Assemblyman David Bobzien

Chairman, Assembly Education Committee
Via email: dbobzien@asm.state.nv.us

RE: AB 171

Dear Chairman Bobzien and committee members,

By way of introduction, Nevada Homeschool Network (NHN) seeks to advocate for the rights of parents to direct the education of their children.

We are writing today in regards to AB 171, specifically Section 10, numbers 9 and 11 that will impact homeschool parents.

Regarding Section 10.9. In discussions with Dr. Keith Rheault, Superintendant of Public Instruction on a bill submitted by the Department of Education, AB 41, the same language is found as here in AB 171. Dr. Rheault explained that the problem this language is attempting to correct arose from a state audit where formerly homeschooled students names were appearing on the rolls of public charter schools while still being listed as homeschool students with the district superintendent’s office.

We believe that this is an internal public school system problem, that is easily solved by the second sentence in the proposed language. When a parent enrolls their homeschool student in a public school or public charter school there should be a line on the enrollment form asking where the student was previously enrolled or what district the child was previously homeschooled in. With this information it then should be incumbent upon the public school or public charter school to notify the School District Superintendent that the child is no longer being homeschooled and has been enrolled in said public school or charter school. This will resolve the problem for the public school system of where a child is receiving education for the purposes of funding. The proposed language duplicates work that should logistically be handled by the public school the child is being enrolled in to and not the parent. Dr. Rheault agreed to request an amendment to AB 41 and we assume would be agreeable to the same for AB 171.

We are requesting that AB 171, Section 10.9 (and when appropriate, AB 41) be amended as follows (new language is in italics, requested deletion is [braketed]):
9. If a child who is or was homeschooled seeks admittance or entrance to any school in this
State, the school may use only commonly used practices in determining the academic ability, placement or eligibility of the child. [The parent of the child shall notify the superintendent of schools of the school district in which the child resides that the parent requests that the notice of intent to homeschool filed pursuant to this section be withdrawn.] If the child enrolls in a charter school, the charter school shall notify the board of trustees of the school district in which the child resides of the child’s enrollment in the charter school. A homeschooled child seeking admittance to public high school must comply with NRS 392.033.

Regarding Section 10.11 of AB 171. We are requesting that the names of the college entrance exams be replaced with their registered trademarked names rather than just their acronyms. In 2007, we purposefully requested the LCB to write out the names of these tests in full to avoid confusion for school administrators and parents with any other standardized tests such as the “Stanford Achievement Test (SAT)” which may be administered to public school students. We are requesting this section of AB 171 be amended as follows: (requested deletions in [braketed], new requested wording in bold italic) :
11. Each school district shall allow homeschooled children to participate in the high school proficiency examination administered pursuant to NRS 389.015 and all college entrance examinations offered in this State, including, without limitation, the [Scholastic Aptitude Test,][SAT] SAT®, the [American College Test,][ACT]ACT®, the Preliminary [Scholastic Aptitude Test] SAT and the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, PSAT/NMSQT®

We respectfully request these two amendments be made to AB 171 as written above.

Sincerely,

Frank Schnorbus
NHN Chairman

NHN Officers:
Barbara Dragon, Elissa Wahl, Laura Siegal, Kelley Millard-Radow