The Hamilton County School Board revisited their July decision to not allow home educated students to participate on area school teams and voted this time to allow home educated students to participate beginning with winter sports.

The rule applies to homeschooled students registered with their local education district.

Those covered under a church-affiliated program or other umbrella group are excluded.

The following ruling will only apply to students already registered for this school year with the LEA. The ruling is as follows:

A homeschooled student wishing to participate in extracurricular athletics at a member school shall be eligible if the following qualifications are met:

The fine print

1. The student shall be enrolled in a homeschool study program in compliance with Section 49- 6-3050(b)(1) and be registered with the local director of schools (or head of school, if a private school) by August 15 of the current school year.

2. The participating student must have a legal residence within the school district where he/she is registered, if registering with a public school. If registering with a private school, the student must have a legal residence within 20 miles of the private school and meet all tuition and financial aid requirements.

3. By Aug. 15 of the school year, the parent or guardian must make application to the principal of the member school in which the homeschool athlete wishes to participate.

4. The homeschool athlete shall meet the same academic standards required of a member school student athlete to participate in the athletic program; however, the Director of Schools for public schools (or the head of school for private schools) in which a homeschool athlete wishes to participate shall work with the parent or guardian to ensure that the homeschool athlete is academically eligible. If a homeschool student’s course of study does not include five (5) academic subjects, then the Director of Schools (or head of school, if a private school) and the parent shall develop an alternative measure of academic progress and submit the same to the TSSAA for approval. The member school shall provide proof of academic eligibility to the TSSAA each semester.

5. The homeschool student must provide proof of basic medical insurance coverage and both independently secured catastrophic insurance coverage and liability insurance coverage which names the TSSAA as an insured party in the event the school’s insurance provider does not extend coverage to students enrolled in homeschool programs. The insurance must be in place before the homeschool student practices or participates.

6. The LEA may impose a participation fee for each athletic sport in which a homeschool athlete wishes to participate. Such participation fee shall not exceed three hundred dollars annually for each sport and shall be paid in full prior to the first regular season contest. A homeschool student participating at a private school shall be subject to full tuition and financial aid rules.

7. The homeschool student must meet all other TSSAA eligibility requirements.

8. All eligibility issues may be appealed in accordance with the Bylaws of the TSSAA.

9. The homeschool athlete must adhere to the same standards of behavior, responsibility, performance, and code of conduct as other participants of the team.

10. This rule gives a homeschool athlete the opportunity to try out for a member school’s athletic team. Ultimate decisions on the roster are left to the member schools and are not governed by the TSSAA. No student is guaranteed participation, but only the opportunity to try out for a position on the team, subject to the other provisions of this rule.

CSTHEA will continue to offer sports and other extra-curricular activities for area home educated students. Mock trial and drama as well as many sports teams are some of the activities available.

Please see www.csthea.org for more information on CSTHEA sponsored activities. If you are interested in starting an activity not offered to our students please contact Janell Bontekoe at janell@bontekoes.com for activity start up information.

By Claiborne Thornton

Vulnerable.

Perhaps as many as 95 percent of high school homeschoolers had been vulnerable for 15 years. It all started in the late 1990s in Lauderdale County in West Tennessee when an aggressive attendance officer took the “dual enrollment” list and went house to house threatening homeschooling families.Gateway Christian School in Memphis stepped in to provide the umbrella covering for those students, opening a school office in Ripley.

About a week later, a pro-family coalition met with Gov. Don Sundquist and I was asked to present a possible resolution to this troubling situation. The governor called Department of Education Commissioner Jane Walters to that meeting. Two weeks later, about 15 homeschooling stakeholders met with officials for further negotiations. The result of that gathering was the so-called Jeter memo, written by Dr. Kay Jeter of the department and Dee Black, a Home School Legal Defense Association attorney.

From then until June, enrollment under the Jeter memo grew exponentially. An estimated 95 percent of high school homeschoolers have acted under cover of this administrative document.

That’s where being vulnerable comes in.

Any new commissioner or any new attorney for the DOE could have rewritten or rescinded the Jeter memo. Yanking away that cover would have thrown thousands of homeschoolers into conflict with state government and local school officials.

We were vulnerable.

What did the Jeter memo let homeschoolers do?

Under the Jeter memo, a student could be enrolled in an umbrella program and a parent could become a teacher for that umbrella school. Teachers in church-related schools are not subject to certification or state standards of control. Parents had to meet the standards of the church-related school, not the state.

In the case of homeschoolers the student and teacher were assigned to a classroom, typically their home.

Do you see why the THEA board felt that homeschooling families were vulnerable?

As soon as we could see an opening, we felt compelled to act. We must attempt to codify the memo.

