UCHU here are new state legislation affecting homeschool and public school.
LEGISLATION UPDATE
Last update: December 20, 2017
S 611 Summary: Homeschool Recognition Month
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION TO DECLARE APRIL 2017 AS “HOMESCHOOL RECOGNITION MONTH” IN SOUTH CAROLINA, TO RECOGNIZE THE DILIGENT EFFORTS OF HOMESCHOOLING PARENTS AND THE ACADEMIC SUCCESS OF THEIR STUDENTS, AND TO EXPRESS SINCERE APPRECIATION FOR THEIR FOCUS ON THE WELL-BEING AND OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THEIR CHILDREN. Adopted April 25th.
S30 Summary: High school graduation requirements
Requires a on-half credit course of study in personal finance with an end-of-year test as a requirement for high school graduation beginning with the 2018-2019 school year.
S 31 Summary: Special education diploma
The state can award a special ed diploma instead of the certificate of attendance to handicap high school students.
S 43 Summary: High school study of U.S. Constitution
Provides that each public high school must provide instruction concerning the United States Constitution, the Federalist Papers and the Declaration of Independence to each student for at least one year.
H 3350 Summary: School attendance requirements
Increases from seventeen to eighteen the age of the child at which a parent or guardian no longer has responsibility to cause the child to attend school.
S 231 Summary: Driver’s license
Provides that, in addition to other requirements to obtain full licensure, a person at least fifteen years of age and under twenty-one years of age who has never held a form of license evidencing previous driving experience must enroll in and successfully complete a driver training course conducted by a driver training school.
S 339 Summary: SC Promise Scholarship Act
Promise Scholarship offers another state run scholarship for students in public, private, or charter school and to home school students who use Option 1 or Option 2, but NOT Option 3.
S 241 Summary: Income tax credit
Authorizes a deduction from state of South Carolina taxable Income up to two thousand dollars per child per year to a parent or legal guardian for home school-related expenditures. This deduction is limited to a total of two thousand dollars per child per year regardless of the number of taxpayers incurring home school instruction-related expenses. The deduction allowed by this subsection is fully deductible for the calendar year in which the home school term begins provided the qualifying student completes the school term for that school year.
S 462 Summary: Uniform high school diplomas
Revises the requirements for diplomas to provide “personalized pathways” to education (something most home schoolers are currently doing anyway). This bill passed and was signed by the Governor on May 19th.
H 3583 Summary: Palmetto Fellows
Allows the Palmetto Scholarship to be deferred for 2 years after high school graduation. It has passed the House and is now in the Senate, with the change from 2 years to 1 year.
H 3663 Summary: Healthy Youth Act
Called the “Healthy Youth Act” requires all health standards to be “evidence based.”
H 3934 Summary: Income tax credit
Beginning with the 2017-2018 school year, a parent or legal guardian who home schools may claim a credit of up to five thousand dollars for instruction-related expenditures.
H 4032 Summary: Life scholarship eligibility criteria
Beginning with School Year 2018-2019, an entering freshman at a four-year institution to be eligible for a LIFE Scholarship must be in the top thirty percent of his high school graduating class. For home school students and students whose high school graduating class is less than fifty students, the Commission on Higher Education may define alternative criteria for students to meet the requirement of item. This would require ranking in accountability groups by eliminating the other two criteria possibilities.
Contact Us for More Information
SCHEA PO Box 2707, Irmo, SC 29063
Email: schea@schea.net
Phone: 803-772-2330
Serving you and yours,
Angela Jordan Perry
