| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 7/6/2007 3:19:59 PM Home School Legal Defense Association North Dakota: Legislative Wrap-Up |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== July 5, 2007 North Dakota--Legislative Wrap-Up Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: The North Dakota Legislative Assembly adjourned for the year on April 25, 2007. HSLDA tracked a number of bills during the 2007 session affecting the rights of parents who educate their children at home. In a bizarre series of events, Senate Bill 2371, which started off as a good bill, then was amended by the Senate Education Committee to become a bad bill, then amended again to become a good bill as it passed the full Senate, became a bad bill again and was finally voted down in the House of Representatives on March 16, 2007. As originally introduced, Senate Bill 2371 would have changed the law to permit grandparents and foster parents to homeschool, to clarify that homeschool students only have to take the basic battery of standardized tests, and to permit parents to choose a test that was not nationally normed. As amended by the House Education Committee, the bill would not have even permitted grandparents to homeschool and would have added the following restrictions to state law: * Required monitoring of parents by a certified teacher to continue beyond two years if a student scored below grade level or below the 50th percentile in any subject; * Imposed monitoring for one year on any family at the family's expense if the superintendent of public instruction determined that the family had violated any provision of the homeschool law; * Required testing in grades 3, 4, 6, 8, and 11 with the state assessment or with a nationally normed standardized achievement test; * Required the parent choosing a standardized achievement test to pay for the cost of having the test administered in all cases; and * If a remediation plan were implemented because of a low test score, the student would have to continue to be evaluated for progress by the superintendent until the student scored "above the lowest achievement level on every subject tested on the state achievement assessment, a score at or above the thirtieth percentile on every subject tested on a nationally normed standardized achievement test" or a score demonstrating one year of academic progress. This was a disappointing experience for home educators in North Dakota who were seeking only minor improvements in the current law. It points out that proposed legislation can go in any direction before its final outcome. Had it not been for the outcry of homeschoolers objecting to the unfavorable amendments, North Dakota could have gotten an even worse law than it has now. Senate Bill 2184 would have raised North Dakota's compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18. If this bill had passed, home educators would have had to comply with North Dakota's burdensome homeschool law for an additional two years. Due to opposition from homeschoolers, this bill failed to pass the Senate Education Committee. Attempts to pass the bill through the full Senate were unsuccessful, as the bill failed to pass by a three to one margin. Senate Bill 2414 would have provided a tax credit of $1,000 for each child receiving home education. This bill failed to pass out of the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee. As originally introduced, Senate Bill 2309 would have prohibited any North Dakota student from graduating from high school or being admitted to college without completing a college preparatory curriculum. Due in large measure to the outcry of homeschoolers, this bill was amended to simply increase the number of units required for graduation. This bill was signed into law by the governor on May 4, 2007. House Bill 1136, signed into law on April 12, 2007, added pneumococcal disease, meningococcal disease, rotovirus, and hepatitis A to the list of diseases for which immunizations are required for school children, including students receiving home instruction. Parents must obtain a certification from a licensed physician or representative from the state department of health that the child has received the required immunizations. This certification is then filed by the parent with the local school district. Fortunately, state law still provides for medical, religious, philosophical, and moral exemptions from the immunizations. We are grateful for your vigilance and involvement to support parental rights in North Dakota and keep your ability to homeschool your children free from unreasonable governmental interference. For more information regarding legislation affecting your right to homeschool in North Dakota, please visit our web site at http://www.hslda.org/ND Sincerely, Dewitt T. Black, III Senior Counsel ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> You can only do so much... No one can be everywhere at once. And you can't be at home, teaching your children, while monitoring your state's legislature. Through electronic legislative services, HSLDA is monitoring state legislation for you -- watching and listening carefully for any proposed laws that could erode your right to homeschool. Join HSLDA today-we'll watch out for your future. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1942 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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Thank you for your cooperation. ====================================================================== | |
