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.
Key Points
Number 1: HSLDA incorrectly states, “The penalty for failure to file the form is not that your children are truant.” (From “Don’t Trust the DPI Website!” posted on the HSLDA Web site on September 6, 2011. http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/wi/201109060.asp) In fact, homeschoolers need to file the form to report enrollment and establish that their children are attending a homeschool and are therefore in compliance with the compulsory school attendance law or they will be considered truant. See below for details.
Number 2: HSLDA incorrectly states, “If you begin homeschooling after the ‘3rd Friday in September,’ you do not need to file [a PI-1206 form] for that year at all.” (From “Don’t Trust the DPI Website!” posted on the HSLDA Web site on September 6, 2011.) Actually, homeschooling families who don’t file the form violate the law and their children are truant. See below for details.
Number 3: HSLDA counsels families to file a paper version of the form that does not include their children’s genders, their school district of residence, and their street address if different from their mailing address. However, homeschoolers who file a paper form draw attention to themselves and risk being red-flagged. The information requested on the form is the minimum gathered from all students – public and private, including homeschoolers – in Wisconsin. The DPI has returned incomplete forms in the past, which puts families who submit them at risk of being charged with truancy until the DPI has received their completed form. See below for details.
Number 4: If families follow HSLDA’s counsel, there undoubtedly will be court cases and/or new homeschooling legislation introduced, either of which are likely to lead to greater state regulation of Wisconsin homeschoolers. Homeschoolers have worked through WPA since 1984 to get and maintain our law. We have one of the least intrusive and most reasonable homeschooling laws in the nation. It behooves us to work with it. Fighting against a reasonable law invites the possibility of a more restrictive law. What we have works extremely well and is easy to comply with. See below for details.
Number 5: This incorrect information is coming from outside agitators, that is, from a national homeschooling organization not based in Wisconsin. According to the HSLDA Web site, Scott Woodruff, the HSLDA attorney responsible for Wisconsin, is not licensed to practice law in Wisconsin, does not live in Wisconsin, has no known attachment to Wisconsin, and, like other HSDLA staff members, does not live under Wisconsin laws.
Details to support the statements above:
Number 1: HSLDA incorrectly states, “The penalty for failure to file the form is not that your children are truant.” However, truancy violations are based on the compulsory school attendance law. To comply with this law, parents are required to enroll their children in a public or private school (including a homeschool). Children who are not enrolled are considered truant (as are children who are enrolled but do not attend school). Homeschoolers report enrollment on forms submitted to the DPI, which forwards the information to their local school district. Therefore, homeschoolers who have not filed a completed form can be charged with truancy. Homeschools along with other private schools have until October 15th of each school year to file their forms. (However, if new homeschoolers have been enrolled in a public or conventional private school, their families need to report their enrollment by filing a form before they begin homeschooling.)
Note: Since 1984, WPA has repeatedly cautioned homeschoolers about trusting information from the DPI, whether oral, in writing, or, more recently, on the DPI Web site. Just one example: http://homeschooling-wpa.org/getting-started/#file.
Number 2: HSLDA incorrectly states, “If you begin homeschooling after the ‘3rd Friday in September,’ you do not need to file [a PI-1206 form] for that year at all.” However, to be in compliance with the compulsory school attendance law, parents who withdraw their children from one school need to then enroll them in another. When children who are not going to be homeschooled are withdrawn from a conventional school because their family is moving to another school district or they want to switch to a different school, their new school contacts their former school to request that the former school send them the children’s records. In this way, the former school knows that the children are continuing to attend school. Similarly, when a family withdraws their children from a conventional public or private school to begin homeschooling and files their PI-1206 form with the DPI, the former school knows the children are continuing to attend school, in this case, a homeschool. If, at any time of the year (either before or after the third Friday in September), a family begins homeschooling children who have been enrolled in a conventional school but the family does not file a form, their former school does not have any way of knowing that they are enrolled in a new school, and they can be charged with truancy.
Number 3: HSLDA counsels families to file a paper version of the form that does not include their children’s genders, their school district of residence, and/or their street address if different from their mailing address. “HSLDA will continue to make available to our members a paper version of [form PI-1206]. You may scratch out ‘male-female’ on the paper form. You may leave the box ‘school district of residence’ blank if you wish. You may leave ‘street address’ blank if you only wish to enter a mailing address.” (From “Freedom at Stake in ‘Mandatory’ Online Filing,” posted on the HSLDA Web site August 29, 2011. http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/wi/201108290.asp)
Important note: Since last August, homeschoolers have been able to file a form online with only a mailing address and no street address and without checking the box that says "Street address is the same as mailing address."
