New Standards for Homeschoolers

My first child neglect case was a home schooling case. The Concord School District reported a woman for failing to file a curriculum. In fact, this was true - the people were never handed the requirements by the school district when they registered to home school, and they happened to move the very week the school district mailed them to the family.

- Note that the school district had NO interest in the fact that the children were actually being educated - simply that they lost a lost of federal dollars because four children in the family had speech impediments, and they lost funding when the mother pulled them out of the school district to home school. After a finding in the district court, we appealed and took the complaint to the Home School Advisory Committee (now defunct). The Home Schooling hearing committee heard the case and ordered the school district to allow the woman to file it belatedly, file proof that her children had in fact made progress, and DCYF dropped the case in the trial de novo in the Superior Court as the people were in compliance with the law. My more recent experience tells me that school districts are still not shy about reporting people to DCYF if the children qualify for federal funding. It's an ongoing problem. I had a case where two parents - teachers by education - have been hounded to death by Timberlane because they fought for a reasonable IEP for years. Timberlane got sick of it, reported them to DCYF for trumped up neglect charges, and the litigation on that has been ongoing for several years. I spoke to someone from the Disability Rights Center who told me that Timberlane is very bad to work with - they invariably resort to ad hominem attacks on parents if they don't get their way. They litigate more in federal court than almost any other school district, so it's I believe it.

I think the bill is simply a way to give school districts who don't want a particular family home schooling a way to force the children into the public school via DCYF - particularly children that meet the requirements for federal funding through IEPs. There is accountability in the system already - proof of progress is still required. See RSA 193-A:6.

I hope the home schoolers fill representative hall again. The last hearing I attended that attempted to restrict home schoolers' rights was attended by almost a full hall of home schooling mothers, many of them nursing babes and many, many VERY well behaved children. The representatives were happy to acquiesce to the mother's demands just to get them out of the state house.

Paula Werme, Esq.

My question is about the amended part of this bill that states: As amended, Senate Bill 337 no longer allows local school districts to count all home educated students as part time students for funding purposes. Does this mean that schools are currently receiving funding for homeschooled children who are not receiving any district support or curriculum?

Thanks,

T. Sargent
Stratham, NH
Sau 16

If parents should be held accountable, so should the "evaluation". While homeschooling my High school daughter, she took a number of graduate level science courses at UNH. According to our school district (who were required to do the evaluation at that time), these courses were "beyond a high school students capability". However, according to the university professor who taught the course, my daughter had mastered the material, and was more than capable of continuing in her studies at that level.

The public school "review" attempted to force us to dumb down our home school curriculum to match the local high school curriculum. Of course, the fact that we had already covered and mastered the high school curriculum (in elementary school) was completely disregarded because they school felt that it was "impossible for a student that young to master the material". The fact that the "high school" material had been covered in the private schools we attended before we moved to NH was not considered.

The simple fact is that (in my experience), the public school have used their "oversight" of home schoolers to attempt to force us to dumb down our curriculum to match the public school curriculum, regardless of the students mastery of the public school curriculum and more advanced material.

-James DuPrie

If homeschooled students should be evaluated annually to determine their progress, how can we possibly allow the public school to continually promote students from grade to grade regardless of mastery of skills? The supposedly "highly qualified" public school teacher who couldn't find any sort of evaluation guidelines to do her evaluation demonstrates why the idea of regulation is ridiculous. Public school "evaluation" for advancing to the next grade is simply the fact that a student finished a school year - not that they actually learned anything, just that they sat in the classroom for the year.

If the public schools are not held accountable, it is insane to expect them to oversee the homeschoolers unless they are held ot the same satndards - that is that the child has simply been around for a year.
-James DuPrie

It seems to me the real root of this bill is schools are worried about the money they are losing. Every child that is homeschooled is one that is not in their school. I believe money is the reason Marie Ross mentioned having the child who would have been expelled. She was concerned he was 6 months behind and was not going to pass the testing. So they would lose money.
I believe money is the reason SAU 38 told me I gave up my right to ask for help because I am a homeschooler. I asked for help with what I thought was a reading disability and got that response. It is frustrating for me because they still get my taxes and I hear people say "Oh, your school district is there for you." But not if it costs them money.

Why is SB337 necessary? What has changed in the last 2 years since HB406 was enacted? Does the DOE have data that says the state needs more oversight into homeschoolers? I submit my letter of intent to homeschool and at the end of my school year, I also submit my daughters' evaluation or test scores to show that she has made educational progress. This bill, in my opinion is intended to intimidate homeschoolers, especially new homeschoolers. My fear is that this bill is the tip of the iceburg, that eventually the state would like to be able to tell me WHAT method or program I can use in my own homeschool program, or worse yet, that I won't be able to teach my child at home and would have to send her to the public school.

Perhaps Emma Rouse should focus her attention on the failing public school system instead of thriving homeschoolers. Many homeschoolers start homeschooling because the public school system is a failure. Liberal teaching, lack of values, inability to protect students. The list goes on. Public schools teach to the lowest common denominator and have no vested interest in the child other than a head count that brings in more federal funding.

The plain fact of the matter is that most parents drop of their most precious responsibility at the school each morning. Homeschooling parents actually raise their children instead of leaving it for strangers to do.

At the hearing, Dr. Joyce, Director NH School Administrators Association, said that superintedents welcomed this bill because they would be better able to provide appropriate resources to homeschooling parents. While Dr. Joyce is correct that more districts are willing than in the past to provide access to public school activities, it took a change to the law in 2002 to get that cooperation in many districts. Under current law, the only barrier to superintendents making the resources of the district available to homeschooling families are policies created by school boards that restrict access to only that which is required by law. SB337 will not fix that.

Regarding the caller who objects to the use of the term, "Our" children: I wonder if this represents that larger societal problem which was only alluded to in passing during the show? It often seems that parents -- in public school environments as much as anywhere else -- lose sight of the fact that "their" children are destined to become productive members of society (or not). These children will be looking after us in our declining years; or else they will be unproductive drains on our future welfare systems. So yes, their education is all of "our" responsibility.

Rep. Judith Day put no thought process into how this bill will deal with special needs students and testing. An overwhelming amount of homeschooled children fall into the Autistic spectrum, which NH lacks in special schools. Another area that has not been addressed is, who is going to fund the testing AND the evaluations. As a homeschooling parent of just one child, our families expenses for curriculum, special group classes and evaluations are well over $2500.00. For a large family, this new added cost may take that parental freedom away. In a state where our motto is Live Free or Die, it should worry anyone that our state government is trying to reach it's hands into our homes. Where will the line end if this bill passes?