But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as EAGLES they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint… Isaiah 40:31.

           

             

LEgal Aspect

Negotiations With School Administration:
Where Do We Draw the Line?

4) Youth Protection Services Intervention

Just imagine....

Conscientious parents, an eight-year-old child, home schooling from the beginning, an anonymous tip to Youth Protection Services (YPS)... A neighbour? A relative? A store clerk? Maybe the librarian? They will never know...

Or again...

Worried parents over what their 14-year-old son is subjected to in school: socially (frequent physical and verbal aggressions) as well as academically (learning difficulties directly related to the aggressions). Withdrawal from school. Threats from the school board. Meeting with the mother to evaluate her capacity to teach her son. Report to Youth Protection Services... by the school board.

These are typical situations of what has gone on in Québec over the past two or three years regarding home schooling. This can be intimidating, right? For many social workers, the security and development of a home schooled child are compromised if they are not in school with their peers. This could happen to anybody because Article 18 of the Education Act states:

The principal shall ascertain, in the manner determined by the school board, that students attend school regularly.

Where a student is repeatedly absent without a valid excuse, the principal or the person designated by him shall intervene with the student and his parents to come to an agreement with them and with the persons providing the school social services with respect to the most appropriate measures to remedy the situation.

When the intervention does not allow the situation to be remedied, the principal, after notifying the parents of the student in writing, shall report it to the director of youth protection.

Since home education is a relatively new phenomenon in Québec, school administrators do not always distinguish between truancy and home education as provided for in Article 15(4):

The following students are exempt from compulsory school attendance:

A student who is provided at home, instruction and a learning experience, which, according to an evaluation made by or for the school board, are equivalent to what is provided at school.

Article 18, dealing with repeated and non justified absences from school, has nothing to do with Article 15(4) giving parents the right to home school. Confusion between these two articles often brings on YPS intervention in what should strictly be an educational matter.

Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada (www.hslda.ca) suggests the following steps be taken should there by any type of contact with social workers from Youth Protection Services.

• Always get the business card of the social worker, which should have the social worker’s phone and fax numbers. This way, when you call HSLDA will be able to contact the social worker on your behalf. If the situation is hostile, immediately call HSDLA. There is an emergency number where a lawyer can be reached.

• Find out the allegations. Do not fall for the frequently used tactic of the social worker who would tell the unsuspecting victim that they can only give you the allegations after they have come into your home and spoken to your child separately. You generally have the right to know the allegations without allowing them in your house.

• Never let the social worker in your house without a warrant or court order. All the cases that you have heard about where children are snatched from the home usually involve families waiving their constitutional rights to be free from such searches and seizures by agreeing to allow the social worker to come inside the home.

• Never let the social worker talk to your children alone without a warrant or a court order. On a few occasions, social workers have been allowed to talk with children, particularly where severe allegations are involved or where the court has authorized the social worker.

• Tell the official that you will call back after you speak with your lawyer. Call HSLDA, if you are a member. In many cases in Canada (mostly Québec and Ontario), HSLDA has been able to end the investigation by forcing the social worker to come up with the legal authority on which they are basing their investigation.

• Ignore intimidations. Social workers are trained to bluff. They will routinely threaten to acquire a court order, knowing full well that there is no evidence on which to secure an order.

Statistics in the U.S. show that up to 60% of children removed from homes, upon later review, should never have been removed! There is no reason to believe that Canada is any different.

Having said all this does not mean that there is no role for social workers. There is genuine child abuse in Canada and social workers have a very difficult job. However, every allegation does not mean there is abuse. We must recognize that social workers oftentimes overstep their boundaries in their investigative techniques. In protecting home schoolers’ freedom and the integrity of the family unit, HSLDA forces social workers to conduct themselves in accordance with sound legislative and constitutional principles.

Curious to know what happened to the very real cases previously described?

The first was nipped in the bud following a written communication from HSDLA on behalf of the parents. The second was taken to court by YPS. HSLDA won the case, the judge declaring that neither the security nor the development of the child was compromised because he did not attend school.

It is to be hoped that you now feel well-equipped to handle any negotiations you may have to face with your local school, the school board or even Youth Protection Services. We would like to thank HSLDA of Canada for the information provided, as well as those families who shared with us their experiences. Fortunately, they were also members of HSDLA who, in turn, were able to protect the parents’ constitutional right to home educate their children.

THE END 

For other information on this topic :

ACPEQ’S position

See also :

Excerpts from Previous “Communiqués”

Curriculum Constraints in Québec: The Strangling of Religious Freedom

MELS Representation

What the Law Says... and What It Doesn't !

Two Concepts and Two Perspectives: School at Home vs Homeschooling