Last week, both chambers of the New York legislature, the Senate and the Assembly passed the bill to restore special services to disabled homeschoolers.  A big thank you goes to all those who took the time and did the work in contacting your legislators and others and in keeping this matter in your prayers.

The power of your prayers is especially noteworthy.  The Assembly version of the bill was slightly different than the Senate version (for a bill to become law, it must pass both chambers in identical form).  It was also judged to be a slightly “cleaner” and better bill.   However, because the State Education Department (SED) supported the Senate version as well as for a variety of other political reasons, we were pushing for the Assembly to make their bill identical to the Senate version.  However, in the gracious providence of God, the SED gave their blessing to the Assembly version as well, and the Senate changed their bill to match the Assembly version.  The Assembly version passed both chambers. To God Be the Glory!

The bill now goes to the Governor’s desk for his signature.  Two items for continued prayer: 1) that the Assembly would send this to the Governor in a very timely manner.  The Assembly version has a large amount of discretion on when to actually send the bill to the Governor.  Often political gamesmanship is exhibited in how quickly or slowly a passed bill is forwarded to the Governor.  While we don’t have any specific information about possible delays for this bill, please pray that it would be quickly sent to the Governor’s desk; and 2) please pray the Governor would indeed sign it.  Again we don’t have any specific information on Governor Patterson’s intent, but this is not a done deal until it receives the Governor’s signature.

If it is felt that further actions (beyond prayer) would be helpful, we will send out and alert.   In the meantime, please keep praying and rejoicing in the great progress so far.

Rich Stauter
President, NYS Loving Education At Home (LEAH)

The Schoolhouse Planner has so many wonderful features. You told us what you wanted in a planner, and we have delivered!

Some of the main features include:

    *
      Calendars in various forms - yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily

    *
      Planners for your homeschool - in various styles to meet your individual needs

    *
      Household planning forms

    *
      12 "homeschool must-know" items, one for each month of the year

    *
      12 essays from some of our favorite authors in the homeschool community - you absolutely won't want to miss these!

    *
      24 easy main-dish recipes from some top homeschoolers around the nation

    *
      and so much more!

  http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?u=166900&b=48808&m=9286&afftrack=&urllink=www%2Etheoldschoolhousestore%2Ecom%2Findex%2Ephp%3Fmain%5Fpage%3Dproduct%5Finfo%26cPath%3D109%26products%5Fid%3D2499

PLUS, the Schoolhouse Planner is interactive! You can type right into the pdf! If you have Adobe Acrobat, you'll be able to save the changes you make. (Note: If you only have Adobe Reader, you can type in your planner information, print it, but will not be able to save these changes.)

Don't forget, monthly planner add-ons are available for purchase every month. We already have some great holiday related information ready for July's planner supplement!

We're there with you each month to make your home and school planning as easy and fun as possible throughout the year!

Have a friend who likes an organized home and school? Let them know about the Schoolhouse Planner.

We are so excited and hope that you are, too.

Have a sneak peek before you buy it!

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com/schoolhouse-planner-peek.pdf

Sincerely,
The Old Schoolhouse Magazine
 

A Special Gift for YOU!
 
 
As part of our celebration, we want to share our special report Homeschool with Confidence with you.
 

TOS is all about encouragement and support!
 
Homeschool with Confidence is a wonderful resource for those new to homeschooling, veteran homeschoolers, and those considering homeschooling.
 
Please feel free to share it with your friends!
 
Download YOUR free copy here.

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001coV_bRQfLVQ4y0CVgUSLQDrMKfuiPK1j8azzNJwqID2Wo9n_cUnUbweyFxA_MVojb6oI-1gR5yGyuxBBe-emAg9ISWKu993q8CeSVoVLOej9xVwlt6ihid2qmTHFj1joWEdl7qYQYZTNkSkj01Vh8A==

Barnes and Noble  Summer Reading Program http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/our_company/community/Summer_Reading/Summer_Reading_Program.html

New York homeschoolers have made significant progress in the past
several months in our fight to get special services restored for
disabled homeschoolers. Unfortunately, time is running out on us as
New York's regular legislative session comes to an end later this
month.

