Homeschool New York is encouraging every homeschool family in New York to take time to reach out and connect with your local Assembly Rep, Senator, School Board, Mayor, or other local official. You can do this with your other homeschool friends or your chapter and set up a friendly meeting with them during the week of 10/6-10.
Our goals are simple:
- Give your kids a chance to meet local officials and learn more about what they do, how they got
there, and why they serve their community in this way. - Give your local officials a chance to meet real homeschoolers in their area, better understand why you’ve made this choice, and see some of the fruit of your efforts.
- Help satisfy the Civics requirement for your families’ IHIPs.
Building these relationships will bear fruit as we continue to navigate the challenges and oppositions to our freedom to homeschool.
So what do you need to do next?
- Meet your local Senator or Assembly Representative (or a member of their staff) in their home office or invite them to your co-op or chapter meeting
- Attend a local school board meeting (they meet monthly, so anytime in October would work)
- Meet your mayor
- Attend a town or city council meeting
You can find your local Senator and Assembly Reps here:
Here are some guidelines:
- Be homeschool positive! (No bashing public schools!)
- Stay focused on the purpose of the visit – to build relationships between elected officials and our homeschool families. Let your representative know who they represent!!
- It is NOT a time for personal agendas or policies!
Possible Questions for the your kids to ask:
- What is the best/worst part of your job?
- Did you have to go to college to get your job? What were the job requirements?
- Why did you choose to be involved?
- Were you elected or appointed? How long is your term?
- How old do you have to be to do your job?
- What part of your job surprised you? (either good or bad)
- What are your typical work hours?
- Have you ever met homeschoolers before?
- Do you have any questions about homeschooling?
Note – discuss the questions with your kids beforehand, and see what other questions they might like to ask!
Also Note – your visit doesn’t involve a particular legislative agenda. Your focus is on getting to know each other, on building bridges.
Ways to make your visit Engaging:
- Plan to take cookies/pies on your visit
- Have the kids make “Thank you for your serving us” cards
- Encourage families to introduce themselves and give a short summary of their homeschool experience
- Encourage kids to ask questions – role play/practice in advance!
- Have kids come with a banner/poster/pictures showing what they love about homeschooling: include a title, chapter name and/or location.
- Get a group picture at each field trip!!
Attending School Board or Town Council meetings:
- Find out in advance if someone from your group can address the Board / Council and just introduce yourselves; explain that this is a homeschool field trip and that you are there to learn more about what they do; and thank them for serving the community.
- By coming early, or staying around afterwards, you may be able to meet them briefly and make more personal connections.
Stay tuned – we’ll have a short online survey for you to use afterwards so we can collect some general information and you can upload photos!
If you have any questions, please email us at Legislative@nysleah.org
Yours in Christ,
The Homeschool New York Legislative Team
