Senate Bill 741 and Assembly Bill 1341 are identical. These bills would require every homeschool child and parent to meet annually with a school official for a “general health and wellness check.”

S741 and A1341 are nearly identical to two bills that were introduced last year (S4589 and A5796). Last year’s bills were withdrawn during the previous legislature’s lame duck session after substantial public response.

–> Creates government oversight where none is justified. The bill assumes homeschool families require monitoring despite no evidence of widespread harm, shifting New Jersey away from its long-standing tradition of educational freedom and trust in families.
–> Creates inequitable treatment. Homeschool students would face requirements that private school students do not, even though both are legally educated outside the public system.
–> Vague language invites inconsistent local enforcement. The bill does not clearly define what a “general health and wellness check” entails, what questions may be asked, or what standards apply. That ambiguity leaves wide discretion to individual districts, creating the risk of uneven expectations, subjective judgments, and unpredictable requirements depending on where a family lives.