HSLDA attorney Timothy J. (Tj) Schmidt says the director of pupil personnel in Jackson County threatened homeschoolers with a court summons if they failed to comply with a set of monitoring requirements.

Threats such as a family court complaint, and demands for students’ testing grades, violate state law, he says.

The demands also violate the “Best Practices Document” that HSLDA provides to school officials to helps them understand homeschool programs.

Jackson County, located south of Lexington, has a population of approximately 13,300.

Schmidt

The tactic could be viewed as an attempt at intimidation, the attorney says, because there appears to be an organized effort to attempt a crackdown on homeschooling families.

After receiving a letter from HSLDA, the new DPP director reviewed the “Best Practices Guide” and has agreed to follow that.

Homeschooling parents will receive a new letter in the mail soon with new instructions.

“Kind of correcting some of the misstatements of the law and some of these homeschooling monitoring requirements that he had kind of drawn up,” says Schmidt.

School officials are expected to shelve the older requirements but HSLDA will be watching, says the attorney, to make sure they stay shelved.