New Jersey homeschoolers may be facing quite a legislative battle if a recently introduced bill advances beyond committee. Currently, there is no real oversight, no requirements for testing nor even for notification unless the Superintendent requests information. This is all likely because New Jersey does not actually have a “homeschool law,” per se. Instead, homeschools operate under the “equivalent education” clause of the compulsory school attendance law:
Every parent, guardian or other person having custody and control of a child between the ages of six and 16 years shall cause such child regularly to attend the public schools of the district or a day school in which there is given instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools for children of similar grades and attainments or to receive equivalent instruction elsewhere than at school. NJ Rev. Stat. § 18A: 38-25
Proposed is A 3123 (pdf), a bill to require registration and oversight of home education programs. From the summary sent out by the New Jersey Homeschool Association:
They propose that parents:
1. Be given a deadline to register with their local school;
2. Turn in an outline of educational objectives by subject;
3. Certify that children have received medical care as “required by law” (!);
4. Certify that no one in the home has been convicted of certain criminal offenses;
5. Follow a curriculum developed by the State Commissioner of Education;
6. Keep a portfolio of student work and a deadline to turn it in for inspection;
7. A 30-lead time on arbitrary inspection of the above;
8. Force their children to submit to standardized tests;
9. Have the child’s work reviewed by a “qualified evaluator”;
10. Have the child “interviewed” by a psychologist, certified teacher or school administrator;
11. 20 days from a bad review to offer more documentation and failing that,
12. To enroll the child into a school.In return, kids get to play on the school sports team. (via families.com)
Rumor has it this is the result of homeschoolers wishing to play on sports teams through their local public schools. Like Tammy, I’ve heard the little “birdies,” but also cannot find anything but the rumors. This is perhaps more of a question for New Jersey homeschoolers as I have not been able to find anything online, but are homeschoolers there even pushing for this privilege? From what little I could find, New Jersey law does not forbid participation in school sponsored sports, it just leaves it up to the district. But I couldn’t find any references to homeschoolers wishing to change that status.
There has long been concern that homeschoolers participating in school sports might invite further governmental oversight of homeschools. Unfortunately, the arguments I have read focus mainly on a fear of what might happen rather than evidence of what actually has. I am certainly not saying that we should not take those concerns seriously, but from a purely rhetorical standpoint, consider the comparative strengths of the following arguments:
1) Once regulations are in place for homeschooling athletes, there will be strong pressure to apply them to all homeschoolers, leading to increased regulation of all homeschoolers. Why the Question of Playing Public School Sports Affects All Homeschoolers
2) In 2008, New Jersey homeschoolers pressued their legislature to change the law to allow homeschoolers across the state access to public school sports. This was the result. (Entirely fictitious example, made up by me.)
To me, I sort of shrug my shoulders at the first argument. It is a concern, but without some sort of evidence, it is a weak argument on its own. Apparently, according to The Homeschooling Book of Answers, twenty four states allow homeschoolers to compete in interscholastic sports:
Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington state, and Wyoming. Vermont allows homeschoolers to participate in individual sports, like golf and tennis, but not in team sports. Family Education
Looking over this list, there are states which are very restrictive in their homeschool laws, such as North Dakota and Rhode Island. But there are also states which are very liberal in their homeschool laws, such as Alaska, Michigan and Idaho. There doesn’t seem to be a correlation between participation in school sports and increased regulation of homeschools.
There is that little bone thrown to homeschoolers in the proposed legislation about being allowed to participate in school sports, which I presume is what got the birdies started chattering. But it is not uncommon for the author of a bill to throw in a few concessions to make a bill more palatable to the opposition. In fact, here in Nebraska, a senator is required to meet with those most likely to oppose a bill before formally introducing it, and the original bill is frequently modified at that time to make it more likely to pass. And if I were seeking favors from the state, I am not sure that my first choice of representatives to contact would be two Democrats on the Higher Education Committee. Nothing against either of them, I only briefly surveyed their list of sponsored and co-sponsored bills, but I didn’t see anything that jumped out at me as evidence of being overly supportive of educational freedom. I suspect that it was not New Jersey homeschoolers who initiated this bill in any form, including a request to modfy the law to make it possible to compete in school sports.
