SBCHI Position Paper on Clarification of Public and Private Homeschooling

SBCHI requires that all homeschooled students be taught using the Homeschool Private Option outlined below.

Educational Choices in Santa Barbara

Traditional Brick and Mortar Schools with full-time instruction:

• Public Schools – government funded with government oversight (including full-time, class-based charter schools, such as Adelante Charter School, Peabody Charter School, and SB Charter School)

• Private Schools – tuition instead of government funds, with limited or no government oversight

  • Secular (including Laguna Blanca School, Montessori Center School)

  • Faith-Based (including Providence School; Coastline Christian School; St. Raphael Catholic School; Bishop Garcia Diego High School)

Homeschooling with instruction taking place within the home:

• Public Options – government funded with government oversight 

  • Public Charter Schools, Independent Study Programs, Online Schools – HomeBased Partnership, Heartland Charter School, Trivium Charter School, Virtual Academy (K-12)

• Participation in these public charter schools comes with restrictions from the CA Constitution and Education Code that clearly state that no direct or indirect sectarian [religious] instruction may be taught.

• Charter schools and non-charter schools, as Public Independent Study Programs, must comply with CA Independent Study regulations.  They may teach about religion, but may not teach a sectarian curriculum (EC Section 47605(d)).  This would not allow the use of government funds to purchase Christian curricula which emphasize the biblical worldview, nor would this allow the use of any sectarian curricula.   

• Private Options – no government funds and no government oversight

  • Secular or Christian (some families are not connected to any group and privately educate at home without using any government funds)

  • Christian (Santa Barbara Christian Homesteaders, Inc.) 

SBCHI is a Private Option that allows families to choose Christian curricula that reinforce biblical values.  Our mission statement states:

Santa Barbara Christian Homesteaders, Inc. (SBCHI) is a non-profit corporation whose
specific purpose is to support and encourage those who desire to privately educate
their children at home in accordance with Christian principles.

In order to stay within the scope of this Mission Statement, we have the following requirements for participation in our group:

• The Primary teacher must be a professing Christian who will sign the Statement of Faith.

• All privately homeschooled students in the family must be taught using the private homeschool option, not the public homeschool option as described above.  Other students in the family who are not being homeschooled may participate in other traditional brick and mortar public schools or brick and mortar private schools. 

We understand that it can be a struggle to make ends meet in Santa Barbara. We want to do whatever we can to help our families continue to privately educate their children at home.  We love to see families loaning curricula to one another and taking advantage of our ROC Homesteader Library.  Some families have group classes and trade off with the teaching. The privilege to home educate our children without government intervention and in accordance with Christian principles is a freedom we want to hold onto and cherish.