Last year, as you may remember, SB55 was introduced to raise the upper age of compusory attendance from 16 to 18. The proposed change was in response to the attention being paid to dropout rates in NH. The measure was defeated, and instead, the Senate passed SB116 , "establishing a committee to study methods to prevent or reduce the high school dropout rate". The committee came back with a report with many findings and recommendations. Among the recommendations, believed to have been suggested by the NH Center for Public Policy, was the following:
A statewide identifying system of student using a unique identifier will greatly help in making the dropout reports verifiable. Such a system solves the problem of dropout reporting through one single mechanism. This committee strongly urges the creation and implementation for an identifying system.
SB333 proposes to implement this. It does so by modifying RSA 193-E:3 Delivery of an Adequate Education . While seeming to have nothing to do with homeschoolers, one must realize that homeschoolers who use their superintendent as a participating agency are reported, for purposes on attendance, on form ADM-40(?), which is used to gather statistics that ensure public schools are delivering an adequate education, and is also used to determine the size of adequate education grants to towns. Some of the statistics gathered are also used to ensure schools are complying with the No Child Left Behind Act. The funding to implement the database will come from the federal government through NCLB. While NCLB has language in it that prevents monies from being used to control the curriculum of home educators, it does not prevent them from being used to ensure attendance, or collect statistics.
When contacted, Mary Mayo, Program Assistant in the Office of Legislation and Hearings at the DOE, indicated that the question of whether home schoolers would be included in the new system has not been decided. The caller was referred to Joyce Johnson, where she left a message on voice mail. I do not know if this has not been decided because
There is also the issue of dual enrollment -- should homeschoolers who participate in public school activities affect the statistics of the public school?
The prime sponsor of SB333 is Sen. Jane O'Hearn of Nashua, who was also the sponsor of last year's SB55. She was the chairman of the legislative "committee to study methods to prevent or reduce the high school dropout rate", and serves as the chairman of the Senate Education Committee. This is what has happened with the bill so far:
* Based on a newspaper article in the Nashua Telegraph, I believe that the reason for the rejection of the committee's recommendation is the discovery that federal funds from NCLB can be used to create the proposed system. I have been unable to configure my computer to listen to the streaming audio of the Senate debate.
I am not really sure yet that this bill will affect homeschoolers. It certainly has the potential to. Although we haven't heard definitively from the Department of Education, I don't think it would hurt to contact legislators, especially those on the House Education Committee, to voice one's opinion. If homeschoolers oppose the inclusion of their children in the database, it might be wise to ask for an amendment to make that clear. Of course if they oppose the entire measure, they should state that, too. It is probably unneccessary to take any action if one supports the measure, as it seems to be on the fast track to being approved.
Who's my legislator?
Letters to committee members may be sent to:
House Education Committee
Room 207, LOB
Concord, NH 03301
271-3334
As always, I will pass along any further information I receive.
Chris Hamilton
Beaver Lodge Homeschool