Thank you for all your support of School Choice for New Hampshire and educational opportunities in our state. SCNH made a difference and empowered families with educational opportunities and tools to support their children’s educational needs. Here are a few of our highlights from the past year alone.
In August, SCNH developed a FAQ and interactive map that allows people to find educational options – chartered public schools, private schools, and home education organizations – near where they live and work. This is a unique tool to help families, no other grassroots organization in the nation has a resource like this.
In September we hosted another Not Back to School picnic with record-breaking attendance! Our second annual Homeschool Art Show was another huge success, too.
This past fall we hosted three seminars to support high-school homeschoolers. We learned that many district public schools deny resident homeschoolers the ability to participate in dual-enrollment and financial aid information sessions and scholarship opportunities, so we worked with NHTI – Concord’s Community College and NH Higher Education Assistance Foundation (NHHEAF) to host sessions to cover these important topics. If we can fill the gap of these guidance-counseling supports, we may be able to help these students stay in home education programs. We will host another session on transcripts with NHHEAF this spring. Events like these have never been offered to the NH homeschool community before.
In 2019, we hosted two nationally-recognized school-choice experts and authors for speaking events – Kerry McDonald with FEE and Cato (May 2019) and Cara Stillings Candal with the Pioneer Institute (November 2019). Both discussions were well attended and provided unique opportunities never before offered in New Hampshire.
We have also worked hard to support our chartered public schools and students in the face of the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee rejecting the $46 million federal grant.
Learn Everywhere was a big part of our attention in 2019 and is facing another attack this year. We were interviewed by Granite’s Edge about this innovative program and you can watch it here starting at mark 37:33.
We followed several bills last year; read the highlights here.
To date we hosted nearly 20 Intro to Homeschool discussions across the state and are beginning to plan more for 2020. These are great opportunities for prospective and new(er) homeschooling families to learn more, gain practical information and tips for their home ed program, have questions answered, and connect with others in their communities.
Earlier this week we published our 500th article on the SCNH website! We launched it in November 2013 with a modest plan of providing information and news and helping families in ways that were not readily available elsewhere. We are thrilled with how SCNH has grown and accomplished in a relatively short time.
While SCNH has been a true labor of love these past several years, all good things eventually come to an end. I care very deeply for every family and child that is impacted by educational opportunities, but it is time to refocus our efforts on our first love, homeschooling.
Granite State Home Educators (GSHE) was launched in fall 2016 and is now just shy of 2,000 members. It is a unique community in New Hampshire and nationally with a far more active and engaged community than any other available for families. We built something wonderful there and I will dedicate my time and effort to supporting and protecting their natural right to educate their children.
There are several other organizations around the state that support educational opportunities. They are listed on our FAQ & Map page; you can reach out to them with any questions. You can continue to find me at the GSHE website and Facebook page and group.
Thank you for your years of support and best wishes to you all.
