;e Supreme Court of the United
States has never ruled on the constitutionality of a daytime juvenile curfew.
And, despite legal challenges, some
courts have upheld these curfews.
3
However, other judges have found them to be
problematic and impermissible on several grounds.
4 Regardless of these mixed
results, communities across the nation
have passed, and continue to adopt, curfews as a matter of routine. Very few of
them will ever face judicial scrutiny.
What Should Homeschoolers Do?
Daytime curfews have the potential to
cause problems for homeschooling families. For that reason, I o;er three points
of advice in this area.
First, know whether there is currently
a daytime curfew in place for your community and whether it contains an exception for homeschooled children. ;e
time to learn the law is now, not when
your child comes home in the back of a
police car.
Second, keep tabs on local government agendas so you will know if your
community is considering a daytime
curfew. If so, you may wish to work
with other families to ;ght against these
laws or at least to ensure they contain an exception for home-educated
children. On its website, HSLDA has
prepared a helpful discussion outlining the objections to these laws, along
with a package on how to present your
views against them.
5 ;ird, if your child
is negatively impacted by a curfew, consult with homeschool legal advocates to
determine whether they can get the citation dismissed or perhaps even bring
a suit against the potentially impermissible law.
Curfew proponents and law enforcement o;cials have the best of intentions
in passing and enforcing these statutes.
Where an unintended side e;ect of the
law impacts your family’s right to homeschool, you are not powerless; consider
taking action. Above all, know the law
and know your rights.
Antony B. Kolenc (J.D., University of
Florida College of Law) is an attorney,
author, and speaker. He and his wife have
homeschooled their ;ve children for over
www.; eHomeschoolMagazine.com
a decade. He is author of ;e Chronicles
of Xan historical ;ction trilogy, as well as
several legal articles. Learn more about
him at
www.antonykolenc.com.
If you have a legal-related question,
email TL@; eHomeschoolMagazine.com
and Tony may get a chance to answer it in
his monthly column!
Endnotes:
1. Mike Rutledge, “Daytime Curfew Causes
Clamor,” Cincinnati. Com (December 4, 2011),
available at
news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs
.dll/article?AID=AB/20111203/
NEWS0108/112040314.
2. Kenneth Adams, “;e E;ectiveness of Daytime
Curfews at Juvenile Crime Prevention,” ;e Annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science 587 ( 136), available at http://ann
. sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/587/1/136.
3. For instance, juvenile curfews were approved by
the courts in Bykofsky v. Borough of Middletown,
401 F. Supp. 1242 (D. Pa. 1975), a;’d, 535 F.2d
1245 (3d Cir. 1976), Qutb v. Strauss, 11 F.3d 488
(5th Cir. 1993), and Schleifer v. City of Charlottesville, 159 F.3d 843 (4th Cir. 1998).
4. For instance, juvenile curfews were struck down
in the following cases: Nunez v. San Diego, 114
F.3d 935 (9th Cir. 1997), and Ramos v. Town of
Vernon, 353 F.3d 171 (2d Cir. 2003).
5. HSLDA’s packet of information for homeschooler inquiries about daytime curfew
laws is available at
www.hslda.org/docs/nche
/000010/200308130.pdf.
