Swedish Parliament Outlaws Home Schooling - , July 9, 2010

The Parliament of Sweden has recently passed sweeping changes to the nation’s education system and except in “extraordinary circumstances” has made it illegal for parents to educate their children at home.  The legislation excludes religious or philosophical as legitimate reasons for home education and takes effect August 1.  The law explicitly states, “It is the opinion of the government that there is no need of a law to make space for homeschooling based on the religious or philosophical views of the family.”

Current legislation allows home schooling as long as it is deemed to be a “fully satisfactory alternative” to the state run school system.  Home school families have been inspected by education officials to assure that the students are keeping up academically.  The new law maintains those regulations but adds the ambiguous phrase “exceptional circumstances” as necessary for parents to teach their children at home.  A council of Sweden’s highest court has reviewed the law and recommended that the phrase be clarified but the government has moved ahead with the legislation without having done so.

Homeschooling families have little political clout in Sweden, due mainly to their limited numbers.  In the past they have faced persecution and punitive fines from school officials and according to home schoolers the new law gives carte blanche for school authorities to deny applications for home schooling in any and all circumstances.  The 50 or so families that home school in Sweden fought hard in opposition to the new legislation, petitioning politicians and gaining significant air time and media coverage.

“We have worked hard with the media, getting more articles and TV spots on homeschooling in the last six months than probably in the last ten years put together,” said Jonas Himmelstrand, president of the Swedish home school association.

The group also provided a 228-page analysis of the proposed law’s impact on the rights of parents to oversee the education of their children to the government. However, repeated requests for face-to-face meetings with the Education Minister were rejected.

According to Himmelstrand, the battle may not quite be over.  MP’s were forced to vote along party lines even though a number of them had issues with not only the home schooling provisions, but with other aspects of the law.  Political leaders forced their members to vote for the bill, insisting that a “no” vote would lead to a “government crisis.”

A national election will be held in Sweden in September and Himmelstrand hopes that a change in government will lead to a review of the law.

“The outcome of the election is by no means certain and new parties could cause a complicated political situation,” said Himmelstrand. “The fate of the new school law is therefore at present in the hands of the September election.”

 “An optimistic view,” continued Himmelstrand, “would be that the Swedish government does not want to [encounter] any spectacular cases of exile, political asylum in other countries or homeschoolers put in jail” – which is the case with Germany, where homeschooling is banned. “This could lead to a mild interpretation of the new law, and international pressure will certainly help in this respect. The law could be short-lived.”

There is some thought of appealing to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but the court hasn’t been friendly to home schoolers in the past.

A challenge to Sweden’s June 25, 2009 abduction of Dominic Johannsen from his parents for homeschooling is now making its way through the ECHR. The case Johansson v. Sweden is being litigated by Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorneys on behalf of Christer and Annie Johansson, who have only been allowed to see their only son for one hour every five weeks since last June.

The Johanssons were on a plane to move permanently to India, when police and social services stormed in and snatched Dominic. ADF and HSLDA filed the case with the ECHR when the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden refused to review a lower court’s December 2009 ruling in Johansson v. Gotland Social Services that affirmed the government’s contention that they had every right to seize the child and raise him.

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