The state says thousands of home-schoolers should be considered truant unless they enroll in an independent study charter school or hire a credentialed tutor to help with their lessons.
But local school officials and truancy officers, who attended a workshop Tuesday sponsored by the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department, said they aren't sure what they should do.
The state hasn't given local officials any marching orders, and home-schoolers say they have formed private schools that cannot be regulated.
"You're kind of in a soup," Norman Lee, an assistant superintendent with the Stanislaus County Office of Education, told about 50 people at the Agriculture Center south of Modesto. "You're in a tough spot."
The stalemate has existed for years, but it got new life in July when the state Department of Education introduced an online system meant to help private schools file required affidavits.
Home-schoolers have filed such affidavits, in which they declare themselves private schools, with county offices of education for years. They believe the paperwork protects their children from truancy charges.
The state is now taking care of the filings and has warned home-schoolers against filling out the paperwork. The state says home-schooling is not legal unless the parent is a credentialed teacher.
State officials say parents have only three alternatives to public school: They can hire a credentialed teacher to tutor their child at home, enroll in a full-time private school, or enroll in an independent study charter school where advisory teachers oversee students' progress.
Karen Taylor, president of the Hayward-based California Homeschool Network, said parents will continue to declare themselves private schools and teach their children at home, as they have for many years.
She said private school teachers do not need credentials to teach.
State schools Superintendent Delaine Eastin has asked the Legislature to clarify the situation.
Lee said he doubts that any local schools -- which could charge home-schoolers with truancy through the Sheriff Department's School Attendance Review Board -- will want to take the matter on in the meantime.
"I believe there will be a number of court cases in regards to this," he said. "And I had one school district say they did not want to be the test case."
Ronald Crozier, a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer with the Oakdale Police Department, said truancy officers want stricter laws so they can crack down on parents who abuse the system.
He said he is pressing charges against a number of families who filed private school affidavits to get the officials off their backs.
He said the families call themselves home-schoolers, but don't have books or tests or attendance records to back up their claims.
"Our problem is with parents who are taking advantage of the system," Crozier said.