Los Angeles (BP)—In a huge win for thousands of Christian families nationwide, a California appeals court Aug. 8 reversed itself and ruled that parents do in fact have a right to home school their children even if they lack teaching credentials.

The three-judge panel received nationwide attention and criticism in February when it ruled that “parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.” It based its ruling on a nearly 80-year-old law by the California legislature. But in the decades since the law was implemented, the panel ruled, the legislature has implicitly accepted home schooling as legal.

“We ... conclude that California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education,” the justices wrote in their unanimous decision.

The February ruling said parents could home school their children only if they had a “valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught”—something that many, if not most, home schooling parents do not have. The panel announced in March it would rehear the case. The original decision drew criticism from California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pledged legislation if it was not overturned, as well as from State Schools Superintendent Jack O’Connell, who said he supported the rights of home schoolers.

There are an estimated 166,000 home school students in California. More than a dozen organizations filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the court to reconsider its ruling. Technically, the court case involved alleged abuse within a family who had home schooled their children. But instead of simply ruling on that particular case, the court issued a broad ruling that covered all home school families in the state.

The latest ruling drew wide praise from home school organizations.

“This is a great victory for home school freedom,” said Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association. “I have never seen such an impressive array of people and organizations coming to the defense of home schooling. The team effort was remarkable.”

The original ruling was viewed as particularly troubling to Christian families because California’s public schools have some of the more liberal laws in the nation regarding teaching about sexuality and homosexuality. Many of those families see home schooling as the only viable alternative.

The Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal organization, was among the groups involved in the case seeking a reversal.

“Parents have a constitutional right to make educational choices for their children,” Alliance Defense Fund attorney Gary McCaleb said in a statement. “Thousands of California families have educated their children successfully through home schooling. We’re pleased with the court’s decision, which protects the rights of families and protects an avenue of education that has proven to benefit children time and time again.”