News Alerts

Back to school is just around the corner and with is comes requests and demands for home schoolers to register....Oh, no!

Oh, NO! indeed! For veteran home educators, this may seem old hat. But for new home schoolers, the "threat is in the mail" type of letter can be unnerving. Usually this request is to secure more federal tax dollars thru the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) federal program.

The primary thing you need to know as a home educator is that you don't have to tell the school district ANYTHING. If you have ALREADY filed a voluntary declaration per 167.042 (FHE recommends you do not, and if you have, that you discontinued filing any future declarations), the district should already have access to all the information they need for this year. If you have never filed one, don't, and you can't be required to do so.

These "declarations" provide the only counts the districts can legally use, according to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Withdrawal letters (in FHE’s format) don't count. And the districts have no legal mandate or authority to "know the status of every child in their district."

So, if you get such a letter, phone call, or see a notice in the paper (the latest trend is to put an ad in the classifieds claiming home schoolers have to contact the school), don't respond or answer questions. If you are an HSLDA member, call them first. Then call FHE and let us know which school district (district number, name of persons making the contact if known) is involved.

This is the statute which applies to the optional “Declaration of Enrollment”, RSMo 167.042:

              “For the purpose of minimizing unnecessary investigations due to reports of truancy,
               each parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child who causes his child
               to attend regularly a home school MAY provide to the recorder of deeds of the county 
               where the child legally resides, or to the chief school officer of the public school district
              where the child legally resides, a signed, written declaration of enrollment stating their
               intent for the child to attend a home school … “

Armed with information about your rights, you can enjoy the fall, instead of the fallout!