Bill S-7490A has been introduced in the Senate and has passed the
Senate Education Committee and is continuing on in the Senate
process. However, without an identical bill in the Assembly, there
will be no change in the situation of disabled homeschool students.
This bill has been carefully reviewed by disability attorneys as well
as by attorneys from the Home School Legal Defense Association who
have determined that its language is satisfactory and that it will
simply restore those critically-needed services to disabled
homeschool students. These services, which are available to all
other students in New York, public, private, and parochial, were
abruptly cut off by the State Education Department earlier this
year.

ACTIONS REQUESTED
All homeschoolers are urgently requested to call 1) the Speaker of
the Assembly and 2) the Chair of the Assembly Education Committee and
ask them to restore special services to disabled homeschoolers.
Specifically request that they introduce and pass a "same as" bill
corresponding to S-7490A. (The Senate and the Assembly must pass
identical versions of the bill for it to become law).

--Speaker of the Assembly: Sheldon Silver 518-455-3791 --Chair,
Assembly Education Committee: Catherine Nolan 518-455-4851

Even if you have called or written on this issue before, please call
again.

Please also be in prayer that God will move the hearts of legislators
to restore these services so that parents of these disable students
will not feel forced to put their children in public school in order
to obtain those services necessary for learning and development.

It would also be very helpful for you to contact your own
Assemblymember (who can be identified at www.hslda.org/toolbox) and
give them the same message.

Thank you
Rich Stauter
President, NYS Loving Education At Home (LEAH)

P.S. If you interested in helping further in this battle, please
contact as many as possible of the following members of the Assembly
Education Committee with the same message:

Carmen E. Arroyo 518-455-5402
Michael Benedetto 518-455-5296
James F. Brennan 518-455-5377
Karim Camara 518-455-5262
Barbara M. Clark 518-455-4711
Ruben Diaz, Jr. 518-455-5514
Patricia A. Eddington 518-455-4901
Steve Englebright 518-455-4804
Aurelia Greene 518-455-5671
Earlene Hooper 518-455-5861
Susan V. John 518-455-4527
Tom Kirwan 518-455-5762
William B. Magnarelli 518-455-4826
Alan Maisel 518-455-5211
David G. McDonough 518-455-4633
Joel M. Miller 518-455-5725
Daniel J. O'Donnell 518-455-5603
William L. Parment 518-455-4511
Amy Paulin 518-455-5585
Phil Ramos 518-455-5185
Bill Reilich 518-455-4664
Bob Reilly 518-455-5931
Joseph S. Saladino 518-455-5305
Teresa R. Sayward 518-455-5565
Robert K. Sweeney 518-455-5787
Fred W. Thiele, Jr. 518-455-5997
Harvey Weisenberg 518-455-3028

Parade.com poll.  Please take a moment to vote.

http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2008/edition_06-01-2008/Intelligence_Report#education

http://www.usmemorialday.org/

This site has lots of great information and links about Memorial Day.  It offers some suggestions for ways to observe Memorial Day.  Here they are...

• by visiting cemeteries and placing flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.

   

• by visiting memorials.

   

• by flying the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.

   

• by flying the 'POW/MIA Flag' as well (Section 1082 of the 1998 Defense Authorization Act).

   

• by participating in a "National Moment of Remembrance": at 3 p.m. to pause and think upon the true meaning of the day, and for Taps to be played.

   

• by renewing a pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our falled dead, and to aid the disabled veterans.

Are you concerned about protecting your parental rights?  Check out this great site.  They are working hard to keep our parental rights safe.

www.parentalrights.org

http://www.ultimatehomeschoolexpo.com/UHSE2008.html

The Ultimate Homeschool Expo, right from the comfort of your own home.

April 28 - May 3, 2008

Thursday, May 1st is the annual National Day of Prayer.  The below link can help you find a local event planned for that day.

http://www.ndptf.org/home/index.cfm?flash=1

Earth Day is April 22, 2008

http://www.earthday.gov/

National Drop Everything and Read Day

 http://www.dropeverythingandread.com/index.html

Happy Easter

Jesus is Risen

Dear Friends and Members of LEAH:

Great news, but there is more work ahead!

The Board of Regents met on Monday, March 17 and discussed the issue of homeschoolers and special-needs in front of a standing-room-only crowd of homeschoolers.  The Board of Regents stated that they are in favor of returning things to the status-quo (i.e., providing special services to homeschoolers like they were before the change of late 2007 / early 2008).  However, the Board of Regents, based on its own legal counsel, believes a change is necessary in state law to make it "fit" with Federal law.  The Regents and NYSED are in support of the NY legislature making the necessary changes.  This is very important because the legislature looks to the Regents and NYSED as being the "experts" in education.  Therefore, there is probably no longer any need to continue contacting your Regents. However, a note of thanks would be in order.

