Legislative Update

There are six bills in the state legislature that will affect the North Carolina homeschool community if passed.

NC Bill that Would Exempt Homeschool Co-ops from the Child Care Law
House Bill 600, Regulatory Reform Act of 2023, was passed by the Senate Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate at 5:00 pm on Monday, June 26. Among the many regulation reforms in this bill is a reform regarding homeschool co-ops.This afternoon, 06/28/2013, the Senate passed this bill with several amendments added on the floor and was sent back to the House. The House didn’t concur, so a conference committee was assigned to work out the differences between the House passed version and Senate passed version. So far, there has been no action. Here is a link to the conferees.

Currently, homeschool co-ops are limited to two days a week and four hours a day if any of the students under 13 years old are dropped off. If the co-op wants to meet more than four hours a day and/or more that two days a week when there are drop off students, they are required to have a NC child care license. If they aren’t meeting in a home they are also required to have a certified child care administrator. This bill will exempt homeschool co-ops from the NC child care regulations. The co-op exemption starts on page 31. North Carolinians for Home Education favors this bill, and we ask that you contact the senators on this committee to vote to affirm.

HB 600 was ratified by the NC General Assembly on September 22, 2023 and sent to Governor Cooper. The governor has ten days to sign or to veto the ratified bill. If he does neither, it will become law after ten days.

Senate Bill 411, Bill to allow homeschool students to take PSAT/AP
This bill was initiated by NCHE. Senate Bill 411 will allow homeschool students to sit for PSAT and AP exams in public high schools. Homeschools will pay for the exams and homeschool teachers may be required to help if adding homeschool students reduces the proctor to student ratio below the minimum required. Click here to learn more and follow the progress of this bill, https://www.nche.com/ap-and-psat-exams-for-homeschool-students/.

House Bill 800, Public School Part-Time Enrollment
This bill will allow non-public school students, both homeschool and private school students, to take classes in public schools in local school administrative units and charter schools. There are more than 30 school districts that are promoting dual enrollment in homeschools and public schools. However, there has been disagreement among different state agencies as to if this is legal. If passed, this bill would clarify that it is clearly legal for a student to be enrolled in both public school and homeschool classes. As it’s presently worded, there is no limit on the number of classes a homeschool students may take in public schools, so students could take a full load in public schools and receive no instruction in homeschools. Also, this bill would apply to K-12 students. This bill is in the Committee on Education – K-12, Education – K-12 House Standing Committee – North Carolina General Assembly (ncleg.gov).

NCHE is opposed to this bill as it is currently worded. If dual enrollment was limited to middle and high school students and public school classes were limited to two core academic classes and one additional class or extra-curricular activity, such as art, band or a sport, NCHE would support the bill.

House Bill 800 died in committee.

House Bill, 420 Expand & Consolidate K-12 Scholarships
Currently, the Education Student Accounts (ESA+) Program is available to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Private schools and homeschools can apply for this program. It is designed to cover expenses such as speech therapy, tutoring services, and educational technology. Families with students in this program can order curriculum, education therapy, education technology, supplies and tuition from a state approved service provider or from an online marketplace managed by North Carolina. House Bill 420 will expand ESA+ to non-public students (including homeschool students) that don’t have an Individual Education Plan (IEP) issued by the local school district. The way this program is structured gives a lot of control to the state on how the families spend the money. This bill is in the Committee on Appropriations, Appropriations House Standing Committee – North Carolina General Assembly (ncleg.gov).

While NCHE favors the continued support and increased funding of homeschool and private school students with disabilities, we are not in favor of making state funding available to homeschool students who don’t have disabilities.

House Bill 420 died in committee. However, the language in the bill may be added to the 2023 Appropriation Act.

Senate Bill 665, Add Homeschools to Opportunity Scholarship
Since 2014, the Opportunity Scholarship program has provided private school vouchers to children of low-income households. The average voucher value is about $2,800. This bill would add homeschool students to the mix. It would award a voucher in an amount up to $1,000 for homeschool students in the next school year. The amount of the voucher would increase each successive year until the 2026-27 school year when the maximum voucher amount would equal 45% of the average state per pupil allocation for public schools. Senate Bill 645 is the same as Senate Bill 665. This bill is in the Committee On Rules and Operations of the Senate, Rules and Operations of the Senate Senate Standing Committee – North Carolina General Assembly (ncleg.gov).

This bill has no regulation to report how this money is spent. It is a reasonable expectation that there should be an accounting of how taxpayer funds are spent, and good governance dictates that the state will eventually implement more oversight regulations.

The sponsors of these bills (420, 665, & 645) are well meaning and want to help homeschool families. However, NCHE opposes these bills, as we do with almost all bills that involve homeschools receiving government funding. NCHE has always opposed homeschools receiving government funding because we oppose homeschools being dependent on government and thereby being subject to government regulation.

While NCHE opposes government funding for homeschools, we would welcome a non-refundable tax credit bill, similar to child tax credits, that specifies exactly what information homeschool families must provide on their tax forms to receive the credit.

Senate Bill 665 has died in committee. However, the language in the bill may be added to the 2023 Appropriation Act.

House Bill 746, Oversight of Home Schools
This bill will add more regulation to homeschools, and by July 1 of each school year a new notice of intent to operate a homeschool will be required. This bill died in the Committee on Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House.

NCHE opposes this bill, as it does any bill that adds regulations to homeschools. At this point, it doesn’t look like this will be successful, and we expect it to die in committee. We will keep an eye on it and inform you if this changes.

House Bill 746 died in committee.

House Bill 259, 2023 Appropriations Act crossed over to the senate on 4/26 and was assigned to the Senate Appropriations/Base Budget Committee. That committee added amendments to the bill on 5/16, and additional amendments were added to the bill on the Senate floor. The bill passed the second reading on 5/17. The bill passed the third reading when the Senate convened this afternoon. Because the bill that passed the Senate is different than the bill that passed the House, it will go to a conference committee. The committee was formed to work out differences between the House passed version of the appropriations bill and the Senate passed version. Here is a list of the committee members. They have been making some progress, but it will probably be another week to a month before we hear what they agree on. This is the bill that may include homeschoolers in the opportunity scholarships.

One of the added amendments was to expand the Opportunity Scholarship. Buried in the bill is a provision that will allow a student who “resides in a household with an income level not in excess of two hundred percent (200%) of the amount required for the student to qualify for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program” to qualify for the Opportunity Scholarship. This provision would include homeschool students. The Opportunity Scholarship was designed to help low income students attend private schools by providing state funding. The bill also provides increased funding for the Opportunity Scholarships. Families must apply for the scholarship, and money must be available in order to receive the scholarship. There is a certain amount of money set aside for this purpose, and when they run out, no more can be given out. Currently, the scholarship is available only to students in private schools, and state funds are paid directly to private schools that meet state qualifications. For homeschool students, the funding will likely be controlled by means of the online ClassWallet where products or services are ordered from state approved providers. This process will insure accountability for the taxpayer funds being used for this scholarship.

Opening the eligibility for the Opportunity Scholarships to homeschool students may seem innocuous now, but it could be the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent with serious unintended consequences in the future. Giving state funding to some homeschools could open the door for increased scrutiny and regulation of all homeschools.

A conference committee has been working out the differences between the House passes version of the bill and the Senate passed version since early June. The committee is on track to complete their work by mid-September. Here is a link to the conferees.

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