|
HEM SUPPORT GROUP NEWS - October 2005
~OCTOBER'S HIGHLIGHT
~ISSUES TO WATCH
~COMMUNITY SERVICE
~CONFERENCES
~WEB UPDATES
~HEM RESOURCES AND MORE
HEM SUPPORT GROUP NEWS - OCTOBER'S HIGHLIGHT
As was discussed in a previous edition of HEM Groups,
homeschoolers in Prince William County, Virginia succeeded on June 22, 2005 in
their efforts to have a problematic "approval before removal" clause
deleted from that county's homeschooling regulations. In this issue, two PWC
homeschoolers, Shay Seaborne, Founder and Facilitator of FOLC Eclectic
Homeschoolers, and Amy Wilson, a FOLC member, offer tips to homeschoolers on
working with the local school board, based on their recent experience. Shay and Amy also explain how their
coalition of grassroots homeschool activists achieved success in spite of the
last-minute involvement of HSLDA, which initially threatened to upend the
delicate balance of trust and communication that local homeschoolers had worked
to establish with the PW County school board.
Mary: When did you first become aware of Prince William's
onerous "approval before removal" clause?
Shay: I discovered the revised regulations posted on the
school division's website in mid-July of 2004. However, local homeschoolers
actually started to work on the issue almost a year before that, when the
approval before removal requirement was nothing more than a slip of paper
attached to the county's homeschool packet, but it was being enforced by an
aggressive attendance officer at one high school.
Mary: What action did you take to correct it?
Shay: When it was simply a matter of one attendance officer
acting out of line, I took it up with the officer and his superiors, including
the head of Student Services--to whom homeschoolers report in this division.
Upon seeing that the 3-day waiting period had been made a regulation, I
immediately contacted Don Richardson, the school board representative who had
been working with our group on other revisions to the regulations. Being that
it was summer, the best he could do was to individually contact other board
members informally, as a prelude to changing the regulations when the board
reconvened in the fall.
Over the course of the next 11 months, members of the PW
County action group also talked to other school board members, wrote to them,
wrote letters to the editor, attended policy meetings, and spoke at school
board meetings.
Fortunately, Mr. Richardson is fair-minded and proactive; he
kept working with the school board and us until both parties came to a mutually
agreeable resolution.
Mary: As I understand it, this regulation that Prince
William had in place contradicted state law. Am I correct that school divisions
should also follow the state law pertaining to home education in Virginia?
Amy: Yes. The laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as they
pertain to homeschooling, govern not just homeschooling families, but also the
role played by the state's school districts.
Mary: Therefore, you were not attempting to change any laws,
but rather to correct an erroneous regulation that belied state law. Certainly,
this rule must have caused trouble for new home educators?
Shay: It created serious trouble for two families that I
know of, who pulled their children out of school and were terribly harassed by
school personnel on the basis of this illegal regulation. No doubt, there were
other families that I didn't hear from, who also had trouble because of this
regulation.
Mary: What was the single greatest factor that you believe
led to your success?
Amy: The most important thing we did was to establish a
relationship with school board members prior to working on this problem. In the
most recent round of school board elections, Shay organized a candidate's forum
at the local library, in which school board candidates were invited to meet
local homeschoolers, hear their concerns and answer their questions. This was a
great opportunity for those potential elected officials (some of whom went on
to be school board members) to see homeschoolers as real people, see us
interacting with our kids and each other, and hear about the things that
concern us. It showed them that the homeschooling community cares about what
goes on at the school board meetings, that the decisions made by those
officials do have an impact our lives, and that we do see ourselves as part of
the broader educational community that also includes the public school system.
The groundwork laid in this meeting was like money in the bank when we then
approached the school board to try to resolve the "approval before
removal" issue. We had demonstrated our goodwill and involvement, our
interest in a positive working relationship, and now we were coming to the
board with an issue that it was in their power to help resolve, for the benefit
of all concerned.
