Homeschool Nations - Missouri

Jun. 9, 2008

when the social worker knocks at your door

     The following came from our friend in St. Charles, MO, Margaret Porch.  She and her husband Mike lead a great group there called the St. Charles Christian Home Educators. 
 
Hi everyone,
     I got a phone call from a SCCHE member a bit earlier tonight.  She had a DFS agent at her door.  She did not let them into her house (Never let anyone from DFS in to your house).  Someone had reported that she was abusing one of her children - a totally false report.  The DFS agent told her that HSLDA couldn't help her because this was not an education related matter.  WRONG.  If a DFS representative comes to your door for ANYTHING at all, call HSLDA.  Fortunately, this family was a member of HSLDA and did call HSLDA and received advice.  The matter was resolved within a couple of hours with DFS concluding that there was no justification to the charge at hand. Praise the Lord that nothing else came of this particular incident and pray that this conclusion is the end of this matter.

     Again, I want to review what you should do in case you have a DFS representative knocking at your door.

     1.  If you are not a member of HSLDA, then you should consider joining.  I am not saying this right now to "frighten" you into joining HSLDA, but just as good advice that I would give to anyone at any time.  It's just that when DFS calls on someone, I remember to remind everyone to consider joining HSLDA.  Being a member of HSLDA is sort of like having auto insurance, but it's insurance for your homeschool.  You hope you never need it, and you probably won't (just like auto insurance), but you are certainly glad you have it if you need it.

     2.  Use a thumbtack and put a copy of your HSLDA membership card on the wall by every phone.  The HSLDA contact info is right there on the card.  So is your membership number.

     3.  Program the HSLDA emergency number in to your cell phone and have your membership card in your purse or wallet.

     4. NEVER let anyone into your house without a search warrant - not a policeman who has been sent by DFS (this does occur) and especially not a DFS worker.  Step out onto the porch, close the door behind you (if possible), and talk to the person or people at your door.

     5. ALWAYS be polite to them, but do not answer any questions until you have HSLDA on the phone.

     6. Do not let them intimidate you.  If they tell you that you cannot call someone (like HSLDA), inform them (nicely) that you are going to make the phone call anyway and that you will answer their questions after you make the call.

     7.  Call HSLDA no matter what the problem is - education related or not.  They will give advice over the phone for non education-related problems.  Never assume that HSLDA cannot help you.

     8.  Do not let DFS have access of any kind to your children unless HSLDA advises you to do so. 

     9.  Do not sign any papers without advice from HSLDA.

     10.  If they tell you that the problem at hand is not an education related problem, then you do not have to answer any education-related questions.  Once they find out you are a homeschooler, they may ask education-related questions.  They did to the homeschool mom that called tonight.
     Again, pray for this situation and for protection of homeschoolers from false accusations.

Dear Heavenly Father,
      I praise You for your protection for this family tonight.  You are Almighty and Sovereign, wonderful in Your ways.  Thank you that I was home and able to answer questions for this family and that they called HSLDA and received the legal advice that they needed.  Thank you for intervening and demonstrating to DFS that there were no issues.  I pray that nothing further results from this incident and that You will bring peace to this family tonight and that they will be able to sleep, resting in the assurance of Your love.
In Jesus' name
Amen

That's all for now.
Have a blessed day.
Margaret
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Comments

Jun. 9, 2008 - Hi

Posted by momofsix
I will be joining this month. In the past, I had always thought my teaching license and certificate, which I work hard to keep up to date, would protect me. I now wonder if that would really do anything at all because the education department here where I live shows no respect for anyone. I went into an elementary school some years ago before I decided to homeschool, reached out my hand to greet the principal and introduce myself as a teacher, and she looked at me then looked at my extended hand, pivoted her heal and turned around (with no one around to have distracted her). She refused to return the greeting. I have had many other incidents like that before I finally had enough and decided that their god like lofty behavior was enough to pull my daughter of a reason to pull my daughter out of public school and homeschool. But, I still wonder what run ins you hear about between the homeschool state certified teachers and DCF or schools.
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Jun. 9, 2008 - oops

Posted by momofsix
Can you turn on the correcting post button so I can correct..I hope you can still understand my question. I can see some errors due to the changes I was making to make it more clear (forgetting to erase some words), etc.
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Jun. 9, 2008 - response to momofsix

Posted by missouri
To be honest, I don't know exactly how to turn on the correcting post button but I do understand your question. From what I hear, for homeschoolers in Missouri to be contacted by DFS or school officials is fairly rare. I have heard of maybe four or five cases in the St. Louis area in the six years that we have lived in the state, and most of those were taken care of quickly without any major problem. I simply blogged about this one because our friend Margaret Porch made some excellent suggestions about how to respond. If you need more specific information, I would suggest contacting Scott Woodruff at HSLDA.
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Jun. 12, 2009 - Certification and Degrees

Posted by Anonymous
MomofSix you have a good point. This has been an issue of much debate in the past. HSLDA just wrote a long article about this. See below in the HSLDA link:

Articles about Missouri Homeschool Laws and Legal Overview by HSLDA

Here is an article on Missouri's homeschooling issue in The Examiner. It is available on-line at http://bit.ly/nzqWm. It makes reference to the changes in Missouri's homeschool laws. And for those of you following Lisa Naeger's fight to continue homeschooling, this is discussed at length and is the primary focus of the article. It is my understanding that the author used to work in the legal profession as a paralegal.

HSLDA has also just published a great article which is being used by Lisa as support for her case. It can also be accessed on line
https://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/issues/c/custodyresearch.pdf The article illustrates the importance of her case not only to those in St. Charles County, but across the nation as many of these cases are being used as "instructive" references for future cases and establishing unauthoritative precendents. The article also provides great references to the academic achievements of homeschoolers and attempts to dispell the myth that degreed and certified teachers provide better instruction. Supporting data is even provided from third party sources.

Chris Klicka discusses cases where a parent's custodial rights were rescinded because of the parent's choice to homeschool their child. He sites a couple of specific court cases, one is on page 34. On ParentalRights.org Michael Farris also illustrates how the homeschooling debate can be opened up by nonparental parties. This is also something discussed in the Examiner article and how there are a myriad of ways that one's homeschool can come under legal scrutiny that would be outside the scope and protection of Missouri's homeschool laws, even with its recently added verbiage to limit homeschool record access to only the Prosecuting Attorney.

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