Clinton HS Record

Clinton’s Record On Home Schooling

During the time Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, he acutally signed into law towh home school bills within a single year. The second bill, Arkansas’ current law, contains the most restrictive provisions for teaching a special needs child of any home school in the nation. It requires a parent be a state-certified special education teacher in order to home school a handicapped child. Additionally, while 27 states currently require some form of standardized test for students enrolled in a home education program, Arkansas not only requires annual testing, but considers composite test score results more than 8 months below the expected grade level to be unsatisfactory [I wonder what they do with the Public School students who test in this manner.]

There is an interesting history behind the enactment of the Arkansas law under then-Governor Clinton’s Administration. As the result of lobbying efforts by home schoolers, in 1985 the General Assembly of Arkansas enacted and Governor Clinton signed one of the most favorable pieces of home school legislation in the country.

The legislation simply required that parents who elected to teach their children at home notify the public school superintendent of their decision. The law also required that beginning at nine years of age, home-schooled children would be annually tested with a nationally recognized standardized achievement test from the approved State Board of Education list. An “unsatisfactory” test score was to be determined from standards set by the State Board of Education. The Arkansas Home Schoolers celebration of this favorable legislation was to be short lived, however.

After reflecting on the implications of granting such liberty to parentteachers and in response to criticism from some of his political enemies, Governor Clinton called for a special session of the Arkansas General Assembly for the primary purpose of seeking an ammendment to the three-monthold law. Thus, the current law was passed in the 1985 session, adding the restrictions which still remain after Governor Clinton’s departure.

THe ammended law imposes annual testing requirements on all students enrolled in a home school who are seven years old or older. It also requires that each 14-year-old home school student take and pass the Minimum Performance Test required for all eigth grade public school students before being eligible to enter the ninth grade. All such tests are administered under the direction of the Arkansas Department of Education at the expense of the parent. Any student eight years of age or older whose test results are unsatisfactory must be enrolled in a public, private or parochial school unless, prior to the beginning of the next school year, the student retakes the same test and achieves a satisfactory score [I wonder what happens to the public school student who cannot pass the test or what happens when the Home Schooled NOW-Public Schooled student doesn’t pass the test.]

In the area of special education, should a parent meet the qualifications for teaching a child who is handicapped, the parent must follow the procedures for developing and implementing an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) which includes specific goals and objectives approved by the public school officials. Under the current Arkansas regulations, even if a parent contracts with a private provider who is certified or licensed to provide the specialized instruction, or accesses specialized instruction which is available from the local district, the parent must still hold a valid special education certificate from the State of Arkansas in order to conduct a home education program for a handicapped student. [Wonder where this will go in Mr. Clinton’s Education 2000 Program.]