To be honest, another significant factor in our success was
pure luck. We were incredibly fortunate to have Don Richardson on the school
board. Although he has no special favoritism towards homeschoolers, he is a
practical and fair-minded person who came to his school board position with a
goal of streamlining the system. He saw the issue of "approval before
removal" as one of unnecessary red tape and wished to see it resolved for
that reason. But even if we had not had such a person, we learned in retrospect
how important it was that we approached the board with a positive attitude and
conveyed to them that we were fellow educators and community members interested
in working with them to achieve a solution to a problem that would benefit all
parties involved. Starting out with a positive approach is the way to go - it's
a bit like parenting, maybe - you can always try the other tools in your box
later, if need be.
Mary: You had worked with this school board for over a year
and a half, and then, as I understand it, HSLDA got involved. Did HSLDA contact
you to confer?
Shay: No. HSLDA heard about the proposed regulation change,
and my involvement in it, from a reporter 6 days before it was to be voted in
as part of the school board's consent agenda. When HSLDA had not contacted me
two days after they knew about my involvement, I sent an e-mail asking them the
reason for their objection. However, two days after that, HSLDA had not
responded. This was now 3 days before the school board meeting, so Amy called Mr.
Woodruff and started the dialog between the grassroots coalition and HSLDA.
Through our phone conversations with Scott Somerville and
Scott Woodruff, Amy and I learned that HSLDA had known about the problem
regulation for some time, because their members had contacted them about it.
Mr. Somerville said that the national organization simply told its members to
ignore the unenforceable 3-day waiting period, and none of their members were
harassed. Although two HSLDA attorneys agreed that the illegal regulation had a
"'chilling' effect" on those who " aren't represented by
counsel," HSLDA was content to leave the illegal regulation in place, the
rationale being that there is no reason to open up a bad regulation if it isn't
being enforced-but they couldn't see what was happening here in PW County.
A national organization by its nature is far removed from
the broader local homeschool community; there is no way it can be in touch with
what goes on in every school division. It necessarily focuses on its members,
so it was unaware that there were any problems with enforcement of this illegal
regulation. The grassroots group-which consists of people who reside here, and
people who are in touch with those who *are* affected by the requirement-had
great incentive to change the regulation.
Mary: I believe that every individual can and should know
their own rights and responsibilities and can often effectively bring change
when it is needed on their own. Your situation is a prime example of this. Why
didn't you seek legal assistance?
Amy: Aside from an interest in safeguarding our bank
accounts? *chuckle* While we did feel that the school board's regulation was
out of alignment with state homeschooling law, we felt strongly that this was a
local issue affecting families in our own community, and that we were capable
of being effective advocates to spur a change. We have an elected school board,
which may make a bit of a difference in the board members' responsiveness to
local residents, and we felt that approaching the board members as elected
public servants who had a duty to represent the interests of the school system,
and of the citizens in each district, would be an effective approach. And of
course, we knew that we could always seek out an attorney later if we needed
to. But just as we homeschoolers know that it doesn't take a "professional
educator" for our kids to learn, we also felt confident that we didn't
need a professional advocate to pursue our cause with the school board.
Professionals have their place - but how wonderful to be empowered to do it
ourselves! This is a sentiment homeschoolers can appreciate.
We also found that Don Richardson, our supportive school
board member, took the position that he saw this issue, not as a legal one, but
as a policy issue. For him, the important fact was that the school board had
adopted a policy aimed at reducing hurdles for parents seeking to be involved
in their children's education, and streamlining the interactions between
parents and the school system. So, if we had not taken his cues to address the
issue that way, and had instead forced it as a legal matter, we would have
missed an opportunity for a relatively easy (compared to a court process)
solution to this problem.
Shay: Like Amy said, we felt it was a local issue that we
could handle ourselves, by virtue of the relationship we had carefully built
with the school board. We would have asked for assistance from our statewide
organization if we felt the need. But we handled it locally as a group of
parents without backing from a statewide group, even though I happen to be the
president of The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers.
