Senate Bill 63 just passed in Missouri, bringing homeschool families less paperwork and more access to public activities.
The end of a tool of intimidation
Since 1986, a statute gave parents in Missouri the option of filing a “declaration of enrollment” in a homeschool program. Regrettably, many school districts treated it as mandatory. Some threatened to refer families to the prosecutor if they did not file and others threatened to begin truancy proceedings.
It has always been wrong for school districts to threaten and punish parents for not doing something they had no obligation to do. But this intimidation went on year after year.
This decades-long headache is now over! With the enactment of Senate Bill 63, the declaration of enrollment is abolished.
It has been replaced with provisions that will reduce obstacles for families leaving public school. SB 63 requires public schools to remove a student from the rolls promptly if parents give a written notice that they will use another lawful option for educating their child. HSLDA has already used this new law to get a school district moving after their routine procedures had bogged down a child’s withdrawal for over a month!
Let the games begin! Right to access sports and activities
The same bill gives homeschools and family-paced education schools the right (if requirements are met) to participate in athletics, fine arts activities, and activities which supplement the normal school curriculum. Students also have a right to participate in “occurrences” (presumably meaning “events”) related to an activity that falls within any of those categories.
With these changes, this should be a fall like no other for Missouri homeschools and family-paced education schools!
HSLDA is here to serve our members who may run into difficulties with any of these changes.