Tennessee Code Annotated 49 6-3050(a) (3) is our attempt to do just that. The new language reads, as follows:

A parent-teacher may enroll his or her home school student(s) in a churchrelated school, as defined in §49-50-801, and participate as a teacher in that churchrelated school. Such parent-teacher shall be subject to the requirements established by the church-related school for home school teachers and exempt from the rest of the provisions of this section.

What made this change to Tennessee law possible?

In a word, you did.

All the people who homeschool and used this freedom in a responsible manner, demonstrated over and over and over again that homeschoolers would do the hard work of teaching their children. That’s what made the 2011 updating of the homeschooling law possible.

And our position didn’t just squeak by. In both chambers of Tennessee legislators, our proposal won by an overwhelming 75 percent.

Great job!

Two factors had driven families to use the Jeter memo. Parents without a college degree had no other choice. Equally compelling was the onerous, annual, intrusive end-of-course testing the DOE demanded for the dual-enrolled students. Students were required to take tests based on the textbooks used in the public schools. Say what?

Reading the new law, you will see that both those objections have been removed. Testing for students in church-related schools and the parent’s college degree requirements are gone.

Now that’s what I call a sweeping change.

Again, from where does this new freedom come?

It is a simple responsibility principle. Any time self-restrained responsible people use their freedom wisely, they put themselves in a position to be given more of it.

When I consider the homeschool parents, the church-related school leaders and the homeschool students, I know these people are the occasion of the expansion of our freedoms.

• Parents became motivated to do something they perhaps feared — homeschooling. However much they feared the task of homeschooling, they valued the opportunity to care for and train their children more. Prayerfully seeking wisdom from the One who freely gives, they worked through all the necessary issues. Parents, thank you.

• Church-related school administrators and leaders pursue every innovative measure to teach all the students in their sphere of influence, including homeschoolers. These innovators have continually been willing to trust the design for education laid out in Deuteronomy 6 and trust fathers and their families to do what God commands them to do — namely, “train your children.” May God greatly honor them for putting obedience to God’s design above any other vested interest. You developed reasonable measures of effectiveness, without being too intrusive.

• Students, you have done what no one predicted possible. You have achieved excellence. In character, you know the bounds of personal freedom and of reasonable restraint. In wisdom, you begin with what is right and honorable to our King and His standards and show yourselves wise stewards of what He says is good and right. In strength, you show yourselves willing to exercise regularly the small power you have to be entrusted with more from the One who gives blessings without limit. In relationships, you build friendships with those around you, increasing the circle of love that reflects the values of our King. Thank you.

In short, the proper use of the Jeter memo led to an increased body of freedoms for homeschooling families all across the state. Parents and students, you have made this possible.

Over the next 20 years, we will see how we handle this new increased liberty. With this freedom comes a heavy responsibility. Let yourselves feel the weight. Evaluate it with great care.

Dear Lord God Almighty, please touch each of our hearts, each of our spirits and show us how to trust You in this hour to be faithful and true to what You call us to do. Thank you for our freedom. Please give us wisdom to use it wisely and most of all faithfully, serving You. In Christ’s name we pray, Amen.

Tennessee Home Education Association
17 Feveruary 2011

Nashville, TN – Legislation has been introduced today by Senator Mike Bell and Representative Bill Dunn to change the home school law in Tennessee.  The Tennessee Home Education Association has observed that much that takes place in the home schooling community could be more accurately defined if certain changes were made in the state law.  In particular many home schoolers rely on the Jeter memo as the legal process by which they home school.  This actually is a letter written in 1999 as Dr. Kay Jeter, Esq, then attorney for the Department of Education, and Dee Black, Esq, HSLDA’s attorney familiar with TN homeschool law, worked together to make one of the most common practices for home schoolers more legitimate by this letter.  As more and more home schoolers have relied on this letter it became evident that a change to Tennessee’s law that incorporates those concepts from the letter needed to be written into the law.  This should secure a more certain future for home schooling in Tennessee. 

In addition practices by the Department of Education and by home schoolers and home school groups concerning testing are not clearly in line with what is written in the law.  With these and many other smaller changes we have worked to make the law more comprehensible and better suited for home schooling families and their children. 

• SB 1468 by Bell
• HB 1631 by Dunn

Schools, Home – As introduced, makes various changes to home school requirements, including testing requirements for home school students. – Amends TCA Section 49-6-3050.

Home education promotes the idea that concerned, loving parents can successfully teach their children and in a free country they should have the freedom to do that.  In home education the values of the parents are passed to their children.  This long term stability in the learning environment for the child coupled with an all day training approach to learning has proven to be very effective for those families who really do work hard to teach their children.  Those children excel in their learning skills and knowledge, their attitudes toward and ability to relate to others of varying ages and backgrounds, and their performance in the community as they exit their homes and begin impacting society at large.

