The 2004 legislative session in Mississippi produced mixed results on bills affecting homeschool families. The following is a summary of the bills tracked by Home School Legal Defense Association that failed to receive legislative approval:
| >> | House Bill 482, HB 596, and Senate Bill 2516: These bills would have taken from parents the right to decide when a 5-year-old child is ready for school. They would have changed current law, which allows parents to withdraw a 5-year-old child from kindergarten and not be subject to the compulsory attendance law until age 6. HSLDA opposed these bills. |
| >> | HB 647: This was a college tuition payment bill creating the Mississippi Future Scholarship Program. Homeschool students would have been included with those eligible for the scholarships. HSLDA supported this bill. |
| >> | HB 892: This bill would have required public schools to make surplus textbooks available to homeschool students and would have authorized local school boards to establish policies for use of public school libraries by homeschool students. HSLDA takes a neutral position on this type of legislation. |
| >> | HB 1112: This bill would have required children who are age 6 by September 30 to attend school. Current law requires that a child be 6 by September 1. Since this bill would have lowered the compulsory attendance age by one month, HSLDA opposed it. |
| >> | SB 2056: This bill would have allowed homeschool students to dual-enroll in a public school, thereby entitling the students to participate in academic and extracurricular activities at the public school. HSLDA took a neutral position on this bill. |
| >> | SB 2595: This bill would have raised the compulsory attendance age from 6 years old by September 1 to 6 years old by August 1. HSLDA supported this bill. |
| >> | SB 2620: This bill would have lowered the compulsory attendance age from 6 years old by September 1 to 6 years old by January 1 of the school year. This would have effectively lowered the compulsory attendance age from 6 years to 5 years and 8 months. HSLDA opposed this bill. |
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