Yes, Virginia, Homeschooling Is Legal In California

Yesterday, Karen Taylor of CHN (the California Homeschool Network, an outstanding statewide support group) posted the following:
 
"We are NOT in the middle of a new legal case, however one very slow journalist is just getting around to reporting the very old in re Rachel news. Can you believe it's actually making the rounds on lists around the country as ‘news,’ and that CHN's 800# has already received a phone call this morning about it? Just goes to show you can't believe everything you read."
 
She added a link to an article by David Gutierrez, posted on Natural News (www.naturalnews.com), and dated September 23. This article reported the news that homeschooling is now illegal in California unless parents are certified teachers.
 
Oh, for the love of Pete.
 
We did this, already.

Back at the end of February, a California appellate court ruled that children had to be taught by legally certified teachers, period. This understandably freaked a lot of people out.

The case was soon vacated, and the court agreed to a rehearing in June. Tons of information about homeschooling, homeschoolers, and how homeschooling has been acknowledged by the educational laws of California was presented.

In August, the court issued its opinion that homeschooling is indeed legal in California, that teachers of private schools are not in fact required to be certified by the state, and that we could all relax and get back to teaching our kids.

All of which flew right by David Gutierrez’ pretty little head, apparently.
 
His article is getting around fast. Creepily, most of the blogs and other sites reprinting it are paranoid-freak-anti-Semitic-racist-jerk-type places; but some of them are sane enough that they really ought to know better.
 
I've contacted half a dozen sites, but this is one slippery hydra. Life is short; I don't have time to keep repeating myself.
 
Please blog, post, and email about this yourself, and either link to this posting or feel free to quote huge chunks of it. At this point, I don't much care about author credit (although it's always nice to be acknowledged). All I want is for the truth to be out there.
 
Here is a timeline of what really happened in California, with links to reputable sites and appropriate articles.
 
Initial ruling, Feb. 28, 2008 -- "Parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children":
 
http://www.dailycasereport.com/index.php?q=adv_sheet_by_case/3229

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/06/BAJDVF0F1.DTL&tsp=1

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080307/news_1n7school.html

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1720697,00.html?imw=Y

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-03-09-home-schooling_N.htm

March 25: "On March 25, the California Court of Appeal granted a motion for rehearing in the 'In re Rachel L.' case... The automatic effect of granting this motion is that the prior opinion is vacated and is no longer binding on any one, including the parties in the case."
 
http://www.tiprr.com/blog/?cat=9

June 23:  State appeals court meets to reconsider ruling:
 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/23/BAC211CNBV.DTL

http://www.tiprr.com/blog/?p=125

August 8: Ruling overturned:
 
http://www.californiahomeschool.net/howTo/updates.htm

(this page has a link to the complete text of the in re rachel court opinion)
 
Spread the word, okay?