NH 2009 Legislative Session

Compulsory attendance, dropout issues, suspensions and expulsions

last updated 12/03/08 at 3:00 PM

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.

Truancy laws are created to allow districts and the state to enforce the compulsory attendance law. In NH, students who are required to attend school and who are absent without permission are truant, and truant officers may, without a warrant, detain them and deliver them to their parents or to the public school. Older homeschooled students who engage in activities without their parents present can find themselves challenged by truant officers as they go about their business in public during school hours.

Dropout issues are related to home education programs in three ways:

• Because of the way in which attendance is determined at public schools, home educated students can appear to be dropouts when they turn 18 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.
• School officials look at many students who withdraw from public schools after age 18 as dropouts, even when they behave like home educated students in all respects except for the lack of an acknowledged home education program.
• The lack of information about the outcomes of home educated students, specifically whether or not they obtain high school diplomas, is highlighted in a series of highly visible reports from the NH Center for Public Policy:
  • One in Four: School Drop-Outs in New Hampshire
  • Still 'One in Four': High School Dropouts in NH
  • Now One in Five
  This lack of information is leading some in the education establishment to advocate for the collection of more data about "graduation rates" of home educated students.

Public school suspensions and expulsions are related to home education in two ways:

• 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.)
• 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.