The home education law (RSA 193:A) and rules (ED315) were created as an alternative to compulsory attendance at a public school. Changes to the compulsory attendance law can affect home education programs directly.
Dropout issues are related to home education programs in three ways. The first is that because of the way in which attendance is determined at public schools, home educated students can appear to be dropouts when they turn 16 and no longer have home education programs. With the recent attention being paid to dropout rates (tied to school accountability), schools and legislators are looking at ALL factors which contribute to dropout statistics. The second is that school officials look at many students who withdraw from public schools after age 16 as dropouts, even when they behave like home educated students in all respects except for the lack of an acknowledged home education program. The third way is that one solution to the dropout problem offered during this session is to raise the age of compulsory attendance to 18, which affects home educated students directly.
Public school suspensions and expulsions are related to home education in two ways. The first is that if a student is suspended or expelled from a public school, the parent can provide a home education program to continue the child's education and meet the requirements of the compulsory attendance law. (There is some question about whether this is necessary, as an expulsion or suspension may exempt the parent from the compulsory attendance law.) The second is that parents and school officials sometimes use home education as a way to avoid suspensions and expulsions from appearing on a student's record, and to relieve the district of the obligation of dealing with a troublesome student.