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Mary G
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| Posted: July 16 2008 at 8:18pm | IP Logged
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Here in Virginia, we can homeschool under the "religious exemption statute" we can:
Quote:
Option II: Religious Exemption Statute. “A school board shall excuse from attendance at school any pupil who, together with his parents, by reason of bona fide religious training or belief is conscientiously opposed to attendance at school.”
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Here's a great quote I saw today (and linked on my blog):
Quote:
If one yields ground on any single point of Catholic doctrine, one will later have to yield later in another, and again in another, and so on until such surrenders come to be something normal and acceptable. And when one gets used to rejecting dogma bit by bit, the final result will be the repudiation of it altogether.
– St. Vincent of Lerins
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Sounds like a great reason for NOT attending public school, doesn't it? 
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: July 16 2008 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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It sure does! It's important to note that the Religious Exemption provision only refers to attendance at a public school. So, you can have some of your children at home and some enrolled at a school that is not contrary to your faith (like a Catholic school) and still homeschool under this statute.It's none of the county's business whether the Catholic school measures up to your bona fide religious training or belief.
The interesting thing to me about the St. Vincent of Lerins quote is that it really holds you to a stricter standard than the homeschool provision does. If you take St. Vincent to heart, there are a whole lot of Catholic schools you'd have to disqualify as well. When you find an authentically Catholic school (and they do exist), you've found a rare gem.
What a blessing it is when we are able to be certain that we aren't yielding any ground at all ...
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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RamFam
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| Posted: July 16 2008 at 9:37pm | IP Logged
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I thought about using the religious exemption, but was overwhelmed by many things found here
such as
Quote:
"You may wish to consult an attorney before filing for a religious exemption."
and
"The local school board may recognize or decline to recognize a claim of religious exemption from the compulsory school attendance requirements. In the opinion of VaHomeschoolers, school boards have the right and legal obligation to reasonably (not excessively) scrutinize religious exemption claims to ensure they meet the criteria in law. Local school board reaction varies; some scrutinize claims, while some do not. Some school divisions have formal written policies on religious exemption claims in their policy manual.
Individual school boards determine whether or not family members must testify before the board prior to receiving a religious exemption. Be prepared, in case you are required to do this."
and
"A religious exemption may limit your family's future educational options. Once granted, a religious exemption is intended to apply to all the excused children for the duration of their school attendance years. This could be problematic in the future if you ever wish to send one child to public school while continuing to homeschool your other children. This could also be problematic if one of your children needs special education programs or services through the public schools, or wishes to participate in public school classes, programs, or extracurricular activities. If you can imagine a time in the future when your family might need or want public school services for any reason, then the religious exemption may not be the right choice for you." |
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Does anyone use this option? Is it any easier than this seems to claim? Why do you or don't you use this option versus any other?
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Leah
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Tom ^i^, Kyle (my Marine), Adeline '00, Wyatt '05, Isaac '07 Philip '08,Michael '10, and John Xavier Feb '13
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Rachel May
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| Posted: July 17 2008 at 10:13am | IP Logged
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I don't use the religious exemption since it is not the reason why I homeschool, and I could just send in a copy of my diploma. 
ETA: This came off as kind of abrupt, sorry! Mary, the quote has been lovely food for thought, mostly in the form of "should I consider a religious exemption as a form of stating what I think about the current school system or is it just yelling down a well?"
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Rachel
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Lara Sauer
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I don't choose to use the religious exemption either, for similar reasons to Rachel. I have never found Virginia's filing requirements to be in the least onerous. We simply submit my degree from college, the book list we are using for the next school year, and at the end of the year, we submit test results from the CAT 5 test which we obtain every year from the Family Learning Organization.
Peace.
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You can take the girl out of Wisconsin, but you can't take the Wisconsin out of the girl!
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teachingmyown
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We have Religious Exemption. It is the primary reason I homeschool. I also do not feel the government has a right to require information about our curriculum or test scores.
In our county, we just submitted a letter along with letters from two friends and one from our pastor. Our letter named each child for whom I was seeking exemption.I mailed it in to the school board and got a letter acknowledging it.
Homeschooling is so easy in VA, anyway, that I don't think it matters a great deal either way.
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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RamFam
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| Posted: July 17 2008 at 11:25am | IP Logged
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teachingmyown wrote:
| I also do not feel the government has a right to require information about our curriculum or test scores. |
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This is kinda what I think. Hmmm... I have this year taken care of but this is all food for thought for next year.
Now back to Mary G's originally planned thread.(Sorry.)
