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Committee advances bill separating homeschool rules from nonpublic schools
Summary
House Bill 778 would separate language for homeschools from nonpublic-school statutes and would remove a county-superintendent authority to store homeschoolers’ immunization records, sponsor Rep. Randon Gregg told the House Education Committee.
Representative Randon Gregg told the committee that House Bill 778 clarifies and refines Title 20 language so homeschooling families are treated distinctly from nonpublic school entities and to avoid administrative confusion. Supporters, including the Montana Coalition of Home Educators and the Home School Legal Defense Association, said the bill resolves ambiguities that in some counties had led to requests for immunization records to be stored at county offices and, in an isolated instance, consideration of building-inspection visits to private residences used for homeschool instruction.
Lance Melton of the Montana School Boards Association and other proponents said the amendment separates the statutory references so school districts and county officials are not uncertain whether statutes for nonpublic schools apply to homeschools, and noted the bill does not change private-school regulation. Jesse Browning and other homeschool parents testified in support, emphasizing parental control and privacy for medical records in a post-HIPAA environment.
Opponents were not recorded at the hearing. Committee members discussed whether county superintendents had requested immunization paperwork historically; witnesses said requests are discretionary and occur infrequently but that storage of confidential medical information in county offices had raised privacy concerns.
The committee approved HB 778 in executive action and moved the bill to the House floor.
