Va. School Board Drops Christian Homeschool Policy After Public Backlash

A Virginia school district has done away with a "religious exemption policy" that allowed school officials to question Christian homeschooled students about their religious beliefs.

The Goochland County Public Schools in Virginia decided to do away with the policy after receiving backlash from parents and students that argued that policy infringed upon their religious beliefs. The policy, put into place in 2013, required children, ages 14 and over, to provide a statement about their religious beliefs if they wished to be homeschooled.

The school board claimed at the time of the policy's implementation that its purpose was to ensure children wishing to be homeschooled were truly doing so for religious reasons. The school board said that the purpose of the statement was to prove that the "request for exemption is based upon a conscientious opposition to attendance at a public school or at a private, denominational, or parochial school due to bona fide religious training or beliefs."

Douglas Pruiett, the father of seven children under the Goochland County Public Schools, opposed the policy. Pruiett told Fox News that he wants to homeschool his children to teach them a Christian way of life.

"We are Christians and we homeschool our children so that we can instill in them Christian values – from an educational standpoint so that they will acknowledge God in every discipline of life," Pruiett told Fox News. "You're not going to find that in public schools."

Several parents voiced their opposition to the policy at a recent school board meeting before the policy was repealed.

"To demand a child at 14 to attest to their religious beliefs, while they are still in training and have not come to firm religious beliefs, is unfair to the child and certainly usurps the parents authority" one parent said at the board meeting, according to local WDBJ.