When HSLDA became involved, the interactions changed
dramatically. This is because, although both HSLDA and the grassroots group wanted
the same thing-a regulation in line with state law-we differed greatly in
approach and perspective. HSLDA saw it as a legal issue and wanted to deal with
the board attorney, rather than the board itself. HSLDA also insisted upon
particular action from the school division. The grassroots coalition preferred
to continue working with the school board in a cooperative manner, to preserve
and further develop the positive relationship we had worked to create. These
differences made it difficult for the two groups to work together.
Mary: What was the outcome?
Shay: Before the board meeting commenced, Amy submitted
proposed language to Don Richardson. This language was crafted by the
coalition, with agreement from Mr. Woodruff, as a result of numerous communiqués
between the two parties.
Ultimately, Don led the board to vote in favor of simply
deleting the 3-day waiting period clause from the standing regulation, without
changing anything else. The board voted 6-2 in favor of removing the offensive
language from its current homeschool regulation. This leaves us with a
regulation that is fully in line with state law.
Mary: What advice would you give other homeschoolers who
would like to help a school board have a better understanding of home education
and improve a school board's rules and regulations that may not be beneficial
to homeschoolers?
Amy: Regardless of any history your school board may have in
its policies and treatment related to homeschoolers, try to approach them in a
positive manner. This doesn't mean selling your soul, just remembering that
these are human beings you are trying to work with. Try to learn their
perspective and concerns and approach them as fellow educators in the
community, who are interested in resolving a problem. If you can, establish a
relationship with your school board well before any problems crop up. Go to
school board meetings - you will likely be noticed, as attendance at these
meetings is often low. Email your school board members to compliment them on
some decision they have made or policy they have enacted that you admire in
some way (even if it has nothing to do with homeschooling - just find something
nice to say). They are accustomed to only hearing from people who have problems
and complaints, and they will associate your name with the positive feeling of
being complimented on the work they do (which, honestly, is often poorly
compensated in any other way). Cultivate your school board as if it were a
garden - the fruit may not come until later, but it will be sweet.
Mary: What did you learn from this series of events?
Shay: I learned a great deal about numerous things-too many
to go into here. Mainly, I learned that the very best way to effect change is
to build a positive relationship between homeschoolers and officials and work
with them.
Mary: Thank you Amy and Shay for taking the time to help
others understand the situation as it occurred. Many can learn from this
victory and utilize the same principles in their area to help correct
regulations that do not benefit them. This was grass roots cooperation at its
finest.
ISSUES TO WATCH
Honda Revisited--
HR 3753/ S 1691-Homeschool NonDiscrimination Act 2005 was
reintroduced with some additions on September 13, 2005.
Some of you may have missed it the first time, so be sure to
visit Thomas, the legislative search site at:
http://thomas.loc.gov
and copy and past either HR 3753 or S 1691 within
the search box and read it for yourself.
I personally find that the name of this bill can be
misleading-- The Homeschool Non-discrimination Act; because during the fifteen
years we have been involved with homeschooling, I've never read about, heard or
experienced any situation as described in this bill that could be considered
discriminating to the point that federal law was needed to correct it. Almost every situation was solved with
careful and considerate communication. When the situation could not be
corrected, homeschoolers found other ways to meet their needs. However, do not
take my word for it, read the bill yourself and then visit one of the many
discussions online concerning HR 3753/ S 1691.
Here are just a few of those discussions:
Homeschooling Freedom - the HONDA Edition
Scott Defisks Honda at Chris O?Donnell?s Blog
The H.R.3753/S.1691 blog states it is an online source of
information for people working to kill the bills -- again --, and keep
homeschooling from being further defined by federal legislation
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Our hearts continue to reach out to those affected by
Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina.
Many thanks to each of you who continue to inquire and to all of those
who are coordinating the relief effort such as the H.E.A.R.T. group, Project
Noah and PEAK -
I have received permission to forward the following request
from Lisa Guidry of Project Noah:
Hello everyone,
We are so thankful to all of you for your support and
prayers! Project Noah is making great inroads to helping the families affected
by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita! With each box that we mail, please
know that there is a part of every family that has gone into each of those
boxes - those that have prayed for us, donated to us, volunteered at our
warehouse - all of you! This is awesome!
