The ELANCO School District of Pennsylvania finalized a settlement agreement Monday with two homeschooling families, after the district sent a school official and a school social worker to the families’ homes in September.
As we previously reported, while Pennsylvania’s comprehensive homeschool statute requires that the homeschool supervisor have a high school diploma (or its equivalent), it does not require parents to surrender a copy of their diploma to school officials as a matter of course. Instead, parents submit an affidavit (or unsworn declaration) which attests, under penalty of perjury, that they meet this minimum educational requirement.
The Brennan and Stoltzfus families did that, then were visited by a school official and social worker, who insisted that the families’ attestations weren’t sufficient. Five days later, we helped the families file a lawsuit in state court, arguing that courts had already rejected such overreach.
In Jeffrey v. O’Donnell (1988), a federal district court struck down Pennsylvania’s prior “private tutor” homeschool law, because it allowed superintendents to impose ad hoc requirements that varied from district to district. And the General Assembly responded by creating detailed statewide procedures to prevent arbitrary or discriminatory demands. (Section 1327.1)
The lawsuit was also reminiscent of the case we brought in 2019 on behalf of Kirk and Kristen Sosebee, who were threatened with truancy when they refused to provide their child’s birth certificate and proof of residency—the Virginia Supreme Court unanimously agreed with the Sosebees that neither was required by state law.
Cases like these rest on the rule of law and the legislature’s exclusive control over its own homeschool statute.
Fortunately, the Brennans and Stoltzfuses didn’t have to wait for a court to intervene. In its settlement agreement with the families, the ELANCO District agreed that it would follow the legislature’s procedure for resolving disputes with homeschooling families (which is to be done through certified letters and a hearing before a neutral hearing officer, not through home visits and truancy prosecutions). The district also agreed that in the future, it would accept a family’s sworn statement that they have a high school diploma, instead of demanding to see them as a matter of course.
Lastly, I want to extend gratitude to all of the HSLDA members and friends of homeschooling who make it possible for us to help families in situations like these. We all play a part in the battle for homeschool freedom, but every once in a while, God raises up a few families to bear the standard for all of us at a key moment in history.
We are incredibly grateful to the Brennans and Stoltzfuses for their dedication to teach their children at home, and their courage to take a stand even in the face of potential prosecution. And we are grateful for all of you, who support HSLDA so that we can stand with families when their freedom to homeschool is challenged.