Brazilian Parents Sentenced to 50 Days in Jail for Homeschooling Their Daughters and Not Teaching Them «Diversity»
A São Paulo judge sentenced a Brazilian couple to 50 days in jail for homeschooling their daughters and failing to teach them tolerance and diversity. The parents had begun homeschooling during the 2020 pandemic because of deficiencies in public distance‑learning programs. The Supreme Federal Court in 2019 ruled that homeschooling does not violate the Constitution, but urged state involvement. The court accused the parents of using their children as pawns in an ideological struggle and of excluding the state from their education.
3 months ago
Brazilian parents Audato and Ieda Denardi were sentenced to 50 days in prison for homeschooling their daughters, after a São Paulo judge found them guilty of “intellectual neglect” for omitting state‑mandated content on tolerance, diversity and gender education. 1
The Brazilian Supreme Federal Court ruled in 2019 that homeschooling does not violate the Constitution, but it asked Congress to create regulations. A 2022 bill passed the Chamber of Deputies, setting conditions such as a parent’s higher‑education degree and periodic evaluations, yet it stalled in the Senate, leaving families without clear guidelines. 1
The Denardis began homeschooling their daughters, Alice (15) and Lorena (11), in 2020 due to shortcomings in pandemic‑era public schooling. The judge classified their failure to register the children in a state‑accredited school as an administrative offense and sentenced them, citing the exclusion of “gender and sex education” and “tolerance and diversity” from the curriculum. 2
The ruling also noted that the girls did not enjoy popular music genres such as “trap” or “sertanejo,” interpreting this as a cultural deficiency, despite the girls being accomplished pianists and multilingual. 2
The public prosecutor, after reviewing witnesses, recommended acquittal, stating that an independent educational psychologist found no signs of neglect and that the girls described a rigorous daily education. Julio Pohl, legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom International, echoed these findings, emphasizing that the conviction rested on the girls’ personal music preferences and the absence of state‑approved gender content. 2 3
Ieda Denardi described the judgment as “dictatorial,” asserting her right to direct her children’s education and hoping the appellate court will overturn the conviction. ADF International, representing the family, labeled the case a “grotesque abuse of criminal law” and announced that the sentence will remain suspended while the appeal proceeds before the Seventh Criminal Court Chamber of the São Paulo State Court of Justice. 1 2
The case is the first criminal prosecution of a homeschooling family in Brazil, highlighting the legal uncertainty faced by an estimated 70,000–75,000 families who homeschool. Legislative hearings have been convened, and advocates are urging the Senate to pass the stalled homeschooling bill to guarantee parental choice. 1 3
Homeschooling, parental rights, and Catholic education principles
No specific news summary was included, so this analysis addresses the topic directly: homeschooling, parental rights, and Catholic education principles, grounded in the Church’s teaching and discipline.
Catholic teaching holds that education is not merely skills training; it is formation of the human person toward his last end. Pope Pius XI teaches that there can be “no true education” that is not directed to man’s last end, and thus “no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education.”
This also grounds the Church’s view that education is profoundly moral and spiritual. The Holy See insists that if religion is excluded from education, then “a morality worthy of man will not survive; justice and peace will not endure.”
Multiple Catholic sources state that the primary responsibility for education rests with parents and that education begins in the home.
The Church also describes parental responsibility in strong terms of priority and non-delegability. In a Holy See statement (via Archbishop Gabriele Caccia), the family is called “the first place” where values are lived and handed on, and the role of parents is “irreplaceable and inalienable,” “incapable of being entirely delegated [or] usurped by others.”
Subsidiarity means higher authorities (society and the state) should help rather than replace what lower communities (like the family) can do. The Ukrainian Catholic catechism expresses this directly: society ought to help parents “but they cannot assume the role of the family in the raising of children,” and the state should create the conditions for education “in accordance with the wishes and the will of parents.”
So, when it comes to schooling—whether in a classroom, a parish program, or at home—Catholic principle is: the family’s educational responsibility is not erased by state structures.
Catholic teaching assigns the state a real duty, but framed as protection and support of prior rights. Pius XI says the state must “protect in its legislation, the prior rights… of the family” regarding Christian education, and also respect “the supernatural rights of the Church” in that realm.
This also implies that public authority should not neutralize or monopolize education in practice. For example, the Congregation for Catholic Education notes that a “democratic state” cannot reduce education to “a single school of thought,” precisely because of natural rights of parents to freely choose an educational model consistent with the dignity of the human person.
Catholic education is described as integral and person-centered: it embraces the “whole person” (spiritual, intellectual, emotional, social, physical) and treats faith not as an isolated add-on but as something that “oxygenates every other subject.”
It also emphasizes that education forms consciences and moral judgment. Leo XIV references Gravissimum educationis’ call to enable students “to evaluate moral values with a right conscience,” calling this right sacred and urging civil authorities to respect it.
In the same spirit, the Caccia statement presents education as integral human development—making people “more free and responsible,” and enabling them to assimilate fundamental values and virtues.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law contains an explicit norm that speaks directly to homeschooling-like scenarios:
“Parents are to entrust their children to those schools which provide a Catholic education. If they are unable to do this, they are obliged to take care that suitable Catholic education is provided for their children outside the schools.”
This canon is crucial for your question. It does two things:
Homeschooling is not named in the citation you provided, but the canon’s logic covers the category: when Catholic school is not available or not chosen, parents must still provide suitable Catholic education outside schools.
The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches similarly grants an eparchial bishop authority regarding schools and states:
“Parents should send their children to Catholic schools, other things being equal.”
While that text is more general and does not repeat the precise “outside the schools” clause found in CIC can. 798, it aligns with the same parental responsibility and ecclesial oversight of Catholic educational standards.
Leo XIV emphasizes the “educational alliance” as collaboration:
“The family remains the first place of education. Catholic schools collaborate with parents; they do not substitute them, because the ‘duty… devolves primarily on them.’”
The Congregation for Catholic Education’s document on Catholic school identity similarly locates Catholic education within the Church’s mission while respecting the dialogical and human formation aspects of schooling.
John Paul II teaches that while parents have primary responsibility, the Church provides real help and that the Church’s conviction is that Catholic education includes a necessary religious dimension.
He also notes bishops’ responsibility to watch over Catholic schools in their territories, which supports the idea that Catholic education is not merely private preference but part of an ecclesial mission.
In Catholic teaching, parental rights in education are not a license to do whatever one wants; they are rights because parents have an objective duty to educate children toward their true good and ultimate end.
So “parental rights” in this context means:
The USCCB’s statement (in support of educational choice legislation) uses Catholic premises to argue that parents have the right to choose the best educational environment, whether public, homeschool, or private, and that public authorities have a duty to ensure concrete conditions for exercising this right.
While this is an American advocacy document rather than a universal norm, it is explicitly grounded in Catholic teaching about parents as first and primary educators and “true liberty” in school choice.
Catholic education principles support the following conclusions:
Catholic teaching therefore does not treat “parental rights” and “religious formation” as competing goals: parental freedom is meant to serve the objective duty to educate children in a Catholic manner.