the discriminatory practices that have marked this career field.

Elsewhere, in Louisiana, homeschool graduate Maia Edmonds was repeatedly refused entry to cosmetology school because of her diploma. After a yearslong effort and numerous meetings with the cosmetology board, legislative action has finally resolved the issue plaguing homeschool graduates in the state.

As a result, homeschool graduates in New Jersey and Louisiana should not face the same hassles and challenges going forward. “It’s a victory for homeschooling, even if it only changes the trajectory for one other person,” said Leah’s mom, Elaine Mumau.

We should note that victory came at a high cost for each of these families. Our interventions were only possible because of the courage of these three women and their families to stand and push back against discrimination in their state. These are their stories.

Morgan’s story: Taking a stand on principle

Each of Morgan’s three older siblings chose to go to college—one is an engineer, another is a police officer, and the third has a business degree. She chose to pursue a trade instead. All of them were homeschooled, but only Morgan ran into trouble because of her diploma.

Everything went smoothly at first. She enrolled in a cosmetology training program after graduating from high school in 2019 without any problems. She attended all the required classes, completed the required coursework, and passed the required board exam. Then she submitted her application for a license to the board of cosmetology in New Jersey.

Her application was denied on the grounds that her homeschool diploma was not sufficient. The board said she would either have to take the GED or provide a state-certified high school diploma. Morgan found the first option to be insulting, and the second an impossibility—New Jersey officials do not have the authority to certify homeschool diplomas.

Morgan with her diploma

Morgan Barsony with her cosmetology diploma.

At this point, the Barsonys called HSLDA, and we began to work on Morgan’s behalf. She reapplied to the board, but this time she included an in-depth list of the courses she took in high school and had everything notarized. She also included a reminder that New Jersey law authorizes parents to certify a homeschool diploma.

“We’re not saying that you can just hold up a piece of paper and say, ‘I was homeschooled. Let me in,’” said HSLDA Litigation Counsel Peter Kamakawiwoole. “These are families who did the work. These are students who are eminently qualified.”

Morgan’s second application was also denied. The rejection notice listed the reasons for an application to be rejected, but none of them were selected. Instead, a handwritten note was attached: “Homeschooling is not acceptable.”

The rejection sent the family on a long and frustrating path. Before taking legal action, the family was advised to demonstrate they had made every possible effort to work with the board of cosmetology to resolve the matter outside of court. From start to finish, the process would take three years.

“We went through a rigamarole of all these attempts just to get the board to respond,” Kelli said. One time they waited nine months for a response.

“It was just very, very, very frustrating,” she added. “Peter [Kamakawiwoole] had to deal with a lot of emails from us just feeling mad, exasperated, fed up—just totally disgusted.”

In the meantime, Morgan was unable to work in her field. “She couldn’t touch hair—she went down to her father-in-law’s shore house for the summer of 2022,” Kelli said. “She lived on Long Beach Island and worked as a barista.”

Eventually, Morgan made an expensive decision to go back to school in another state just to refresh her skills while the legal battle played out.

Morgan cutting hair at the salon

Morgan eventually went to another cosmetology school in Utah to refresh her skills.

Some graduates might understandably choose to avoid the time and energy of a protracted fight like this (and the lost income) by simply taking the GED or finding another way to meet the requirements. But the Barsonys felt it was important to take a stand on principle.

“We had done everything the state Board of Education said we had to do,” Kelli said. “We fulfilled all the requirements and then some. Morgan had more than enough credits to graduate from a public high school.”

“Her grades showed what her aptitudes and her abilities were,” she added. “So why spend money to take a state test?”

The Barsonys stood with another family who faced a similar issue: the Mumaus. Leah, too, was wrongly rejected for a license because of her homeschool education.

Leah’s story: Standing up for homeschool graduates

Leah began her cosmetology journey her junior year of high school, when she enrolled in a vocational program approved and established by the state board of cosmetology. She took classes related to cosmetology in the morning and her usual high school courses in the afternoon.

Like Morgan, Leah was the only one of her siblings to pursue a trade instead of college. And like Morgan, she was the only one to encounter trouble because of her homeschool diploma.

“She could have followed in the pathway of her older sisters, but she wanted a career where she was a servant to people,” Elaine said. She recalled watching Leah braid a little girl’s hair on a mission trip to El Salvador with their church: “She just brought them so much joy. And I knew this was a career path she would be successful in.”

Leah graduated from high school in 2021, after completing all the required classes and coursework for her vocational program. She then passed the cosmetology board exam and applied for her license. She graduated with 36 college credits on top of her high school courses.

