BISD THREATENS PARENTS AND STUDENTS WITH LEGAL ACTION FOR NON-ATTENDANCE

The Brownsville Independent School District took out an ad in Sunday's Brownsville Herald threatening parents and students with legal action if they do not meet attendance requirements.

BISD officials are likely worried as one of their own polls with responses from 11,000 parents indicated fewer than 50% favor in-class education during whatever remains of this pandemic.

Certainly, the district's motivation is based on genuine concern for the student education, but, also factored in is the huge amount of turnback funds, well over $500,000,000 annually, based on student days, that is number of students multiplied by the full class days they attend.

ATTENDANCE=MONEY

The ad is titled "A PARENT'S QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE TO STUDENT ATTENDANCE FOR 2021-2022."

One section deals with truancy, a situation the ad says occurs if "a student is absent 10 or more days or parts of days within a six month period in the same school year."

"The parent may be subject to criminal prosecution," the ad continues, and "a conference between school officials and a parent to discuss excessive absences will be required.

A student who violates compulsory attendance laws may be subject to truancy court by the process of referral where court costs, community service and other remedial orders may be assigned."

BISD has mentioned three viable education options with two of those options only in the planning stages.

In-class education with each student given 45 square feet of space is said to be currently available.

Something called "hybrid learning," along with remote learning, may also be offered if the State of Texas agrees to credit BISD with student attendance days for such programs.

There is another viable option:  home schooling.

The State of Texas if very "home schooling friendly" and the Texas Homeschool Coalition (https://thsc.org/) website is a comprehensive information source for parents wanting to learn more.

School officials or social workers may tell you differently, but homeschooling is legal in Texas.

Here is the legal information:

On June 15, 1994, after a nine-year court battle, the Texas Supreme Court in TEA v. Leeper issued a 9-0 decision guaranteeing the right of Texas parents to teach their children at home without fear of prosecution.

The court held that homeschools are exempt from compulsory attendance because they are considered a type of private school. The compulsory attendance statute is currently found in Section 25.085 of the Education Code. In accordance with the Leeper decision, homeschools are exempt from the compulsory attendance statute because they are considered a type of private school under Section 25.086(a)(1) of the Texas Education Code.

According to the Leeper case, the only legal requirements to homeschool in Texas are:

• The instruction must be bona fide (i.e., not a sham).
• The curriculum must be in visual form (e.g., books, workbooks, video monitor).
• The curriculum must include the five basic subjects of reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and good citizenship.
  • Good citizenship is similar to civics. Public schools teach one semester of civics, usually in the senior year of high school. Teaching U.S. and Texas history, government (theoretical and practical), the Pledge of Allegiance, and similar activities will also help meet this requirement. THSC provides several ways to help you meet this requirement (see resource box below).

There is no need to register or in any way contact the local school or the state government prior to homeschooling, unless your student is currently in public school (see rules for withdrawal from public school).

If your child has never been enrolled in public school, simply obtain curriculum and begin. It is also to your advantage to find a local support group to help you in this endeavor. For more help on how to get started in your homeschool (including resources by grade), visit HomeEducator.com.