NORTH DAKOTA

Attorney General Issues Opinion on New Home School Legislation

As North Dakota home schoolers will remember, the legislature amended the home-based instruction statute last year. Under current law, a parent who has a high school diploma or GED certificate is required to be monitored by a certified teacher only during the first two years of the home-based instruction, unless the child scores below the 50th percentile on the required standardized achievement test. If the child scores below the 50th percentile, the monitoring would continue in succeeding years until the test score meets the standard. Additionally, the law was changed to require standardized achievement testing of home school students only in grades 3, 4, 6, 8 and 11.

At the request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Attorney General of North Dakota has now issued an opinion addressing five issues arising out of this legal change. Following are the questions raised and a summary of the opinion issued by the Attorney General:

1. Does a parent who holds a high school diploma or a GED certificate and moves to North Dakota, after being involved in home-based instruction in another state, need to be monitored for the first two years of home based instruction?

OPINION: "… home-schooling parents moving into North Dakota must be monitored pursuant to North Dakota law if the parent's own educational background requires monitoring."

2. When a parent has supervised a child in home-based instruction and has successfully met the two year monitoring requirement, is monitoring required for another two years if another child in the family becomes involved in the home-based instruction program?

OPINION: "… the qualifications of a parent with a high school diploma or GED certificate is determined on a per-child basis on the parents being monitored for two years with each child and each child's successful performance on the standardized achievement test."

3. If a parent has successfully completed the monitoring requirements under Section 15-34.1-06, must the monitoring be resumed in the event the child achieves a score below the 50th percentile on a future test required by Section 15-34.1-07, and, if so, must the monitoring be continued until such time as the student achieves the 50th percentile on a test required by Section 15-34.1-07, even though Section 15-34.1-07 may not require testing during the following school year?

OPINION: "… once a parent qualifies for the cessation of monitoring for a particular child…. a later standardized achievement test score by that child below the fiftieth percentile does not impose on that home schooling parent for that child the resumption of monitoring."

4. If a nationally standardized achievement test is not scheduled by Section 15-34.1-07 to be given during the first two years of monitoring, for example, grades one and two, what is the determining factor as to whether the monitoring may end?

OPINION: "… a high school graduate or GED certificate-holding home-school supervising parent must be monitored for the initial two years of home school supervision and until that child being monitored scores at or above the fiftieth percentile on the standardized achievement test, and that if no testing is required immediately upon the conclusion of the first two years of monitoring, monitoring must continue until the minimum test score is achieved on a required test."

5. May the Department of Public Instruction, by administrative rule, require standardized achievement testing in grades other than those specified in Section 15-34.1-07 for the purpose of determining whether a child achieves the 50th percentile during the first two years of monitoring under Section 15-34.1-07, and, if so, who would be responsible for the cost of such testing?

OPINION: "… the Department of Public Instruction is not authorized to require, by administrative rule, standardized achievement testing in grades other than those specified by statute."