Arkansas
New Regulations Adopted
In order to make state home school regulations consistent with the Arkansas General Assembly’s 1999 amendments to the home school law, the state board of education had to adopt new regulations.
On August 18, 1999, Home School Legal Defense Association submitted comments on the proposed regulations to Raymond Simon, director of the Arkansas Department of Education. HSLDA observed that the proposed § 4.02 erroneously stated that a parent must “enroll” the child in a home school at the beginning of each school year but no later than August 15 for the fall semester or by December 15 for the spring semester. While parents or guardians must provide notice to the local superintendent “of their intent to provide a home school” by the specified dates under § 6-15-503(a)(1) of Arkansas Statutes Annotated, there is no requirement that a child actually be enrolled in a home school by these deadlines.
HSLDA pointed out that the proposed language appeared to require a parent to begin instruction in a home school by the deadlines, but the deadlines are only for notifying the local superintendent of the parent’s intent to begin home schooling in the future. Further, no such deadline for enrollment is appropriate in view of the fact that home schools do not have to operate for any specified number of days in Arkansas. Despite these cautions, the state board adopted the regulations on September 13, 1999, with this erroneous enrollment provision intact.
HSLDA also noted that proposed regulation § 5.03-2 should not require parents to include their telephone number in the notice of intent. Section 6-15-503(a)(3) of the statutes specifies the contents of this notice, which do not include a telephone number. HSLDA commented that parents who have an unlisted telephone number will consider the disclosure of this information an invasion of their privacy. While the state board deleted the telephone number requirement from the final regulations, the department of education’s Notice of Intent to Home School form still asks for the telephone number as optional information.
As pointed out in the Sept./Oct. 1999 Court Report, both the state board’s notice of intent and waiver forms contain erroneous information and seek unauthorized information from parents. HSLDA member families having questions about these forms should contact our office for assistance. – Dewitt T. Black
