Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-255_g3bi.pdf
Page Number: 21.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

7 

ALITO, J., concurring 

hours per day and the minimum number of days per year 
that a student must attend classes, as well as many aspects
of the school curriculum.11  Parents are not required to en-
roll their children in a public school.  They can select a pri-
vate school if a suitable one is available and they can afford
the tuition, and they may also be able to educate their chil-
dren at home if they have the time and ability and can meet
the standards that their State imposes.12  But by choice or 
necessity, nearly 90% of the students in this country attend
public schools,13 and parents and public schools do not enter 
into a contractual relationship.

If in loco parentis is transplanted from Blackstone’s Eng-
land to the 21st century United States, what it amounts to 
is simply a doctrine of inferred parental consent to a public 
—————— 

11 See National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), State Educa-
tion Practices, Table 5.14: Number of Instructional Days and Hours in
the  School  Year,  by  State,  2018,  https://nces.ed.gov/programs/ 
statereform/tab5_14.asp. 

12 Pennsylvania,  for  example,  requires  a  minimum  of  180  days  of  in-
struction  per  year.    See  Pa.  Stat.  Ann.,  Tit.  24,  §13–1327.1(c)  (Purdon 
2016).  Students must be taught English, mathematics, science, geogra-
phy, history, civics, safety education, health, physical education, music, 
and art.  §§13–1327.1(c)(1)–(2).  Parents are required to maintain current 
and  detailed  records  of  their  child’s  learning  materials  and  progress, 
§13–1327.1(e)(1), and they must turn those records over to a teacher or 
psychologist for an annual evaluation to determine whether “an appro-
priate education is occurring,” §13–1327.1(e)(2).  The evaluation also in-
cludes an interview of the child.  Ibid.  Once the evaluation is completed,
it is submitted to the superintendent of the public school district of resi-
dence.    §§13–1327.1(e)(2),  (h)(1).    If  the  superintendent  and  a  hearing
examiner find that the child is not being supplied an appropriate educa-
tion, and the parents’ appeal of that decision is unsuccessful, the child 
will be promptly enrolled in the public school district of residence or a 
private school.  §§13–1327.1(k)–(l). 

13 See NCES, School Choice in the United States, 2019, Table 206.20: 
Percentage Distribution of Students Ages 5 through 17 Attending Kin-
dergarten through 12th Grade, By School Type or Participation in Home-
schooling and Selected Child, Parent, and Household Characteristics, Se-
lected  Years  1999  Through  2016,  https://nces.ed.gov/programs/
digest//d19/tables/dt19_206.20.asp.