Thank you for your calls and emails to the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee Members on HB 1139!

HB 1139 passed the House Education Committee by a 9-4 vote.

The Education Committee vote was published in the Journal of the House 4/3/2019:

Ayes (9): Bailey, Baker, Basye, Christofanelli, Dogan, Eslinger, Stacy, Swan and Trent
Noes (4): Bangert, Brown (70), Coleman (97) and Morgan
Present (1): Proudie
Absent (1): Roeber

The bill has now been referred to the House Rules – Administrative Oversight Committee.

FHE is continuing to watch and follow the bill. We will let you know of any further action that may be needed.

Calls or emails needed immediately to the following
Missouri House Education Committee members asking them to
Vote YES on HB 1139 which will :

1. eliminate the confusions created by the optional “declaration of intent to homeschool by repealing RSMo 167.042,
    
2. add protection for homeschools by adding that the Prosecuting Attorney can only look at homeschool records if there is a “reasonable suspicion”,
    
3. a protection for a homeschool students and parents by adding a privacy clause,
    
4. and to relieve the burdensome double record keeping requirement.

HB 1139
Modifies provisions relating to home school education
(Homeschool Cleanup Bill)

The House Elementary & Secondary Education Committee
could vote on HB 1139 as early as next week.

View the bill by clicking here.

(Call even if you do not live in the Representative’s district)

Please do NOT call or email Rep. Ben Baker, sponsor of HB 1139.

Please do NOT call, but be in prayer for the
Education Chairman, Rep. Rebecca Roeber,
she was in a horrible auto accident Monday afternoon.

More information:

FHE and HSLDA are both in support of HB 1139 and the improvements to the Missouri “home school” statutes.  

1. Repeal of the optional “declaration of enrollment”. RSMo 167.042, says a homeschool family MAY file a “declaration of intent to homeschool.” This filing is not mandatory and never has been. It says the purpose of the filing is to minimize unnecessary investigations, but it has had exactly the opposite effect. It has spurred many unnecessary investigations.
   
   Public schools chronically, habitually misunderstand and misapply 167.042. This pointless statute is the single biggest source of conflict between the homeschool community and the public-school community.
   
   When the Missouri legislature enacted the optional declaration of enrollment in 1986, its intent was to reduce headaches, reduce confusion, and reduce unnecessary investigations, but RSMo 167.042 has accomplished exactly the opposite of what the legislature intended.
    
2. In 2009 RSMo 137.031.7 was added, “Home school education enforcement and record
   pursuant to this section, and sections 210.167 and 211.031, shall be subject to review only by the local prosecuting attorney.”
   
   Since that time there have been Prosecuting Attorneys that had demanded to review the homeschool records for no other reason than the family chooses to homeschool their child/children. HB 1139 would correct this by adding, “and only if there is a reasonable suspicion to believe that there has been a violation of this section.”
    
3. After a new homeschool mother saw a list of the local homeschool children, names, phone numbers, and addresses posted in her local public school office in plain public view she contacted Home School Legal Defense. The school agreed to take down the list, but said this is something they have always done. The HSLDA attorney then realized there is not a statute protecting homeschool personal identifiable data which the public school possesses. HB 1139 would correct this issue.
    
4. The final piece in HB 1139 would be to ease the over burdensome record keeping by giving a homeschool a choice to either keep the hours or keep the lesson planbook/diary, record of evaluations, portfolio of the child’s work, or other written credible evidence equivalent to the preceding 3 records.

In summary----

What HB 1139 will do:

• Eliminates the confusions created by the optional voluntary registration of a home school with “the Recorder of Deeds or chief school officer of the public school district”. 
• Prosecuting Attorney would only request home school records if there is “reasonable suspicion” for the prosecutor to believe the law has been violated.
• Establishes data privacy rights for home school students which currently exist for public school students.
• Makes a slight change to reduce over burdensome record keeping.

Things HB 1139 will not do:

• Does not remove, lessen, or eliminate, any accountability or obligation currently required for home education, other than providing an option to the record keeping methods which best suits the family.
• Will not change the statutory requirement of homeschooling parents to provide their students an education. The law will still require necessary records for each child.
• Where there is a “reasonable suspicion” of educational neglect, the prosecuting attorney will not be prevented from requesting homeschool records.