SENATE EDUCATION Fax    June 22 '00 9:43 P. 02    SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE

SENATOR JOHN R. KUHL JR.
CHAIRMAN
ROOM 846-A
LEGISLATIVE OFFICE BUILDING
ALBANY, NEW YORK 12247
(518) 455-2631
FAX (518) 426-6919

May 3, 2000

Commissioner Richard Mills
State Education Department
Education Building
Albany, New York 12234

Dear Commissioner Mills:

    This is in response to your recent letter regarding my proposed amendments to Section 100.10 of the Commissioner's Regulations on home instruction.

    As I indicated in my initial correspondence to you on this issue, my perception that home schooling regulations require modification stemmed from numerous conversations and letters from families who home instruct their children. One of the organizations I have dealt with, Loving Education at Home (LEAH) represents over 3700 homeschooling families statewide. Additionally, the Homeschool Legal Defense Fund is fully supportive of y efforts to address the issue of regulatory reform. The homeschoolers who are not interested in regulations reform are concerned that additional requirements would be imposed on them. I would not support additional mandates on homeschoolers, and in fact I am interested only in reducing their administrative burdens. 

    I am interested in a direct response to the six issues  I raised with you in my initial letter. I have enclosed a copy of that letter for your reference. Section 100.10 of the Commissioner's Regulations was established twelve years ago. It seems reasonable to expect adequate revision of these regulations at this time. While I would prefer to deal with the issue of Mandates on homeschoolers by revising these regulations, I am willin to address this through legislation.

    I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Sincerely,


John R. Kuhl, Jr.
Senator

JRK/yd