A look at the battle for the homeschooling movement and the demographics of homeschooling families that challenges the notion that all homeschoolers are conservative fundamentalists. This article is a critical look at the HSLDA.

The Home School Legal Defense Association provides a brief summary of the homeschooling laws in New Jersey. Includes a link to a legal analysis of laws relating to homeschooling in New Jersey.

This chart is intended to help the homeschooling family better prepare for unsolicited inquiries by their public school authority. It illustrates the typical escalation process under current law in the state of New Jersey.

Such regular attendance shall be during all the days and hours that the public schools are in session in the district, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the board of education of the district that the mental condition of the child is such that he cannot benefit from instruction in the school or that the bodily condition of the child is such as to prevent his attendance at school, but nothing herein shall be construed as permitting the temporary or permanent exclusion from school by the board of education of any district of any child between the ages of five and 20, except as explicitly otherwise provided by law.

The Home School Legal Defense Association is a non-profit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. HSLDA offers annual memberships and fully represents member families when they are in need of legal assistance. HSLDA also participates in legislative advocacy and research.

While many parents may not have the opportunity to influence legislation regarding home education on the state level, there are ways to be involved on a local level.

This list is an opportunity for homeschoolers to contact homeschooling attorneys and experts about homeschooling legal and litigation issues. It is an informal network of attorneys and legal experts that are concerned with litigation pending and threatened against homeschoolers. Its primary purpose is to exchange legal information within the profession, and to educate and support attorneys and experts involved in homeschool litigation.

Every parent, guardian or other person having custody and control of a child between the ages of six and 16 years shall cause such child regularly to attend the public schools of the district or a day school in which there is given instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools for children of similar grades and attainments or to receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school.

The education establishment has realized that the socialization issue will be seen for the red herring that it is, and has searched for other means to suppress homeschooling. Two new strategies have emerged, and these pose real threats to homeschooling. The first strategy is to argue that homeschooling needs some form of accreditation. A number of reasons have been offered: it eases the transition back to the public school for those homeschoolers who go back, it is the basis for awarding a recognized diploma, and it makes it easier to provide homeschoolers access to public school programs and facilities such as science classes, libraries, sports, etc. But accreditation is simply another word for conforming, and the desire to not conform is the fundamental reason for choosing to homeschool. Homeschoolers as a group will not be seduced nor will they be tricked by the false promises of accreditation. The second strategy for suppressing homeschooling is one that is much more likely to be successful, and it is to drastically limit homeschoolers’ access to public higher education. In this, the education establishment has discovered its only effective weapon against homeschooling.

Twenty years ago, home education was treated as a crime in almost every state. Today, it is legal all across America, despite strong and continued opposition from many within the educational establishment. How did this happen? This paper traces the legal and sociological history of the modern home school movement, and then suggests factors that led to this movement's remarkable success.

The sheriff and his officers and all police officers and constables shall assist attendance officers in the performance of their duties.

This list of ten questions touches on political issues that affect and are important to homeschoolers. It includes tips on how to frame questions and how to elicit a candidate's opinion on a variety of issues.

An interview with Timothy Haas of the New Jersey Homeschool Association regarding the bill introduced by Democrat Loretta Weinberg that would tighten regulations on homeschoolers.

There is a national campaign to institutionalize all preschoolers through government funded and/or mandated "universal preschool." This group seeks to redefine universal preschool as an unheralded worldwide community of loving, functional parents who exercise their right and authority to nurture and teach their young children at home.

Homeschoolers have been vigilant in protecting their rights, rising to the occasion when they discover threats to clamp down on their activities. Discusses some of the criticisms by opponents of homeschooling, along with the examples of some legal fights in Connecticut and Montana.

This is the text of a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg, District 37 (Bergen). Would require certain testing and medical examinations of home-schooled children.

A summary of the regulations governing private schools in New Jersey. This is a U.S. Department of Education publication.

The attendance officer shall examine into all violations of this article, shall warn any child violating any of the provisions of this article and the parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of the child of the consequences of the violation if persisted in, and shall notify such person in writing to cause the child to attend school within five days from the date on which notice is served, and regularly thereafter. The attendance officer shall have full police power to enforce the provisions of this article and may arrest without warrant any vagrant child or habitual truant or any child who is habitually incorrigible or who is vicious or immoral in conduct or illegally absent from school.

Any child between the ages of six and 16 years who shall repeatedly be absent from school, and any child of such age found away from school during school hours whose parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of the child is unable to cause him to attend school and any pupil who is incorrigible, actually vagrant, vicious, or immoral in conduct, shall be deemed to be a juvenile delinquent and shall be proceeded against as such.

