Fifteen years ago home schooling in Texas was clearly legal as a result of the Texas Supreme Court ruling in the Leeper decision. That decision clarified that home schools were private schools and therefore ended the prosecution of home schoolers that began in the 1980s for violation of the compulsory attendance laws.
However, following the Leeper decision, there was still discrimination against home school graduates by colleges and universities. Virtually every institution of higher education in Texas refused to acknowledge a home school graduate as a high school graduate and either required them to obtain a GED and/or meet higher SAT/ACT scores and other admission standards not required of public high school graduates.
After three attempts THSC was able to get the legislature to amend the Texas Education Code (TEC) to require state colleges and universities to treat graduates of unaccredited private schools, which included home schools, as equivalent to public high school graduates for college admission. The legislature took this action because of a lack of data showing a correlation between accredited schools and student performance. Our argument was that we did not oppose an institution of higher education setting whatever standard they wished for admission, but to say that a student who did not graduate from an accredited school was not a high school graduate was arbitrary and discriminatory.
THSC has often quoted this particular section of the Texas Education Code to assert that the state of Texas acknowledges that not only are home school graduates high school graduates, but that they are equivalent to a public high school graduate.
In January our office was contacted by an Austin home school mother whose son had been offered a job at Seton Hospital. After the offer of employment was made, he was then contacted by Seton officials who asked him to give proof that he was indeed a high school graduate. We responded with a letter quoting the TEC, clarifying that the state of Texas considered a home school graduate a high school graduate.
The official next contacted our office and spoke to two staff members who both clearly explained the issue to her. She responded that since they were a hospital, they must use a federal standard. Our staff explained that the federal government also accepts Texas home school graduates as high school graduates, which she also rejected. She stated that Seton’s policy was that a home school graduate was only considered a high school graduate if they received their diploma from an “accredited entity.”
We further explained to her that this student had been accepted by Austin Community College as a high school graduate and had completed three semesters of college work there. In her conversation with the mother, she was rude, condescending, and unprofessional and finally told this mom that if her son wanted a job at Seton, he should get a GED.
This Seton official told us that laws related to college admission did not apply and Seton was free to use whatever definition of high school graduate they chose in their hiring standards and they would continue to do so. Their position is that they do hire home school graduates, but only if they “graduate from an accredited entity.”
I wrote a follow-up letter to the official and copied the president of Seton Hospital as well. Read the letter.
While Seton can legally continue the discriminatory standard they have chosen, the arbitrary nature of this policy and the rude, condescending, and unprofessional nature of their handling of this situation causes one to wonder if this is indicative of the service and compassion they render to those whom they serve.
Calls to the president’s office can be made to 512-324-1991. Texas home schoolers should call and express their disappointment that Seton would treat a potential employee and his family in such a rude, unprofessional manner and urge them to adopt a hiring policy toward home schoolers that is more reflective of the 21st Century.
About Tim Lambert
People are so naive about homeschoolers… They so need to pay more attention to life. Then they might know just how smart our kids are!
Federal laws??? Well, my 2 oldest sons, who began high school in TX, graduated after we moved to MD and are both working great jobs. BOTH have received a security clearance with their respective employers!! How’s that for federal laws?! I’d find it hard to believe a hospital would need more stringent laws regarding hiring than it would take to consider someone for a clearance to do work on projects of national security nature! Hope they “see the light”!!
First of all my time is sparing as I have two daughters in Jr high whom we home school, work from home running my own Executive Recruiting & Employment Consulting business so I could be MORE available to my “adopted from the state children”, and support their needs financially/emotionally to the best of my/our abilities. My husband works in/out of the home in a full time position. We are both college graduates who never envisioned homeschooling, but due to the emotional needs we are doing it! My biggest fear was how I would do it? Due to the fabulous example of one family down the street I did the research and took the plunge. I wish I would have started HS earlier on, but no looking back.
In the world of recruiting and retaining top employees it take some decision making, and with some positions requiring various education levels to find, invest and retain the best employees you must be diligent at screening candidates. We consult our clients with the full life cycle of an employee, and the cost savings if the decision is made as humanly accurate on the front end. To follow a policy is understandable, but to communicate it in such a discriminating manner goes against all good judgment in recruiting top quality candidates to apply. This recruiter clearly does not, nor did not understand what they are missing when they discriminated so aggresively against this young man as an employee for their organization. They have already invested all the interview time, and administrative time to make the offer. Depending on the policy and the organizations ability to examine each situation they could have at minimum explored the possibility of many other options than that of which they/she did. More time & money is now being invested to fill a position as they review your , Tim Lambert, letter, communicate within their organization about how to respond, hopefully discipline and/or re-educate the recruiter mentioned…..and they didn’t get a hire. That is a huge waste of time and money. I’ve got client who will make exceptions to hiring candidates with much bigger issues in their background with more success than in the article.
My take away is that Seton Hospital needs someone new, reformed, better educated, or stronger to head up their HR department to help Seton be a more profitable company. All employees at all levels are the “face” of any organization, and the folks in management have to take responsibility for change to improve the business. I would love to hear the outcome of the story. I would not want my son to work for Seton under these circumstances however; I would want him to lead by example, and hold his head up into his next opportunity. Sounds like Seton missed out on a great employee opportunity, their bad.
The uninformed and negative attitude of the Seton HR is very unfortunate. I have seen information that on the average, home schoolers out perform high school graduates. In this case the fact that the applicant passed a college entrance exam is certainly sufficient to demonstrate scholastic aptitude. Hopefully the management of Seton will review the facts and reconsider their position.
Quite ironic given Seton’s chief neurosurgeon helped judge the final Team Policy Debate round of the NCFCA Speech & Debate tournament last week in Austin.
Anybody who called the office at the number listed above get anything but an answering machine? I tried calling several times and simply got a recorded message for me to leave a message….hmmm?
Sadly the HR employee is a product of American as hooks who have removed instruction on logic and rhetoric and has not learned enough critical thinking skills! The inability to transfer information such as from a law into application in a real job shows flaws in cognitive ability. Our society is being dumbed down through the schools.
Sermon does not know they just missed out on hiring a gem.
Just had he nicest medical assistant with the best phlebotomy skills at my new doctor’s office and come to find out she was homeschooled since birth.
So sorry for this discrimination.
I was just informed by my nephew that some of the hospitals in the Tyler area are also doing this same discrimination by asking for high school diplomas even though the students have an associate degree from the local college. I cannot believe the hospitals are able to get away with this.Very sad!
Please have someone contact us with details so we can write to them and bring public awareness to the issue locally.