Leah Mumau

Leah Mumau

“Her academic performance far exceeded any regulations in New Jersey for traditional public school students,” Elaine said. Yet Leah’s application was rejected.

As with Morgan, the cosmetology board insisted that Leah needed a letter from the board of education certifying the diploma—an impossibility—or she would have to take the GED. “We weren’t willing to do that,” Elaine said. “We felt that it was discrimination against her education.” Instead, the family contacted HSLDA for help.

“We reapplied and included a letter that HSLDA helped us write,” Elaine said. But Leah’s application was rejected again. From there they had to sort out how to fight back.

They determined the next step was to write a letter to the board of cosmetology and present it during a board meeting. By this time, almost a year had gone by since Leah first applied.

At the meeting, Leah stood before the board and the New Jersey deputy attorney general and argued her case, as well as the case of all homeschool graduates in the state. “Homeschool graduates like me work at least as hard as our public school peers to earn this professional license,” she said.

“We want to stay in New Jersey. We want to work in our local communities,” she continued. “But this application process is preventing that and pushing us away.”

Mumau family

Leah was the only one of her siblings to encounter trouble because of a homeschool diploma.

The deputy attorney general responded to Leah by implying she posed a danger to her community. “The board does not accept homeschooling,” she said. “We understand that it is legal in New Jersey, but the board has a standard to protect the public. And although you say that your homeschool education is sufficient, the board needs a test . . . in order to measure that.”

Her response shocked both the Mumaus and the Barsonys.

“When she said we have a responsibility to protect the public, that went to a different level for me,” Elaine said. “It insinuates that you’re a threat.”

Kelli also commented on the meeting. “Are you seeing our children as terrorists? Or what?” she said. “What do you mean by training? They’ve gone through all the training, passed all the tests. So why are you saying they are a safety hazard?”

At this point Leah and Morgan’s stories became intertwined.

Out of options

After the hearing, the Barsonys and the Mumaus began coordinating their efforts. With help from Kamakawiwoole, both families filed an appeal for a hearing before the New Jersey cosmetology board. A hearing was granted to Leah, but the board never addressed Morgan’s appeal.

In preparation for the hearing, Elaine spread the word in their community that Leah’s petition was going to be heard, and the Mumaus’ friends and peers came out in force to support her. Many of them sent letters to the board, and nearly 40 people showed up to speak at the virtual appeal hearing. In response, the board changed the format of the meeting and met in a closed session for more than an hour before allowing public comments.

The meeting left both families crushed. Morgan never received a chance to argue her case, and even though Leah’s appeal was heard, it was clear that the board had no intention of seriously considering it.

“I don’t know if I can put my emotions into words,” Kelli said. “It was more than frustrating, it was devastating. It just devastated me.”

“Leah felt lost and was questioning herself and her value,” Elaine recalled. “Really not a good mental health space for anyone to be in, when you’re being questioned for something that you know full well you worked really hard to achieve.”

After several more exchanges and multiple meetings, nothing changed. Having exhausted all other options, both girls were left with only two choices: get the GED, or file suit.

At this point, both families had spent years attempting to communicate with the board. They had made phone calls, sent letters and emails, sat in on board meetings, submitted public comments, and called on their community for support.

The board’s response to all of these attempts was consistently characterized by dismissal, condescension, or no response at all. “They would not budge,” Elaine said. “They handled things in a derogatory manner. They weren’t even professional in communications with our lawyers.”

Leah and Morgan chose to sue.

Maia’s story: A legislative fix

Unfortunately, this kind of trouble with cosmetology isn’t limited to New Jersey.

When Maia of Louisiana gathered her paperwork and began looking for a cosmetology program in 2020, she was immediately met with resistance because of her homeschool diploma. One school didn’t even want her to do a walkthrough because she was a homeschool graduate.

“They were so ugly,” Maia said. “They had already denied nine homeschoolers in the first week after I had called to make an appointment.”

Maia Edmonds

Maia Edmonds

Eventually she found the school she wanted to attend and applied. The school quickly informed her that the application was rejected, but said it wasn’t because they didn’t want her.

“They were lovely people,” Maia recalled. “They were trying their hardest to get me in, calling the state board themselves to try to figure out ways around it.” But it was to no avail.

The Louisiana Board of Cosmetology wouldn’t allow the school to accept her. So she reached out to HSLDA for help.

“It’s easier to get into Harvard with a homeschool high school diploma than it is to get into Louisiana cosmetology school, and that is utterly ridiculous,” said HSLDA attorney Amy Buchmeyer. “It’s hurting the students who have decided college isn’t a good fit for them.”

