Legislative Session Update
I promised a full report of my trip to Washington, DC for
the HSLDA Summit, and I will still submit that report as soon as I have a moment
to write it. I've been just a bit busy reviewing the 2,163 bills that have been proposed
for the current state legislative session. The deadline for filing new bills has
now passed and I am pleased to report that NONE of these bills directly threaten
our home school freedom! Now we just have to watch for amendments to existing bills.
Here
are a few specific bills that may be of interest to home school families:
House Bill
871 (Henry) and Senate Bills 576 (Michot) and 578 (Riser) are all identical bills
that provide a way for home study students to participate in interscholastic extracurricular
public school activities. To date, HB871 was voluntarily deferred ("shelved" for
further study) and neither of the Senate bills have been placed on the schedule.
Senate Bill 129 (Nevers) was voluntarily deferred in the Senate Education Committee
meeting on Thursday. This bill would not have immediately or directly affected home
schoolers, but it carried a general threat to parental rights. By removing the "academic
readiness screening" option for virtually all public school Kindergarten students,
SB129 would have made Kindergarten an unavoidable prerequisite to public school 1st
grade. Had it passed, it would have effectively lowered the compulsory attendance
age without actually changing our compulsory attendance statute!
"The price of freedom
is eternal vigilance." (generally attributed to Thomas Jefferson)
Beryl Amedée
Legislative
Liaison