The THEA Board wrote and approved this language and has consulted with attorneys in Tennessee and with the Home School Legal Defense Association to develop the initial language.  This was submitted to the two sponsors.  Senator Bell and Representative Dunn requested that Legal Services review the language to make sure it was in appropriate form.  A few further changes were made and this is what now stands as the bill. 

Responsible use of freedom encourages more freedom.  Compulsion and responsible use of freedom are antithetical concepts.  May we enjoy and use our freedom well. 

Respectfully,

Claiborne Thornton President THEA

A complaint by a Wisconsin group has prompted Hamilton County schools Superintendent Jim Scales to ban prayer over loudspeakers at pre-game events, forcing the system to become more fully consistent with its anti-christian presuppositions.

Christians in Chattanooga should not be surprised at one more effort to erase any Christian influence in the lives of people given to the charge of the government school. The process of removing God from the classroom has been a very long program, many details of which haven’t made the front page of the local newspaper. The antagonism to Christianity has been implemented routinely for decades in all areas of study, from science and government to history and literature, and in these man is the measure of all things, and not God and His Word.

“Students are a captive audience,” Annie L. Gaylor of the Freedom from Religion Foundation told the Times Free Press. “They’re required to go to school. When there is a violation like a prayer at a school, they’re really vulnerable; it’s a violation of their civil rights.”

Ms. Gaylor is making an important point. Students in the public school are “captive.” They are “vulnerable.” To what? They are captive of the school system. They are vulnerable to the Good News of Jesus Christ and should be insulated from it.

Christian homeschoolers realize what the card-carrying official bigots are saying. What they decry, home educators applaud. Exposure to Christianity might catch, and the plague of it spread. They can’t let that happen! Religious freedom and political freedom are bound up together, and public school parents deny their children both. Homeschoolers in the private and free sector exercise their liberty before the law and before God. Prayers will continue at homeschool sporting and educational events sponsored by our association.

I don’t want people to be too surprised at Dr. Scales’ exercise of authority. Since government has declared itself the enemy of Christianity, we cannot expect that its factory school will be any different from its master. For how else can the civil magistrate, who has seized for himself the educational ministry of the family, propagate his ideas and his control into coming generations? To maintain official atheism, he must control the school, the teacher, the curriculum and even the PA system prior to the football game.

Attackers of Christianity such as this foundation make pious statements that pretend deference to religion. But their goal is not deference and respect, but hostility. Deep pockets of such activist groups cow many schools and municipal governments into obliterating any trace of Christianity or of the nation’s Christian heritage from their property and their activities. The goal of Christ’s enemies is to create in the American people a totally private Christianity that has no public manifestation whatsoever (lest any should be offended).

Gary Hargraves of Chattanooga is the president of CSTHEA.

Homeschoolers busied themselves to support Jeff, the vice president of CSTHEA, who has been on the board since 1992. He is the father of four children, ages 17 to 22.

He has for years tirelessly led the homeschool mock trial team, and attended to matters of oversight of our association.

In his practice Jeff specializes in defending cities and towns against litigation and also is vigilant in area cases involving home education.

“He is a man of integrity, a man of principle and a man of zeal,” said Gary Hargraves, CSTHEA president. “And these in boundless quantities. He’s traveled the state helping homeschoolers having troubles with state and local government, usually without charging for his services. And not just homeschoolers, but church-related schools that umbrella them, too.

“You don’t have to say he cares about people; he shows it, and on a frequent basis. I can’t say enough about Jeff, especially when it comes to fighting for our rights, and things that matter — Jeff is always ready to fight those battles.”

If everyone were as active on homescholing issues as Jeff is, Gary adds, there would be “phenomonal changes” across the board in the country.

Jeff is a deacon at Oakwood Baptist church and is involved in Awana youth ministries.

Chancery court is an important court in what is called equity jurisdiction; it has a high calling to deliver justice between disputants and bring peace to the realm. Chancery has a largely Christian origin in 14th century England, and has been called a felicitous development of western law.

An essay about the exciting basis of Chancery Court appears at the homeschooler-run website, http://abortionchattanooga.com/gods-wise-laws/the-conscience-of-the-king/.

There was much mingling of the two groups — one set endorsing fee market education and homeschooling and seeking goodwill among state elected officials, the other opposing another federal imposition on a huge sector of the American economy. With little doubt homeschoolers feel as offended by a further takeover of U.S. health care as the Tea Party activists and others who organized the protest.

