“Anger”, legal battle: in the Toulouse academy, these parents defend school at home
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
Staff in question, angry teachers, inflation on the price of supplies… The start of the 2022 school year is proving to be quite explosive in France, with many subjects of debate.
A controversial article 49
There is another one who has invited himself: home school. Behind the name IEF, for Instruction en famille, hides a real rebellion of the parents. This start of the school year sees the application of the law of August 2021 “consolidating respect for the principles of the Republic”.
Four categories of requests
Article 49 now restricts the ability to homeschool one’s children. From a system of simple declaration to the rectorate, the law has moved to a licensing regime. Parents will now have to, each year between the 1uh March and May 31, make a request in the rules of the art and enter one of the following four categories to justify this approach and hope to obtain the green light:
- The child’s state of health or disability
- The practice of intensive sports or artistic activities
- The homelessness of the family in France or the geographical distance from any public school establishment
- The existence of a situation specific to the child motivating the educational project
It is this last point which crystallizes the tensions between the parents and the Academy of Toulouse, one of the territories where the requests have increased the most (with Ariège in pole position). “For the Academy of Toulouse, almost all of the requests for family instruction filed in the name of reason 4 have been refused and the families are forced to contest these decisions before the Administrative Court”, denounces the EELV group of Midi- Pyrenees.
More than 3700 requests in the Academy
According to figures from the Toulouse Academy, as of Tuesday August 30, 2022, 3,731 requests for family education have been requested, and 3,217 have been accepted, a rate of 86%. On the famous reason number 4, the Rectorate indicates that it represents 314 requests. “31 were accepted, 283 were refused and 69 are appealing to the Administrative Court”, indicates the Rectorate.
“Our son has blossomed”
Arnaud and Pauline found themselves in this mess. For this couple residing in Saint-Felix-Lauragais (Haute-Garonne), to the east of Toulouse, an uncertain comeback is on the horizon. He is independent and she has been homeschooling her 5 year old son for two years.
“Before becoming parents, we were in a classic pattern. But once Hugo was born, that’s not how we felt. My partner found out about the IEF and we started Outside of education, we are outside half the time, Hugo meets other children. Barriers have fallen and Hugo has blossomed. We are attentive to his needs, his rhythm, his curiosity “.
A two-year derogation was validated for children whose IEF file had been validated before the application of the law. Within the Haut-Garonne family, Hugo is therefore “quiet” until 2024.
But the sensitive question concerns the youngest, Noé, aged 2 and a half. “We applied for permission but it was refused by the rectorate. The law allows us to make a Rapo (Compulsory prior administrative appeal, editor’s note) and we suffered a second refusal, despite an educational project explained in 30 pages”, explains Arnaud.
The couple seized the Administrative Court, in the heart of the summer. For yet another failure.
A collective has been created in the Tarn
In the Tarn, a collective of homeschooling parents has been created to unite people who are in conflict with the Toulouse Academy. Entitled Non Scollectif, it is headwind against the law of 2021.
“The interpretation of the law by the Academies turns out to be contrary to what has been announced and leads to incredible injustices. Thus, in the Academies of Dijon, Toulouse, Créteil or Grenoble, grounds 4 are refused with very rare exceptions On the contrary, in Montpellier, the authorizations for “situations specific to the child” are extremely high. A little more than 60,000 children only are concerned by the IEF, that is to say barely 0.4% of the total of children of age to be educated in France. According to official figures, more than 98% of families practicing the IEF do it correctly and the IEF is never a choice by default, but always a project carefully thought out by the families. is a lifestyle choice that requires a significant financial, personal and organizational investment. So why single them out?
In Cadalen, in the Tarn precisely, Charlotte converted to school at home during the health crisis, more particularly when the mask was compulsory at school. A mother of five children, she took her first three, now aged 12, 11 and 8, out of the traditional school system. “The confinement put an end to our frenetic pace and changed a lot of things,” she testified tonews.fr.
“It is not a distrust of National Education”
She and her husband, who works full time, have found “a new balance” there, and this desire was in no way a “challenge” to National Education. Charlotte also breaks down the “preconceived ideas” about family education such as dissociabilisation or dropping out of the education system.
“My children have friends who are both in school and out of school, one of them is part of the municipal youth council at the town hall of Cadalen… They have found a balance and do not want to go back to school or to college”.
The Tarn family also has an exemption until January 2024 for their three children. But for the fourth of the siblings, who celebrated his 3rd birthday in August 2022 and who is making his first comeback, the ax of the law falls…
On Tuesday August 30, 2022, his file was in hearing at the Administrative Court of Toulouse to obtain an interim suspension pending a judgment on the merits. “The Rector’s lawyer pleaded against the IEF on the grounds that we had too many children and that we would be overwhelmed”, fulminates the mother of the family.
At the Rectorate, “on an applied law”
When questioned, the Rectorate of Toulouse enforces the law, nothing but the law.
“I made sure that it was always the best interests of the child that took precedence in the decisions. Some may say that the law is strict, but the law has been applied. In the refusals, most were for parents whose children were born in 2019 and who refuse compulsory schooling at age 3.
Mostafa Fourar defended his administration on the subject. “The administration does not apply the rules inhumanely, it applies the law. Where there is uncertainty, it is the judge who decides. It’s a delicate, new subject, you have to go there without stigmatization ”.
“It’s hard to plan”
Legal battle, feelings of “anger and injustice”: Charlotte wants above all “to preserve her children”. In the Lauragais, morality is also at its lowest with Arnaud and Pauline. “It’s complicated to manage emotionally and it’s hard to project yourself,” admits Arnaud. He and his wife have prepared various scenarios, such as going abroad or breaking through and doing civil disobedience.
“What we are doing is in the pure interest of the child, and not in opposition to National Education. School is an opportunity but we must preserve the freedom of choice”.
“Why are they bothering us? »
Charlotte feels the same worries. “We know what we’re doing: it’s not nothing to educate your children! So why are they bothering us? “.
A Gers family won in court
Some families have managed to bend the Academy of Toulouse in the heart of summer. Thus, in an order of August 3, 2022, the Administrative Court of the Pink City had ordered the academy to issue an authorization so that parents can homeschool in the Gers.
Still awaiting the judgment of the motion on the merits. The administrative justice had retained “the seriousness of the project and its quality, with regard to the educational project and the positive control of the older brother of the child who was the subject of the request”. It’s a great victory that could set a precedent,” suggested Jean-Baptiste Maillard, secretary general of the Freedom Education association – family education.
For its part, the Non Scollectif announces that a family from Aveyron has also won a first legal battle.
A rally against the 2021 law in Albi
Le Non Sco’llectif organized a rally in Albi (Tarn), at Rochegude Park, Thursday, September 1, 2022. Parents from all over the region, in favor of family education and in disagreement with article 49 of the law of August 2021 “consolidating respect for the principles of the Republic”, were present and children even spoke.
A similar event could be held in Toulouse in September 2022.
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