Dated 4/17/01
Reasons to Oppose HB0467

State law TCA 49-6-3007(e)1 states the following:
"It is the duty of the principal or teacher of every public, private, or parochial school to report promptly to the superintendent, or the superintendent's designated representative, the names of all children who have withdrawn from school...."

Therefore, this bill would provide redundant information.

This bill was introduced to address a truancy problem in Weakley County. When Gateway Christian School heard that they had been accused of this violation, they called each of their member families in this county. They found four families that had withdrawn from Gateway and in each incidence the children were enrolled another school. They then forwarded this information to the attendance officer in Weakley County Mr. Flatt along with the names of attendance officers in Lauderdale county and two other west Tennessee counties. Gateway invited Mr. Flatt would contact his contemporaries to learn their experiences in dealing with Gateway. (Some of you may remember the situation in Lauderdale County from a matter about 2 years ago with Ms. Hambey, who now works with Gateway.) In earlier conversations Rep. Maddox indicated that if the problems of Mr. Flatt could be addressed, then the problem addressed by this bill would be settled. We respectfully request your prayers that this issue would be soon resolved in a peaceable manner and that especially we would give appropriate honor to those in positions of authority.

When they become aware, Gateway Christian School notifies the appropriate local superintendents when students are dismissed or leave their program. As in this case there may be a lag time between the decision on the part of the family to withdraw from Gateway and the time Gateway discovers notification is required.

This bill is to eliminate some of the frustrations of attendance supervisors related to home schoolers. Because of the non traditional nature of home schooling, start and stop dates, vacations, and holidays can vary from home school to home school allowing the 180 days of attendance to be achieved in unusual patterns, so some of the frustration may continue.

In conclusion, current practices and laws make this bill redundant, so we humbly request that you pray for us to work out our differences with attendance officers in a respectful, peaceable manner that we might not disturb this legislature further.

Yours very truly,
Tennessee Home Education Association
J. Claiborne Thornton, III
President