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Published On: Fri, Apr 27th, 2018

California bill to ban homeschooling fails as lawmakers seeking means to monitor parents teaching their kids

Some California legislators pushed for a bill which could have passed that threatened the very existence of homeschooling in the state.

AB 2926, described as an act to add and repeal Section 33194 of the Education Code relating to private schools, had been scheduled to be heard on April 25, but was pulled from the Education Committee’s agenda.

The language of the bill: “This bill would require the Superintendent to establish a broadly representative and diverse advisory committee to advise the Superintendent and the State Board of Education on all appropriate matters relative to home schools, which the bill would define. The bill would require the advisory committee, on or before July 1, 2020, to make recommendations to the Superintendent and state board on the appropriateness and feasibility of imposing additional requirements, as provided, on home schools. The bill would require the Superintendent and state board, on or before January 1, 2021, in consultation with the advisory committee, to make recommendations to the Legislature and the Governor relating to imposing additional requirements on home schools.”

Those “additional requirements on home schools”: “On or before July 1, 2020, the advisory committee established pursuant to subdivision (b) shall make recommendations to the Superintendent and the state board on the appropriateness and feasibility of imposing on a home school additional requirements, which shall include, but are not limited to, both of the following: minimum qualifications for home school instructors and additional content or curriculum standards.”

There is no definition of “additional content” or what the “minimum qualifications for home school instructors” would be.

photo/ Gerd Altmann

This is in response to the extreme child abuse that allegedly occurred in David and Louise Turpin’s Perris tract home. The Turpins are accused of imprisoning the 13 siblings in their home, where authorities say they were starved, chained to beds and beaten.

California Assemblymember Jose Medina, of Riverside, and Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman, of Stockton, have introduced two bills that would give the state more oversight of home schools – through enhanced curriculum requirements and health and safety inspections.

“The reason I authored the bill was the incident in Perris,” Medina said. “I think it was clear that we don’t have a lot of information on homeschooling in the state of California.”

Most objection to the bill came from lawmakers pointing to current child abuse laws. Regulating ALL of the state’s homeschoolers isn’t the best means to root out child abuse.

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About the Author

- Catherine "Kaye" Wonderhouse, a proud descendant of the Wunderhaus family is the Colorado Correspondent who will add more coverage, interviews and reports from this midwest area.

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  1. Jamie says:

    AB 2926 did not seek to ban homeschooling, it sought to study it and make recommendations, a blank check, really. But it was pulled due to the thousands of calls the author received from homeschoolers opposed. AB2756, which would add a field asking for additional information that could be used to discriminate and for further regulation, to the private school affidavit filed by private homeschoolers to establish their homes as small private schools, was on the agenda for the education committee on 4-25 and over 1300 homeschoolers showed up to oppose the bill while on only four people were for it. It wasn’t even brought up for a motion and the bill died.

    • Brandon Jones says:

      Because it is a “Blank check” is why there is outrage and backlash. It may not be published as an official ban (in the way Germany bans homeschooling) but it was clear that this was the mechanism to move in that direction by adding more regulation and control.

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