Published: October 19, 2009 11:47 pm      

Education Dept. exploring status of Amish students

NICKTOWN — Efforts are being made by the state Department of Education to determine the status of the school-age children belonging to families of the Swartzentruber Amish sect of Cambria County, a spokeswoman said Monday.

The children, believed to be a dozen or fewer, have apparently not been in school since March, when the Barr Township school was padlocked because of inadequate outhouses. Indications are they also are not receiving homeschooling.

“We’re currently looking into the situation,” said Leah Harris of the education department. “It’s a unique situation for sure.”

Leaders of the ultraconservative Amish sect have made no apparent attempts to gain access to books and other educational materials in the closed school, court officials and Cambria County Sheriff Bob Kolar said Monday.

Classes at the school ended seven months ago when the building and two outhouses were padlocked on orders of a county judge after sect leaders refused to meet state and county outhouse standards.

The children have not been enrolled in local public schools, according to officials of districts in the area, and the children also are not being educated in a less restrictive Amish community setting or in private homes, said Ebensburg attorney David Beyer, who represents the Amish.

The lack of schooling is a primary concern for the Amish leaders, Beyer said last week following a meeting in the chambers of Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker.

Sect leaders asked Krumenacker to reconsider his earlier order to padlock the school and two private homes.

The judge refused, but gave sect leaders permission to put a portable toilet at the school on a temporary basis. That step apparently has not been taken.

He also said he would allow leaders access to the school to get materials needed for homeschooling.

State law provides some leniency for Amish-registered schools, allowing children to “withdraw” at the end of eighth grade rather than at 17, the age to drop out of public schools.

The law does require the Amish children to attend classes 180 days a year or the hourly equivalent.

While information is to be provided to local school districts, responsibility for enforcement of state education requirements for private schools is in Harrisburg.

“It falls back to the department, and we’re checking into it,” Harris said.

Central Cambria School District Superintendent Vincent DiLeo said none of the school- age children resides in his district.

While one Amish family with school-age children lived for a time in the Blacklick Valley School District, they apparently sold their farm and moved from the district in September, district Superintendent Don Thomas said.

Thomas thinks local school districts may have some responsibility from a personal standpoint, if not legally.

“It’s right on us. We have to make sure they are being educated whether it’s Amish or whomever,” he said.

Northern Cambria District Superintendent Tom Estep said he was aware of the closing of the school and believed the children were being homeschooled.

“They were going to educate their children and that was good enough for me,” Estep said.

“We have no way of knowing where these Amish children are. There is no record given to us.”

Attempts to keep track of the nonpublic Amish and Mennonite schools are done by the Appalachian Intermediate Unit 8, a four-county non-profit public educational service agency that provides state supported services to local public and nonpublic school systems choosing to access them.

That annual tracking is now under way, with forms being sent to all Amish and Mennonite schools in Cambria, Somerset, Blair and Bedford counties served by the unit, said Executive Director Joseph Macharola.

The information will be compiled and forwarded to the state Education Department by the end of this month.

The reporting is not mandatory, and records show the Swartzentruber Amish of Cambria County have not yet this year or in past years complied with the request, Macharola said.

Meanwhile, the Northern Cambria School District, where all of the school-age Swartzentruber Amish who attended the school now appear to reside, is watching the situation.

“This is such an unusual circumstance. I don’t know if anybody knows where this is going to go,” Estep said.