Texas Home School Coalition Association

Legislative ALERT

Action Needed on Two Issues

Legislature Considers Daytime Curfew Expansion

Hearing on this bill tomorrow, March 19!

HB 1886 by State Representative Miklos of Mesquite is an effort to expand daytime curfews by empowering cities that adopt such curfews to have county law officers enforce the city curfews. This is a backdoor approach to adopt daytime curfews by county, which is already allowed by statute. However, instead of county commissioners having to adopt the controversial curfews, which negatively impact home schoolers and minorities, the county law officers can simply enforce the ordinances of cities in the county.

Daytime curfews are being promoted by cities all over Texas as a means of enforcing the compulsory attendance laws, but without the due process built into the compulsory attendance statutes. School districts are requesting these ordinances because they can get the city to enforce the curfew in the city AND in the county.

The House Urban Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on this bill on Thursday, March 19. Please contact members of the committee and tell them that you oppose HB 1886. If counties want to enforce a juvenile curfew, the county commissioners should be the ones to adopt it!

The Internet is awash with reaction against a judge in North Carolina who acknowledged in a custody case that the children had done very well academically in their home school, but he ruled that they must be placed in public school to "test" their biblical beliefs.

This is very similar to the number of home school families in Texas who have been challenged in court by grandparents who disagree with decisions that they have made for their children. Hundreds of such cases across the state have resulted in the kind of outrageous judicial actions as this one in North Carolina.

We have been writing about this situation for a couple of years now. HB 2084 by State Representative Phil King is the Texas Parental Rights Restoration Act (TPRRA) and will amend the grandparent access statute that is badly out of balance-and some believe unconstitutional.

Support our effort to pass the TPRRA; please contact your state representative this week and ask them to co-sponsor or joint author the TPRRA (HB 2084). Ask your friends to contact them as well, and ask the staff of your state rep to let you know when he or she has taken the step of co-sponsoring HB 2084. Please let us know when your state representative has done so.