Source: Education Week
By: Arianna Prothero
Date: February 2, 2015
Education Week’s Arianna Prothero reports:
California’s education department is telling charter and district schools that it’s illegal to require parents to volunteer at a public school. The state’s charter school association says it’s committed to spreading the word.
The department’s advisory is a reaction to a report released in November that found many California charter schools had parent work quotas. Specifically, 30 percent of 500 schools analyzed by the nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization Public Advocates required parents to do service work for the school or face penalties.
The report argued that such polices discriminate against single-parent and low-income households, but it also said that charter schools had been getting conflicting information on whether such policies were legal.
