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.
April 11, 2025
Highlights:
The meeting this month focused a great deal on shaping perceptions of the homeschool community.
At the March 2025 meeting, Senator Ruth Ward suggested that home education success stories could help correct negative views of homeschooling. In response to this suggestion, Dianne Nolin told the Council that Catholics United for Home Education (CUHE) had requested success stories from their membership, and received about 50. She said they were sent to the Representatives, and will be made available to Sen. Ward. GSHE has published many over the years on their website blog and has requested more from their community.
Nolin also referenced Heather Barker’s (NH School Administrators Association) suggestion at the last meeting – that Barker would make a presentation for school administrators to aid their understanding of differences between educational pathways – and suggested making a list that would reference all the laws and statutes about the 3rd and 4th pathways, as well as contacts, to help Barker.
Althea Barton (NHHC) mentioned that a library resource put out by this organization will have an update of the legal section.
GSHE provides business cards with QR codes to libraries across the state and the website is continually updated as needed.
Sen. Ward, and Representatives Drye and Peternel reported there were no bills specifically about home education on the immediate horizon. However, Rep Drye noted that remarks about “unaccountable home education” continues to rumble through Concord.
Most discussion at the meeting centered around finding better common parlance terms for home educators under RSA 193-A and RSA 194-F pathways. At the March 2025 meeting, Commissioner Edelblut referred to the EFA pathway as public education, and encouraged the Council to find terminology that would make distinctions between 193-A and 194-F for HEAC discussion purposes. Chair Marcus Zuech suggested “Independent Home Education” to describe 193-A, as it’s important to denote not only financial self-reliance but acknowledgment of the parental right to educate without government interference. There was some discussion that families who have chosen the EFA pathway may also consider themselves independent, in that they currently teach their own children as opposed to sending them to a government school. Other terms, such as “unfunded” and “traditional” were discussed with no firm consensus. Terms referring to 194-F, such as “homebased public (or publicly funded) education” or “EFA recipients” were also discussed, again with no consensus. Many council members suggested using terms already provided in statute. The proposal to decide on terms was tabled until the next meeting, to give council members more time for consideration.
While it is important for promoting clarity of terminology in describing the home education community, it should be noted that HEAC has no authority to insist on terms. The compulsory education law RSA 193:1 already clearly delineates four educational pathways and the terms “home education” and “EFA” are used in these referenced statutes. Also, Commissioner Edelblut is on his way out in June and it is unknown what the new Commissioner will want. Finally, the majority of EFA families primarily use the funding for private school tuition.
There was no further word from the Commissioner concerning whether EFA recipients are also eligible to receive Education Tax credit scholarship funds. Michelle Rohrbacher (CHENH) told the Council of further troubles with obtaining reimbursement from Class Wallet. In communications she received from the Children’s Scholarship Fund, the managing organization, and Class Wallet, she had been told that her vendor, whom she had used previously without issue, had to register as an EFA vendor. She was later sent an email telling her to resubmit that did not offer any explanations or take any responsibility for the delay in reimbursement. Rohrbacher also reiterated other ETC families continue to have problems with CSF and CW. Marcus Zuech (Chairman, GSHE) suggested she keep the Commissioner informed, at which she pointed out he had not been communicative the first time she had done so. Rep. Peternel asked Rohrbacher to send her the email exchange so that she could follow up this situation with CSF.
There was some brief discussion about whether a 193-A family switching to EFA should submit their home education termination upon applying for the EFA, or only upon approval / enrollment. Both the home ed law, RSA 193-A:5 and EFA law, RSA 194-F:2, IX, require a family to terminate their home education program when switching to the EFA.
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, 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 is Focused on Home Ed and the EFA is Public Education
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
