Know the Law - Addendum

Shortly following my post mentioning the couple in New York that were arrested for failing to register home-schooled kids, I was reading Rational Jenn's blog. She mentioned that it's a bad idea to trust sites such as HSLDA for verification of the laws in your area. Allowing a third-party to translate or summarize the laws in your area increases the chance that you may receive bad information. Considering the stakes, it is imperative that you know this specific corner of law inside and out. Anything less is just asking for trouble. I will admit that I myself still need to read through the Arizona Statutes in order to make sure that I will be in compliance when the time comes for me to register Kylie. I will be reading through them, and if I come across anything specific worth mentioning, I will post it. But please keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and any other third-party may not be either. Even if they are lawyers, they can make mistakes. The point is that we all need to go to the source and do our best to understand the law. It's the only way to be sure.

I recommend visiting www.azleg.gov and doing your own search for the relevant statutes. I checked it out and I was finally able to find what I was looking for. However, they must have changed their website recently because their FAQ is misleading as to how to perform a search. It asks you to use a link on the main page that doesn't exist (unless my browser doesn't support it for some reason). Anyway, this is how I navigated to the proper area of their site:

1. Go to www.azleg.gov

2. Roll your mouse over "Legislative Council" on the menu bar just below the banner photo of the capitol building. This will drop down a menu.

3. From the menu select "Arizona Revised Statutes".

4. In the "Search Phrase" box type, "home school". I tried "homeschool" and "homeschooling", but neither of these produced any results. So make sure you have a space between "home" and "school".

5. Click the Search button. This will yield results that I think include the relevant statutes and some that aren't so relevant.

If you happen to find more related statutes, please post your comments here so others can benefit from the time you spent searching.

As Ronald Reagan once said, "Trust, but verify."

Homeschooling Restrictions, Gilbert, AZ

I try not to get worked up about articles like this because the media tends to blow things out of proportion. However, it is still my chosen responsibility to mention such stories when I find them, just in case the story turns out to be accurate. No laws have been passed, but if these types of restrictions are placed on Gilbert homeschoolers, I will certainly consider moving. It would be a shame because I thoroughly enjoy living here, but not at the cost of my freedom of choice.

Board to consider homeschool, online class restrictions

Know the law

Please don't let this post scare you. This is just an example of what can happen when the law is ignored.

Parents arrested for failing to register home-schooled kids

If you live in Arizona, The Home Education Network of Arizona is a great place to begin learning the laws that affect homeschoolers. I am thankful that Arizona is a very homeschool friendly state.

If you live outside of Arizona, try the HSLDA. They actually have a color-coded map that gives a basic description of the level of regulation for each state. As you can see, New York is heavily regulated which is why this couple had such a bad experience.