Senate Bill 239: Amending Requirements for Filing Notice of Intent

Authors:
Senator Ronald Ramsey, Sr., Senator Steve Henson, Senator Gloria Butler, Senator Emanuel Jones, Senator Gail Buckner, Senator Vincent Fort

Summary:
This bill amends Section 20-2-690.1 of the Georgia Code to require parents moving into a new school district to enroll their child in school or a home study program within 10 days. It does not change the requirement in another section, Section 20-2-690, that the parent conducting the home study program file the declaration of intent within 30 days of establishing the program and by Sept. 1 annually thereafter. Our primary concern about this proposed change is that even though the law would not require it, school districts may take the position that the declaration of intent must be filed within 10 days, not 30.

Current law provides that a violation of Section 20-2-690.1 is a misdemeanor, with a fine between $25 and $100 and a maximum of 30 days in jail. The bill would still make it a misdemeanor not to send a child to school and impose a penalty between $50 and $500 and a maximum of 10 days in jail. A parent who failed to enroll a child in school would be subject to a misdemeanor penalty and time in jail not to exceed 30 days.

Status:

3/4/2009		(Senate) Read and referred
3/5/2009		(Senate) Committee favorably reported
3/9/2009		(Senate) Read second time
3/10/2009		(Senate) Third read
3/10/2009		(Senate) Passed/Adopted
3/12/2009		(House) First readers
3/17/2009		(House) Second readers
3/26/2009		(House) Committee favorably reported

HSLDA’s Position:
This bill should be opposed.

Action requested:
None at this time.

Other Resources

Bill Text   (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)