Legal & Legislative

Wow, what a year 2003 was! Overall California is in much better shape than it was in the last couple of years. With the departure of Delaine Easton and the arrival of Jack O'Connell as the Superintendent of Public Education for the Department of Education we are breathing a sigh of relief. As you may remember Delaine Easton was doing her best to create a hostile atmosphere toward homeschoolers and tried extremely hard to convince Sacramento to create a homeschool accountability law. Thankfully she failed on both accounts. Jack O' Connell at this point has proven to be a primarily homeschool friendly Superintendent. We also seem to have survived the hit piece by Dan Rather (CBS). Even though we have improved the homeschool atmosphere via Jack O'Connell, Sacramento can still be somewhat problematic. In 2004 we would encourage you to be aware of the legislative and legal issues. Please review the following items.

VICTORIES

SB 950 (Alercon)
This would have made "habitual truancy" a new category of child abuse. (Defeated)

AB 424 (Richman)
This bill would have basically repealed all private education (regardless if it was home or campus based) codes. (Defeated)

AB 56 (Steinberg)
This bill would lower the compulsory attendance age to 5. (Held back in committee as a two year bill)

SB 432 (Ortiz)
This would establish a universal preschool for all children ages three to four. (Held back in committee as a two year bill)

BE INFORMED:

If you want to maintain your freedom to homeschool we highly recommend that you keep informed. The best way to stay informed is to access the following websites:

www.CaliforniaHomeschool.net
This is the official website of the California Homeschool Network. Just follow the prompts to the legal legislative area where you will find the latest on all legal legislative items. CHN spends a tremendous amount of time constantly monitoring all legal legislative activities in the state. Access this website for their opinions and recommended actions.

www.hslda.org
Homeschool Legal Defense is the premier legal eagle for the entire United States in homeschool legislation and legal issues. Access this website for their opinions and recommended actions.

AND THE SURVEY SAYS:

A recent survey (10/23/03) by the National Center for Home Education (a division of Home School Legal Defense) was recently released with some interesting facts. The primary focus of this study was to address the issue of the big "S" word: Socialization.

The results bear out what many of us have anticipated for a long time. Homeschoolers educated in the 1980's are coming of age and taking their place in society. Our daughters are part of that group, by the way. In particular the study found that homeschoolers are significantly more involved in their communities than the average puclic school graduate.

Over 71% of homeschoolers participate in a voluntary, church or neighborhood association compared to 37% of all adults.

Over 76% of 18-24 year old homeschool graduates voted in a national/state election in the past 5 years compared with just 29% of 18-24 year old public school graduates.

The study also concluded that homeschoolers are typically identified as high academic achievers, and are doing well as adults in society.

The conclusions on this and other studies should give every one the confidence that you are doing the right thing. You are qualified to successfully teach your children with the expectation that your children will excel and do very well as adults compared to other children attending public school.