A new bill has been introduced in the New Jersey legislature (A. 3123) that threatens homeschooling freedoms in New Jersey.
It's a doozy, as my dad used to say. Let's let the bill speak for itself.
This bill requires a parent or guardian seeking to educate his child at home to register with the resident school district prior to the establishment of the home education program. The bill provides that the registration must include:
- Descriptive information about the child,his home education supervisor, and the program
- A statement the child will be provided instruction in such subjects as required by law
- evidence the child has been properly immunized and has received necessary health and medical services
- A certification the supervisor, all adults living in the home, and persons having legal custody of a child in a home education program have not been convicted of certain criminal offenses
Under the bill, a home education program must provide instruction for a minimum of 180 days each year and must include courses in such areas as determined by the Commissioner of Education.
The bill directs the Commissioner of Education to develop guidelines for home education programs that provide for a sequential course of study for each grade, K-12.
The bill directs the resident school district to lend the parent or guardian of a home schooled child copies of the school district’s planned curriculum, textbooks, and other instructional materials, as requested.
The bill also:
- Provides the resident school district must permit a student registered in a home education program to participate in the district’s extracurricular activities, including interscholastic athletics, provided that certain conditions are met. Under the bill, the district must provide the student with access to a medical or physical examination, if one is required as a condition of participation in the activity and if the school district offers the medical or physical examination to its enrolled students.
- Requires the supervisor of a home education program to maintain a portfolio of records and materials demonstrating the student’s work and progress, including the results of standardized tests and an independent evaluation of the student’s educational progress.
- Provides a process for reviewing the adequacy of home education programs.
- Provides a process for the termination of a home education program determined to be inadequate.
Some of you reading may not find this any more burdensome than laws in your state, but to put it in perspective, the only thing included in this bill currently required is the part about 180 days.
I will continue to keep you informed of the threat this bill represents, so you are informed and ensure channels of communication are open for any call to action in the next days & weeks.
New Jersey homeschoolers covet your prayers at this time.
This was posted simultaneously at Mixing Home Business and Home Schooling and Moms In the Right by Susan Critelli on October 2, 2008.
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Wow, that's pretty strong language to hold homeschoolers to. What triggered this legislation and what is the real motivation behind this?
A very good question. Everything has been just fine with our statute the way it is.
This beast would truly be the worst homeschool law in the nation if passed. Many of us who have tolerated escalating taxes and regulations on every other minute aspect of our existence but have dutifully remianed in New Jersey because of favorable homeschool laws will be on the next train out, taking our tax revenue with us.
Ha ha. But where shall we go? New York? Pennsylvania?
Thanks for your comment.
I always wonder who is behind something like this. What is their agenda? No doubt they claim that it's in the interests of our homeschooled children, but I doubt that's it. I doubt that they're merely misguided about what is best for us. What is really behind it?