Our objections to Obamacare start with our convictions about God and the ideas of sphere sovereignty and limited duty that He assigns the civil magistrate. Our disdain flows onward into the economic and the political. The touchstones of our ideas are the benefits of limited government, the right to contract, constitutional restraint of power and the liberty that surges whenever bureaucracy is cut or eliminated and law constrained in its scope.

Homeschoolers are largely motivated by a love for God and a desire to obey His commandments in the upbringing of their children. Their premise of obedience to God puts children in the loving care of parents and family and leaves little room for the factory school run by the state. By nature homeschoolers love their independence from state “oversight,” even if it keeps them from accepting the state tuition freebie (plus bus service). By God’s grace, homeschoolers view the administration of coercion, taxation, surveillance, systematization and standardization in the educational realm as a judgment, a curse the effects of which are to be avoided as God in His providence allows. They have asserted their rights in court and in general assemblies, and in the U.S. have won an important measure of liberty. But we must recognize the strong hand of judgment against a people who hear Jesus say, “If you love me, keep My commandments,” but who breezily believe these commandments impose no personal nor public particulars.

A whole matrix of U.S. programs exist to sap our love for God and to tempt us to yield to the commands and supply of men. Social Security tempts the Christian to rely on the state for the care of elderly parents. Public schools tempt the Christian to rely on the state for the training in obedience and righteousness of the young. FDIC tempts the Christian to rely on Uncle for the safe keeping of assets at bank companies that are definitionally and perpetually insolvent. Safety bureaucracies and insurance tempt the Christian to rely on the payments of third parties to cover costs associated with accident or illness. Public health bureaucracies tempt the Christian to distrust his neighborly farmer and believe that supplements and medicines are safe only if approved in advance by big industry-captive regulators. Obamacare, like unto these, tempts us to jettison health care and the payment of it onto an anarchy of civil authority and corporations. It tempts us to care not as we ought, but unto an alien providence. Its 150 agencies will pull us away from personal relationships (as with God) and direct us into impersonal relationships where covetousness and self-seeking are encouraged and every dealing becomes a conflict with other noisy claimants (as in hell). The Bible envisions a decentralized society, Obama a centralized one. —DJT

State-licensed day care centers and police departments had turned up their noses at the qualifications of several homeschool grads, claiming they hadn’t really graduated from high school because they had their credentials from an umbrella school.

Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the bill to end this unfavorable trend.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Mike Bell, a homeschool dad who got his start in the affairs of the state legislature by being engaged as a lobbyist for THEA.

We should praise God that the law has been altered to give this largely Christian group of families the credit that the marketplace is already given to their graduating children.

Here is the bulk of the language of the less-than-one-page piece of legislation passed by both houses of the General Assembly:

Section 1-3-1__. Notwithstanding any rule, regulation, or other provision of law to the contrary, a high school diploma awarded by a school as defined by Section 49-50- 801 or Section 49-6-3050 in recognition of completion of secondary educational requirements shall be considered by all departments, agencies, commissions or other such entities of state and local government as having all the rights and privileges of a high school diploma awarded by a public school system. This section shall not apply to state lottery proceeds as provided in title 49, chapter 4, part 9.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law, the public welfare requiring it.

The bill that passed the Senate and House Schools requires that diplomas issued by homeschools be recognized by all state and local governmental entities as having the same rights and privileges of diplomas issued by public school systems.

Background: Despite the fact that home schooled students are being accepted in colleges and universities all across the nation as well as being recruited by Ivy League schools, it was learned a couple of years ago that some entities here in Tennessee that require a high school diploma to work decided that home schooled students from a “Category IV” schools did not meet that criteria. This decision affected day care workers and potential law enforcement recruits among others. Since the state recognizes and authorizes this kind of education, it is only just that diplomas from these schools be recognized. An effort to fix this problem failed last year. SB 433 was on the Senate floor May 4 where is passed 30-0. Sen. Sen. Andy Berke and House Speaker Ron Ramsey were among them.

HB 431 sponsored by homeschool dad repl Mike Bell (R-Riceville) was on the House floor Thursday morning. You would have been so proud of prime sponsor Mike Bill as he stood at the lectern at the front of the House floor for an hour and 40 minutes defending this ground-breaking piece of legislation. Mike did an outstanding job as he was peppered with questions, some that didn’t have anything to do with the bill. This was such a picture of “grace under fire,” that when the bill finally passed, he received a well-deserved round of applause.

In the end this bill passed Ayes 61, Nays 27. There was a minor change requiring it to go back to the Senate for a concurring vote Monday (May 11), but no problem is expected. Here’s the coverage in the Tennessean.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090508/NEWS0201/905080380/Bill+orders+equality+for+home-school+diplomas