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Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Urgent action: SB 321 to change Compulsory Age

from OCEANetwork:
Urgent Alert: Call now on SB 321 which
Lowers Compulsory School Age to 5

SB 321 would decrease the compulsory school age from seven to five years of age. The bill will be heard before the Senate Education Committee this Thursday, March 5, at 1:00 pm. The Committee needs to hear from you about how bad this bill actually is.

SB 321 directly affects home educators.
The state will expect children to be formally educated at age 5.
Age 6 will likely become the universal age for 1st grade achievement expectations, rather than the current age 7 which allows late bloomers an extra year to become ready for formal 1st grade education.
In addition to the existing tests at grades 3, 5, 8 and 10, a fifth test might be added for homeschooled students at the end of first grade, or even kindergarten, since there would now be 4 years of instruction before the 3rd grade test occurs.
While these are the likely outcomes for homeschoolers if the compulsory attendance age is lowered, they are not lobbying points that would influence legislators. They don't really address the heart of the issue: some children are not ready to start formal education at age 5.

Lobbying points:

1. SB 321 will harm late bloomers. 

Nationally, 6% of students 5-6 years of age are not enrolled (see report Figure 1-2). Many of these children need more time before they are thrust into a formal education setting.

Some children are not mature enough for formal education at 5, or even 6 years of age. Young boys, in particular, tend to develop more slowly than girls and thus would be vulnerable to too-early enrollment. Differing rates of maturation are normal.

There are no protections in this bill for children who are not ready for institutional education at 5 or 6. Their parents currently have the option of keeping them out of harm's way by keeping them out of school. This bill removes that option.

Forcing children who are not ready for formal education to try to do what is impossible for them will cause them to view themselves as failures, leading to lasting consequences. It will increase the frustrations of the classroom teacher as well.

2. Common Core standards are especially harmful to late bloomers.

Oregon has adopted the Common Core standards for student achievement. The Common Core requirements for kindergarten are demanding and can cause harm to late bloomers: The Washington Post had an informative article citing early childhood educators on the impact of Common Core on kindergarten. You may also find the report underlying this article to be of particular interest.

3. The education budget will suffer.

Mandatory universal full-day kindergarten across the state will require additional K-12 education funding when the State of Oregon is already facing difficulty adequately funding existing K-12 students' education needs.

Call to action:

Make sure you pray, call, and write. And if you can, testify.

1. Pray for the protection of the children who will be impacted by lowering the compulsory attendance age.

2. Call the members of the Senate Education Committee to voice your opposition to SB 321.

3. Write the members of the Senate Education Committee. Please tell them in your own words why you oppose SB 321. If you have a story of a "late bloomer" who struggled in kindergarten or first grade, be sure to share that with the senators. As always, be polite and respectful.

4. Testify. Testifying before the committee is even more powerful. Write out your testimony. Share your story. Stick to what you know. (If you are an early childhood educator who has experience with children this young, your testimony would be powerful, too.)

The hearing is scheduled for March 5 at 1 p.m. in Hearing Room C.

Here are some tips from the Oregon Legislature's website on how to testify . Sometimes it can be a little intimidating, but just remember to be polite, respectful, and to the point and you will do fine.

The Senate Education Committee:

Senator Arnie Roblan (Chair)
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
503-986-1705

Senator Tim Knopp
Sen.TimKnopp@state.or.us
503-986-1727

Senator Herman E. Baertschiger Jr.
Sen.HermanBaertschiger@state.or.us
503-986-1702

Senator Lee Beyer
Sen.LeeBeyer@state.or.us
503-986-1706

Senator Sara Gelser
Sen.SaraGelser@state.or.us
503-986-1708

Senator Mark Hass
Sen.MarkHass@state.or.us 
503-986-1714

Senator Jeff Kruse
Sen.JeffKruse@state.or.us
503-986-1701

Thank you for standing with OCEANetwork in defense of the freedom for parents to do determine when their children are ready for formal education.

Rodger Williams
OCEANetwork Legislative Team

If you know a friend who would be interested in this topic, please forward our alert or send them the link above to view it online.

You can help OCEANetwork protect and support home education in Oregon by becoming an OCEANetwork Supporting Family.

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