Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 5/19/05)

Every three years, Virginia requires all school districts to conduct the Triennial School Census, a census that aims to count all school-age residents age five to 19, including non-public, charter and home-schooled children. The census results in locating funding sources for general services such as bus transportation. Based on results, each locality receives 1 percent of state sales tax revenues for local schools, or an average of $734 per student, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

The Virginia Coalition to End Discrimination in General Services for Education (VA EDGE), a parents group working to ensure equal access to basic services for non-public school children, is urging parents with children attending non-public or special needs schools, or with home-schooled children, to complete the census by the June 1 deadline.

"While Virginia’s school census is not a perfect method, it is the only official count and so it’s vital that all non-public school parents participate," said Debra Hinson-Joyner, president. "Updated data will help us lobby for services our children deserve and that we already pay for with our tax dollars."

VA EDGE believes many non-public school children are undercounted in the school census since many non-public school parents are unaware of the effort. It is also voluntary. Statistics on non-public or private school children can also be inaccurate and obsolete in part to Virginia’s rapid population growth. Additionally, the census does not specifically count non-public school students, since most districts simply lump them in with public school children. Fairfax County is an exception and asks parents to specify public or non-public.

VA EDGE has used previous census data to calculate the number of non-public school children at over 181,000, or about 10 percent of the school-age population. This is close to the national average of 11.5 percent, according to a 2003 report by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

Because census forms, distribution methods and filing deadlines are not uniform among the state’s 130 school districts, VA EDGE requests that non-public school principals and parent/teacher groups assist parents in locating, completing and returning census forms.
No Virginia public school districts currently provide bus transportation to non-public students. However, a few, including Fairfax, do understand their obligation to all children and provide special needs services, such as speech therapy, to non-public students. School districts in 27 other states — including Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio — have provided bus transportation and other general services for decades.

During the 2005 legislative session, VA EDGE and a broad coalition of Christian, Catholic, Baptist, Montessori and Jewish school and parent organizations supported HB 1589, "Transportation Services for Non-Public Schools," sponsored by Del. Gary Reese, 67-Va. While the Virginia House of Delegates passed HB 1589 by an overwhelming majority vote of 73 to 25, it was blocked by the Senate Committee on Education and Health and its Chairman H. Russell Potts, Jr., who is now running for governor.

For more information go to www.vaedge.org.