Draft legislation being worked on by the Regents and by key members of the legislature.  It would solve the special-needs problem by classifying homeschool students as private school students for the purposes of the Federal Individual Disabilities and Education Act (IDEA) only.  This change would enable the restoration of services that have been cut-off. Other states have resolved the Federal technicality in this manner.

Actions Needed:

We need your immediate letters, phone calls, and emails to the legislature, encouraging them fix this problem by passing this legislation.

Message to the legislators (Phrase in your own words):

1. Please restore critically needed services by passing the homeschool special-needs bill being recommended by the Board of Regents.

2. Please work with New York’s homeschool groups, including LEAH and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), to resolve issues with the wording of the draft bill.

When:

We need immediate action as the Board of Regents recommended that this provision be included in the next New York budget bill, due on April 1.

Suggested Itinerary for making six very important phone calls or emails:

1st Day (the day you receive this message): Phone or email the leaders of New York’s legislative houses and deliver the messages 1 & 2 above.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver

Phone: 518-455-3791

Email: speaker@ assembly.state.ny.us

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno

Phone: (518) 455-3191

Email: bruno@senate.state.ny.us

2nd Day: Phone or email the chairs of the legislature’s education committees with the same message.

Assemblyperson Catherine Nolan (Assembly Education Committee Chair)

Phone: 518-455-4851

Email: nolanc@ assembly.state.ny.us

Senator Steven Saland (Senate Education Committee Chair)

Phone: 518-455-2411

Email: saland@senate.state.ny.us

3rd Day: Phone or email you own legislators (find them at www.hslda.org/toolbox) and deliver and encourage them to restore special-needs services to homeschoolers by supporting the bill being recommended by the Board of Regents.

Your legislator may ask you for a bill number.  That is not available yet.  I will pass it on when it becomes available.

Please remember to keep this issue in prayer.  Pray for wisdom for the legislature, and for homeschoolers to have favor in their eyes.

Thanks for standing up for and with the disabled homeschool students of New York.

Sincerely,

Rich Stauter

President, Loving Education At Home (LEAH)

Hype about the case and plea to remain calm
Posted by: "Debbie Schwarzer" drschwarzer@ comcast.net

Fri Mar 7, 2008 9:00 am (PST)

I have been astonished about the hype about this case. So many have
been making sensational claims that parents will be criminally
prosecuted, etc. Please rest assured about a number of things. First,
the law, other than this court's interpretation, hasn't changed.
Parents involved in a truancy prosecution might face criminal
charges, but only after a rather lengthy series of hearings and court
orders, and only if the parents failed to comply with the orders. It
would be a criminal contempt charge, which isn't nothing but doesn't
land you in Pelican Bay. We have never known conscientious parents
ever to be prosecuted under truancy laws to the point of contempt
charges. It's highly unlikely. The media also appear to be saying
that no one can teach their children without a credential. I am not
certain that the holding is that broad, and I also doubt it would
survive legal challenge. The holding really applied to private ISPs
(there are persistent mistatements, that began with fact statements
in the case, that the family was enrolled in a charter. Obviously a
school with the name "Christian" in it wouldn't be a public charter.
It was a private ISP). It could be read by someone reading broadly as
applying to any situation where the child is not continuously in the
presence of a credentialed teacher.

The court started on a very slippery path of appearing to think that
some situations were OK and others weren't, effectively trying to
enact an entire code of regulations for governing this situation from
the bench. He hasn't been given the constitutional authority, of
course, to do this. How do we get rid of this case? There are a
number of paths. One is seeking actual review by the Supreme Court.
HSC and at least several of the other major groups' legal teams
aren't in favor of that. Even if you could get the court to accept
your petition (they only take 3-5% of cases), the chances that it
will be decided the way you want aren't real good. It's a very
dangerous road to take, because if the Supreme Court were to affirm
the appellate court ruling on either of the main points
constitutional or statutory), there aren't many options left. The
constitutional argument, of course, could be appealed to the US
Supreme Court, but the statutory case about the proper interpretation
of the California Education Code could not. California Supreme Court
is the last stop on that road. If that happens, then you have two bad
choices that I'll discuss below.

