Home schooler ordered to school
District judge violates higher court ruling, forces parents to send daughter back to public school.
From, Kentucky Citizen Digest, March/April, 2001.

On January 8, a Logan County district judge ordered a Russellville mother to stop homeschooling her 14-year-old daughter.  In the startling decision, District Judge Susan Browning told Deborah Dukes that she must send her daughter back to public school, thus disregarding an order from Seventh Judicial Circuit Court Judge Tyler Gill requiring Browning to first hear the Dukes’ side of the story.  Browning failed to afford Dukes her due process for the second time in as many hearings and would not hear evidence supporting her right to home school.

Late last year, Judge Browning issued a bench warrant for the mother’s arrest as well as a “pick-up order” to remove the daughter from the home when Dukes failed to return her daughter to school pursuant to a previous court order. Dukes decided to home school her 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, because of persistent headaches that led to a number of absences from the public school.   Even though Dukes filed the legally required notices of intent to home school, school officials insisted that wasn’t the case, alleging the student had been truant.  Judge Gill ruled that Browning failed to afford the Dukes their due process when she acted without conducting a hearing to first examine the evidence and give the mother a chance to explain her behavior.  Browning said she would not hear any evidence and told the Dukes they were neglecting their daughter’s education.

According to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), the school system has not made the case that Deborah Dukes acted inappropriately or illegally.  “This shows the prejudices that they have determined without any evidence that the Dukes’ home school is illegitimate,” said HSLDA attorney David Gordon.

Gordon also pointed out that county attorney Tom Noe recently amended the original petition claiming that Sarah was truant for 10 days rather than 8.  Kentucky law requires 9 unexcused absences to be considered a habitual truant.

But Dukes contends she was properly homeschooling throughout the alleged truancy period which began in mid-October when she sent a letter of intent.  One complication is that state law requires that notice of intent to homeschool be filed with the school district within the first two weeks of the beginning of a new school year.  It does not address  parents who withdraw their children during the middle of the year.  Dukes says that should not matter because she filed within two weeks of removing Sarah.

According to Dr. Jo Orange, director of pupil personnel, the Logan county school system does not have a specific filing policy for parents who wish to home school after the year has begun.  Orange maintains the issue is entirely about truancy.  But home school proponents see it differently.  HSLDA president Michael Smith said in a press release, “This judge is failing to recognize the right of this family to homeschool — period. That’s the big issue.”

County attorney Tom Noe told one publication last December,  “In many cases, the parents aren’t qualified to homeschool. We have to say, ‘Hey, is this the best thing for the child?’  If we’ve got someone who is qualified to provide that, I think we would look at that as a realistic option.” Noe claimed that in many cases, home schooling is used “for the wrong reasons,” implying it can be a legal loophole for truancy.

Kentucky is regarded as a “home school-friendly” state and imposes no teaching qualifications for parents who teach their children at home. Neither does the state closely monitor their progress, which appears to excel beyond that of public school students when standardized test scores are compared.

Logan County School System Superintendent Marshall Kemp said officials followed the rules and regulations in the case. Dukes, however, maintains that she did nothing illegal.  In fact, she is not new to home schooling, currently teaching her son at home and having done so for the past two years.  She filed the notice of intent to home school for her daughter with the same school system where she has run into trouble.  Her next scheduled court date is Feb. 9.

While some argue for tighter restrictions on home schoolers, this case may prove just the opposite is needed — further protections from overzealous public school officials encroaching on the parents’ right to teach their children at home.
 
 
 
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst