Urgent State Alert: New Jersey

The New Jersey Assembly’s Health Committee is taking up a bill on Monday to require every homeschooling family in the state to meet with their local school officials once a year for a “health and wellness check.” Assembly bill 5796 would require school officials to annually assess the wellness of homeschool students, though it fails to define what that means.

Please check out the alert below, which we are forwarding verbatim from our friends at the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Urgent Action Needed to Stop a Bill Calling for Homeschool Health and Wellness Checks

Please join us on Monday, January 5 to oppose a bill that would require every New Jersey homeschooled student to meet with public school officials annually for a “health and wellness check.”

Assembly Bill 5796 would empower and require school officials to annually assess the wellness of homeschooled students, but it fails to define just how they would do that. This raises concerns about whether the bill could be used to violate privacy and undermine parental rights.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

• Attend the legislative committee hearing 10 a.m., Monday, January 5, in Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ.

• Wear red to help send a powerful message that many families oppose AB 5796!

• Contact (email or call) your two Assembly representatives and respectfully ask them to oppose Assembly Bill 5796. For Assembly member emails and phone numbers, go here and use the dropdown box to select your municipality. This will pull up contact info for your two Assembly representatives (no need to contact your senator yet). If you call and don’t get through to a live person, keep calling.

WHAT YOU CAN SAY

Your message can be simple. Here are some examples that may be helpful.

“Please oppose A5796. Health information is private, but this bill empowers thousands of school officials to question children about their health. Homeschoolers should not be singled out for this harsh treatment.”

“Please oppose A5796. It presumes that homeschooling parents fail to properly care for their children. It will result in some parents being treated differently just because they exercise their constitutional right to homeschool their children.”

“Please oppose A5796. It is very poorly worded. It demands a ‘general health and wellness check’ that is not defined in any statute or regulation.”

Or you can use information below to craft a message.

WHY WE ARE CONCERNED

First, this bill would permit intrusion into the private health information of children by requiring officials to “conduct a general health and wellness check” of homeschooled children, without defining what this means. In fact, the plain language of the bill does not limit the official to asking questions and may even give an official authority for physical exams, which might be invasive. It’s possible that such a check may include questions about lifestyle, behavior, and mental health.

Second, the bill requires both the child and parent to answer health questions from a school official. Nothing in the bill would prevent a school official from separating the child from the parent for questioning.

Third, the bill does not state what standards will be used to determine if the child “passes” the health and wellness check and does not specify what may happen if, in the subjective assessment of the official, there is a concern.

Finally, it violates a principle of fundamental fairness: that every person is innocent unless there is some evidence they have committed a crime. This bill presumes that every homeschooled child in New Jersey needs a “check” by a school official based on the sole reason that the parent or guardian choose to homeschool. This is wrong.

Join HSLDA attorneys Will Estrada and Ralph Rodriguez in opposing this bill.

For more information, you can view this video where Ro Uwague of ENJOY and I discuss (starting at 7:04) just a few of the problematic features of this bill. (Thanks, Ro!)

Thank you for standing with us for freedom!

Scott Woodruff, Esq.

Senior Counsel at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association