This post briefly reviews Brian D. Schwartz, The Law of Homeschooling (Dayton: Education Law Assn., 2008) [ordering info here]
Let me begin by saying that I have not read this book. When I was writing the legal chapter in my own book on homeschooling I looked at the older edition of this text (published in 1994) and wasn’t very impressed. Back then the best book on homeschool law was far and away Rutherford Institute founder John W. Whitehead’s Home Education: Rights and Reasons.
This new edition is only 74 pages and costs $35. I didn’t want to spend that, so I’m relying here on a good review of the book by Theresa Willingham, published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of School Choice. [unfortunately unavailable online]
Willingham finds the monograph “readable and fairly informative,” useful perhaps as a general reference guide. It begins with standard introductory information about homeschooling and a brief historical orientation to important court cases. Subsequent chapters deal with the state statues and regulations, with public school/homeschool relations, and with special education.
Willingham finds the information compiled here “for the most part accurate,” though when she examines the details more closely, she finds errors. For example, the book states that Florida requires homeschoolers to “attend homeschool regularly.” Willingham cites the Florida Dept. of Education’s own FAQs on their website, which state that “there are no specific hourly attendance requirements for students in a home education program.”
She gives a few other examples of minor discrepancies between actual state law and what the book presents. Whence these minor discrepancies? Well, if you look at the endnotes in the book you find that much of the legal information Schwartz has compiled was lifted right off of the Home School Legal Defense Association’s website. Willingham moralizes,
It’s disconcerting that the author relied on, and accepted as accurate, information found on another law firm’s Web site in a book ostensibly designed to provide ‘detailed information’… [the book should] have been developed via firsthand knowledge and research based on primary resources like state departments of education Web sites instead of from unverified third-party Web sites.
Now it’s clear why I didn’t bother buying this book. Why pay for information you can get free on HSLDA’s website? If you want a more accurate summary of state statutues than that provided by HSLDA, Robert Kunzman has a terriffic resource, also free, available here. He did what Willingham recommends–carefully poring over every state law himself rather than simply reproducing what others had done before.
A second, fully revised edition of my 2008 book Homeschool: An American History, was published in March of 2017. 
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Homeschooling Research Notes 
umm, You’d think that Kunzman (being based at IU) would have Indiana’s laws correct.
But he states that Indiana has “minimum instruction time” requirements.
If he means hours per day – he’s wrong.
If he means from ages 7 to 17 – okay, but that’s not what that phrase means to me.
Meg,
I emailed Dr. Kunzman about this and here’s what he said:
” ‘Minimum Instruction Time’ for Indiana refers to the number of school days required, and is found in IC 20-33-2-5:
IC 20-33-2-5
Days of attendance
Sec. 5. A student for whom education is compulsory under this chapter shall attend school each year for the number of days public schools are in session:
(1) in the school corporation in which the student is enrolled in Indiana; or
(2) where the student is enrolled if the student is enrolled outside Indiana.
Chapter 2 goes on to specify that nonpublic schools (which includes homeschools–Indiana does not have separate homeschooling statutes) must keep attendance records and provide “instruction equivalent to that given in public schools.”
While there’s ongoing disagreement about whether or not Indiana homeschoolers are automatically required to “enroll” (register) with the state, I’m not aware of any clashing interpretations of the minimum days requirement.”
I’m happy to make it available to anyone who’d like a copy. I actually blogged my general comments about the book (from which I developed the review article): http://learningis4everyone.blogspot.com/
I appreciate the effort behind Dr. Kunzman’s chart, although the nature of the statutory beast, especially when yoked to attempts at interpretation, is that it’s just really hard for anyone to create a completely reliable look of home ed laws nationwide, both because of the often changing nature of the laws and because nuances are best be known by those in the relevant states.
Sadly, Dr. Kunzman is in error with Florida’s law as well, on two points:
We are NOT required to keep attendance records (an error made by Schwartz, as well), by virtue of statutory exemption, no less; and
We are NOT required to keep “curriculum records,” but rather a portfolio selection of our choosing, of student work.
So, once again, efforts at corralling national data — even recorded, well documented data — continue to produce misleading or incomplete information. Not that the efforts aren’t laudable and worth trying; just that they need some rethinking, I think.
ah, no there isn’t any disagreement about the number of days, but I just took the wording he used differently.
So many people seem to be under the impression that there is a minimum number of hours that they need before counting it as a day of school, that I just jumped to that conclusion.
Thank you for clearing it up for me.
I also appreciate the work Robert Kunzman did. I wouldn’t say it was more detailed than HSLDA’s state by state analysis, but it is laid out in a nice comparative format that makes it easy to read.
He has an error for Nevada also: We do not require annual notification. A re-notification is only required if the child moves or changes his/her name. (Yes, footnote 7 applies to any notification that does get sent in.) Nevada is a one-time notification state for many of us, since we don’t move around.
My thanks to contributors pointing out two errors in the homeschool state regulations chart available on my website.
Theresa Willingham notes that Florida does not require attendance records to be kept; this was simply an error on my part. But I will quibble with her contention that “curriculum records” are not required, as Florida statute 1002.41(1)(b)1 specifies that records shall include “a log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used.” As I read it, this means more than just samples of student work (especially since the stipulation that follows this one refers specifically to student work samples).
Frank Schnorbus points out that homeschoolers in Nevada need to provide notification only once, unless they move or change names. This was a 2007 change to the regulations (SB 404), something I should have caught when I was gathering data during that year.
I welcome any other readers to provide additional corrections and/or updates. Thanks also to Milton Gaither for providing a great resource for homeschool research and forum for discussion.
Ron states, “…Florida statute 1002.41(1)(b)1 specifies that records shall include “a log of educational activities that is made contemporaneously with the instruction and that designates by title any reading materials used.” As I read it, this means more than just samples of student work (especially since the stipulation that follows this one refers specifically to student work samples).”
As you read it has little to nothing to do with how the state of Florida reads, interprets or carries out its own laws. The fact is that a “log” is just that – a log, and most people supply a simple list, or throw a Day Runner in the portfolio. And designating by title reading materials, is just that as well — a list of titles.
The phrase “student work samples” is completely open to interpretation, and families vary in the extent of samples they include, without challenge by the state. Although challenges can and have taken other forms, the fact remains that everyone is free to choose what they keep in portfolios and “curriculum records” are not stipulated.
Again, this isn’t meant to cast aspersion on your work, only to point out how difficult, and potentially misleading, it is to summarize or extrapolate from state laws without an understanding of the homeschool culture in each state.