ARKANSAS ALERT?
A bill addressing home education in Arkansas has been filed. Here’s the pdf version, but something seems strange. There’s really nothing there. I’ll try to find out some more.
UPDATE: Here’s the entire text of the bill. Is a legislator trying some kind of stealth maneuver?
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS:
SECTION 1. (a) The purpose of this act is to establish and amend various provisions of law concerning home schools, notice of intent to home school, and the home school office of the Department of Education.
(b) The State Board of Education may promulgate rules as necessary for the proper implementation of this section.
UPDATE: On the HSWatch listserv, Kay Brooks thinks this is a placeholder bill and the legislator will try to spring the real language when no one is paying attention.
2 Responses to “ARKANSAS ALERT?”
 Comment by Karen Tucker March 10th, 2005 at 2:36 pm |
The real bill is HB 2439: What it does is eliminate the possibility of time-off for good behavior to any public school student who wishes to leave school mid-semester, whether they are in trouble or not. And before this bill, kids who *were* under disciplinary action were required to fulfill their punishment (give their pound of flesh) before they could leave public school to homeschool. HB2439 makes all kids have to wait until the end of a semester, or in the case of a kid who gets crossways with his principal, have to wait until he’s expelled. These provisions don’t apply to students who want to transfer to private schools, no matter what their status. The bill also provides a punishment for those parents who elect to skip the state testing in March and present verification of testing for the previous year at notification time in the fall. If you don’t provide proof of testing, you have to put your kid back in school the next year at notification time. There are some bright ideas in this portion of the bill. While I am certain it wasn’t the intent, I read it to mean that homeschoolers can provide independent testing without any kind of interaction with the state at all, which is not how it has been traditionally handled in Arkansas. That’d be my choice. I’d show up in August with proof that a standardized test was performed and then ignore all the testing hullaballew and notifications all year long. The sponsor of the bill is laid up in hospital after a motorcycle accident, so the bill was not heard in the House Education Committee today as scheduled. That’s all I know, except that it’s a bad, bad bill. |
 Comment by Karen Tucker March 10th, 2005 at 2:48 pm |
On closer reading, I realize that they are two seperate bills. What HB2729 (the blank one) does is add this crucial line to the code, which gives broad authority to the State BOE to make regulations to implement the entire homeschool law: (b) The State Board of Education may promulgate rules as necessary for I find the State BOE to be quite friendly to homeschoolers, and do not tend to make regulations above and beyond the actual text. But they do have some leeway. This bill is basically an amendment to the homeschool code which brings it uniform with most other education-related acts, giving the State BOE the power to do their job. It’s HB2439 we have to fight. Karen Tucker |