With parents increasingly choosing to home school their children, public schools in Kentucky are pushing back.

Public school officials have allegedly been contacting homeschooling parents, trying to persuade them to bring their kids back to school.

According to Thomas J. Schmidt, a staff attorney for HSLDA, the conversations start off nice, then some take a sinister turn.

Schmidt explains what has been happening:

These contacts involved a variety of personnel and followed a pattern. Officials promised to ease students back into public school and make sure they had fun. If parents declined, officials increased the sales pressure.

One of the first homeschool moms to call us stated that a school nurse had telephoned to ask: “What can we do to convince you to send your child back to school in person?” When our member politely stated that her family wanted to continue to homeschool, the school nurse went into details about fun activities that students could be doing in school. Our member was also told that no testing would be required to re-enroll a child into school.

After our member insisted the third time that they would not be returning their child to the public school, the nurse stated that the district would call back in July and conduct home visits. The school official then asked our member how she would feel about that.

HSLDA is an organization that helps equip parents to homeschool their children.

In response to the activities of school officials, which have already included home visits, HSLDA ‘s legal team sent a letter to the superintendent of Perry Sound schools warning that parents have the legal right to homeschool their children. It also called on school officials to stop harassing parents.

READ: Unmarked Car, Home Visits Part of District’s Effort to Win Back Homeschoolers

Study: Homeschooled children do well at university

A 2012 study found that homeschooled children fared better at university than children attending public schools.

HuffPost provides the details:

More than 2 million U.S. students in grades K-12 were home-schooled in 2010, accounting for nearly four percent of all school-aged children, according to the National Home Education Research Institute. Studies suggest that those who go on to college will outperform their peers.

Students coming from a home school graduated college at a higher rate than their peers­ — 66.7 percent compared to 57.5 percent — and earned higher grade point averages along the way, according to a study that compared students at one doctoral university from 2004-2009.

READ: Homeschooled Students Well-Prepared For College, Study Finds