CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. –Some Virginia children might not be getting any education because of the state’s religious exemption from mandatory school attendance, according to a recent University of Virginia study.
Virginia doesn’t require parents to provide any education to children who are granted religious exemptions. The statute also doesn’t require exempted students to meet any educational requirements, according to the study by the Child Advocacy Clinic at the University of Virginia law school.
“If children with religious exemptions are not receiving any education, it could well mean that the statute, as applied, impermissibly violates their fundamental right to an education under the Virginia Constitution and is therefore unconstitutional,” the study said.
More than 7,000 children received religious exemptions, which are granted by local school districts, during the 2010-2011 school year.
“To put that number in perspective, 7,000 students is more students than are enrolled in three quarters of the school divisions in Virginia,” said Andrew K. Block Jr., the clinic’s director.
“It’s more kids than are enrolled in Charlottesville,” he said.
Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle said the department presumes that these students are getting some kind of home instruction. But there’s no follow-up reporting.
