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Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV)

To: Home Educators of Virginia
From: Joe Guarino, Director of Government Affairs

Wednesday, February 4, 2004

VICTORY: TWO HOMESCHOOL BILLS PASS THROUGH THE HOUSE!

HOMESCHOOL HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA BILL PASSES HOUSE
HB 675 passed the full House 60-40--even as Delegate James Dillard, the chief opponent of the bill, said from the floor, "This is a very, very significant piece of legislation." The bill will now move on to the Senate for consideration.

Patron Delegate Rob Bell spoke first to the bill. Again he articulated several logical reasons for passage of the bill, so much so that, upon completion, he received a round of applause. This is rare. Delegate Dillard spoke forcefully against the bill, saying it would be lowering the standards for students if they passed this legislation. Upon completion, his rhetoric was met with stone-cold silence.

Monday night, knowing this bill would hinge primarily on the votes of moderates, I called about a dozen homeschool support group leaders across the Commonwealth, asking them to please ask their group members to contact key delegates. The
calls from these groups, combined with individual calls earlier in the day, definitely had an impact.

Of the 24 delegates we targeted—14 Republicans and 10 Democrats, 12 voted for the bill, including three Republicans who voted against it the day before and three Democrats. If we had not put forth this effort, those 12 votes could have gone the other way and the bill would have been defeated. Thank you for your efforts!!

The vote went down close to party lines. The three Democrats to support the bill were Dels. Councill, Joannou, and Stump. The six Republicans to oppose the bill were Dels. Dillard, D. Marshall, Morgan, Parrish, Reese, and Wardrup. Both
independents voted for the bill.

ACTION: Click on this link to learn how your delegate voted: HB 675. If your delegate voted for the bill, please contact and thank the delegate for his or her vote.

Click on this link to find the phone numbers for the delegates: Phone numbers

CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND TRAINING ACT PASSES HOUSE
HB 1135, the Child Abuse Prevention and Training Act, passed the full House 100-0. A perfunctory bill dropping federal law into state code, it passed without fanfare along with a block of other uncontested bills. The bill will now move to the Senate for
consideration.

Again, thank you for working to successfully move this legislation through the House phase. Now the bills will go on to the Senate where the process begins again!