Senate Bill 7490: Restores Special Education Services to Homeschool Families

Author:
Senators Winner and Volker

Summary:
The Senate passed Assembly Bill 11463, the bill that will allow homeschool students to receive special education services. While the Senate was the first to sponsor legislation to restore services for homeschool students, the Assembly passed a slightly different version first, and the Senate then passed the Assembly bill. Governor David Paterson signed the bill into law.

Please thank the leadership of the Senate, Assembly and the Governor for passing this bill. Your efforts were extremely important in moving these bills forward.

Status:

4/8/2008		Introduced and referred to the Committee on Senate Education
5/6/2008		Passed Education Committee sent to Finance Committee
6/11/2008		Passed Finance Committee sent to Rules Committee
6/16/2008		Ordered to Third Reading CAL.1802
6/17/2008		Amended on Third Reading (T) 7490B

Signed into law

HSLDA’s Position:
HSLDA supports S.B. 7490A

Action Requested:
If you have not contacted your state Senator about Senate Bill 7490B, please do so. You can use HSLDA’s Legislative Toolbox to get the name and contact information for your Senator.

Background:
In January the New York State Education Department (NYSED) wrote a letter to every school district in the state informing them that special education services were not authorized to be provided to homeschool students. Due to your grass-roots efforts and those of many dedicated parents and state organizations such as LEAH, legislation was drafted by the New York Board of Regents and the NYSED to restore services to those homeschool children who need special education services.

The potential effect of having two different bill versions is that a bill to fix this problem won’t be passed this year. While you may be told that the Assembly version allows parents to be entitled to services in the home, the Senate bill doesn’t prevent services from being in the home. Most parents who receive services would rather work that issue out with their local school district, and we are not trying to create an entitlement to services in the home. The Senate Bill version is the best option and is a department bill, authored and supported by the NYSED.

Other Resources

Bill Text