SD14 - Report of the Joint Subcommittee Studying Home Education

  • Published: 1984
  • Author: General Assembly Joint Subcommittee
  • Enabling Authority: Senate Joint Resolution 59 (Regular Session, 1983)

Executive Summary:
Home instruction is a controversial issue which has been intensely debated in Virginia since 1979, but yet remains unresolved. The controversy sets the alleged right of parents to remove their children from the public schools, for varied reasons to teach them in their home, against the constitutional responsibility of the General Assembly to require compulsory school attendance and to provide a high quality education to every child.

The issue of home instruction is not unique to Virginia. It has generated concern nationally and in many instances the problems which ensued from the controversy have resulted in litigation. This, too, has been the case in Virginia. In 1979, three Virginia court cases, i.e., Commonwealth of Virginia v. Theo and Daniel Giesy, A 08203-A and A 08202-1, Robert Grigg. et al. v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 224 VRR 312 (1982), and Commonwealth of Virginia v. James O'Toole, prompted the Senate Education and Health and the House Education Committees to appoint a Joint Subcommittee to study the need for legislation to amend the compulsory school attendance laws. In 1980, House Joint Resolution No. 94 established a Joint Subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health and the House Education Committees to study the need for revising the compulsory school attendance laws. Because the resolution did not include a reporting date, the study was continued in 1981, when several pieces of legislation to address the problem were introduced in the General Assembly, but none were passed. There were three bills in the 1982 Session. Again, none were passed.

In 1983 the legislature passed Senate Joint Resolution No. 59, which established a Joint Subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee and the House Education Committee to study home education. Members of the Joint Subcommittee were: Senators Adelard L. Brault of Fairfax and John H. Chichester of Fredericksburg; Delegates J. W. O'Brien, Jr., of Virginia Beach, James H. Dillard, II, of Fairfax and William P. Robinson, Jr., of Norfolk. The Joint Subcommittee also agreed to permit Delegate V. Thomas Forehand, Jr., of Chesapeake, a member of the House Education Committee, to sit with the Joint Subcommittee. Delegate Forehand attended all of the meetings of the Joint Subcommittee and participated in all of the discussions. Appended to this report is the text of Senate Joint Resolution No. 59.