Brazil Court Sentences Parents to Prison for Homeschooling
A Brazilian court has sentenced parents Audato and Ieda Denardi to 50 days in prison for homeschooling their children. A judge convicted them of “intellectual neglect” for not including curriculum that includes “gender and sex education” and “tolerance and diversity” education.
The April 2026 sentence, ruled by a São Paulo court, is suspended as the Denardi family appeals to the state’s highest court.
In 2020, the Denardi parents started homeschooling their two daughters after they witnessed flaws within the public education system while their daughters learned through remote education. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, which is representing the parents legally, said that the Denardi parents observed a substantial improvement in the girls’ academics once they began homeschooling. In their home, the daughters, 11 and 15, learned to speak multiple languages and are accomplished pianists.
ADF’s press release also notes the parents have “enjoyed being able to incorporate their faith and personal values into their learning.”
During the April hearing, the prosecutor concluded that the children were not neglected and recommended to the judge that they be acquitted of the charge. Yet the court ruled that the girls were not educated in cultural diversity because they did not like “trap” or “sertanejo” (folk) music.
The judge ruled that the parents used their daughters as “pawns in an ideological struggle, subjecting them to a form of unregulated education.” The judge’s decision also said that their education had “the effectiveness and quality of which lack adequate metrics within the Brazilian legal system, while completely excluding the State’s involvement.”
Julio Pohl, legal counsel for Latin America at ADF International, called the sentence a “grotesque abuse of the criminal law.”
“A parent has been sentenced to prison not for failing to educate her children, but for educating them according to her own values,” Pohl said.
“The prosecutor examined the witnesses and recommended for acquittal,” he said. “An independent educational psychologist found no sign of neglect. The girls themselves described rigorous daily education. The judge convicted anyway—because a 15-year-old said she finds some music lyrics morally questionable, and because the curriculum didn’t include state-approved content on gender.”
The highest state court, in São Paulo, will hear Denardi’s appeal.
Ieda, the daughters’ mother, expressed that she and her husband are “hopeful the court will recognize our right to choose the best education for our children” and overturn the conviction.
“As a mother, I cannot conceive a more dictatorial state than the one that wants me in jail because I chose to exercise my right to direct the education and upbringing of my daughters,” she said.
Although homeschooling is not illegal in Brazil, parents have faced obstacles while homeschooling children due to a murky legal framework for homeschooling.
A recent legal case involved Brazilian mother Regiane Cichelero. In September 2025, a state court fined her about $20,000 USD and barred her from homeschooling her son. Cichelero has appealed the ruling.
No other parent in Brazil has been criminally convicted for homeschooling their children.
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