SB 201

Under current law, in general, a person having charge of a child who is 6 to 18

years old must ensure that the child attends school regularly. This requirement is

known as compulsory school attendance, which is satisfied if a child attends a public,

private, or tribal school or participates in a home-based private educational

program, commonly known as homeschooling. This bill creates another educational

option, microschools, that may be used to satisfy the compulsory school attendance

requirement.

Under the bill, a “microschool” is an instruction program provided to a child by

the child's parent, or a person designated by the parent, that is provided to 1) two to

five family units; 2) no more than 20 children; and 3) participating children at a

physical location. Under current law, an instruction program provided to a child by

the child's parent, or a person designated by the child's parent, that is provided to

more than one family unit does not qualify as a home-based private educational

program.

Under current law, for purposes of the compulsory school attendance

requirement, a home-based private educational program must satisfy the same

criteria that an educational institution must satisfy in order to be a private school,

including that the program must provide at least 875 hours of instruction each year;

must provide a curriculum of fundamental instruction in reading, language arts,

mathematics, social studies, science, and health; and may not be operated for the

purpose of avoiding the compulsory school attendance requirement. A microschool

must also satisfy this criteria in order for instruction at the microschool to satisfy the

compulsory school attendance requirement.

Finally, the bill treats microschools in the same manner that home-based

private educational programs are treated under current law. For example, under

current law, a school board must allow a resident pupil who is enrolled in a

home-based private educational program to participate in interscholastic sports and

extracurricular activities in the school district. The bill extends these provisions to

resident pupils who are enrolled in a microschool.