Latest Updates
Mar. 4 | H.B. 1729 amended in the House K-12 Subcommittee
Will Estrada testified in support of H.B. 1729 as amended in the House K-12 Education Subcommittee on Tuesday morning joined by Claiborne Thornton, president of THEA. The amended version passed and will be heard by the full House Education Committee on March 17.
Please call your Tennessee state representative and ask him or her to support H.B. 1729 as amended. You can find your state representative at this link.
Your message can be as simple as the following:
“As a Tennessee parent (or homeschooler), I respectfully ask you to support H.B. 1729 as amended, and as passed out of the House K-12 Education Subcommittee. This bill expands freedom for homeschool families by removing outdated language and penalties in the Tennessee homeschool law that could force homeschool students to be put back into public school. It also expands testing options for families in Tennessee.”
You can watch a video of the subcommittee hearing on H.B. 1729, including excellent pro-homeschool freedom remarks by the sponsor, Representative William Slater and Will's testimony, starting at the 1:30:00 mark. You can also watch a brief video update from Will and Claiborne before the hearing.
Mar. 3 | Bills introduced
S.B. 2636 was introduced on February 2 by Senator Kerry Roberts and referred to the Senate Education Committee. H.B. was introduced on January 20 by Representative William Slater and referred to the House Education Committee.
Summary of S.B. 2636 / H.B. 1729
If enacted, these bills will expand freedom for independent homeschooling families, also called Option 1 families.
They will not affect families using a church-related school or Category III distance learning schools. The bills will remove antiquated provisions in the Tennessee homeschool law dealing with penalties for homeschool families, and will also expand testing options, for example, allowing families to choose the Classic Learning Test.