The Home Education Advisory Council (HEAC) is intended to support and advise the NH Department of Education regarding their work with the home education community and be a bridge to education agencies in the public-school arena. It is the only public board that represents the home-education community at the state level. It is established in state law RSA 193-A:10 with more definition of the function and purpose in Ed rules 315.09 and 10.
Members typically meet every-other month of the traditional school year, unless otherwise announced, to discuss relevant issues and happenings that impact the independent, unfunded, RSA 193-A home ed community.
GSHE publishes HEAC videos on our YouTube channel to benefit the home ed community. They are unedited, published without alternations or modifications.
Several new members are appointed; see the updated list for their contact information on the NH Department of Education’s website page for HEAC. The public is welcome to attend in person at the DOE’s Concord office or via Zoom. Details are available at the bottom of this article.
March 14, 2025
Highlights:
The Good:
- Mr. Edelblut affirmed that HEAC should deal with the concerns of 193-A homeschooling families, and not questions or concerns of EFA families. One HEAC member, Lindsay Pattison, used extensive meeting time in September to advocate for EFA concerns, and is also an EFA vendor. After other members questioned her membership due to conflict of interest, she has since resigned. Edelblut said the HEAC chair should be the one to deal with members who consistently have issues, though in the case of the September meeting, there were changes in membership and chairmanship, which he acknowledged most likely fed tensions. It should be noted that both HEAC and members of the public did send several emails directly to Edelblut since October to bring these issues to his attention. Current Chair Marcus Zuech said that from this meeting forward, he will make clear EFA questions should not be addressed by HEAC. While his appointees to the committee have all been 193-A homeschoolers, though, Edelblut was not willing to automatically exclude someone to serve on the committee if they had EFA connections (eg running a program that takes EFA funds), so long as they only advocated for 193-A concerns as a committee member.
- Edelblut said more than once during the meeting that the EFA program is public education.
- Edelblut saw rising costs of various parts of the homeschool economy as a consequence (at least in part) of EFA funds being available as a legitimate concern, and encouraged HEAC to brainstorm ways of dealing the issue.
The Bad:
- Edelblut made clear he would not be filling any more slots on the committee, until meetings can happen without “drama”. As noted above, the issue of conflict of interest was definitely brought to his attention for months, before being dealt with through HEAC and becoming public, so it was quite frustrating that he took that as being “drama,” personal attacks, or unprofessional.
- There is as yet no clear response from Edelblut concerning EFA families who also avail themselves of ETC funds. HEAC member Michelle Rohrbacher explained that current statute made no provision for adding EFA participants as eligible for ETC funds, and actually explicitly says ETC recipients can’t be receiving public funds. This issue, too, was sent to Edelblut in early January. Edelblut expressed a belief that this information was in error, but promised to research the law and have an answer by the next meeting.
- Edelblut did not come to the meeting adequately informed. He said he did not watch any of the videos of previous HEAC meetings, which was unfortunate considering they explained quite a bit about the conflict-of-interest issue mentioned above. In regard to the ETC issue, HEAC had sent Edelblut a letter, back in January, detailing the issue with EFA families having access to ETC funds, as well as quoting the relevant statute regarding who is and is not eligible for ETC funds. Rohrbacher had also tried to touch base with him a week before this past meeting on the issue. Yet he had no answer for Rohrbacher when she asked him for a response to the letter during the meeting.
The Ugly:
- There was a tense exchange after Edelblut told Rohrbacher he had no response ready for her when she asked for follow up to the letter HEAC had sent him. He made comment about her “offensive” facial expression, that he thought she was out of order being too argumentative when he had already told her he would look into the statute and wanted to move on. When she explained by saying he had gotten that letter back in January, it was now March, and the next meeting wasn’t until May, his response was to talk down to her, telling her she could say to him she was disappointed he did not have an answer for her. She did tell him she was extremely disappointed and he was not acting in service to 193-A families. Considering Edelblut started the meeting saying he had concerns about professionalism and members attacking each other, his handling of this exchange wasn’t a good look.
- Senator Ruth Ward reported that she is hearing the public complain about “unaccountable” home educated students.
Edelblut excused himself after his part in the meeting, and was not around for public comment at the end of the meeting. Commenters generally were happy with HEAC renewing its focus to be dealing with 193-A homeschooler concerns, considering the great need to push for clarity between pathways in the public, political, and even homeschool spheres. One attendee, Jennifer, made the point that with so much public sentiment against tax money being used for private education, that universal EFA will “put a target on our back.” She believes every seat on HEAC needs to be someone advocating for traditional homeschoolers. Another attendee, Kate, was encouraged the meeting addressed finding clearer language. She expressed concern that the double dipping practices of some would end up reflecting badly on families that legitimately pursue Equal Access. Michelle Levell and Amanda Weeden both reiterated the importance, in light of past hostile bills and confused public perceptions, of an uncompromising stance to avoid conflating the third and fourth pathways. On a positive note, Weeden said she has noticed an uptick in the number of young families coming to information sessions about homeschooling,
Contact us at info@GraniteStateHomeEducators.org if you have any questions or wish to discuss our summary of any HEAC meeting.
Next Meetings
HEAC meets at the NH Department of Education’s office at 25 Hall Street in Concord. They meet on the second Friday of alternating months starting at 2:30pm, unless announced otherwise. The public may attend in-person or via Zoom. Zoom meeting information is available here. The scheduled 2024-25 meeting dates are as follows.
Friday, April 11, 2025
Friday, May 9, 2025
Friday, June 13, 2025 (if needed)
Links to meeting minutes and members’ contact information are available on the NH DOE’s HEAC page.
Read More About HEAC
HEAC Struggles to Define Mission and Statutory Obligations
Response to HEAC’s September 2024 Meeting
Confusion About Terminating a Home Ed Program
HEAC summary written by Deb Sullivan.
