2/28/2023: Legislative Alert & Update

Update 9:35 pm: 3408 passed 2nd reading in the House tonight.

Update 8:30 pm: 3408 is on this evening’s House agenda for 2nd reading.  It is expected to be voted on tomorrow, March 1st.
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HB 3408 has been substantially reworked in the past 48 hours.  The new language can be read here.

This revised version is cosponsored by Kathy Hess Crouse and Joe Ellington. As mentioned in previous alerts, HB3408 was originally intended to fix some issues for Hope Scholarship recipients. This version does satisfy CHEWV’s priority of retaining an exemption specifically for privately-funded home educators. 

With “crossover day” being March 1^st, this bill is likely to come up for a vote tomorrow.  Here is what the current version of HB 3408 does:

• Removes language that requires homeschoolers to submit academic assessment results in grades three, five, eight, and eleven.  Requirements to perform an annual assessment would remain in place.
• Keeps the other requirements of exemption (c)(2) intact for privately-funded homeschoolers.
• Maintains exemption (m) for those who are eligible and wish to participate in the Hope scholarship program; strikes the language for “individualized instructional program” and creates the new term “Assembled Instructional Module (AIM)” with requirements that mirror homeschool requirements in exemption (c)(2).
• Maintains exemption (n) for microschools and learning pods.
• Specifies that AIM, learning pod, and microschool students have “all of the educational rights and privileges this code makes available to home school students” and specifies that nothing in the (m) and (n) exemptions may be construed… as subjecting home school students to the requirements” of (m) and (n).
• Makes changes to Article 31, the Hope scholarship program, not applicable to privately-funded homeschoolers.

Given that the bill would need to pass out of the House tomorrow to remain viable, we urge you to contact your Delegates tonight or early in the morning to express your opinion about the bill prior to the House vote.