Dear HSLDA members and friends:

Homeschoolers are succeeding in the battle to improve the regulations within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  If you have not voiced your approval, we urge you to act now!  The deadline to submit your comments in support of the proposed IDEA regulations is September 6, 2005. 

In the draft regulations, proposed in June, language was included in the preamble which would make sure that parents of private and homeschooled children are given the ultimate authority in determining whether their special needs child will be given an Initial Evaluation by the local public school official. This change would clarify that
schools will not lose their government funds if they do not evaluate a child whose parents refuse consent.

However, the regulations are not yet final, and we want to be sure that the homeschool voice is clearly heard by the department of education. If you have not yet done so, please submit comments asking that section 300.300 paragraph (a)(3), as currently interpreted by the present preamble language, be kept as the final regulations. For more details on how to write your comment please visit:
http://hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=2427 or
http://hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=2428

Email your comments to IDEAcomments@ed.gov (you must include "IDEA-Part B" in the subject line) and any letters should be addressed to:

Troy R. Justesen
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Potomac Center Plaza, Room 5126
Washington, DC 20202-2641

BACKGROUND:

As a result of the unfortunate interpretation of IDEA, many homeschool and private school families have been harassed by school districts.  Consequently, HSLDA has been locked in a legal battle over whether or not the public school may conduct an initial evaluation of the child without a parent's consent. Ironically, most homeschoolers are not even eligible to receive services under IDEA and yet the school still insists on an evaluation. HSLDA is currently litigating a case with the Missouri Department of Education over this issue.

In December of 2004, HSLDA worked with Congress to pass a new IDEA law, which was more favorable to the interests of parents. In February 2005 the U.S. Department of Education took initial written public comments on the recently passed law. HSLDA issued an e-lert and many of you responded by submitting written comments, urging the department to clarify that the state is not required to pursue an evaluation of a child who is not in public school and not receiving IDEA services.

Your comments were heard. The first draft of the IDEA regulations clarifies the law to protect private and homeschool students. They specifically prohibit a Local Education Authority or agency from pursuing an evaluation of any homeschool or private school student not receiving public education services without parental consent.

However, there will likely be a great deal of opposition to these provisions by professional educators and others. It is imperative that we work together to push back against all opposition to the right of parents to be free from government evaluations of their children.

We are now on the verge of making this favorable change.  If you have not yet submitted a comment, please act today.

If you have any questions, please contact Caleb Kershner, HSLDA's Manager of Federal Policy and Research at 540-338-8661 or NCHE@hslda.org.


Sincerely,

Caleb Kershner
HSLDA Manager, Federal Policy and Research




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The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of:

Home School Legal Defense Association
P.O. Box 3000
Purcellville, Virginia 20134
Phone: (540) 338-5600
Fax: (540) 338-2733
Email: info@hslda.org
Web: http://www.hslda.org