Buchmeyer and fellow HSLDA attorney Tj Schmidt immediately went to work on Maia’s behalf. They met with the board of cosmetology in 2021—along with State Representative Beryl Amedee—and worked out what they thought was a compromise.

The cosmetology board agreed to accept a sworn affidavit from Maia’s parents stating that her education was equivalent to that of a public high school. But working out the details took time, and as a result, Maia had to delay her education another year.

Maia with her cosmetology class

Maia is hopeful students in her state will not have to face the same discrimination she did.

When she reapplied the following year with the affidavit, she was denied again. Buchmeyer again reached out to the board, but this time the board refused to meet with her or even acknowledge her letters. Rep. Amedee also got nowhere.

“We tried jumping through all the hoops,” Buchmeyer said. “Finally, we realized that this was going to take a legislative fix.”

In the meantime, Maia had already quit her job in expectation of being able to start school. She couldn’t afford to wait another year to start the program, so she chose to get her GED.

The long-term solution for other homeschool graduates in her state would come later.

A few steps in the right direction

Even after Leah and Morgan moved to take legal action, they had no real certainty about the outcome or timing. The unknowns took a toll.

“It kept dragging on and on, to the point where Leah was getting discouraged because she wasn’t working in her field, and she was losing her skills,” Elaine said. “She was working as a part-time associate at a salon so she could be around people who were cutting hair, but she wasn’t cutting hair. She wasn’t doing her trade.”

Morgan was similarly discouraged. But the two women, together with their families, had decided not to back down. “Our whole reason for fighting it was truly because we believe in homeschooling,” Elaine said. “We want this to end in the state of New Jersey.”

Kelli added: “I wanted to make the difference for other people so they wouldn’t have to go through everything we went through. I’m just sad it took so long.”

Because of their willingness to fight the issue, HSLDA was able to sue the board of cosmetology on behalf of these two families. The board quickly settled, and finally granted Leah and Morgan a license in the spring of 2024.

“I’m glad we had somebody like HSLDA to help us fight this, because financially we would never have been able to fight it on our own with an attorney in New Jersey,” Kelli said.

Morgan and Leah are now happily employed in their field, and the settlement came as a relief to both families. Leah’s family held a party in her honor. “It was a huge celebration,” Elaine said.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Rep. Amedee introduced a bill to require the board of cosmetology to accept diplomas from homeschools under the state’s second option. The bill passed and took effect in August.

“The cosmetology board put up a fight, but in the end they seemed to be the only ones who would not admit that it is foolish to bar diploma-holding students, while admitting other students who were only halfway through high school,” Rep. Amedee told HSLDA.

She noted that she and her husband have held various positions of leadership in both state and local homeschool groups, and in that capacity would get calls and emails a few times each year from homeschool graduates denied entrance to cosmetology schools.

“In Louisiana, 2022 brought an explosive increase in the number of homeschoolers, and the 2023 elections resulted in the most homeschool-friendly legislature and administration Louisiana has ever seen,” she said. “So 2024’s regular session provided the right time to finally right this wrong.”

“We are so grateful to HSLDA for the many years of effort in analyzing our statutes and advocating for our students against a biased establishment,” she added. “We look forward to the testimonies of the homeschool graduates who are now able to enter cosmetology school without diploma discrimination.”

Maia is also pleased with the new law. “Hopefully by me contacting the right people and encouraging people to fight it, I’m hoping there’s not going to be nine kids being denied anymore,” she said. She’s now taking classes and working toward her cosmetology license.

Where we’re headed

Longtime members will know that entering the field of cosmetology has been a consistent sticking point for homeschool graduates. HSLDA has frequently intervened on their behalf to resolve issues of admission and licensing with both cosmetology schools and boards.

Cases like these might seem trivial. No single intervention can settle the matter across the country. Each state has its own board with its own requirements. And many of these cases never go to court. But with each victory we are one step closer to our goal of eliminating discrimination against homeschool graduates.

It’s also important to note that we have already seen tremendous progress on this front. Several states have already permanently revised their policies. And the doors to universities, many trade schools, and other professional organizations, which years ago remained firmly closed to homeschool graduates, are now open.

“A long time ago, college admission, entry into the military, and other things that require high school diplomas were a problem for homeschoolers,” HSLDA President Jim Mason said. “Over time many of these institutions started recognizing homeschool graduates as high school graduates.”

Progress may seem slow and incremental, but you can rest assured we aren’t going anywhere until we’ve reached our goal of ending discrimination against homeschool graduates.

Michael Tobin

General Editor/Writer

Michael Tobin is a husband, father, writer, and homeschool graduate originally from Memphis, Tennessee. He writes and edits content for HSLDA, with a focus on research.