Brazil parents face prison sentence for homeschooling after court accuses them of 'intellectual neglect'

A Brazilian court has sentenced a couple to 50 days in prison for "intellectual neglect" after they homeschooled their two daughters without a state-approved curriculum.

A São Paulo criminal court ruled against Audato and Ieda Denardi, alleging they had failed to include programs on "gender and sex education" and "tolerance and diversity" in the curriculum for their daughters, aged 15 and 11, Alliance Defending Freedom ("ADF") International said.

According to the legal group, the court also ruled that the parents failed to properly integrate their children into Brazilian culture, citing the girls' preference for religious and classical music over popular trap or "sertanejo" (folk) music.

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Isabel Monteiro, the defense attorney representing the family, said the judge made an "ideological decision to convict them" based largely on the older daughter's preference for sacred music over mainstream music that often features explicit lyrics.

The Denardis were sentenced to 50 days in prison by a lower court in April. They remain free while appealing the ruling, which is believed to be the first criminal prosecution of its kind in Brazil.

The Denardis told Fox News Digital they began homeschooling the girls in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, after realizing their schools were failing to give them a proper education. Idea said the girls thrived in homeschooling, and so she decided to continue educating the girls at home.

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After officially withdrawing their daughters in 2022, state officials began conducting home visits and pressuring them to re-enroll the girls.

The couple told Fox News Digital they were surprised by the ruling and never expected to be sentenced to prison for trying to provide a better education for their daughters, who are both accomplished pianists and speak multiple languages.

Even the state's own prosecutors urged the court to acquit the parents, concluding after an evaluation by an independent educational psychologist that the girls showed no signs of neglect and were thriving socially and academically.

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The Denardis provided more than 3,000 pages of evidence showing they hadn't intellectually abandoned their children, Monteiro said.

However, the judge rejected the prosecution's recommendation. According to ADF International, which is providing legal support for the family, the judge accused the parents of "using their daughters as pawns in an ideological struggle, subjecting them to a form of unregulated education, the effectiveness and quality of which lack adequate metrics within the Brazilian legal system, while completely excluding the State’s involvement."

The sentence has placed an immense emotional burden on the family, Audato Denardi said.

"It has affected a lot... Now we have to sleep and wake up every day thinking about that we can go to prison," he told Fox News Digital, noting that a 50-day sentence would force them away from their jobs and their city. Their biggest concern is what will happen to their children.

"That is our biggest problem in all this stuff, because we're going to have to stay 50 days without them and who's going to stay with them?" he said.

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The case highlights the legal ambiguity surrounding homeschooling in Brazil. In 2019, the nation's Supreme Court ruled that homeschooling was not unconstitutional but required to be regulated by the legislature. While the House of Representatives passed a regulatory framework bill in 2022, it stalled in the Senate, putting homeschooling families in legal limbo.

The family's appeal will be heard by the 7th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo, ADF International said.

"We are waiting for real justice and the court to give us this acquittal that we think we deserve because the state can't change law [based on] ideology," Audato said.