| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 9/6/2011 4:12:22 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Rhode Island--Call to Action: North Providence Enforces Highly Restrictive Policy |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Rhode Island--Call to Action: North Providence Enforces Highly Restrictive Policy Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: Last fall--without even talking to the people whose lives it would impact--the North Providence school committee adopted a highly restrictive homeschool policy in the state of Rhode Island. It is an immediate threat to your freedom to homeschool your children. Some towns have bad policies, but they cause little harm because they are not enforced. But North Providence has chosen to enforce its terrible policy. It recently rejected one family's homeschool plan and demanded that they resubmit and comply with their policy. It may have rejected others, as well. ACTION REQUESTED If you live in North Providence and are willing to help work to make major changes to the current policy, please contact HSLDA right away (whether or not you are an HSLDA member.) We want to know who is willing to be on the team to restore freedom! Please pass this on to all other North Providence homeschoolers! If you are a member of HSLDA and your family's homeschool program is rejected, let us know immediately. SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS WITH NORTH PROVIDENCE POLICY > It demands how many minutes will be spent on every subject. > It forces parent to sign an "agreement" to submit standardized testing. > It demands the following information about all instructors: relationship to student, educational background, teaching experience, and location of instruction. > It requires that a homeschool program be "comparable" to a public school education. > It requires that the curriculum be "substantially equal" to the public school curriculum. > It demands the reasons for the homeschool request. > It requires that the homeschool program comply with "applicable Federal statutory and regulatory requirements." (There are no federal requirements.) > It requires a homeschool program to comply with "applicable state regulatory requirements." (There are no state homeschool regulations.) > It requires instruction for a period substantially equal to public schools (in minutes per subject). > It requires "detailed" quarterly reports (or the superintendent can demand "actual test results"). > It demands that children be put in public school until homeschooling is approved. > It demands that attendance reports include "times of attendance" (i.e., minutes). > It demands educational levels in all subjects, and how the level was determined. > It demands that the family "describe instructional approaches." > The agreement that is demanded insists that parents maintain a sample portfolio for each subject, a list of books read, a list of field trips. > The agreement seems to demand a meeting with school department staff. > It demonstrates an overall attitude that homeschooling belongs to the public school system: "The North Providence School Department in its desire to assist parents in the development of educational programs for their children will make every effort to work with parents ... the following agreement has been devised to assist the parties in the successful implementation of a home schooling program." It gives the superintendent power to approve homeschooling "with modifications"--which suggests the superintendent, not the family, is in charge of the homeschool program. BACKGROUND INFORMATION When working to correct a bad local policy, the best question to ask is: "What would be a good homeschool policy?" This question will tend to move discussions in a positive direction. The problem with raising the question: "What policy is legal?" is that it tends to push discussions toward a policy that is just as bad as possible without actually violating the law. And Rhode Island law is so vague that quite a variety of policies that are hostile to freedom, burdensome and choked with red tape might still be held to be "legal." Some aspects of the current North Providence policy are likely outside the bounds of state law. But trying to attack the policy as being illegal will probably not produce a good result. For best results, we need to push this question: "What would be a good policy?" Thank you for standing with us for freedom! Scott Woodruff HSLDA Senior Counsel ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> "I saved my entire membership fee with one discount" "When I called Liberty to find out what kind of discount we could get, they told us we would 10% off our car insurance and 5% off our homeowner's insurance. What we will save is more than double what it costs to join HSLDA. With one child getting his driver's license this year, the savings will be a real blessing!" More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1108 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== 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. ====================================================================== | |
