Update on SB268 - bill to raise the age of compulsory attendance
1/11/06, 8:10 AM
There is a Senate Education Committee hearing on the bill:
Tuesday, January 24, 9:00 AM
Room 103 of the State House
This bill has strong bipartisan support, as well as the support of the governor,
the chair of the House Education Committee, the chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee,
and many more influential legislators.
I talked to Dean Michener, Associate Director of the NH School Board Association yesterday,
and the NHSBA has decided to support this bill. He said it was because the new minimum standards
for public schools give the school boards the flexibility to provide alternative programs
to meet the needs of potential dropouts.
This bill has NO FISCAL NOTE.
That means no formal analysis has been done of the cost of the plan.
The bill does not amend RSA 193-A,
which means formal home education as a means to meet the compulsory attendance law
is no longer a parental right after the child turns 16.
Students ages 16 & 17 will have to meet one of the other criteria
in order to avoid compulsory attendance at public school.
A home education plan COULD meet the requirements of:
(g) The pupil obtains a waiver from the superintendent, which shall
only be granted upon proof that the pupil is 16 years of age or older and has an alternative
learning plan for obtaining either a high school diploma or its equivalent.
but if the superintendent did not like the plan, he could choose not to grant a waiver.
As far as I can tell, school boards, not the BOE, have the right to make rules and policies
that further define "alternative learning plan", although the BOE is along the path of
due process when a parent disagrees with the school board.
This could mean that the BOE and/or the courts become the determiner of what constitutes
an acceptable "alternative learning plan".
Chris Hamilton
Beaver Lodge Homeschool