Does your city have a daytime curfew? What do you think of that?

[Chris in VA]

I'd never heard of a daytime curfew for school-aged kids until someone posted about it in a thread today. I'm sorta surprised! I understand that kids should be in school--but what if they are homeschoolers? I don't think I like that we, as homeschoolers, are not "allowed" to have our kids out during certain hours. What if I wanted my hypothetical 13 yo to walk to the store for me, or wanted to let him go to the library, or...well, whatever?

 

What do you think, and how is the law worded in your city (if you know)?

[Unicorn.]

I don't like them, but I understand why they have them. (Oh, and that was me that posted in the other thread). They are to help cut down on truancy. They tried to put one in place here several years ago, but it was voted down. I think it something like between the hours of 9 am and 2 pm on school days or something. I have seen/heard of stories where kids have gotten into trouble for running errands for parents. I know I used to see signs in certain businesses that said no one under 18 during the hours of ....(fill in the blank). In areas where there is a big truancy problem, and a higher crime rate correlation, they can be a good thing.

[Murphy101]

I think it's stupid. "Truancy" is allowed for all kinds of things. Dental appointments, field trips, funerals...

 

If the kid doesn't want to be in school, then I'm glad they aren't sitting there wasting time and distracting those that do.

 

And truancy laws don't affect the kid, they affect the parents. Usually with fines and a court date they can't afford and the kid doesn't care about.

 

It's one of those useless laws that doesn't solve anything.

[Pawz4me]

If there are any curfews around here, I'm unaware of them.

 

There are many private schools in the area as well as several public school systems, all on somewhat different schedules. Throw in a fairly large homeschooling population and I don't possibly see how a curfew would be feasible to enforce.

[TravelingChris]

They are stupid laws. I have never lived in a place with one of them and I am glad. WHere are the places where all schools are on the exact same schedule and length of time anyway?

[Joshin]

I don't think we have a curfew here, but the truancy officers are always out in force - we have a high school, 2 middle schools, a private school and an elementary school all within walking distance of our home. When we first bought the house the officers would stop about once a month to question my boys playing in the yard, but always waved and drove off when I explained we homeschooled. I think they skip our block now that we have 9 homeschooled kids living within a few houses of each other (two of our neighbors also homeschool).

 

I grew up with a daytime curfew, but you could carry a "pass" from a parent or teacher and be okay. I spent my junior and senior year driving down to the university campus after lunch to work on an independent study project so I had a permanent pass in my car from my mentor. And yep, I sometimes used it to cut a whole day of school. There is always a way around curfews, so they are pretty much pointless.

[nono]

We definitely DON'T have a daytime curfew! The other morning, I ran into one of our grade school classes walking along the beach with their teachers. And, our high school kids are always out and about for gym -- running on the boardwalk, going to the tennis courts (each several blocks away from school), etc. etc... They don't have to line up and go single file or anything. They just go, and assemble when they get there. A daytime curfew wouldn't work with our culture here.

 

Oh and it would surely be ridiculous as we are a tourist town, to boot! There are always kids out and about here, as folks come from all over and have different school schedules.

[Harriet Vane]

I have major issues with restricting the movements of people who have not commited a crime.

 

Given the plethora of school options, from home schools, to charter schools, to part-time university model schools or Classical Conversations, to private schools of all shapes and sizes and public schools, it's absolutely idiotic to decree that all minors have to restrict their movements based on public school schedules.

[Guest Gabby]

Hi Chris! Sadly daytime curfews are becoming very common, but I strongly believe we should be fighting back against them. They are unnecessary, as every state already has laws on the book that require minors up to a certain age to stay in school. They punish kids for non-criminal behavior, which sets the wheels in motion to introduce them to the juvenile courts system, and that is often the catalyst that discourages kids from graduating. It's a no-win situation.

 

As a home school parent, you may discover that your kids are not subject to the daytime curfew, so it is important that you read your city's entire daytime curfew for yourself. It may be online in your city's Municipal Code. If you need help finding it, call the local police station and ask for the actual code number for the daytime curfew, and that information may help you better navigate through the chapters of the code.

 

Usually the curfew code begins with a short description of why the city leaders feel the curfew law is necessary, then the parameters of the curfew is explained, and then there comes the important part; the Exceptions. You need to carefully look through any Exceptions the curfew may have, because often, home schooling is an exception. If I were you, I would call the police department and talk to an officer high up in the Juvenile Division. Ask him/her to explain the daytime curfew and its exceptions to you over the phone, but do this after you've read it so you can better ask questions. This step was pretty important to me because I discovered that the police were interpreting the code differently than I was!

 

If the daytime curfew doesn't have an exception for home schoolers, you have a difficult (but not impossible,) fight getting your city leaders to modify the curfew. It might even be possible to get the entire curfew removed if there is enough controversy surrounding it. If the daytime curfew has been in place for a long time (some have been around for 10 years or so,) it is not unreasonable for the newer city leaders to be open about reconsidering its usefulness.

 

I suggest that you go online to look at HSLDA's website, because they have a lot of experience fighting daytime curfew violations that have impacted homeschoolers, and therefore are able to supply lots of useful argument against curfews. Another inspirational source is the research that has been done (ex: Mike Males) on the effectiveness of curfews. Police departments are quick to present their biased statistics, so it's important to inform your city council that there is tons of research that show curfews for minors are not at all effective.

[Ellie]

I don't think it's constitutional to limit citizens from freely traveling during the day just because of their ages.

[Guest Gabby]

Hi Chris! Me again. Just wanted you to know that I am always happy to answer any more of your questions about daytime curfews (and that goes for anyone else here on the message board). Please check out our website at www.NoCurfews.org and I can be contacted through it's Contact Us page. Follow us on Twitter @NoCurfewsCV.