Care & Protection of Charles

This case concerns the education of children at home by their parents. We are especially concerned here with the applicable constitutional law, as well as certain provisions of G. L. c. 119 (care and prptection of children), G. L. c. 71 (public schools), and G.. L. c. 76 (attendance at school). Due to religious convictions, the parents desired to educate their three children, ages eleven, eight, and six, at home during the 1985-1986 school year. Although the parents instructed their children in their “home school,” the school committee of Canton, on October 15, 1985, initiated truancy…