Oklahoma Senate Bill 375 Faces Opposition from Homeschoolers

When the Oklahoma Senate session starts on Monday, February 5th there will be deep breath coming from the many homeschool families in Oklahoma. That is because of Senate Bill 375 introduced by Senator Jim Wilson that is expected to be assigned to the Education Committee for a hearing. This bill seeks require parents who educate their children at home to register with the public school district and report student's academic progress at the end of each semester of the school year.

Many homeschool families in Oklahoma are opposed to this bill possibly becoming law. The Home Educators Resource Organization (HERO) of Oklahoma sent out a Legislative Alert via their email announcement group February 1st warning their members of this upcoming bill. They urged their members to call, write, or email the Senator and let them know that they oppose the bill and why.

Senator Wilson hopes that the bill will help children who are not accurately being homeschooled and to stop parents who are neglecting the education of their children. The problem with a bill of this nature is that it is not only costly to implement but it is also impractical. Public schools would be faced with the burden of monitoring the students with already minimal funds and personnel. The increased regulation does not add any additional support to the already satisfactory laws against truancy and educational neglect that Oklahoma has. It has been pointed out that criminals do not comply with the law in any case and it is not at all likely that they would comply with this law as well making it the honest families who would suffer from this, not those lawmakers are seeking to control.

Many feel that forcing parents to report their children's education is an invasion of their rights. The U.S. Supreme Court in Troxel v. Granville (2001), stated: "In a long line of cases, we have held that, in addition to specific freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights, the 'liberty' specifically protected by the Due Process Clause includes the right to direct the education and upbringing of one's children".