There is another much easier choice, and it's the one we want, as
well as the one being trumpeted in the HSLDA petition. You ask the
California Supreme Court to depublish the opinion, or, in other
words, have them say that while this might have been the right
result in this particular case involving this particular set of
facts, the court finds that the reach of the opinion is overbroad and
should not become law for the entire state. That is the choice we
all (meaning HSC and, I believe, the other groups)want.
You get this by filing a letter with the Supreme Court in compliance
with the applicable rules of court. While anyone can file one by
stating their interest, we DO NOT think it is an appropriate use of
grassroots activism. We DO NOT want every HSC member or HSLDA
member or grandmother or irate citizen dashing off their letters to
the Supreme Court. There are sober, measured, legal arguments to make
about why depublication is appropriate, and those arguments are
made after researching the applicable standards, etc. The Supreme
Court will not be swayed positively by public outcry. In fact, it
could backfire, and backfire badly.

If the Supreme Court affirms on the statutory points, then the two
bad choices are to either seek legislation or to do nothing and hope
that a further case is brought that can involve a better set of facts
and better explanation of the issues (and reaching a better result).
Both are very dangerous. Legislation isn't the answer because of the
extraordinary strength of the teachers' union. It is unlikely we will
see any legislation ultimately pass that gives us the freedom
we have today. And the second choice is dangerous. I know lots of
families that would make terrific test case defendants -- they're
conscientious, they actually get their kids educated, they follow the
laws. But we don't get to pick who the family is. As a friend of mine
said, we couldn't have gotten a worse set of facts for this case if
we had a contest. We are trying to get one or more of the fanciest law
firms in the state to help us on taking the fangs out of this case.
We know what we're doing. Please let us do our jobs.
I would be personally, professionally, and, as a representative of
HSC, globally grateful if everyone on this list would calm down and
ask others to calm down.

Specifically, I would ask people:
a. Not to write to the Supreme Court or any court.
b. Not to talk to their legislators or make any public statements
about a need for legislation.
c. Tell their neighbors, friends, lists, groups both of the above and
to educate them about the choices available and about how panic isn't
necessary, marches on Sacramento aren't necessary, etc.

I wish this were the type of situation where we could put the fury,
passion and energy of the members of this list to good use. Trust me,
if we end up having to go the legislative route, we will have that
situation at some points. But this isn't that type of situation, and
too many folks stirring things up hurts instead of helps.

Thanks for listening.
Debbie Schwarzer
HSC Legal Team Co-chair

CA Governor Vows to Protect Homeschooling
You can read the entire article at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
f=/c/a/2008/03/08/MNCHVG0SD.DTL&type=politics

Friday, March 7, 2008 (SF Chronicle)
Schwarzenegger denounces 'outrageous' homeschooling ruling
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

(03-07) 12:20 PST SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger promised
today to ensure that parents have the right to homeschool their
children, after a state appeals court ruling severely restricted the
practice in California. "Every California child deserves a quality
education and parents should have the right to decide what's best for
their children," the governor said in a statement. "Parents should
not be penalized for acting in the best interests of their children's
education. This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts
and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected
officials, we will."
An estimated 166,000 children are homeschooled across the state.
The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles
said all children ages 6 to 18 must attend public or private school
full-time until graduation from high school or be tutored at home by
a credentialed teacher. There is no specific allowance in state law
for homeschooling, the court said. Many homeschooling parents
register as a private school with the state, a status that does not
require credentialed teachers. Then they enroll their own children in
their school. The court ruling, issued Feb. 28, appears to restrict
such practices, setting a precedent that could lead to parents being
prosecution for truancy.

__._,_.___

www.eeweek.org has lots more information about the upcoming National Environmental Education Week in April.

Thanks to Joy for sharing.

This site has more information about qualifications and pricing.

http://www.microsoft.com/Education/AcademicDiscounts.mspx

Thanks to Jennifer( www.HomeSchoolBlogger.com/NewBrunswick) for sharing the link.

March 5, 2008 is World Math Day.  Check out Jacqueline's blog for some great information about World Math Day.

www.homeschoolblogger.com/newfoundland

This February has a Leap Day.  Check out the link below for lots of information and some great activity ideas.

http://www.angelfire.com/stars3/education/leapyear.html