By Carolyn Martin (CHEC Director of Government Relations)

School Districts Overstepping

School districts across the state continue to ask for information not required by the homeschool law. It’s important not to give it to them because they won’t stop at just asking for innocent information.
 
In 2022, the APEX part-time public school program in the St. Vrain School District came on my radar because the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) was getting ready to defund the program. The government advocate for the school was able to get the funding restored through the School Finance bill (HB22-1390) in the waning days of the session.
 
Since then, on the St. Vrain School District’s website, homeschoolers residing within their district are told to file their notice of intent (NOI) to the Superintendent and then they direct all homeschoolers to send them to their part-time homeschool program, APEX. In addition, despite the law being very clear the NOI can be filed in any district in the state, their website states, “it is advisable to notify the residing school district as well to avoid truancy action” implying there could be problems if the NOI is not filed with them.

More disturbing is what parents are saying is happening in the homeschool program itself. Several parents were shocked to find out that during an elementary language arts class the instructor gave a lesson on the usage of preferred pronouns which go against proper grammar rules. It has been communicated from a teacher in the program that approximately half her class is identifying as a gender other than their biological sex. Quite a few of the school districts along the front range are encouraging teachers to keep secrets from parents regarding their children’s stated desire to identify as a different gender. (To learn more about what is going on in the public schools, check out this website. Also, if you experience an issue in a public school, you can report it to this group.)
 
It’s important to know and follow the homeschool law and to hold the school district to it as well. When we give them more, they will continue to ask for more. Parents who push back by pointing to the homeschool law have succeeded in getting the school district to back off!

Trusting in the mighty power and grace of Jesus,
Carolyn Martin
CHEC Director of Government Relations 
Carolyn@CHEC.org

About the Author: Carolyn Martin

Carolyn Martin serves as CHEC’s Director of Government Relations, working for you and other liberty-loving families to protect homeschool freedom, parental rights, and religious liberty at the state capitol. Subscribe to the CHEC blog for Carolyn’s regular updates here, learn more about legal issues in Colorado here, and donate to support Homeschool Freedom here. Contact Carolyn directly at carolyn@chec.org.