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Leah
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Tom ^i^, Kyle (my Marine), Adeline '00, Wyatt '05, Isaac '07 Philip '08,Michael '10, and John Xavier Feb '13
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: July 21 2008 at 7:15am | IP Logged
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teachingmyown wrote:
| We have Religious Exemption. It is the primary reason I homeschool. I also do not feel the government has a right to require information about our curriculum or test scores. |
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I agree with Molly, here. Furthermore, I would prefer to spend the money I would have to spend on testing or paying an evaluator for all my children every year on enriching our learning environment.(This year, CAT testing at Seton would have cost me $150--and that's the least expensive and, in my opinion, least informative, test.) Instead of tests, I buy books. That doesn't mean I never test. It means I test as needed, on our children's timetable. Why would I want the same gorvernment that is teaching to the SOLs and instituting "Family Life Education" to have authority over approving my curriculum or deciding whether my children have made adequate progress?
I used to think that my faith wasn't why I am homeschool. But now I see that it is. I take seriously my role as a primary educator of my children--both in terms of minds and souls.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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insegnante
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Elizabeth wrote:
I used to think that my faith wasn't why I am homeschool. But now I see that it is. I take seriously my role as a primary educator of my children--both in terms of minds and souls. |
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Finally someone sums up what I'm always rambling about and deleting before posting in threads like this! Except maybe for the first line, because I'm not sure I ever thought that our reasons for homeschooling weren't "religious" ones just because I didn't think the Church required us to, or anything like that. All of our decisions about how we raise our children and other important things in our lives are, or should be, grounded in principles derived from our Faith, right?
I would love to use the religious exemption but am also intimidated by the narrower interpretations. The statute doesn't make clear to me that only objection to attendance at public school is meant. And while my objection to our children attending public school, especially here and now, is very, very strong, I know the Church doesn't specifically forbid it, and obviously doesn't forbid attendance at Catholic school. "For purposes of this subdivision, 'bona fide religious training or belief' does not include essentially political, sociological or philosophical views or a merely personal moral code." -- Virginia statute §22.1-254 (B)(1) quoted at http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/guide/religious_exemption.asp
I have this "who are they to judge?" reaction to that. I likely won't describe this well, but I can't figure out why, if it's not essential for the well-being of some people's children and society for the government to keep tabs on their education as long as their parents have certain "religious" beliefs, it would be essential for them to nose into other people's lives that way, because they had what was judged only "philosophical" or "personal moral" opposition to school attendance.
Despite all that, since the filing requirements aren't that burdensome, and they do seem to leave people pretty much alone around here, we just went ahead last year and filed a notice of intent with a description of curriculum and what appeared to be sufficient evidence for them that we are able to provide an adequate education for our child. This year at least I plan to do the same.
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Eleanor
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I'm coming in a little late here, but just wanted to put forward something that hasn't been mentioned.
The idea that "our curriculum is none of the government's business" is an appealing one, but it seems to derive more from American culture (with its strong history of Protestant individualism) than from Catholic teaching. In fact, papal encyclicals have said repeatedly that the state does have a legitimate authority in this area. For instance, from Pius XI's 1929 encyclical, Divini Illius Magistri (emphasis added):
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44. Accordingly in the matter of education, it is the right, or to speak more correctly, it is the duty of the State to protect in its legislation, the prior rights, already described, of the family as regards the Christian education of its offspring, and consequently also to respect the supernatural rights of the Church in this same realm of Christian education.
45. It also belongs to the State to protect the rights of the child itself when the parents are found wanting either physically or morally in this respect, whether by default, incapacity or misconduct, since, as has been shown, their right to educate is not an absolute and despotic one, but dependent on the natural and divine law, and therefore subject alike to the authority and jurisdiction of the Church, and to the vigilance and administrative care of the State in view of the common good. Besides, the family is not a perfect society, that is, it has not in itself all the means necessary for its full development. In such cases, exceptional no doubt, the State does not put itself in the place of the family, but merely supplies deficiencies, and provides suitable means, always in conformity with the natural rights of the child and the supernatural rights of the Church.
46. In general then it is the right and duty of the State to protect, according to the rules of right reason and faith, the moral and religious education of youth, by removing public impediments that stand in the way. In the first place it pertains to the State, in view of the common good, to promote in various ways the education and instruction of youth. It should begin by encouraging and assisting, of its own accord, the initiative and activity of the Church and the family, whose successes in this field have been clearly demonstrated by history and experience. It should moreover supplement their work whenever this falls short of what is necessary, even by means of its own schools and institutions. For the State more than any other society is provided with the means put at its disposal for the needs of all, and it is only right that it use these means to the advantage of those who have contributed them.[32]
47. Over and above this, the State can exact and take measures to secure that all its citizens have the necessary knowledge of their civic and political duties, and a certain degree of physical, intellectual and moral culture, which, considering the conditions of our times, is really necessary for the common good.
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From this perspective, it would appear that Catholic families are obligated to follow the government's established procedures for reporting, testing, etc., unless they're requiring something that's either immoral or intolerably burdensome. (Even if the state is doing immoral things in other respects, we're still expected to obey when it exercises its legitimate jurisdiction: "Render therefore to Caesar," etc.)
I should add that I'm not familiar with the details of the requirements in VA. The recent court case aside, we're still "California casual" over here.
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Topic: Religious Exemption