From what I can see, there is nothing in New Jersey’s recent legislative history that has anything to do with homeschoolers participating in school sports. So where did this bill come from? Unless someone can provide some more detailed information, I am guessing it came from the same place Nebraska’s LB 1141 came from: “concerned” legislators who at some point have realized that homeschools do not have the kind of oversight that public school teachers have. The real “culprit,” if there is one, is a culture increasingly bent on “accountability” without realizing that in all these programs affecting the public schools, the accountability isn’t meant to give the state more knowledge about the teacher, but the parents more knowledge about what the state is doing with their children.
homeschool, New Jersey homeschool law, A3123, interscholastic sports, homeschool sports
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From equivalent to 11 hoops to jump through! Excessive!
Dh and I have the equal access discussion often. I keep telling him that to demand equal access means increased regulations.
I’m not sure about the sports issue, but NJ’s next-door-neighbors PA and NY have some of the most restrictive homeschooling laws in the country. Most of the requirements listed in the proposed bill can be found in either PA’s or NY’s laws or both. So I would suspect it’s more of a copycat thing. Some busybody legislator most likely got all concerned about HS for some reason (my guess as a result of all the media attention during the recent California legal battle), did some research, and didn’t like how NJ compared to the neighboring states.
I agree, Crimson Wife. Once upon a time, I was actually surprised to find out how easy it was to homeschool in NJ. It seems all the other states out that way are high regulation states.
And Christy, I think you are right. All it takes is one person asking, “But how do we know?” and the legislation starts. Court rulings thus far have been in homeschoolers favor regarding the “equivalent instruction” thing, however, so that helps a lot.
OK, of all the restrictions, the following a curriculum developed by the state is BY FAR the scariest. And you know, maybe I’m wrong, but the implications for homeschool companies doing national business could be severely affected if too many states do this. It’s an economic/monopoly thing in my mind as well as an ideological problem with what the curriculum may or may not teach.
Illinois allows homeschoolers (private schools) to participate, but with definite restrictions that are controlled by the former coaches/principals…err..Illinois High School Association. This includes Quiz Bowl and Band competitions.
Here’s the link and compliance is located in Section 3.011
http://www.ihsa.org/org/policy/2008-09/section2.pdf
The student must “attend a member school”. “For purposes of this by-law, the term “attend” shall mean that the student is enrolled at the member school.”
There is a possibility that private schoolers can (” under arrangements approved by the member school” do the “minimum of twenty (20) credit hours” of work at home. I would suspect that accredited schools like American School would muster approval, but most homeschoolers just attend the public school classes, as I’ve heard by the by. The school gets funding with that ‘part time participation’.
Illinois allows for much freedom in homeschooling, with no registration or reporting. I’d always compared NJ and TX homeschooling freedoms as similar to IL, as I believe NJ and TX homeschooling legalities are also framed around court rulings. Ours is from a 1950 IL Supreme Court ruling.
Susan, I have no doubt that choosing to participate in school sports will affect those who choose to do so. But not all people want the independence, and many would be quite happy with a public school at home program. I am just wondering how much the rest of us are basing our concerns on fears of what might happen, as opposed to what actually is happening. Has there been a push for greater restrictions in Illinois directly related to the fact that homeschoolers participating in sports have greater regulation?
If we can establish a definite relationship between the two, than it is of great concern. But either way, I think we do best to be sure of the root causes. At this time, I don’t see any evidence of a direct correlation.
Mrs. C., I agree. That and submitting to a psychological evaluation. Sounds so…dare I say German? I doubt the curriculum developed by the State stands. NJ doesn’t do that to private schools, do they? I don’t think that measure could stand in court, given previous Supreme Court rulings which give the state the power to force children to “some school” but not the power to direct the curriculum of every school.
This one jumped out at me: “4. Certify that no one in the home has been convicted of certain criminal offenses.” This seems like a strange smashup of the requirements to be a public school teacher and family life. It makes sense to say that you can’t be a school teacher if you have been convicted of certain crimes. Sounds appropriate.
