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Dear WPA Members and Other Homeschoolers,

Please share this information with other homeschoolers.

Having read the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)'s most recent post http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/wi/201109160.asp, WPA continues to stand by its posts http://issues.homeschooling-wpa.org/filing-form-pi-1206/. Our position is based on our 27 years of experience in Wisconsin and our knowledge of Wisconsin homeschooling law (which we helped write) and the PI-1206 form. We have worked to ensure that the form requires the minimum information possible from homeschoolers. It does not require children's names, ages, Social Security numbers, etc. The result is a form that maximizes and protects Wisconsin homeschoolers' freedoms.
 
The bottom line is this: WPA encourages homeschoolers to file form PI-1206 online and not use HSLDA's paper form. Homeschoolers risk being charged with truancy if they file a paper form or if they begin homeschooling after the third Friday in September and do not file a form this year. They may be taken to court. If enough homeschoolers do this, legislation may be introduced that would increase state regulation of homeschooling. Homeschoolers working together through WPA have worked hard since 1984 to develop and get passed and then maintain one of the best homeschooling laws in the nation. It is working well for homeschoolers in Wisconsin. To us, homeschooling freedom means being able to educate our children according to our principles and beliefs. It saddens us to think that anyone would knowingly or unknowingly jeopardize this law. But we are determined and prepared to continue to work hard to maintain homeschooling freedoms in Wisconsin.

Thanks to the work done by homeschoolers working together through WPA, nothing has changed on form PI-1206 since 1984. The information homeschoolers provide on the online form is exactly the same as has been required for the past 27 years. During this time, it has not caused problems. WPA watches very carefully for requests or demands by the DPI for information that is new and/or exceeds the DPI's authority under the law. For example, in August 2010, the DPI's first proposed version of the new electronic form included two new pieces of information. It required homeschoolers to use an email address as our ID, and it requested our phone numbers. WPA convinced the DPI to accept an ID that was not an email address. (We explain on our Web site why it is important not to use an email address.  http://homeschooling-wpa.org/getting-started/#file) WPA also convinced the DPI to completely remove its request for our phone numbers.

In addition, note that many government agencies now require filing online forms for tax purposes, etc. During a court case or a legislative battle, how many judges or legislators would think filing a form online was a problem?

Thank you for your continuing commitment to homeschooling freedoms.

The WPA Board

Dear WPA Members and Other Homeschoolers,

Please share this with other homeschoolers.
Wisconsin families continue to act wisely and courageously. WPA continues to give them important information and strong support and to work along with them. As a result, situations that could have weakened homeschooling have been turned around and instead have strengthened homeschooling. Here are a few recent examples.

In brief (details below):
Example 1: Homeschool diplomas are now being officially recognized and treated like other diplomas by the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ).
Example 2: WPA educated Fox Valley Technical College about homeschool diplomas and convinced them to accept a homeschool diploma they had rejected. This allowed the student to receive a federal student loan that had been approved and then withheld by the college.

Example 3: A local school district with a long history of opposing homeschooling has just agreed not to charge homeschoolers with truancy when they are not enrolled in a conventional school and file their PI-1206 forms after the third Friday in September and before October 15th.

WPA Members and Other Homeschoolers:

Please share this information with other homeschoolers.

This email is a followup to two previous emails sent on 9/1/2011 and 9/9/2011; see below.

Summary (details below):
• WPA and HSLDA did not talk today because HSLDA refused to agree to have the conversation recorded.
• The information asked for on the online form PI-1206 is exactly the same as was on the former paper form from 1984 through 2009-2010.
• WPA continues to recommend that homeschoolers file their PI-1206 forms online to prevent court cases and legislation that would further regulate homeschooling.
• Thank you for your emails to WPA and your comments on Facebook.

WPA Members and Other Homeschoolers,

Please share this information with others. People need to know that following the Home School Legal Defense Association’s (HSLDA’s) counsel is dangerous to individuals and to all homeschoolers. You may understand the importance of filing the form correctly and maintaining our good homeschooling law, but not all homeschoolers do. Tell them and support WPA.

Despite the fact that the homeschooling form PI-1206 has worked well for 27 years, HSLDA is counseling Wisconsin homeschoolers to change their filing in ways that would undoubtedly result in individual families being charged with truancy and in court cases and/or legislation that could lead to greater regulation of homeschooling in Wisconsin.

