Oral remarks:

Thank you, Mister Chairman, and members of the committee. My name is Chris Hamilton, and I am a homeschooler from Brookline, NH. I am here to express concerns that I have about how this bill will affect homeschoolers, and to propose a small change that will minimize the impact on homeschoolers.

I want to thank the sponsors of the bill for their expressed intent NOT to affect homeschoolers. After my testimony before the Senate Education Committee about how the bill affected homeschoolers, sponsors created an amendment which they believe gives homeschoolers a blanket exemption. The amendment was adopted by the Senate, and the bill as it now stands would change RSA 193:1 I (b) to read:

(b) The child is receiving home education and is therefore exempt from this requirement;

I also want to thank the DOE and the Governor’s Office, who have been working with a small group of homeschoolers to clarify each other’s understanding of the situation after the amendment was adopted by the Senate.

The concerns I have heard expressed by homeschoolers are:

1. A blanket exemption for homeschoolers would be unconstitutional, as it would violate “equal protection under the law” guaranteed in the 14^th amendment to the US Constitution. Homeschooling parents would have a right not given to parents of public school students.

2. When inserted into the context of 193:1, the meaning of “this requirement” in the language granting the exemption is not clear. Homeschoolers worry about whether school officials, law enforcement officers, judges, and future legislators will be able to discern legislative intent in years to come. Homeschoolers would like to see the exemption spelled out more clearly in the statute, and not leave the clarification to the rule-making process.

3. Homeschoolers are put in a Catch-22. In order to be exempt from “this requirement”, a parent of a child over age 16 will be required to establish that the child is receiving home education. One establishes that by creating a home education program as defined in RSA 193-A. So in order to be exempt from reporting requirements, homeschooling parents will be required to report!

An elegant and simple solution was proposed by Cathy Hamblett, Home Education Advisory Council member nominated by the NH School Administrators Association. Homeschooling parents could be given the right to terminate reporting requirements after age 16 by signing an affidavit that the home education program was complete. The affidavit would correspond to a high school diploma issued by a non-public school, which is permitted to issue a diploma without government standards. As long as the parent is the one deciding when to issue the affidavit that ends the reporting requirements, most homeschoolers will see minimal change from current law. They will simply issue the affidavit when their children turn 16. There will be a small number of homeschoolers who may wish to access public school classes or extra-curricular activities who may decide to continue reporting in order to have access to these programs. It will be up to each homeschooling family to decide whether there is a greater benefit from ceasing to report to the state or from access to public schools.

For discussion purposes, I propose the following amendment:

(b) The child is receiving home education; or the child is no younger than sixteen, was formerly receiving home education, and a parent or guardian has signed an affidavit stating that the home education program is complete;

This is not necessarily the best possible language. There are homeschoolers besides myself who would be willing to work with legislators to craft language that would minimize the impact of this legislation on homeschoolers. I hope that Senator Estabrook’s earlier remarks will encourage you to work with us toward that goal.

Thank you for your time.