Red Alert! Iowa Homeschool Legislation is Being Discussed
We are always trying to keep our ears and eyes open to issues and conversations in city and state government that might impact our rights to homeschool. And in Iowa they are requesting legislation that you need to know about!
In the January 6, 2018 edition of the Times-Republican, there was an article entitled: “Protecting our children: CAPS holds annual child welfare legislative forum.” It shares that Friday afternoon, January 5, 2018, at the Marshalltown Public Library, representatives from various child welfare agencies, including the Community Partnership for Protecting Children (CPPC), gathered for the annual Child Abuse Prevention Services (CAPS) legislative forum. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss child welfare issues. These issues were discussed before a panel consisting of elected officials: State Sen. Jeff Edler, R-State Center, State Rep. Dean Fisher, R-Montour, and State House Minority Leader Rep. Mark Smith, D-Marshalltown. So even though this was being discussed in Marshalltown, all of these men represent the state. So this is important to watch and keep abreast of what is happening. The article states:
The 2018 legislative priorities discussed by CAPS included: enacting legislation requiring homeschool parents to submit an annual notification of intent to the superintendent of the school district of residence, and/or enroll the child in at least one public school-sponsored activity, as ways of preventing homeschooled children from falling out of sight.
Offering such checks and balances was inspired by the 2017 cases of Sabrina Ray and Natalie Finn, teens in the DHS system who were both being homeschooled at the time they died from abuse and neglect.
“The recommendation of duel enrollment with a school is more appealing to me than just doing the notification,” Smith said.
However, Fisher and Edler expressed concern that these extra measures with homeschooling families may place an unnecessary burden on them.
“You cannot legislate every person’s actions,” said Edler, who also disclosed his children are homeschooled. “The question becomes ‘how many resources are you willing to put into this?”‘
Fisher added, “I am reluctant to put any burden on [parents that homeschool] because of the small percentage that does anything bad. I don’t know if one simple form of notification is enough, but everyone being forced to duel enroll would be met with resistance; there might be a happy medium.”
Looks like you have a homeschool advocate and friend in Edler since his children are being homeschooled too!
Be sure to read the rest of the article here.
Get Involved
I encourage you to contact your state representatives and be sure they know how you feel about this proposed legislation. You can find the contact information for your state leaders here. We have to be willing to get involved!
IOWA You have a Red Alert #Homeschool legislation being requested! #getinvolved
Turn This Into a Homeschool Lesson
Do you remember School House Rocks? I STILL remember this video! It is a great place to start, even for older students.
Here is a new book on Amazon that you might want to review.
And if you like to make learning fun and your older children are interested, we actually have this game and love it. It is called Constitution Quest.
These are lesson plans for Middle and High School Students. Click here.
And finally Brain Pop has some fun interactive games to help teach this subject!!
