(AgapePress) - The Home School Legal Defense Association is urging home-schooling families in northeastern Illinois to ignore demands that they attend a pre-trial hearing to prove they are in compliance with the law.

At the request of regional superintendent Bruce Dennison, police have served home-schooling families in Bureau, Stark, and Henry counties with what is called a "notice of pre-trial hearing." As reported by WorldNetDaily, Dennison has told families they must attend the hearing and show their curriculum in order to become pre-approved to teach their children at home.

Mike Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association, says the order is quite unusual.

"In the State of Illinois, home education is conducted via the private school exemption -- and there's no requirement under the private school exemption that any private school has to get prior approval and approval of their curriculum," Smith says. "[Secondly] by doing this, [Dennison] is treating home educators differently than he would a brick-and-mortar school, which is prohibited under the law any denial of equal protection."

Smith says there is no authority to require home schooling families to show up at the pre-trial hearing. In addition, he says such action violates the presumption that people act in the best interest of their children, and that one is innocent until proven guilty.

"We're hopeful that we can get these resolved," he says. "Our attorney ... has had some conversation with the superintendent and the district attorney, who is also seeming to back the superintendent. I believe that they're starting to back off a little bit, and hopefully we can get this resolved for all of those folks in those three counties in Illinois."

Smith says the Fourth Amendment prohibits such visits by police, unless they have a court order that has been issued on probable cause.

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