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Home-School Law Advances; Under Measure, Those With High School Degree Could Teach Children at Home

Posted on: Friday, 10 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By TAMMIE SMIH

Home-school advocates have gotten both houses of the General Assembly to agree to change the law so that having a high school diploma instead of a bachelor's degree is enough to home-school.

The bills have been sent to the governor to approve, veto or amend.

Former Gov. Mark R. Warner, referring to a lowering of standards, vetoed similar legislation in 2004 after amendments he offered were rejected.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's staff has said that this year's legislation is under review.

Current state law offers parents four options under which to qualify to home school. They can:

-- have a bachelor's degree;

-- have teaching qualifications that meet state Board of Education guidelines;

-- enroll the child in a superintendent-approved correspondence course; or

-- get their local school superintendent to approve the curriculum they plan to use and submit a letter explaining why they are qualified to home school.

The new law would change the first option to high school diploma.

Regardless of which option parents file under, they have to submit yearly test scores that show a child is achieving.

Marta Powers, a home-schooling mother, is among those who want the law changed.

She attended college but is about 20 credits short of a degree. She files under the fourth option, which requires her to do more paperwork and face additional oversight than the other options. For instance, she has to show how her curriculum is in line with Standards of Learning objectives. She teaches daughter, Smokey, at home.

"She finished second grade, and we brought her home," said Powers, who lives in Richmond. "We felt it would be the best way for us to meet her needs.... She has been absolutely thriving."

State Board of Education figures show more than 17,400 children being home-schooled and an additional 5,804 children whose parents have taken them out of school on a religious exemption. State officials do not track the latter children and say they cannot make any assumptions about their education.

Home-school advocates say there is no evidence parents with a high school diploma fall short when they home school.

"There is no proof parents with less formal education do a worse job than parents who have more formal education." said Celeste Land, lobbyist for the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers.

"The idea is to give [parents] more flexibility," she said of the legislation. "It will make it easier for home-school parents without college degrees to file the paperwork."

Yvonne Bunn, lobbyist for the Home Educators Association of Virginia, said the change would eliminate a problem some families run into with uneven application of the requirements.

"There are about a dozen superintendents' offices every year that apply this in a different way. They require different things of parents that are more than what the law requires," said Bunn, who home-schooled her children, now ages 20, 22 and 24.

Changing the requirements, Land said, will not result in an avalanche of parents pulling their children from public schools so they can teach them at home.

Still, the bills are controversial.

The Virginia Education Association, which represents teachers and other educators, did not take a position on the bills this year. The Virginia Parent Teacher Association does not want the standard changed.

Legislators arguing against the bills pointed out that any parent can home school now based on the religious exemption, but home- school advocates said that muddies the issue.

That religious exemption excuses children from compulsory school attendance based on "bona fide religious training or belief."

"We can push more people into religious exemption or into a path with oversight," responded state Sen. Stephen D. Newman, R- Lynchburg, during debate at a Senate Education and Health Committee meeting in January.

Area home-schoolers

According to state records for the 2004-05 school year, 2,884 children were home-schooled in the Richmond metro area.

Exemptions

Total__ Religious__ Other Chesterfield__ 1,726__ 609__ 1,117 Hanover __ 489__ 69__ 420 Henrico__ 475__ 93__ 382 Richmond__ 194__ 25__ 169 Virginia__ 23,252__ 5,804__ 17,448

Source: Virginia Department of Education data for 2004-05

Home-school advocates

Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers http:// vahomeschoolers.org/

Home Educators Association of Virginia www.heav.org/

National Home Education Network state-by-state listing of laws

www.nhen.org/leginfo/state_list.asp

Contact staff writer Tammie Smith at TLsmith@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6572.

ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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