When did homeschooling become "legal"?

[Justme]

I never even heard of anyone "homeschooling" when I was a kid in the 70's. I remember a couple of kids who couldn't attend school (health reasons) and their having to have a certified tutor. When did it become "legal" for parents to opt out of sending their kids to an actual school?

[koolmom]

I recall hearing rumblings of "homeschoolers" during the very late 70's-early 80's when some fundie parents grew livid with the state of education and began starting their own home-schooling networks eventually growing into a sizable movement. I recall some hippie types did, too, but of course, the fundies got more media exposure.

[HOTW]

Homeschooling has been around for thousands of years. It just happened that the promotion of an education for everyone made going to school available for all. There have always been home educated people, it was only in th e70's when the thought of teachign your kids yourself was challenged by the schools & courts became involved. It has never been illegal but has become more regulated, just as formal education in the school system has. It used to be people were lucky if they learned to read, then it was a case of learning what was locally useful. It was with the promtion of centralization of the system that a general education fro all was achieved. The Amish have for many years challenged the system and won the right to educate their children outside fo the standard, long before there was a homeschooling movement.

[CC3]

It has never been illegal but has become more regulated, just as formal education in the school system has.

When I homeschooled, in the '80s and '90s, it was illegal where I lived. Eventually the law was challenged, it is now legal.

[Brainsample]

Homeschooling has been around for thousands of years. It just happened that the promotion of an education for everyone made going to school available for all. There have always been home educated people, it was only in th e70's when the thought of teachign your kids yourself was challenged by the schools & courts became involved. It has never been illegal but has become more regulated, just as formal education in the school system has. It used to be people were lucky if they learned to read, then it was a case of learning what was locally useful. It was with the promtion of centralization of the system that a general education fro all was achieved. The Amish have for many years challenged the system and won the right to educate their children outside fo the standard, long before there was a homeschooling movement.

The free education at a one room schoolhouse was a later development in this country, and the earliest efforts were missionary efforts, later sponsored by communities (and the teachers in many parts of the country were usually obtained through missions organizations from what I understand). Mandatory state education in government schools was promoted by John Dewey and Holmes and those activists in the early half of the 1900s, if I recall correctly.

[Rosa]

Mandatory education started in the states with the 19th century educational standardizers (Wikipedia credits Mann for the first attendance law, Massachussetts in 1837) but it was also tied into the movement against child labor - minimum work age laws and mandatory education laws were often passed around the same time and involved similar coalitions of social reform groups and labor groups.

Many fundies, as we know, like to defy both sets of laws and keep their kids home to "educate" them while actually using them as cheap labor.

[Daenerys]

In my country (UK) the law says something like:

Every child must be educated between the ages of 5 and 16, in a government run school or otherwise

It's the 'or otherwise' that people use to justify their right to home-educate. It is, however, very rare in this country and we don't have many fundies.

I expect it is similar in other countries.

[dairyfreelife]

Agreed. It was illegal. By 1993, all states legalized it. States began compulsory attendence laws in the mid to late 1800s. The latest being Alaska. The original laws were more lenient, but I know that my the time my grandparents went to school in the late 30s and 40s, everyone got a primary school education at least. I don't think it was to be a bully, like some fundie homeschoolers seem to think, but to ensure that every child got an education and had the chance to learn to read and write. Yes, some schools have always been better than others and special education was a problem too, but that's improved greatly. We have more options, but yes, school in some form is compulsory, but how strict the laws are vary by state when cmoes to what is required of homeschoolers.

[clibbyjo]

In my country (UK) the law says something like:

Every child must be educated between the ages of 5 and 16, in a government run school or otherwise

It's the 'or otherwise' that people use to justify their right to home-educate. It is, however, very rare in this country and we don't have many fundies.

I expect it is similar in other countries.

I know someone who belongs to a secular homeschooling group in London. I don't know how many members they have, but there are secular homeschoolers in the UK. Two of my kids have Epals in Scotland and Ireland. I set up a group of E-pals for my co-op with a couple UK homeschool groups and none of them are fundie.

[ohpotteryourotter]

People besides Fundies homeschool. Atheists, Pagans, Rastafarians, etc. And I don't think homeschooling was ever illegal in the U.S., at least not on the national level anyways.

[The Larch]

I don't think homeschooling was ever illegal in the U.S., at least not on the national level anyways.

I don't know if it was ever specifically illegal on the national level, but it was certainly illegal in at least some areas into the 1980s. I believe it was made legal in our state in 1985. I know several people who will talk about doing it while it was still illegal and being afraid of their children being picked up for truancy.

[tropaka]

In Ontario it's very murky - not illegal but the Education Act states that children need to be in school from age 6 to 18 unless receiving "adequate instruction elsewhere" (IIRC)....it's that last part that allows boards to harrass homeschoolers.

