Now that my oldest is officially graduated from the home education program, I sent off my evaluation letters for both of my children and my notarized affidavit and objectives for my remaining child for the 2023-2024 school year. You will see to the left what the notarization should contain at the bottom of your affidavit. As I explained previously, I opted to go ahead and pay for notarization instead of using the unsworn declaration that many homeschool parents are opting to use this year based on a change in the PA State Laws by the former governor. The Home School Legal Defense group has sent out a statement saying that it is acceptable to fulfill the home education law. I feel like I am better protected by following the home education law as it explicitly states, “the affidavit shall be satisfactory evidence thereof”.
To the right you will see what you MUST add to your unsworn declaration in order for it to be valid. For your consideration, when I went to the notary yesterday, she told me she’s been getting a lot of these affidavits, which means there are many in my district at least that are opting for notarization.
I try to provide you with all the information that I can when I learn of it. I follow a few homeschool groups and pay attention to my local homeschool community so that my blog can be a 2nd stop source for you, the 1st being the law text itself. Saying this, I can tell you that this year there has been an even greater push by school districts for documentation outside of the affidavit and objectives in order to begin or continue homeschool. Please note that they can not approve or deny you the right, just cause. If they have a reasonable belief you are out of compliance, the first step is to send you a certified letter detailing their specific concern. You then have 30 days to respond, which can be a letter that states you are in compliance to the home education law. If they continue to pursue it, a hearing could ensue. It’s possible you can avoid that depending on what they are requesting, if you in fact would supply it. The example would be to give them your stated exemption to immunization and/or medical services. Things would not progress most likely at that point. I highly recommend you follow the process detailed in the law text though and not respond to every letter, email or phone call when a letter isn’t sent certified. I will tell you the push is coming from the Pennsylvania Department of Education who contacted districts and lied saying there was a change in the law. There was no such change regarding what they are requesting. Please read my post detailing all the laws. Make informed decisions and do not be intimidated. Do not become rude, angry, or disrespectful to anyone at the school district. You will be better served by remaining calm and tactful. I have been informed that the PA Department of Health is also poking their nose into this and claiming the law changed and telling districts they are required to obtain this information from those participating in “home education programs”. I IMPLORE you to read the laws in context.
The PDE and the PA Dept of Health are claiming there was a change in the public school code. There, to my knowledge, was no recent change. Here is a very brief overview (but please see my other post where I link all the law texts). Pay attention to Title 28 Chapter 23 Subchapter Immunization. I have been informed that my district has told at least one parent that this text is their source for the claim that the law changed and that they are required to obtain immunization records and health and medical documents about a home education family’s children.
§ 23.81. Purpose and scope.
This subchapter has been promulgated to insure that school children are immunized against diseases which spread easily in schools and interrupt school life and learning for individuals and groups. This subchapter affects public, private and parochial schools, including kindergartens, special education classes, home education programs and vocational classes in this Commonwealth.
§ 23.83. Immunization requirements.
(a) Duties of a school director, superintendent, principal or other person in charge of a public, private, parochial or nonpublic school. Each school director, superintendent, principal, or other person in charge of a public, private, parochial or nonpublic school in this Commonwealth, including vocational schools, intermediate units, and special education and home education programs, cyber and charter schools, shall ascertain that a child has been immunized in accordance with the requirements in subsections (b), (c) and (e) prior to admission to school for the first time, under section 1303 of the Public School Code of 1949 (24 P.S. § 13-1303a), regarding immunization required; penalty.
Again, I went over this extensively in THIS POST for you to ascertain if what they are requesting is actually required. I want to point out that these codes only reference IMMUNIZATION and have nothing to do with health and medical services. There is nothing in any text that requires health services documentation or medical documentation be submitted to the school district. The below is quite literally the only thing I could see they could try to claim, but again, you MUST read it context, that includes definitions. And you need to cross reference this with the home education law.
Article XIV ; 24 Pa. Stat. § 14-1401 Definitions (1)”Children of school age” or “child of school age” means every child attending or who should attend an elementary grade or high school, either public or private, within the Commonwealth and children who are attending a kindergarten which is an integral part of a local school district. 24 Pa. Stat. § 14-1402 SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES (b) For each child of school age, a comprehensive health record shall be maintained by the school district or joint school board, which shall include the results of the tests, measurements and regularly scheduled examinations and special examinations herein specified.
Finally, and very small snippet of the home education law, please read the entire thing in context.
1949 Act 14 Section 1327.1 “Home education program” shall mean a program conducted, in compliance with this section, by the parent or guardian or such person having legal custody of the child or children……(b)The requirements contained in sections 1511 and 1511.1, except as provided for in this section, and section 1605 shall not apply to home education programs. A home education program shall not be considered a nonpublic school under the provisions of this act…….(1)………evidence that the child has been immunized in accordance with the provisions of section 1303(a) and has received the health and medical services required for students of the child’s age or grade level in Article XIV; and that the home education program shall comply with the provisions of this section and that the notarized affidavit shall be satisfactory evidence thereof.……
So, moving on, I submitted what I do every year, my children’s evaluation letters and the notarized affidavit and objectives for my remaining child. In the event the district attempts to contact me, probably by phone call, I will not answer or respond to any request. If they contact me through standard mail, I will not respond. If they send me a certified letter, I will see what they claim as their reasonable belief that I am not in compliance with the home education law. If they do not supply one, my response will be that I am in compliance. In fact, no matter what they say I know I am in compliance. I will not be bullied or intimidated. I am the person in charge of my home education program, they are not. Therefore, I maintain records for my children, and they are not entitled to them. Time will tell how far this goes. By the way, don’t think for one second that the district cares about this at all, this is the government and don’t believe for one second that they don’t already know your child’s immunization status or how often they visit the Dr. This is reported every time you take them. They however may have limited access to certain information, unlike when your child receives “health services” at school for vision, weight, height, etc. When did government decide it was their job to track this information at the school level? Parents are not even present during these checks. My daughter once, while in elementary public school, “failed” her vision test. They made an enormous deal of it. I had to wait for an available appointment. I explained this to them. I got threatened then that I didn’t act quick enough. It wasn’t a long period of time. Know what? My daughter BARELY needed any vision correction per the actual eye dr. Know what her biggest issue probably was? Dry eyes probably exasperated by allergies which later I investigated (because she always seemed sick) and learned she’s allergic to mold and lo and behold the year after I pulled her from school the school needed to do extensive mold remediation. The school was literally making her sick.
Beyond the home education law stuff that’s going on, my last bit for today is to announce that my graduate has officially registered for college and classes to start this fall. Look for a post soon on the process of submitting his transcript, etc. I hope this information helps any home educating parents in Pennsylvania. Be brave. Like I always tell every homeschool parent, YOU CAN DO IT. No matter how difficult it seems, it is not as hard as what you’re imagining and it’s well worth the sacrifices that inevitably have to made to become a home educating family.
References
This post is for information purposes only and not meant to be legal advice.