From: WPA <wpa@homeschooling-wpa.org>

Subject: Form PI-1206: Don't follow national organization's bad advice
To: "WPA" <wpa@homeschooling-wpa.org>
Date: Thursday, September 1, 2011, 12:12 PM

Although the DPI plans to post the 2011-2012 PI-1206 form for homeschoolers on its Web site this coming Monday, August 15, please remember not to file your form until sometime between the third Friday in September (Sept. 16) and Oct. 15 UNLESS your children have been officially enrolled in a public school or a conventional private school for the 2011-2012 school year. If they have been officially enrolled, Wisconsin statutes require that you file the form before you begin homeschooling.

For more information, go to the WPA Web site at http://homeschooling-wpa.org and click on the yellow box that says "Filing the Electronic Form PI-1206."

Please share this information with other homeschoolers you know.

Please share this information with your support group and other homeschoolers you know.

Key Points

• The Wisconsin school census statute requires local public school districts to report each year to the DPI the number of public and private school students, including homeschoolers, in their district. (See Wisconsin statute 120.18 Annual School District Report at http://nxt.legis.state.wi.us/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&d=stats&jd=120.18)

• Homeschoolers refusing to provide information for the report could trigger legislation that would require more information from homeschoolers. Also, responding in the way WPA suggests below is easy and does not give the state any more information than it already has.

• We are writing this now because a national homeschool organization has misinformed homeschoolers about the school census law and advised Wisconsin homeschoolers that they can refuse to provide information for the census.

Understanding homeschooling laws in other states helps us understand why Wisconsin's good homeschooling law is so important and worth working hard to maintain. For example, Minnesota's homeschooling law requires the following:

• Homeschoolers are required to take norm-referenced standardized achievement tests every year. The local school superintendent must agree to the test the parents select.

• Every year all homeschoolers are required to submit a report to the local school district where their child resides. Parents must also submit quarterly reports unless they have a bachelor's degree, or a valid Minnesota teaching license in the field and for the grade level taught, or are being directly supervised by a person holding a valid Minnesota teaching license.

• Because the local superintendent or someone they designate may visit a homeschooling family once a year (or more frequently if there is any evidence that a family is not complying with the law), families need to have available documentation showing that they are complying with the compulsory school attendance law, including "class schedules, copies of materials used for instruction, and descriptions of methods used to assess student achievement."

These requirements are further complicated by the fact that the statutes are subject to interpretation by school districts and homeschoolers. This gives local school officials additional power. As a result, there is some variation in how the statutes are enforced in different parts of the state; requirements are more strict in some districts than in others. This makes interactions with public school officials both more personal and more complex than they are in Wisconsin where we are only required to submit one form, without children's names or birth dates or, for those who choose the "Ungraded" option, grade level. This information is sent to the DPI, so we do not have to be in direct contact with any local school officials, even though they receive a copy of our form from the DPI.

One of the major disadvantages to Minnesota's law (in addition to the required reports and tests) is that the law divides homeschoolers into several groups. Parents who have a bachelor's degree or a valid Minnesota teaching license in the field and for the grade level taught, or are being directly supervised by a person holding a valid Minnesota teaching license face different requirements that those who don't. This disrupts the unity among homeschoolers that is so important to developing and maintaining our strength within a state. (See page 5 of this newsletter.) Unity is weakened even more by the requirement that homeschoolers report to local school districts. Homeschoolers living in a state that has a law that divides them are less likely to see themselves as a united group working together to protect the right of every family to homeschool according to their principles and beliefs.

By contrast, homeschoolers in Wisconsin are not divided by provisions of the Wisconsin homeschooling law. This advantage is not the result of luck or an accident. During the meeting at which WPA was founded on January 6, 1984, homeschoolers carefully, forcefully, and deliberately decided that they would not accept provisions that applied to or were acceptable to some homeschoolers but not to all. As a result of this wise and courageous decision, homeschoolers in Wisconsin have been able to stand united and work together for homeschooling freedoms. This has meant, and continues to mean, that we are in a much stronger position because of our unity.

Who Decides chart #108.pdf