Reviewed nearly 300 bills from December 2023 through April 2024

Pennsylvania House

  • Eleven bills were referred to the House Education Committee. None of these bills address homeschooling issues.
  • Year to date total shows 221 bills have been referred to the Education Committee.
  • Update on HB 1904 of 2023: Representative D’Orsies’s “Student Freedom Account” is stalled in committee. No action or committee votes are scheduled.  HB 1904 is entitled “Student Freedom Account Act.”
    • The first provision of the bill appears to be Section 1327.4, which is the current law.
    • The rest of the bill is an establishment of an ESA (Education Savings Account) in which tax-payer funds would be placed into a student account which could include homeschooling students.
    • The legislature has a responsibility for oversight of any tax-payer funds, like the Student Freedom Accounts, which includes establishing regulations regarding how these funds are used.
    • Please express your individual opinions regarding ESAs to your legislators.

Pennsylvania Senate

  • Seven bills were referred to the Senate Education Committee. None of these address homeschooling issues.
  • The committee held one public hearing on starting the school day later.
  • Year to date totals reveal 16 bills have been referred to the Education Committee.

Issues of Interest

  • The Pennsylvania Primary occurred on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
  • CHAP will contact members of the Senate and House Educations committees to attend the Convention this year.
  • The percentage of homeschooled students in Pennsylvania has risen to 5.1% of all students in the Commonwealth, putting us 10th in the nation in percentage of homeschooled students.
  • A new argument being raised by those opposed to homeschooling is that, “by homeschooling, you deprive the children of the opportunity and the ability to handle bullying, abusive behavior, and abusive actions.”

See you at the CHAP Convention.  Please stop by the CHAP booth to chat about homeschooling and issues of legislation.

Brad serves as the Vice President of the CHAP Board; he is also chairman of our Legislation Committee. He is a practicing attorney for 33 years and is an adjunct faculty member at Cairn University. Brad reads all proposed legislation that comes before the education committees in Harrisburg to determine the impact on homeschooling families in Pennsylvania. Brad strives to encourage and protect Christian homeschooling families in our Commonwealth.