But not everyone who has been convicted of a crime loses rights to custody of their children. What if the criminal is a sibling or a member of the extended family? And if they are still allowed to be resident in the family, why does it have bearing on the homeschooling?
So if you go to public school mommy can have a felony background for say writing bad checks, but if you are homeschooled she cannot? Interesting.
I don’t know what is meant by “certain crimes,” but it may be directly related to what Crimson Wife mentioned about this perhaps being part of the fallout from the attention give homeschooling in the wake of what happened in CA. There are cases such as sustained allegations of abuse in which I think it is appropriate to have intensive family interventions involved to preserve the family, thereby not removing children. However, in such cases, I would be as uncomfortable about the parents homeschooling as are the normal detractors of homeschooling.
The problem is, without clarification, we can all read into it what we want. One person may read “any offense,” while I read only “sustained allegations of abuse.” Ripe for state abuse, if the state were ever inclined to such a thing.
Dana thank you for blogging this. I had not heard of it yet. I am sorry that my close neighbor, New Jersey is having to fight this battle.
Our law in Connecticut is similar in that we don’t have a specific homeschool law and we have no LAW that requires oversight. In the past some bills have been proposed to try to have more monitoring. I sure hope that in CT this legislative sesion we don’t have to deal with this.
More and more it seems that different states are trying to regulate and monitor homeschoolers.
I was just responding to what it really means to “allow homeschoolers to compete in interscholastic sports” in Illinois. IL was listed as one of those 24 states and the quote made it seem much simpler than it is.
Regarding your question: “Has there been a push for greater restrictions in Illinois directly related to the fact that homeschoolers participating in sports have greater regulation?”
I don’t believe there have been greater homeschooling restrictions because homeschoolers wanted to be in ps sports/activities. There was a dustup when IHSA initiated its new rules about private school/homeschool participation, but my memory is fuzzy about that.
On a local level, there is negotiation with each homeschool family wishing to participate in IHSA activities because of the bylaws. How are those 20 credit hours approved? Does it need to be an accredited distance learning school such as American School? Do the kids have to be seated in the school half of the day? But if you’re in the public school, you play by public school rules. That is the choice of families to make.
Private schools here participating in IHSA activities are allowing homeschoolers to stay home while allowing legitimate 20 credit hour approval. Public schools seem to be insisting the kids stay in the classroom.
If our family did this (the IHSA activities), we’d go the private school route as they’re much more flexible and seem to be engaged in the actual education rather than the money (as an institution).They encourage the family sticking together.
I should say that some public elementary schools allow homeschoolers to participate in the grade school sports/activities. It depends on the principal/administrators and some are open to all.
Sorry to be so long about this.
What is “medical care as required by law”? Compulsory vaccinations? Compulsory yearly well visits? Compulsory psychological evaluations? Scary!!
As I understand it, NJ already has mandatory mental health screenings for all new and pregnant moms. A new law was passed a year or so ago.
I took a look at the actual language of the proposed bill.
I thought that the summary might have been alarmist. I am actually more concerned having read the actual text. To my mind, this puts all the burdens of a public school onto the homeschool. For example, there is a reference to all the subjects required by law, but no ennumeration of what subjects are required from homeschoolers. So if NJ passes a law requiring comprehensive sex ed or multicultural religous lessons or a week of Walter Mitty familiarization within the public school system, then it would seem to also be binding on homeschools.
Failure to demonstrate that learning through the portfolio would be grounds for ruling the homeschool unsatisfactory. Tremendous room here for superintendents to be arbitrary. I hope this goes down, or I’ll have to strike another state off my list of tolerable places to live.
Yeah, I read most of the original bill and it is not very good. I have a hard time imagining that a law so radically more restrictive than the current law will pass, but you never know. Certainly shows what the NJ legislature is heading toward, I’m afraid.
I wonder if the bill was so restrictive partly so they could give up some of the provisions and still have a much more restrictive system than they have now. It allows them to say that they have tried to compromise but that homeschoolers are just unresonable and must have something to hide.
I wonder that, too. And it looks like the bill originated from a “concerned citizen” who is not a homeschooler.
The letter rally seems to be working, however. The committee has asked to meet with members of the NJ homeschool group so that should be a good thing.