Clarification: For some reason, I edited this out when the original got too long, but there are not actually any American military bases in Niedersachsen, and they certainly have no authority over anyone in any other state, American or not. I am more curious about their stance in general. Would it stand in court? Can a Host Nation direct a family on base to send a child to school? Would the Host Nation bother, even if it were clearer? States have historically displayed an interest in the education of foreign nationals. Many homeschoolers are foreigners. The example of military bases was raised in the paperwork which the state rejected. (Thanks, Valerie!)
I think the German state is way off on this one, but it is their country. And our citizens. The following is from a rejection letter to a homeschooling family in Niedersachsen. This family is not American, nor military, but the following paragraph effects such families directly:
For comparison consider the situation of children in foreign armed forces in Niedersachsen. According to Number 3.1.1 of the decree of the Ministry of Education and Culture, “Supplementary regulations to compulsory school attendance and to the legal relationship to school” of August 29, 1995, the compulsory school attendance exists independent of citizenship. Children of members of stationed military forces are therewith fundamentally under the compulsory attendance law even in Germany. They fulfill their compulsory schooling, however, through attendance at schools run by the stationing armed forces. If this were not to occur, they would be required to attend school at a German school, and that would be regardless of the length of stationing of the parent, or parents.
HSLDA has stated previously:
In summary, military families do have the right to home school. If a military home school family resides in the United States, they must abide by the state’s compulsory attendance law. If the military family lives on foreign soil, however, they are not under the jurisdiction of the foreign country’s compulsory attendance law. Nor are they under any regulatory authority of the DoD.
This is based on a case in which American military officers tried to enforce compulsory education laws on military homeschoolers. The eventual decision stated:
Public education within the United States is a matter which our constitutional system leaves to the discretion of each State. Each State, therefore, makes its own laws pertaining to education. These laws are binding on all persons within the State’s border, including the dependents of the Department of Defense (DOD) (including the Military Services). The Secretary of Defense does not have the legal authority to issue the kind of regulatory exemption from State eduction law. The DoD has a specific statutory authority to operate a school for DoD dependents who are assigned overseas.Our statute, unlike the many State statutes which do not apply overseas, does not compel the attendance of any DoD dependent in DoD Dependent Schools. Therefore, a dependent may choose not to enroll in our program (DoDDS) and to elect, instead, an alternative enrollment; for example, a foreign language school, a private school, or in a home schooling program. Our statute imposes no duty on the DoD to finance the cost of any alternate educational benefits. For these reasons, there is no reason for the Secretary to issue a regulation…regulating home schooling for overseas DoD dependents.
So the military cannot enforce compulsory education, but can the host nation? That is unclear under SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement). Largely, it is based on some ambiguities. US military children are under the authority of the host nation’s laws, but so long as their misbehavior remains “in house” the correction remains largely “in house.” The host nation has no compelling interest in regulating the relationships between people living on the base.
And what interest does the host nation have in the education of foreign citizens? Niedersachsen seems to think it does have an interest, both in the education of civilians (to whom this letter was addressed) and of military families stationed in Germany.
For more information on the complicated issue of homeschooling as a military family in Germany, I found this article at NHEN to include a lot of helpful information. If you know any more information, please share!
Related Tags: homeschooling, Germany, military homeschooling
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
I have to wonder where they got their information from. My dad is active duty, and we were stationed at a base in Garmisch, Germany (this was only two years ago). Aside from us there were at least four other homeschooling families. And none of us were hiding it in any way, we were under the impression the base commander decided whether or not home schooling was allowed, without any regard for the local laws.
We were in Germany for 2.5 years (APR 04 - DEC 06) and knew tons of military HS’ing families who had no problems with the local governments interfering. That’s not to say that it doesn’t happen, but things seemed to be operating well in the Stuttgart, GE area. I wouldn’t be surprised if a local German “authority” stepped in though. I mentioned HS’ing to a bunch of ex-pat friends (non military Americans living in the area) and their thoughts on the matter were, “Watch out!”
I know there are a lot of military families who do homeschool in Germany. There are a number of yahoo groups specifically for military homeschoolers in Germany. But the law in Niedersachsen does clearly state that this is not acceptable.
I don’t know that there are any bases left in Niedersachsen, so it may be completely irrelevant, but I’m curious as to whether there actually ever have been challenges from local authorities.
And of course what would happen should there be one.
btw, the information comes from a local law which is linked. It is in German, but says just what the excerpt from the letter says it says.
My reply kept getting longer and longer, Dana (this subject is complex), so I put it at my personal blog in case I find typos, etc. tomorrow, and need to correct them. Still, if I don’t get a decent night’s sleep, I won’t be able to tell if I goofed up or not. ;>
http://happy_as_kings.typepad.com/happy_as_kings/2007/05/american_milita.html
Just a quickie as I’m re-reading your blog post, Dana.
Many of the military family housing areas are not on a military installation. For the Army, the installations are old Nazi Kasernen. For the Air Force, there are usually specific bases.
Air Force bases may have housing areas on them, but the Army housing areas are outside the Kasernen which usually have only offices, barracks and such.
Housing areas are often not within the instllation’s perimeter fence, and the streets running through them are German streets. The buildings are owned by the American military services, but the land itself ??? … that’s iffy.
I still don’t think there is justification for host nation educational oversight when the sending forces traditionally provide for the education of their own children, but the jurisdictional differences between ‘in quarters,’ ‘on the economy’ situation is less solidly grounded that might appear.
A friend of mine moved into quarters in Munich before that miltiary community was closed, and found that one of the trees in her backyard had a metal band around it’s trunk and the bark was growing over it as the tree tried growing. My friend wanted to just remove the band right then and there, but she was told she had to go through the office of the Forstmeister because the local Forst … amt? … had jurisdiction over all the trees. (Germans take trees seriously). She eventually got the metal band removed, but it took a while for the paperwork to percolate through the systems.
Just fyi for some of us persons with no standing as we try to figure things out.