AB 2926

STATUS UPDATE: APRIL 19, 2018

This bill has been pulled from the Education Committee's agenda. This bill will not be heard on April 25, 2018, and therefore cannot continue this legislative session

AB-2926 Private schools: home schools: advisory committee

1. The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, currently Tom Torlakson, will establish an advisory committee that will study home schools.
2. This bill will not create any new laws and would not, in and of itself, increase homeschooling regulation.
3. For this bill, “home school” means a private school operated by a parent, guardian, or other individual in a home environment.
4. The committee will consist of a “broadly representative and diverse” committee.
5. The committee will make recommendations on the appropriateness and feasibility of imposing additional requirements on a home school.
6. The committee will make recommendations to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education by July 1, 2020.
7. The Advisory Committee, Superintendent, and State Board must make recommendations to the legislature and governor by January 1, 2021.
8. Amended on 4/18
   
   They will make recommendations specifically regarding:
9. health and safety inspections;
10. additional, specific curriculum standards; and
11. certification or credentialing of teachers.

(1) Minimum qualifications for home school instructors.

(2) Additional content or curriculum standards.

They are not limited to considering only these topics, they may include others.

Link to the bill text:

• http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billCompareClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2926

• HSC opposes AB2926 because we believe it is unnecessary and dangerous to the future of homeschooling freedom. The formation of an advisory committee is wasteful of public resources and has a significant potential to eventually result in the imposition of unreasonable, unnecessary, and counterproductive regulations on homeschooling families.

• Homeschooling has been shown in study after study to have positive outcomes. There is no homeschooling problem that needs to be solved and no reason to even consider creating new legislation for homeschooling. It works!

• There is absolutely no evidence that any kind of regulations improve homeschooling outcomes. Studies show that homeschoolers do just as well, academically and in every other way, in states with no regulations as they do in states where they are highly regulated.

• In fact, homeschooling freedom allows homeschooling parents to educate their children in their own unique and idiosyncratic ways which is crucial to the successful outcomes of homeschooling. Any kind of standardization would run counter to the benefits of homeschooling.

• Parents should have the right to direct their child's education in the same way they have the right to competently raise their children in every other aspect of life.

• Homeschooling families should not be singled out to have to defend themselves from potential regulations when it is clear that homeschooling works and works well.

• Public schools are struggling, and their resources should not be pulled out of the public school system to be spent on trying to solve problems that don't actually exist.

• Homeschoolers are fine. They typically score above average on measures of social, emotional, and psychological development. They regularly engage in social and educational activities in the community.

• Homeschoolers are not so successful in spite of homeschooling, but because they are directed by their own parents, who have the freedom to do things in their own ways, using methods and materials that are specifically beneficial to each individual child.