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There is a bill currently being considered by committees in both the NC House of Representatives (HB 1047) and Senate (SB 706) that includes language that would affect all homeschool families. The NCHE legislative committee has posted this statement about why we oppose the bill. The Home School Legal Defense Association has also published a statement opposing this bill.
What Does the Bill Do?
In summary, the bill would require homeschool families to provide a notice of intent to operate annually. We currently have to do this only once when we open our homeschools. We believe that changing this to an annual requirement would add an unnecessary burden to homeschool families that could cause them to be out of compliance and result in legal difficulties.
The bill would also require military families that homeschool to report that they have military connections on the proposed requirement to provide a notice of intent to operate annually. Again, we believe this requirement is unnecessary and could result in additional potential risk to the safety of military families.
What Can You Do?
The best thing to do at this time is to contact the representatives and senators who are on the committees that are considering these bills. Here are links to information about these committees:
House Committee: Homeland Security, Military, and Veteran Affairs
Senate Committee: Rules and Operations of the Senate
There is a convenient way to send an email to these committee members with wording provided in the right sidebar of the HSLDA statement.
Where Is the Bill in the Lawmaking Process?
According to NCPedia, the lawmaking process follows this procedure:
“Much of the work of the General Assembly is done by standing committees. These committees consider the bills introduced into the two houses, hold hearings, make such changes and amendments as they think necessary, and report their findings back to their respective chambers. If the report on the final version of the bill is favorable, it comes up for debate on the floor of the House or Senate. After final passage in one chamber, the bill is then sent to the other chamber, where the same events occur. A bill passed by both houses is then sent to the Governor, who may either veto the bill, or sign it into law.”
These bills are in the second phase, in which General Assembly standing committees are considering them.
What Is NCHE Doing?
The NCHE legislative committee is in communication with the bill’s sponsors, as well as our HSLDA representative. We will let you know how this bill progresses and if there is any other action that can be taken by homeschool families.
Our mission is to help parents homeschool with confidence and joy! One of the ways that we do that is by working to protect your rights to homeschool in North Carolina. Our main objective is for parents to have the freedom to homeschool in the way that they believe is best for their children. We do not support any legislation that would increase state regulation of homeschooling or that would put any unnecessary burdens on homeschool families.
– Matthew McDill, May 7, 2020
** You can read about how these bills were resolved in this post: What NCHE Is Doing to Keep NC Homeschool Friendly