Court orders parents to enroll children in school

The Court of Justice of Minas Gerais (TJ-MG) determined that the parents of two children aged 7 and 8, from the interior of the state of Minas Gerais, who practice home schooling, prove the enrollment of their children in the public or private network in the year of 2023. The decision handed down in the first instance was upheld after the parents had appealed. The process proceeds in secrecy of justice.

According to the TJ-MG, the Public Prosecutor’s Office made a representation to the Justice to investigate an administrative infraction in relation to the homeschooling family. The Public Prosecutor’s Office understood that the couple was “willfully failing to comply with the duties inherent to family power, notably those of providing formal education to their children”.

The city’s Tutelary Council advised parents to enroll their children in a school. By refusing the guidance, the family argued that the children were not being harmed and asked for the representation to be suspended until the bill on home schooling under discussion in the National Congress was concluded.

The judge of first instance stated that the existence of a bill on the subject in progress does not motivate the suspension of the process and determined that the parents carry out the registrations. He also denied the parents’ request for psychopedagogical expertise to be carried out with the children and the collection of testimonial evidence.

In the second instance, when deciding to maintain the decision, the rapporteur of the action cited the understanding of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), of 2018, that home teaching should not be admitted in Brazil until Congress enacts a law that regulates the practice . “The STF pacified understanding, set thesis in general repercussion and declared the impossibility of the mentioned teaching modality while there is no specific regulation in the national territory”, said the rapporteur, reinforcing the order to parents to enroll their children in a regular school.

Bill 1,338/2022, which regulates the provision of homeschooling in basic education, is pending in the Federal Senate after being approved in the Chamber in 2022. People’s Gazettethe proposal faces resistance among senators and is currently awaiting review by the House Education Committee.