As their ranks increase, homeschoolers are tapping public schools for curriculum, part-time classes, extracurricular services, and online learning.

Do the public school authorities feel threatened by homeschooling? Judging by their efforts to lure homeschooling families into dependence on local school districts, the answer is apparently yes. For the last several years, homeschooling has been the fastest growing educational alternative in the country. The sheer number of homeschoolers represent a distinct threat to the hegemony of the government school monopoly. Qualitatively, the academic success of homeschoolers, measured by standardized test scores and recruitment by colleges, debunk the myth that parents need to hire credentialed experts to force children to learn.

Listed here are documents which chronicle what has already transpired regarding this legislation. Also included are files which can be used as resources and reasons for opposing bill A1918.

National Home Education Legal Defense was founded by Attorney Deborah G. Stevenson as a non-sectarian legal support organization. NHELD offers its members legal assistance by an attorney licensed to practice in your state working with NHELD licensed attorneys. Members are also kept apprised of pending legislative action, scholarship programs, and other programs beneficial to homeschoolers.

Find the laws pertaining to home education for all 50 states and U.S. territories.

A parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of a child between the ages of 6 and 16 years, who shall fail to comply with any of the provisions of this article relating to his duties, shall be deemed to be a disorderly person and shall be subject to a fine of not more than $25.00 for a first offense and not more than $100.00 for each subsequent offense, in the discretion of the court. In any such proceeding, the summons issuing therein, or in special circumstances a warrant, shall be directed to the alleged disorderly person and the child.

In court, the parents were charged with failing to cause the child to attend school under the compulsory education law. The only issue before the court was whether the parents were providing equivalent instruction. The court held that the language under the compulsory education law, providing for equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school, required showing only academic equivalency and not equivalency of social development derived from group education. In educating the child at home, the parents were required to show only that "the instruction was academically equivalent to that provided in the local public school."

This list is created to be a means of informing, documenting and evaluating available information concerning the impact of virtual/charter schools on the homeschooling community. This information consists of and is not limited to news items, articles from various sources, legislative information (bills, law changes), documented efforts and experiences and other information that may give weight to whether home-based charter schools or virtual schools are having an impact in any negative way on homeschooling.

AHSA is an informal network of attorneys and legal experts in the United States supporting homeschooling and homeschoolers by providing legal information about homeschooling issues, empowering homeschoolers to have the legal tools they need to meet homeschooling challenges, and providing a network of attorneys for legal representation. The website includes a legal directory by state.

Virtual charter schools are popping up all over the country, providing free computers, textbooks and educational materials to any family who would like to enroll in their program. Jennifer James takes a hard look at how these schools are detrimental to black homeschoolers.

The Rutherford Institute is an international legal and educational organization dedicated to preserving human rights and defending civil liberties. Deeply committed to protecting the constitutional freedoms of every American and the integral human rights of all people, The Rutherford Institute has emerged as a prominent leader in the national dialogue on civil liberties and equal rights. Parents have a constitutional right to direct and control the upbringing of their children, and laws or governmental actions that unreasonably infringe the rights of parents to raise and educate their children according to their own values are constitutionally suspect. The Rutherford Institute responds to over one thousand requests for assistance annually from parents whose rights were placed in jeopardy.

Families homeschooling for the first time inevitably have questions about legal challenges or threats that they might face from local or state education authorities. Those who do seek an answer to these questions are often faced with a confusing array of laws, policies, and regulations that not only vary from state to state, but also between school districts, and school officials within the same state or district.

New Jersey's child welfare system, like most state child welfare systems, is a corrupt and deadly mess. Children are lost in the shuffle, shipped to abusive foster homes, returned to rapists and child molesters, and left to die in closets while paperwork piles up. So whom does the government decide to punish for the bureaucracy's abysmal failure to protect these innocents? Homeschoolers. And what does the government think will solve its ills? More power and paperwork.

This FAQ list is provided by the New Jersey Department of Education. In New Jersey, the Legislature under the compulsory education law (N.J.S.A. 18A:38-25) has permitted children to receive "equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school," including the home. These homeschooling questions and answers are intended to assist parent(s)/guardian(s)and public school districts in dealing with issues that frequently arise in this context.

New Jersey law states that “parents have a constitutional rite to choose the type and character of education they feel is best suited for their children.” To comply with this law, homeschooling parents must insure that all children between the ages of six and sixteen receive instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools.

Any attendance officer who shall find any child between six and 16 years of age who is a truant from school, shall take the child and deliver him to the parent, guardian or other person having charge and control of the child, or to the teacher of the school which such child is lawfully required to attend.