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Schools

Putting a Face to New Jersey's Homeschooled Students

Proposed measure would gather basic information about state's homeschooled population

New Jersey has long been known as one of the least restrictive states when it comes to homeschooling, not only not requiring much of families that choose to educate their own children but also not even keeping track of who they are.

But reacting to a spate of child abuse incidents and other concerns, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) has moved to try to put in place some rules that she calls "minimal" to at least get some accounting of the children's existence, along with their health and education.

Weinberg, the incoming Senate majority leader, on Monday introduced legislation that would require homeschooled students to register with their home districts, submit proof of schoolwork, and present an annual medical exam.

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This has been a long-running issue for Weinberg, also chairman of the Senate health committee, who sought to place some rules on homeschooled students nearly a decade ago as an Assembly member.

"The homeschool community flooded me with calls, followed me around the Statehouse," Weinberg said of the last attempt.

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But she said this time, she hopes for a "more rational discussion" and already has heard from some organizations willing to meet. She stressed that she was flexible in some of her proposals, especially those that may exceed what is required of public education students, such as the medical exam.

"We are not regulating curriculum or anything like that, that's up to parents," Weinberg said yesterday. "But I think the state has an interest to make sure they are getting a basic education, reading and writing."

Currently, that is not required. New Jersey is among a handful of states with few, if any requirements on homeschool families, only stipulating by statute that children "receive equivalent instruction" to that of public school. But that has allowed some children to fall off social services' radar screen, Weinberg and other child advocates have said, sometimes to tragic results. The most recent was the case of a homeschooling family in Irvington last summer where the 8-year-old daughter died of complications from an untreated broken leg.

Still, the state has no overall tally -- not even a rough count -- of how many homeschool students are out there. By some assessments, it is a few thousand. By others, it may be as many as 30,000 to 40,000 -- extrapolating from the national estimate that homeschool students make up as much as 2 percent of the overall school-aged population.

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