Court Reverses Itself, California Parents Can Homeschool Without Teaching Credentials

Hat Tip Malkin.

The Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles reversed it's Feb. 28, 2008 ruling saying that parents that homeschool their children must be credentialed.

There are an estimated 166,000 children in California that are taught at home by their parents and after the February ruling there was concern that students that were taught by parents that were not credentialed would be listed as truants.

Today the court reversed their prior ruling. (PDF here)

After hearing from an array of objectors that included state education officials and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the court agreed to reconsider the case and issued a new ruling today that reached the opposite conclusion: State law allows home schooling, although children can be required to attend school if they're being abused or neglected at home.

Although the compulsory-education law hasn't changed since 1929, some alter laws "demonstrate an apparent acceptance by the Legislature that home-schooling is taking place in California, with home schools allowed as private schools," Justice H. Walter Croskey, author of the earlier ruling, wrote in today's 3-0 decision.

The California Homeschool Network explains this ruling, saying "Today's court ruling held that (1) California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education; and (2) the statutory permission to home school may constitutionally be overridden in order to protect the safety of a child who has been declared a dependent. Homeschooling, therefore, remains a legal educational option in California."

Many are sighing a breath of relief right now and others are celebrating this decision.

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