In a month busy with unwanted and unwarranted homeschool legislation, New Hampshire finds itself in the fray. SB 337 was voted into law on Thursday 13, 2007.
Senate Bill 337 is a modification of the Home Education Law (HB 406) which reverses portions of the law. The purpose of SB 337 is to force homeschooling parents to provide additional reporting. Previously New Hampshire homeschool law required an annual intent notice and evaluations. If requirements were not met then the state was able to intervene.
The additional requirements add “identifier numbers” to homeschooled children and mandates that the sate knows where homeschoolers are and what they are doing. (Is anyone else crept out by this?)
Identifier numbers?
Knowing where they are what they are doing?
Does this mean homeschooled children and their parents will have to carry state issued homeschool cards? Does it mean homeschoolers will need to get permission for field trips? How exactly will the schools systems even begin keep track of homeschoolers? The whole premise sounds absurd. I have to ask, why this bill was even considered. Apparently, there were several suggestions on the original version of the bill that did not pass. In its original form, SB 337 counted homeschoolers as part time public school students and qualified schools for more Federal assistance. This was probably the main reason this law was introduced, but it was eliminated in the original version.
It almost seems as if homeschooling is under fire right now. The media is bolstering legislators’ enthusiasm to control homeschooling with exaggerated reports of child abuse where the assailants also happen to be homeschooling, or at least claiming to. They seem to be ignoring the fact that there are a great many more public schooled kids who are abused, and that more legislation will not help either form of education.