Image Credit: liahonaacademy.com
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A bill designed to address chronic truancy is on the House Education Administration Committee Calendar, Wednesday March 9th.
House Bill 2139 (HB2139), sponsored by Representative Mark White, and its companion Senate Bill 2579 (SB2579), sponsored by Senator Rusty Crowe, aims to prevent parents who are unwilling to address their child’s truancy during Tier 1 and Tier 2 interventions from independently homeschooling through the LEA as a way of avoiding Class C misdemeanor charges.
According to the Tennessee Comptroller, a 2017 state law requires schools to implement a progressive truancy intervention plan that includes three tiers. These tiers aim to address the root cause of a student’s unexcused absences (such as missing school for health issues and not handing in a doctor’s note) in order to avoid having to refer the case to juvenile court which is the final option after all other means have been exhausted.
HB2139/SB2579 states that a parent or guardian of a student who has accumulated five or more days of unexcused absences during the school year, and has reached Tier 3 of the LEA’s progressive truancy interventions has to keep the student enrolled at their school unless one of the following apply:
- student’s place of residence changes
- student is transferred to another school because of open enrollment or out-of-district transfer policy
- student is being enrolled in a non-public school
The proposed law has some in the homeschooling community anxious that it will impede parental choice to homeschool. According to one of our sources, Senator Crowe has received so many calls from homeschooling parents that he has deferred SB2579 until March 16th to help address their concerns.
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Maddie Prince, mother of Leah (names changed to protect privacy) spoke to The Tennessee Conservative to share her story.
“I had to pull Leah after many unexcused absences because we couldn’t afford to keep taking her to the doctor for them to tell her she was fine. She had severe stomach pain. We did ultrasounds, MRIs, colonoscopy, endoscopy, special diets, blood work, etc. Also, she was self-harming partially due to the pain and partially due to testing in school.
She was in all AP classes and struggling to keep grades up… [She also had] generalized anxiety disorder. She had us really worried and so we put her in a psych outpatient program for a bit. The antidepressants they prescribed her made it worse and she almost never got out of bed.”
According to Prince, if this proposed law had been on the books at the time, she would not have been allowed to withdraw her daughter from her school.
The Tennessee Conservative spoke with Representative White yesterday. He told us that his bill is only meant to address parents who say they will register as Independent homeschoolers once they find their students are headed to juvenile court.
It is White’s belief that an invested parent who is communicating with the school about their child will never find themselves in the situation that his bill addresses.
White also clarified that a non-public school includes private schools and church-related schools (CRS) which means that parents could enroll their truant child in what is known as an “umbrella” school instead of the LEA in order to homeschool. In Tennessee, the definition of “homeschooled” is somewhat confusing. Children enrolled in a CRS may be classified as homeschooled or as non-public students.
If you have concerns about HB2139, be sure to contact the House Republican committee members listed below before their meeting tomorrow, March 9th.
House Education Administration Committee Members
Mark White (Chair) – rep.mark.white@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4415
Chris Hurt (Vice Chair) – rep.chris.hurt@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-2134
Charlie Baum – rep.charlie.baum@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-6849
Michele Carringer – rep.michele.carringer@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1721
Glen Casada – rep.glen.casada@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4389
Scott Cepicky – rep.scott.cepicky@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-3005
Mark Cochran – rep.mark.cochran@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-1725
Tandy Darby – rep.tandy.darby@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-7847
John Gillespie – rep.john.gillespie@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-8201
Kirk Haston – rep.kirk.haston@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-0750
Justin Lafferty – rep.justin.lafferty@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4110
John Ragan – rep.john.ragan@capitol.tn.gov – (615) 741-4400
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
3 Responses
Let’s primary Mark White and his ilk out of office!
We need more home schooling not less. Schools today are nothing more than indoctrination centers for Communism. Our country is in such a bad way right now I really don’t know if we can pull out of this.
If we allow this government to continue to brainwash our children there is no telling where this will lead to. Any legislator wanting to do this needs to be removed from office. Parents are supposed to be in charge of their children, NOT THE GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In 2018 Mark White was the champion of in-state tuition for illegals. If I remember correctly, it failed by one vote.