However, the DPI will not accept paper forms. They say that budget cuts have forced them to adopt the more efficient, less costly online version. They are aware that some religious groups like the Amish are opposed to the use of computers. However, conventional Amish private schools and homeschools file their forms online by asking non-Amish friends or a public library for help. The DPI asks that other homeschoolers who do not use computers for any reason do the same.
In addition, families who file paper forms bring extra attention to themselves. Instead of being just part of a list of homeschoolers, their information is handled individually by a DPI staffer. It may be red-flagged.
HSLDA suggests that homeschoolers file paper forms because they can be filed without providing children’s genders, the school district of residence, and families’ street addresses if different from their mailing address. (To file a form online, you have to provide all the information designated as “required.”) Therefore, the real question is, does the DPI have a legitimate basis for requiring gender and school district of residence from homeschoolers? The short answer is yes, based on a full understanding of the law. First, as even HSLDA admits, PI-1206 forms are “mandatory.” Exactly what information needs to be provided on the form is not spelled out in the statutes. This is because few statutes contain that kind of detail. Usually such details are worked out through administrative rules and regulations promulgated by the executive department responsible for the area covered by the statute or, often, through commonly accepted practice.
Because the law includes statutes, administrative rules and regulations based on statutes, and commonly accepted practices, people need to comply with more than the specific language of the statutes to comply with the law. For many years, it has been commonly accepted practice for public and conventional private schools to report to the DPI the number of students enrolled by grade level and gender so the district can plan for future building needs. Since 1984, it has been commonly accepted practice for homeschoolers to report their children’s genders on their PI-1206 forms. Because this approach has not caused problems in the past, and it meets other reasonable legal requirements, and because it is generally unwise to change systems that have been working well for many years, it would be unwise for homeschoolers to refuse to report their children’s genders.
Since the statutes require that public and private schools including homeschools submit reports that can be used to plan for school districts’ building needs (see WI Stat 115.30[3] http://docs.legis.wi.gov/statutes/statutes/115/II/30/3), homeschoolers are required to provide their school district of residence on their forms so the information goes to the correct district. Therefore, in an indirect and rather complicated way, the law requires that homeschoolers provide their school district of residence. (The same information is required on the Wisconsin state income tax form.)
An attempt to challenge the legality of the DPI’s requiring that homeschoolers provide gender and school district through either the courts or the Wisconsin Legislature would be unwise. It is virtually certain to be unsuccessful. What judge or legislator is likely to say that homeschoolers need not provide this information, especially when it is required of all other students in Wisconsin and has a basis in Wisconsin law? Worse, such a challenge could lead to court decisions and/or legislation that increases state regulation of homeschooling.
It should be noted that in 1984, homeschoolers worked very hard through WPA to insure that homeschools did not have to provide additional information such as children’s names, birthdates, social security numbers, etc. We have worked very hard since then to maintain this. In fact, we have more flexibility than other private schools because we can list our children as “Ungraded 1-8” or “Ungraded 9-12.”
In addition, many families use copies of their PI-1206 forms to meet various requirements when applying to colleges and technical schools, joining the military, and in other situations.
For all these reasons, counseling homeschoolers not to file a completed form before beginning homeschooling or to file an incomplete or unacceptable version of the form is irresponsible.
Number 4: If families follow HSLDA’s counsel, there undoubtedly will be court cases and/or new homeschooling legislation introduced. As shown above, if homeschoolers do not file a completed form at the proper time, their truancy cases may be taken to court, where homeschoolers often lose. In addition, if very many homeschoolers do this, some legislators, the DPI, concerned relatives, and/or someone else is likely to press for new homeschooling legislation to give the state greater control over these irresponsible homeschoolers and all other homeschoolers as well.
Therefore, it is vey important not to follow HSLDA’s counsel, to share this information with other homeschoolers, and to support WPA.
Thank you,
The WPA Board
Wisconsin Parents Association
Post Office Box 2502
Madison WI 53701-2502
Voice Mail 608.283.3131
http://homeschooling-wpa.org/
Post Office Box 2502
Madison WI 53701-2502
Voice Mail 608.283.3131
http://homeschooling-wpa.org/
Comments