The suit asks the Indiana County Court to declare the home-education law, Act 169, unconstitutional.

Darrell and Kathleen Combs of Goral Road filed the suit Sept. 23 against the Homer-Center School District, asking to be declared exempt from submitting their children's education-objective plans for the approval of the district.

They also want the county court to block the district and Superintendent Dr. Joseph Marcoline from prosecuting them for violations of the state's compulsory-attendance law.

The Combses' three children - Daniel, 12; Sheriya, 10; and T.J., 8 - have always been educated in their home, Kathleen Combs said Wednesday.

Because the school-attendance law requires children to be enrolled when they become 8 years old, the Combs family wasn't affected until four years ago when Daniel reached that age.

For the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school years, Kathleen Combs said, she and her husband turned in affidavits and educational-goals plans for Daniel's home schooling to the Homer-Center district, as the law required.

And in June 2003, they sent an affidavit saying they planned to do the same for the 2003-04 school year for Daniel and Sheriya, who also turned 8.

But the next month, Kathleen Combs said, they decided that the state requirements were too much in conflict with their religious beliefs.

"We complied with the law for two years but in doing so we put our biblical values on the back burner so we could keep up with the law's requirements," Combs said. "And there was a noticeable difference in our children.

"They were learning school work - head knowledge - but their heart knowledge wasn't being fostered. We noticed a difference in their attitudes, behavior, even their lifestyle."

The Combses wrote to school officials in July 2003, saying they would not submit education plans for their children. They invoked Pennsylvania's Religious Freedom Protection Act to claim immunity from Act 169.

Marcoline said Wednesday the state Education Department informed him that no one can claim an exemption for religious reasons.

"Home-schooling requirements that a parent must comply with are very minimal," Marcoline said. In addition to submitting an affidavit and list of objectives, "a parent ... must ensure that there will be 180 days of instruction provided by a home-school supervisor who has at least a high-school education.

"At the end of the year, parents must have the program evaluated by an educator ... and a portfolio of materials gets submitted to the school superintendent for review."

An attorney for the Home School Legal Defense Association, based in Purcellville, Va., disagrees.

"With the passage of the Religious Freedom Protection Act in 2002, the General Assembly has given folks who have religious objections to general laws, like the compulsory-attendance law, an avenue to seek exemptions from laws that impose a substantial burden on their religious beliefs," attorney James Mason said.

Mason represents the Combses and three other Pennsylvania couples who have mounted similar challenges to Act 169. The others have been filed against the Norwin and Franklin Regional school districts in Westmoreland County and the Bristol Township School District in Bucks County; none have been decided.

Mason said the RFPA defines a "substantial burden" as a regulation that compels conduct or expression that violates a specific tenet of a person's religious faith.

"It is a specific tenet of Mr. and Mrs. Combs' religious faith, rooted in their understanding of the Bible, that it would be sinful for them to ... seek approval from the secular civil government for the holy and sacred education they are duty-bound by God to provide their children," the suit states.

The suit charges that Act 169 obstructs the Combses' rights under the First Amendment by requiring them to get education officials' permission to express their religious beliefs in what they teach their children.

Act 169 also violates the Combses' 14th Amendment rights to privacy and due process, according to the suit. The law requires the Combses "to maintain a detailed log of the titles of books read by their children and samples of their children's work and to submit it all to the superintendent for a subjective, discretionary review of their religious educational activities," and gives Homer-Center the power to arbitrarily enforce Act 169 without due process of law.

The Combses are members of the Big Run Christian Church in Big Run, Jefferson County, where Darrell Combs is a part-time minister. Combs also directs the Christian Student Fellowship at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Darrell and Kathleen Combs adopted their children while they lived in Florida and South Carolina, and the family moved to Pennsylvania seven years ago.

Mason said if the Combses prove that Act 169 is a burden on the exercise of their faith, the court still could require them to obey the law. That could happen if Homer-Center proves that Act 169 is the least-restrictive means of assuring an appropriate education for the Combses' children, but Mason doubts the district can show that.

"It's not a comparison of home-schooling to public education so much as it is a comparison (of Act 169) to other states," Mason said. "For example, in California, homeschoolers only have to file an affidavit annually. That's all they have to do. And our studies show California homeschoolers do as well as Pennsylvania homeschoolers.

"Pennsylvania has one of the most restrictive regulations in the country."

Kathleen Combs said she has no quarrel with the subject matter required in a home-school plan that would satisfy the school district.

"I know (my children) need certain skills to be productive citizens in our society but we feel there are other things that are more important at this time," Combs said. "We want to turn around and say eternal things are more important in their lives than academic things.

"It's not the paperwork ... the law puts the government in charge of home education and that usurps biblical authority."

In July, Marcoline wrote to the Combses - after they taught their children at home for the 2003-2004 school year - asking them to turn in an educational log, an evaluation and other documents to the district.

Again invoking the Religious Freedom Protection Act, the Combses notified Marcoline that they did not intend to submit a portfolio of their children's education.

On Aug. 12, Marcoline filed a non-traffic, summary complaint before District Justice Susanne Steffee in the Homer City district court, charging Kathleen Combs with violating the state truancy law.

Marcoline seemed uncomfortable about having to take that step.

"In my estimation, this should be a matter handled by the state," Marcoline said. "As superintendents, we're required to uphold the laws of Pennsylvania. Children must either attend public school from ages 8 to 17, be home-schooled or attend a private school. If they fail to do one of those things, then they are subject to the truancy law."

A hearing on the truancy complaint is scheduled for Oct. 18 at the Homer City district court.

According to the Indiana County Court administrator's office, no hearing has been scheduled for the Combses' lawsuit.