At this time we have a need that maybe you or someone you
know might be able to help with. We are in need of Sonlight (K-4), KONOS,
Learning Adventures, and similar unit studies. We do not have these, and we do
not have the financial resources to purchase these at this time - new or used.
If you or someone you know is able to help in this way,
could you contact us at project.noah @ gmail.com (remove the spaces)
Blessings,
Lisa Guidry
Mother of the Tribe!
Lisa also mentioned that if there are groups in the Greater
Houston area that want to volunteer (we always in need of volunteers to sort
and pack), they can call and schedule a time (time slots are in 2 hour
increments).
The following is a wonderful account from Camille Smith of
HEARTSofLosnAngelesPasadena in California and their recent community service
efforts. She gave me permission to
reprint what she wrote:
The flooding of New Orleans, my hometown and the home of so
many of my friends and family, stirred so many to act with donations. After our family's online donation, and all
of our calls to make sure everyone was accounted for and safe, if away from
home, we were left feeling helplessness.
My mother lives in Baton Rouge, and mentioned in passing that a friend
was working at a shelter for hurricane evacuees and had asked for donations of
clothes and other used items. I asked
her to see if they could use toys, and the answer was yes. My mother happily agreed for me to post her
address to the local homeschool groups for toy donations, and the toy drive
began. It was our homeschool group,
"Hhome4kids,'" first service project for our new chapter of
H-E-A-R-T-S, "Hearts of LosangelesPasadena."
I sent a letter to three homeschool groups in the Los
Angeles area, asking for toys, used or new, to be dropped off at my house or at
our park day. I gave everyone one week,
and offered to pay the shipping for everything collected during that time. A slow trickle at first, but by the end of
the week we had 20 large boxes. Many
mailed boxes directly to my mother, and I know of at least 2 people who ordered
$100 or more of new toys and had them shipped to her as well. 35 large moving boxes is a minimum estimate
of how much has come in so far--yes, my mother is still receiving boxes. Just last week, someone sent a $100 gift
certificate for school supplies.
One family used their UNICEF money to buy toys, being
careful to avoid white dolls since they thought many in the shelter would
prefer colored skin dolls, very thoughtful and true. Others used their
allowance to buy toys to mail. One
family did spring-cleaning and the boy (8 yrs old) gave away many toys that he
had refused to let go of before our drive. Our park day group decorated canvas
bags for the children to put their things in.
And during that meeting, a steady stream of people we had never met
filled my station wagon to capacity with a simple hello, here it is, goodbye,
not expecting anything in return. The
spirit of giving was strong, beyond Christmas, because they were only giving
and never looked back.
My mother, Gail Lord, and her husband Ron have worked hard
to distribute toys. The original
shelter no longer needed the toys once we got them to Louisiana even though the
boxes only took about 5 days in the mail, parcel post. Other shelters were glad to receive some,
evacuated children at the State School for the Blind were surprised as
well. A Baptist church has just
finished converting their shelter into a distribution center, and many will go
there, too. St. Vincent de Paul charity
also received a few boxes. Gail is
committed to make sure every toy goes to the right person, and this has been a
joyful duty for her to fulfill.
I hope these details show how an email about a worthy cause
brought many into action to make children's lives all the way across the
country a little brighter. It took my
mother being willing to distribute them, and all those that donated to
participate, as well as the children at the park who decorated the bags. At the other end, it took the charities to
help distribute as well. Ever person
in this chain was important, and I'm especially proud of the Los Angeles area's
homeschool groups who donated: Face-la, RSHomeschoolers, CAVA-LA County, and
Home4kids.
And below is the annual Hearts October Project:
H.E.A.R.T.S. (Homeschoolers Educating, Assisting, &
Reaching-out Through Service) is organizing groups to participate in 'Sight Night'
on Halloween. The used eyeglasses collected will be delivered to local Lions
Clubs and LensCrafters. They will then
be recycled and hand delivered by LensCrafters and Lions Club volunteers to
people in developing countries who can?t afford eyeglasses.
