November-December 2006 Selected Content

An Interview with John Munson

I asked John how he got involved with NYHEN?

John: Around the time our kids reached "school age", some of New York's veteran homeschoolers were getting NYHEN off the ground. One of the organizational meetings was near us, so I attended. Being a computer geek, I offered to set up a website, and the job stuck to me like glue! I started out as "the techie", but over time I learned the homeschooling issues and got into posting advice and opinions about them.

Mary: At the NYHEN laws and regulations page it states: "No matter what state you live in, it's necessary to know your state's homeschooling regulations. And in a highly regulated state such as New York, it's especially important." The page then lists the regulations and a wealth of information for the reader to utilize. John, could you please elaborate on the importance of each individual knowing their state's regulations?

John: I've seen a lot of confusion about homeschooling regulations. Many people -- parents and school officials alike -- don't understand the legal requirements. As a result, officials sometimes demand more from parents than is required (this is fairly common here in New York), and some parents go along with those demands. If you know the regulations, you can recognize when officials are telling you something wrong, and you can respond to them with confidence.

Also, knowing the ropes yourself can help you avoid being led astray by advice that conflicts with your educational approach. For example, if you're an unschooler, someone else who favors a highly structured approach might tell you that the required paperwork has to be done in a very curriculum-oriented way. Knowing the requirements yourself helps you see how you can comply with them without having to shoehorn your approach into something that's foreign to you.

Mary: John, you coordinate NYHEN's several email lists. I'd like to focus on NYHEN-Support for a moment. As I understand it, this discussion group is designed to help homeschoolers understand and follow NY's complicated regulations and respond to any other concerns relating to homeschooling. This must be a tremendous help to new folks trying to understand the process. In a nutshell, how do you help folks comply with New York's laws and still enjoy the freedoms that homeschooling offers?

John: Often, the first thing we do is help newcomers calm down! It's easy to get overwhelmed when you read New York's homeschooling regulation.

One important thing we do is dispel the notion that the paperwork has to be long and complicated. For example, New York requires that we submit an educational plan for the year, and many new people think this means that they have to write a huge curriculum document. I think there's a lot of relief, especially among unschoolers, when we explain that they don't have to do that. The regulation gives us the leeway to submit simple lists of materials or topics, for example. And by keeping things simple and general, we satisfy the requirements while still leaving ourselves free to educate our kids as we see fit.

On our email list, we often post examples of what we say in our paperwork so that people can get a feel for how to present things. And, because we use Yahoo Groups to run our email lists, we have a "files area" where some people post their paperwork documents for others to use as a guide.

Mary: I am aware that over the years you have helped homeschoolers who have run into difficulties with their local districts. How have you gone about doing this?

John: You might say that our mantra is, "Read 'em the regs!" Many difficulties arise because districts demand things that the state regulation doesn't require. So, we point out the parts of the regulation that parents can quote to their district. That does the trick in those situations. I can't recall any such cases in which a district has continued to push its demands after the parents quote the regs.

We also tell parents to handle these cases in writing, so that there's a paper trail to help keep the districts in line.

When the parents are unsure of how to present the information to the district, I've written letters for them to use as a guide. But I think it's important that such letters come from the parents, so that the district realizes it's dealing with people who will stand up for themselves.

Mary: The NYHEN NY-Alert list allows homeschoolers to learn about and debate proposed legislative and regulatory changes that would affect them. What legislative issues are NY homeschoolers facing?

John: One issue is the compulsory attendance age range, which is currently 6 to 16 years old. That's the range during which we have to report to the districts. Our state board of education is urging the legislature to decrease the lower limit to 5. That would mean reporting our kids to the districts a year earlier.

Another movement involves tax credits for educational expenses. The legislature is considering tax-credit bills that would apply to all kinds of education, specifically including home education. Some parents like this idea, while others warn that the state might use this "goody" as a reason to heap even more so-called accountability on us.

Mary: You wrote and distributed annotations for a recent bill that would have changed NY homeschool regulations. Can you tell us more about the bill and the annotations you wrote? What was the outcome of the bill?

John: Boy, there's a soap opera for you. Everything in New York is complicated, so here's the really simple version! We have no homeschooling law. Instead, the State Education Department issued the homeschooling regulation in 1988, and they're in no mood to relax the requirements. So, several years ago, some homeschoolers got a state senator to introduce a bill that would go over the Department's head and eliminate some of those requirements.

This has been hugely controversial in our community, for a number of reasons. One is that it would legitimize homeschooling requirements by writing them into state law (some lawyers believe that the Education Department had no authority to write the current regulation in the first place). Another reason for opposition, which I've harped on, is that the bill is just a sloppily edited version of the current regulation and leaves lots of loopholes that the government could use to control us.

A friend suggested that I write the annotations you mentioned, in which I point out the bill's many flaws -- undefined terms, loopholes, and just plain gibberish in some places. The annotations, which are on the NYHEN website, add up to a mind-numbingly detailed document, but as the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

Well, HSLDA and their New York affiliate enthusiastically supported this bill. We opposed it. Year after year, it failed to pass. Then, in 2005, the bill's sponsor deleted three words, making the bill much more hostile (those nasty details again). In a flash, the HSLDA crowd joined us in opposition. Today, the bill is still sitting there, with no support at all. I'm hoping it'll just disappear for 2007.

Mary: Is the group primarily online?

John: Yes. We had meetings and a printed newsletter early on, but online operations are so much more convenient and cheap that we evolved in that direction.

Mary: What advice can you share with others who would like to set up a statewide group?

John: Take full advantage of online options for running the group. As I understand it, NYHEN was not the first attempt to set up an inclusive New York group, but it's the one that managed to survive. I think that's probably because NYHEN was created at a time when the Web was becoming widely available and allowing us to connect more easily.

Mary: What is the most difficult part of maintaining a statewide group?

John: Keeping a consistent group of activists. Because we're all family people, it's tough for all of us to maintain a steady level of involvement.

Mary: What is the most rewarding part of maintaining a statewide group?

John: Seeing everyone helping each other. I love to see nervous newcomers turn into confident veterans who share their wisdom with the next crop of parents.

Mary: Thank you for sharing your time here and in New York!

John: And thanks to you and HEM for giving all of us a voice.

More Information NYHEN - http://www.nyhen.org/
New York State Homeschooling Regulations - http://www.nyhen.org/

© 2006, Mary Nix

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