Rachel L. a significant California homeschooling decision that makes it illegal to homeschool in the state without being a certified teacher, will go before the California Court of Appeals for a rehearing.  Homeschool Legal Defense Chairman, Mike Farris will close out the arguments before the hearing.  This is a critical time for homeschoolers throughout California and I encourage you to support the Homeschool Legal Defense Association throughout this time.    Mike Farris has worked diligently to get this decision overturned, providing much of the legwork that has led to this rehearing.  If you are not a member of the HSLDA, you should visit their website, find out more about their services, and consider joining.  It truly is a minimal amount for the amount of legal protection they provide.

If you are a  homeschooling family, you need the legal protection that is available through the HSLDA.  You can visit them at http://www.hslda.org

Though the HSLDA is a Christian organization, other religions may be members.  However, they do not accept memberships from same sex couples due to the fact that they work adamantly to protect marriage between males and females.

Had you heard about the Subway/Homeschooling conflict? Well, Subway had started a writing contest for school age children, yet they had specifically excluded homeschooled children from participating. As you can imagine, this did not go over very well with the countless homeschooling families who felt discriminated against. Homeschooling families everywhere petitioned and let Subway know that these actions were unacceptable and the HSLDA sent a letter. Here it is:

Subway Apologizes

HSLDA is pleased to pass along the following apology from Subway restaurants.

To HSLDA:

We at SUBWAY restaurants place a high value on education, regardless of the setting, and have initiated a number of programs and promotions aimed at educating our youth in the areas of health and fitness.

We sincerely apologize to anyone who feels excluded by our current essay contest. Our intention was to provide an opportunity for traditional schools, many of which we know have trouble affording athletic equipment, to win equipment. Our intent was certainly not to exclude homeschooled children from the opportunity to win prizes and benefit from better access to fitness equipment.

To address the inadvertent limitation of our current contest and provide an opportunity for even more kids to improve their fitness, we will soon create an additional contest in which homeschooled students will be encouraged to participate. When the kids win, everyone wins!

—Subway restaurants

So homeschoolers everywhere can wait patiently for the new homeschool contest!

Every homeschooler must be aware of the fact that the state governs your homeschool program-even if you choose to homeschool through a satellite program, you are still accountable to the state. Though it’s true that some states have more lenient or homeschool friendly laws than other states, it is important to know what your homeschool state laws are and abide by them.

This is why I highly recommend joining the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. At anytime, your homeschool state laws may change and you may find yourself being told that you are no longer homeschooling your children legally (this just happened in California). The Homeschool Legal Defense Association will serve your needs, as well as help keep homeschoolers across the world united and informed. By working with the Homeschool Legal Defense Association you can rest assured that should the homeschool state laws begin to change and affect you, your voice will be heard and your point of view will be represented.