In the News

Is homeschooling still legal in California?

That was the question on many parents’ minds after February 28, 2008, the day the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District in Los Angeles declared homeschooling illegal in the Golden State unless the parent is a certified teacher.

All too often, Gisele Baribeau hears stories that only reinforce her passion to offer Christian teenagers some solid instruction that will help them stand firm in their faith once they leave high school.

“A pastor who used to teach at a secular university told me that his atheist colleagues were delighted when they would come across Christian students, because they were just relishing the opportunity to ‘set these kids straight,’ ” she told Today’s Family News. “It’s just wrong.”

On April 17-18, 2008, a team of seven homeschooled high schoolers swept the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) World Championship in Atlanta, Georgia, taking home a Winning Alliance Team trophy and the Amaze Award (awarded by the judges to a team whose uniqueness sets it apart from all other award categories). Team Overdrive, from Bridgewater, New Jersey, won four regional tournaments (an FTC record) during the season and racked up the two highest scores ever in the championships.

A California court has ruled that several children in one homeschool family must be enrolled in a public school or "legally qualified" private school, and must attend, sending ripples of shock into the nation's homeschooling advocates as the family reviews its options for appeal.

Parents of the approximately 200,000 home-schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms - and go back to school themselves - if they want to continue teaching their own kids. On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools - or at home by Mom and Dad, but only if they have a teaching degree.

Were it a movie it would be dismissed as an implausible embellishment by the scriptwriters: Tiny Veronica Penny, nine, beat out competitors five years her senior at a spelling bee by nailing such appropriate words as "precocious" and "diminutive."