This very scary news story was brought to my attention.  A judge in my own county of Los Angeles has ordered some homeschooling parents to put their kids in public school.  The entire court brief can be found here.  This family was enrolled in an Independent Study Program(umbrella school) just like my own children are.  We had been told that being part of an ISP was one of the safest ways in which to homeschool under the law. 

What is really scary is that the court has ruled that  "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting."

"Nor did the family's religious beliefs matter to the court.  Their "sincerely held religious beliefs" are "not the quality of evidence that permits us to say that application of California's compulsory public school education law to them violates their First Amendment rights." "Such sparse representations are too easily asserted by any parent who wishes to homeschool his or her child," the court concluded."

The family is appealing the ruling, but it is definitely an instance where the courts are trumping the laws that are in place (In California, there are no actual homeschooling laws.  Homeschoolers can either join an ISP or file their own Private School Affidavit with the state) determining that the state knows better how to raise our children than parents do.  Please join me in praying for the homeschooling children in the state of California. 

-J