NH Homeschoolers,

Last week a handful of homeschoolers who had been hearing the incorrect information from the DOE and the governors office regarding the affect of SB268 on homeschoolers decided to take action.  Below is an account of our meeting with both both entities.  Thanks to Jim Parison for providing this summary.  More information regarding steps homeschoolers can take to possibly change the direction of SB268 will be forthcoming.

Homeschoolers meet with the NHDOE & Governor’s representatives

The following is a brief summary of discussions between home educators and representatives from the NHDOE and Governor’s office.

Time:       Thursday, March 23, 2006,  9:00-9:45AM

Location:  Office of Deputy Commissioner Mary Heath

                  NH Department of Education

Homeschoolers came together to meet with representatives from the Governor’s office and the NH Dept of Education (NHDOE) to discuss issues related to Senate Bill 268 and the potential impact of the legislation should it become law.  Homeschool attendees were members of three statewide organizations which included Catholics United for Home Education (CUHE),  NH Homeschool Coalition (NHHC), and Christian Home Educators of NH (CHENH).   The meeting was coordinated by Diane Lachance, a member and meeting coordinator of NH Homeschool Watch (NHHW), a network of individuals working to monitor legislative activity and to actively lobby for the interests of home educators.  Homeschoolers in attendance are members of NHHW with affiliation to statewide organizations as follows:

Christine Mukai – CUHE Legislative Affairs V.P., NHHC Nashua Area Rep.

Chris Hamilton  - NHHC Coordinator

Jodie Lucci – CHENH, NHHC member

Diane Lachance – NHHC member

Jim Parison – CHENH President, NHHC member

Individuals were invited due to their attendance/representation at the last HEAC meeting where Mary Heath attempted to resolve issues SB268 raises for homeschoolers.  It was made clear at this meeting that homeschoolers in attendance spoke only for themselves, regardless of their affiliation with state-wide homeschool organizations.

Mary Heath, Deputy Commissioner at the NHDOE hosted the meeting and Christen Bergeron attended representing the Governor’s office.  Diane Lachance, the meeting coordinator, began the discussion pointing to concerns home educators have with SB268.  Mary and Christen both expressed that they were anxious to address the concerns of homeschoolers, but were quite clear that they were not meeting to discuss any changes to SB268.  Mary assured us several times that the single line, ostensibly exempting homeschoolers from the provisions of SB268, was sufficient to allow home educators to discontinue the home education program when the parents make that declaration for a child 16 or more years of age.  Homeschoolers were universally not satisfied with these assurances and explained that SB268, as embodied in the current language, would still have a negative impact for several reasons which were outlined in the discussion.

Chris Hamilton also presented Ms. Heath with a letter suggesting language changes that might make SB268 more homeschool friendly.  Ms. Heath was clearly unwilling to discuss changes in the bill, but she and Ms. Bergeron did seem interested in adding language to the rules that might assuage home school parents’ concerns.  Jim Parison clearly explained in summary that the rules suggestion was unacceptable; that our position was the law should be correct, not corrected later by rulemaking.  We also repeated our position that the language “exempting” homeschoolers was unacceptable.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Parison  3/23/06

Minor edits - D.Lachance 3/29/06