Tennessee Home School Families Gear Up For Fight Against Truancy Bill

Image Credit: capitol.tn.gov

The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –

Tennessee Home School families are gearing up for a fight against a truancy bill that a pair of legislators seem determined to run this legislative session.

On January 15th, Representative Kevin Raper (R-Cleveland-District 24) filed House Bill 1700 (HB1700) with Senator Adam Lowe (R-Calhoun-District 1) filing its counterpart, Senate Bill 1705 (SB1705).

The bill’s introduction stated, “As introduced, requires director of schools to report a student who was formally truant and now enrolled in a home school to juvenile court; establishes that unexcused absences accumulated by a transfer student at their former school or LEA during the school year in which they transfer follow the student to the receiving school or LEA to determine habitual truancy, to implement a progressive truancy plan, and to identify cases of educational neglect.”

The same day the bill was filed, Home School Advocacy Group Free Your Children (FYC) issued a call to action to Tennessee parents warning that Lowe and Raper were behind legislation that could violate their constitutional right to homeschool.

“All laws currently regulating homeschooling and private schools in Tennessee are unconstitutional and need to be repealed. We do not need more,” stated FYC. “We have already been involved in court cases in which the constitutional rights of parents have been violated regarding their rights to homeschool in Tn. That was never addressed by the legislature even though we worked with Senator Bowling on that issue. Currently in Tennessee, a parent can enroll their child in a homeschool option at any time. This bill is giving the courts permission to deny a parent’s constitutional right to homeschool.”

One such case occurred in 2023 in Coffee County where a Juvenile Court Judge with a reputation for being biased against homeschooling ordered a homeschooled student back to public school.

Coffee County Judge Tramples Parental Rights, Orders Homeschooled Student Back To Public School

Judge Gerald Ewell, Jr. told the student that he could send her away and that “homeschool is no school.”

After pushback from homeschool families, Lowe and Raper withdrew their bills, only to introduce very similar legislation almost immediately. While “home school” has been removed from the language, the bill remains virtually unchanged.

In the description of House Bill 1823 (HB1823) and Senate Bill 1968 (SB1968) instead of targeting students that were “formally truant and now enrolled in a home school” the description of the new bills say “requires a director of schools to refer to juvenile court a student who was formerly enrolled in the LEA, who was receiving truancy interventions, who withdrew from the LEA, and who did not transfer to another LEA.”

The Tennessee Conservative reached out to both Lowe and Raper to ask whether parents who pull their children from an LEA to enroll as independent homeschoolers could still be affected by this new iteration of their legislation.

“Yes, any child who transfers from a public school to any school applies to this bill. Examples are public to: public, private, charter, home, magnet, or other. The accountability for any of the schools being transferred to, is not held accountable. They can choose any truancy accountability peace [sic] of their liking or do nothing at all. The one exception is public to public they will still remain in the state tiered system and Juvenile Court,” Raper said in his reply. “All of this is an accountability mechanism where truancy records are traveling with the parents and child. At this point, if a child wants to reenter public schools, their truancy records are immediately in effect.”

When asked if a public school child who is at Tier 2 or Tier 3 truancy proceedings would still be subject to truancy charges if pulled from their school by their parents and enrolled in either independent homeschool or a Church Related School or other “umbrella” school (Category IV), Raper replied, “Only if they return to public schools. It is the parents being held accountable, not the student.”

Lowe said, “The bill only impacts parents and students enrolled in public school who are in dealing with truancy under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. This bill closes a loop hole that if a student disenrolls, the record starts over. If a family disenrolled to homeschool, the case wouldn’t progress but should they re-enroll in another LEA, the record would continue.”

However, in a comment on one of FYC’s posts, Lowe implied that some homeschoolers seek to avoid neglect charges through homeschooling.

When asked by a homeschool parent why Lowe, as “a senator who is supposedly conservative, would introduce a bill that further restricts the freedoms of homeschooling families in our state?”

Lowe said, “The bill was brought to us by juvenile court judges. This bill is for public school children who are in the midst of truancy proceedings and the parents pull them out or change districts to avoid truancy law. This would not affect homeschool families, just public school parents who want to avoid neglect changes.”

In another comment Lowe wrote about his now withdrawn bill, “It doesn’t deal with homeschoolers. I have asked for the language to state “recently dis-enrolled” and to add language stating this does not impact homeschoolers. This bill only impacts families who have been criminal neglectful an [sic]  in stage 2/3 of truancy proceedings from public schools.  Homeschoolers are not subject to those proceedings.”

In replying directly to FYC, Lowe stated, “A withdrawn family can absolutely homeschool. But they can’t wipe their record from PUBLiC SCHOOL educational neglect away. It has nothing to do with homeschooling, the right to homeschool, or the ability to homeschool. Only what happens in public school.”

Nevertheless, FYC has issued a warning about the new legislation.

“Senator Adam Lowe is at it again. He recently withdrew SB 1705 and as we warned, the language reappeared in SB 1968/HB 1823. DO NOT BE FOOLED. The end result is the same!” stated FYC in their call to action. “This bill would allow a judge to deny a parent’s constitutional right TO REMOVE THEIR CHILD FROM PUBLIC SCHOOL and to deny their constitutional right to  home educate. It would allow the judge to determine said child’s educational path. Currently in Tennessee, a parent has the right to unenroll their child from public school AT ANY TIME. This law would prevent that by trapping them up in the truancy pipeline and juvenile court.”

The bill’s text states that it is the juvenile judge who has jurisdiction over a student in Tier 2 or 3 interventions pursuant to the LEA’s progressive truancy plan who gets to determine how each case is dealt with “in the best interest of the student.”

Despite Lowe insisting that families in the middle of truancy proceedings can choose to homeschool, some parents choosing this option have been bullied by rogue judges into returning their children to the very schools that are failing them.

When this was brought to Lowe’s attention, he stated that such judges could be voted out but this is easier said than done as most incumbent judges tend to retain their positions.

FYC is urging homeschool families to contact legislators, both by email and phone to let them know they are still opposed to the legislation.

About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.