Quite simply, there aren't any.
As a new homeshcooler in the state, I originally found this quite confusing, as do many who choose to educate their children at home. Quickly one will discover that all homeschooled children must be registered with a "church school" in order to be excluded from Alabama's compulsory attendance law. What a "church school" is, however, and how one is established, is extremely loosely defined in Alabama law, as including "only such schools as offer instruction in grades K-12, or any combination thereof including the kindergarten, elementary, or secondary level and are operated as a ministry of a local church, group of churches, denomination, and/or association of churches on a nonprofit basis which do not receive any state or federal funding."
The common language used among homeschoolers in the state to refer to a church school is a "cover school" or an "umbrella school". Basically a school is established under the affiliation of a church or group of churches, some having little if anything to do with the actual process of education. Since there are no laws regulating how a church must operate its church school, they can deem that a parent is a teacher and that their home is the place of instruction. It's as simple as that.
And it really IS as simple as that. I am a Jew, and being unable to find a "church school" affiliated with a synagogue, I decided I would create my own. When I finally determined that there is no legal process for defining a "church school", I met with the board of my synagogue and proposed the formation of a "church school", which to my knowledge is the first and only Jewish church school in the state of Alabama.
Of course many non-Christian and secular homeschoolers still do register under Christian cover schools, and many churches provide legal cover for homeschooling children regardless of the parents' religious ideology or lack therof.
Initially I found it unfortunate that a parent who chooses to exercise their freedom to educate their own child must affiliate with a church in order to do so. Certainly people have many non-religious ideological reasons for homeschooling their children. I have heard some parents argue that the state should pass specific homeschooling laws that can hence include all citizens, independent of the need to affiliate with a "church school."
In theory, I might agree, but in practice, I think perhaps not. Such laws would inevitably lead to additional regulation and state oversight over homeschooling. The "church school" exemption, though initially it might be dismissed as a Bible Belt relic, preserves liberty by protecting free education as part of our First Amendment rights. Freedom of Religion includes more than our spiritual freedom, but our freedom of how we choose to think and lead our personal lives. By leaving the "church school" exemption alone, Alabamians are empowered to educate their children without interference from the state.
Those who would argue for increased government oversight over private education would point out that there are many parents who are ill-equipped to educate their children. I would argue that it has been my experience that there are many government-approved educators who are ill-equipped to educate my children. I would further argue that there are also parents ill-equipped to nurture their children, but nonetheless as a society we have determined that we value individual liberty enough to entrust parents with their own children unless and until there is evidence that suggests that the parent is failing in their moral responsibility to provide for the physical and emotional needs of their children. So should it be with the responsibility of their children's intellectual needs.
For the full text of the State of Alabama Education Code, visit http://www.legislature.state.al.us/CodeofAlabama/1975/128393.htm
I just moved to Alabama and learned of the church cover schools, but I had not read the law. As we're a military family and attend church on post, does the law exempt military churches from being able to become cover schools because they do get federal funding?
ReplyDelete