[Cerysbell]

I live in the UK and know quite a lot of homeschoolers, mostly secular, but a few who are doing it for religious reasons. I don't know if it's the attachment parenting circles I hang round in, or if it's just a little pocket here in the South-East. From what I gather, there is currently no need to register your child as being homeschooled or to be inspected, it is pretty unregulated. The current 'welfare reforms' aka cuts going through parliament will make homeschooling much harder going forward for all but the very well off. :(

[CC3]

I don't know if it was ever specifically illegal on the national level, but it was certainly illegal in at least some areas into the 1980s. I believe it was made legal in our state in 1985. I know several people who will talk about doing it while it was still illegal and being afraid of their children being picked up for truancy.

It was illegal at the state level where I lived, but the truancy officers did not enforce the law for primary aged kids. My babysitter was JW and her mom took her out of high school because the girl was being bullied. Her daughter was required to re-enroll and attend until she was 16. I homeschooled my kids because they are both visually impaired and the school district didn't have any special support to assist them. The local first grade class had 40 students with one teacher and one assistant. I knew my kids would never stand a chance of learning to read properly. I was also friends with a third grade teacher (he was our Bible study leader). He adminstered Iowa tests and followed my kids progress. At the time, I only had a high school education but teaching children basic reading, writing and math skills wasn't hard. Later on, we changed school districts and my kids attended public school with tutoring help. The only class I ever took my kids out of was a very explicit sex education class. We had already discussed the birds and the bees well before the public school got around to it. The kids just got an extra study time during that period.

[PBrooke]

I'm curious about what qualifies as "explicit," and what information your children had and "didn't need." For example, were they informed on the various methods of contraception, and which ones also prevent the transmission of diseases? Did they know how to obtain contraception if they needed it?

[theologygeek]

When I was young, a neighbor of mine homeschooled. He was a professor at an ivy league college and she was a teacher. They were brilliant people. They had one son and the wife quit her job to homeschool him. It was not legal but they didn't care. Truancy officers never bothered them and the neighbors didn't care, even though homeschooling was far from the norm back then. The neighbors actually accepted it because the parents were so well respected. They were very active in the community and did a lot of good. I helped the mother because I loved little kids, and it didn't hurt that she paid me to help her. lol He was a very smart child and is now a doctor.

[Rosa]

The only US educational issues that are federal are equal access issues (because of Brown vs. Board of Education and the ADA) and funding, which is purely voluntary on the part of the states - any state can opt out of No Child Left Behind or the school lunch programs, for example, just by not taking federal money. But then they'd have to pay for things themselves.

So no, it wasn't ever illegal on the federal level, it's always been a state-level issue.

[AmyP]

Agreed. It was illegal. By 1993, all states legalized it. States began compulsory attendence laws in the mid to late 1800s. The latest being Alaska. The original laws were more lenient, but I know that my the time my grandparents went to school in the late 30s and 40s, everyone got a primary school education at least. I don't think it was to be a bully, like some fundie homeschoolers seem to think, but to ensure that every child got an education and had the chance to learn to read and write. Yes, some schools have always been better than others and special education was a problem too, but that's improved greatly. We have more options, but yes, school in some form is compulsory, but how strict the laws are vary by state when cmoes to what is required of homeschoolers.

It was not necessarily illegal in all states. I know it has always been an option in my state, but not many people did it before the late 80s, early 90s.

[Daenerys]

When I was young, a neighbor of mine homeschooled. He was a professor at an ivy league college and she was a teacher. They were brilliant people. They had one son and the wife quit her job to homeschool him. It was not legal but they didn't care. Truancy officers never bothered them and the neighbors didn't care, even though homeschooling was far from the norm back then. The neighbors actually accepted it because the parents were so well respected. They were very active in the community and did a lot of good. I helped the mother because I loved little kids, and it didn't hurt that she paid me to help her. lol He was a very smart child and is now a doctor.

The problem is that these kind of people, the very people who are most qualified to home-school, are some of the least likely to do it.

[GenerationCedarchip]

Virginia has had a religious exemption to compulsory schooling pretty much since the time compulsory schooling went on the books. However, the blanket "parents can decide for any reason" exemption didn't get passed until 1984.

From what others around back then tell me, some jurisdictions in VA were pretty loose about policing the religious exemption when parents wanted to homeschool, though some would prosecute homeschoolers. This wouldn't surprise me. VA has a big streak of libertarian leanings running through the political culture.

[holierthanyou]

I never even heard of anyone "homeschooling" when I was a kid in the 70's. I remember a couple of kids who couldn't attend school (health reasons) and their having to have a certified tutor. When did it become "legal" for parents to opt out of sending their kids to an actual school?

I think homeschooling became "legal" the same that wearing the colour green or standing on your left foot became "legal" (aka it has always been around, if there's no law against in, it is viewed as "legal").