Sight Night is part of a national collection drive conducted
annually by Give the Gift of Sight, a family of charitable vision care programs
sponsored by the LensCrafters Foundation in conjunction with Lions Clubs
International. For more information please visit the HEARTS Sight Night webpage.
WEB UPDATES, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES
An announcement from a reader:
Hi! My name is Angie Knutson and I am a homeschool mom in
Richmond, VA, USA. I have recently discovered how hard it is to find a
homeschool pen pal for my kindergartener. So, I have started a pen pal exchange
for homeschoolers of all ages. Writing letters is a good way to promote
language and penmanship skills. Not to mention, the kids love learning about
"far away" places and they enjoy corresponding with other homeschool
kids. If you know of any other homeschool families who may be interested,
please pass the info along. The more families we have, the better it will be.
The web address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschoolpenpalexchange
.
Thank you!
And I saw this on the Hem Networking list:
Dear Friend,
The Learning In Our Own Way conference was a fantastic
weekend of ideas, camaraderie, and nuts and bolts discussions from some incredible
people about living and learning with children. However, if you missed the
conference, there's no reason to feel left out. The keynotes by Dr. Thomas
Armstrong and John Taylor Gatto are now both available on compact disks, as are
many of the breakout sessions. More breakout sessions will be available for
sale soon, so check the website in a few weeks if you don't see a session you
want now.
Visit http://www.learninginourownway.com/recording.html
for
complete details.
Further, I'm offering FREE SHIPPING on any quantity you
order between now and October 31, 2005!
Best wishes,
Pat Farenga, Co-author Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of
Homeschooling
PS-DVDs of Gatto and Armstrong's keynotes, and Armstrong's
"Myth of the ADD Child"workshop, will be available by October 1.
CONFERENCES
Do you have a conference coming up that you'd like
to list? Are you looking for a speaker?
Are you a speaker looking for a conference? If you fall into any of those categories,
send me a note at groups@homeedmag.com
Visit HEM's Conference Calendar
to find other conferences that may be
coming to an area near you.
UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS
- November - Diane Flynn Keith and Universal Preschool
- December - Susan Ryan and Homeschooling Illinois -
Legislation and Learning (HILL)
- January - The Homeschool Alliance of North Carolina (HA-NC)
HEM RESOURCES, HEM BLOGS and MORE
Did you know that the publishers of Home Education Magazine
provide selections from the most recent issue?
To see the selections from the September-October issue
visit here.
Once you've read those, be sure to read about the full
selections for that issue by visiting this link.
Home Education Magazine's editors have also selected a few
articles from past issues, which are offered online for your reading enjoyment via this link.
:
To subscribe to Home Education Magazine visit the site here.
Be sure to bookmark the following links:
Home Education Magazine news feed
HEM Editor's Blog
HEM's Home Education and Other Stuff
HEM News & Commentary
HEM Support Group
HEM Homeschool Conferences Calendar
HEM Guide to Homeschooling Resources
HEM's Online Newsletter
Subscribe to one or all of them - all completely free!
Thanks for taking the time to read September's
newsletter. Be sure to bookmark Home
Education Magazine's Support Group page, which can be accessed here.
Listing your group on the HEM Support Group web pages is a
free service provided by Home Education Magazine. To list your group, fill in
the form here.
I'll see you next time!
Mary Nix
HEM's Support Group Liaison
groups@homeedmag.com
http://www.homeedmag.com/groups.html
http://www.homeedmag.com/wlcm_groups.html
Subscribe to HEM SUPPORT GROUP NEWS here.
This service is available free. Read the newsletter online.
© 2005 Home Education Magazine (All rights reserved). This
newsletter is provided as a free service of Home Education Magazine. Readers
are encouraged to forward this newsletter in its entirety, including headers
and footers, to others who might also find its contents helpful.
Return to Index
top
|
