The IAHE frequently receives questions from parents asking about the process of withdrawing their student from the public school system.
Some of our top answers to many of these questions can be found here:
While Indiana law does require families of high school students to complete a withdrawal form, (read more: Withdraw from Public School), there is no such requirement for elementary or middle school students. Does that mean that families should refuse to sign any form created by the school system?
Not necessarily.
Not all forms are created equal. Parents should consider, does the form ask for basic information or does it ask for information that the school doesn’t have a right to ask for?
Many schools have created their own withdrawal forms asking for general student information, information that they already have on file. Information such as:
- Student name and/or parent name
- Address and phone number
- Student birthday
- Student’s grade
- Name of new school (i.e. home education*)
Some schools have created withdrawal forms that ask for far more information than they have a legal right to ask for and indicate overreach by the school system. Questions might include:
- Assigned homeschool number
- Why are deciding to homeschool?
- How do you plan to educate your child?
- What curriculum are you going to use?
- Who will be teaching your student?
Recently, we asked our HSLDA attorney Tj Schmidt for his advice on this topic as well.
If the information they want you to fill out on the form is something that they already have it would seem it is being used to identify the correct student to withdraw. Signing the form is not something that I generally recommend against. If the school has a withdrawal form that they ask parents to fill out I typically suggest that as long as it isn’t asking or demanding for something more than the law allows, the parent can sign/fill them out. We just provide our withdrawal form so that parents can have something to provide to their local school and/or in lieu of a more invasive form.
- Tj Schmidt
Still unsure about signing a school’s form? Email us and we’ll be happy to help.
*Does the school’s form ask for the name of the student’s new school? They may be using one form for ALL student transfers/withdraws.
Thank you for the withdrawal form template! My daughter’s school accepted this after previously asking me to complete their form. I hope that others have similar positive experiences.