New York
Legislative Activity
Taking into account several bills carried over from the 1999 legislative session, the New York Legislature is considering a number of bills which affect home educators—compulsory attendance, participation in extra-curricular activities, tax credits, and student drivers’ licenses.
Assembly Bill 1485 would raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18 unless the student passed a minimum competency examination developed by and administered under the auspices of the Commissioner of Education. Assembly Bill 5702 and Senate Bill 4131 are companion bills that would increase the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 17 unless the minor has graduated from high school. Assembly Bill 4831 and its companion bill, Senate Bill 6943, would raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18. Senate Bill 7002 would raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 17 and authorize local school districts to raise it from 17 to 18.
Home School Legal Defense Association opposes any expansion of compulsory attendance requirements as being an increase in the extent of government control of education. New York’s home school law is arguably the most restrictive in the nation, so an expansion of the compulsory attendance ages would do nothing more than add to the duration of burdensome government oversight.
Assembly Bill 631 and Senate Bill 1153 would require school districts to permit home instructed students to participate in extra-curricular activities at the public school. HSLDA takes a neutral position on such legislation.
Assembly Bill 8491 and Senate Bill 4445 would create a tax credit of up to $500 for instructional materials for a “non-public home-based educational program.” This program is defined as one “approved by competent authorities.” HSLDA believes that the proposal for a tax credit is good, but it should simply be for home instruction programs authorized by state law, not for those that are “approved.” There is no approval of home instruction programs in New York. Assembly Bill 9644 and its companion, Senate Bill 6693, would provide the same tax credit for the purchase of instructional materials for home instruction programs, but these bills contain no language requiring that the program be approved.
Another bill of interest to home schooling families is Assembly Bill 3915, a driver’s license bill. This bill would require persons under 18 years of age to be in school, to have graduated, or to have a GED certificate in order to have a driver’s license. This legislation is nothing more than an indirect effort to raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18 for those persons who desire to have a driver’s license before age 18. HSLDA has long opposed any connection between issuance of driver’s license and school attendance. — Dewitt T. Black
