Hultgren Introduces Homeschool Bill

Working in conjunction with HSLDA, U.S. Representative Randy Hultgren (IL-14) introduced new federal legislation (H.R. 2910) intended to protect homeschooling students school records.

ChristianNewsWire reports:
Hultgren Introduces Homeschool Bill

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2011 — U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14) will be holding a press conference call on Tuesday, September 20 at 10:30 am ET to discuss H.R. 2910, the Family Educational Records Privacy Extension Act to restore fairness and equality to homeschoolers nationwide. Hultgren introduced H.R. 2910 last week. [Click for Conference Call Details.]

Will Estrada from HSLDA,  was kind enough to return my phone call today, fitting me in during his travels. We discussed concerns that I have regarding:

• the introduction of any legislation (especially federal)
• how this bill might affect states, like California, who homeschool under private school laws, and have no homeschool language in legislation.

According to Mr. Estrada this is the first of several pieces of legislation that  may be introduced this year  concerning privacy issues. He also adds that this bill will in all likelihood be rolled into another piece of legislation later this term.

As justification for the introduction of H.R. 2910, Jermemiah Lorrig cited Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) concerns and public data collection concerning  minors. Mr. Lorrig stated that criminals have used such information to target children in Great Britain and in other countries.

In a nutshell, this bill makes a couple of small changes to the  Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The changes are:

SEC. 2. REQUIRING PARENTAL CONSENT TO RELEASE RECORDS OF HOME-SCHOOLED STUDENTS.

  Subsection (a) of section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1232g) is amended–

  (1) in paragraph (5)(B), by striking `attending the institution or agency’ and inserting `for whom the agency or institution maintains education records, including home-schooled students,’; and

(2) in paragraph (6), by striking `but does not include a person who has not been in attendance at such agency or institution’ and inserting `including home-schooled students’.

[Read the bill (pdf format)]

Privacy is an issue that more and more people are concerned about and if you aren’t concerned about it, you should be.

In my opinion, this legislation isn’t really necessary but homeschoolers should keep an eye on this bill because it’s only the beginning,  homeschoolers can expect to see more legislation introduced during this term. I’m taking a watch and see stance at this time and I plan to listen in on  the teleconference call to learn more.

Learn more about Identity Theft, Privacy and Kids…

• Protecting Your Child’s Personal Information At School
• Langevin Legislation to Prevent Foster Youth ID Theft Passes Committee
• Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
• ID Thieves Also Target Kids

Tags: Britain, California, children, collection, data safety, Education, family, freedom, Freedom of Information Act, Home School Legal Defense Association, homeschool, homeschoolers, homeschooling, identity theft, kids, legislation, opinion, private school, Randy Hultgren, school, students, teleconference