Our monthly support group meeting was this past Tuesday night, and Mr. Hal Young was our guest speaker.  He is Education V.P. for NCHE, our state homeschool organization, and he spoke to us on Homeschooling in NC ~ Where We've Been and Where We're Going.  A few interesting tidbit from his talk ~

• North Carolina is the only state in the union where the homeschool regulatory arm does not fall under the public school bureaucracy.  DNPE ( Division of Non-Public Education ) falls under the Dept. of Administration, not Dept. of Public Instruction.
• a proposal last year to move DNPE under DPI for financial efficiency created such an uproar and so many emails/calls from homeschoolers across the state that business at the state legislature came to a standstill; we were heard
• "pioneers" in this state had to submit to "private school facility inspections", and do things like install lighted EXIT signs over exterior doors, have fire escapes from second story windows, and install drains in bathroom floors

Today, North Carolinians are fortunate to have a very good law under which to homeschool legally in this state.  The legal requirements are that we file a Notice of Intent to operate a homeschool with DNPE when we first open our homeschool, parents must have at least a high school diploma, attendance & immunization records must be kept at home, and a standardized test must be administered annually, the results of which are to be kept at the home for at least 12 months and made available to DNPE upon request.

from DNPE's website : History of Homeschooling in NC

Hal Young's article : "North Carolina's Educational Wall of Separation" www.fee.org/pdf/the-freeman/young0705.pdf

In discussing where we are headed, Hal talked about the changing face of homeschooling, especially with the increasing use of technology,, and the appearance of virtual charter schools, sometimes offered by states using the carrot of "free" education to woo homeschoolers back under the public school mantle.  While this option may work for those whose primary concern is the physical and emotional learning environment ( safety, freedom from peer pressure & bullying, health issues, etc ), it is troublesome for parents wanting freedom in choosing what is taught to their children.  States such as Alaska have already seen more and more restrictions put on their choices of curriculum, so that instruction is made to line up with what is offered in the public school. Religious content is almost always an issue, and will continue to be even more restricted in any option when public money is involved.

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