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 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 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
“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.”
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
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 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.
Rachel Stoltzfoos contributed to this report.