You receive a full year of all the member benefits below for far less than you would pay for an hour of an attorney’s time almost anywhere else!

Member Legal Services

From legal advice to full court representation: no matter what services are needed to help you, there are no further charges of any kind beyond your annual membership dues.

• Get personal answers to your homeschooling-related legal questions, whether you need clarification of your state’s homeschool law or are experiencing conflict or misunderstanding with a government official.
• Know that we will correspond on your behalf with such officials as needed. Often, a well-worded first response to an official can prevent a situation from escalating into a full-blown legal problem.
• If your homeschooling-related situation winds up in court, you can rest assured that HSLDA provides full representation at every stage of legal proceedings. (This may require hiring local attorneys at no charge to you.)*

Member Consultant Services

Get one-on-one advice by phone or email from our pre-K–12 educational consultants at no additional charge—just the cost of your annual membership dues. The educational consultants can help you with:

• Getting started homeschooling.
• Homeschooling a child with special needs.
• Planning classes and choosing curriculum.
• Making a high school transcript.
• And much more!

• Enjoy 24/7/365 access to our members-only online resources, including detailed information and HSLDA-designed forms to help you comply with your state’s homeschooling regulations.
• Save money by using our specially negotiated member discounts with national vendors through the HSLDA Member Discount Program.
• Help your budget stretch even further by using your member discounts on other HSLDA programs and services, such as the HSLDA Store, HSLDA Online Academy’s online courses, and Generation Joshua leadership camps.
• Read the inside scoop with the Home School Court Report, our quarterly member magazine packed with homeschooling news, analysis, stories, tips, and encouragement.

* Please note that member families who choose to consult separately with a non-HSLDA attorney must do so at their own expense.

Membership dues for a family for one year are $150. One membership covers your entire family: parents/guardians and all children of whom you are the parent or legal guardian. There are no additional charges when you consult with our attorneys or educational consultants—it’s all included in your $150 dues. For special discounts and payment options that could bring your cost down to as little as 33¢ a day, see What are my membership options?

Processing generally takes 3 weeks—a bit longer during our summer/fall busy season. If you would like to have your application reviewed within 2 business days, you may expedite your application with a nonrefundable rush fee of $40. (Approval is not guaranteed.)

You will receive your membership information via email once your membership is processed.

We don’t want financial restrictions to prevent you from receiving the benefits of HSLDA membership! If you cannot afford the $150 membership dues—even with a discount or payment plan option—please consider applying for financial aid. Email us at mfa@hslda.org and we will send you a financial aid application.

Yes. All personal information is confidential—including whether or not you are a member, all contact and personal information, information about your family, and any information about legal services you have received.

HSLDA may send to you information on behalf of our partners, but we do not share your personal information with anyone.*

Read our full privacy policy.

* If you are a member of an HSLDA Discount Group (which qualifies you for a discount on your annual membership), we will provide your group administrator with periodic reports that include your name, member account number, state, and membership date in order to assist groups in keeping accurate records.

If, after careful review, HSLDA is not able to accept your application, we will promptly notify you and will refund your membership dues (minus the rush fee, if applicable). Non-acceptance in no way diminishes your right to homeschool, and does not prevent you from reapplying in the future.

The membership application is necessary to establish HSLDA’s attorney-client relationship with you. It also gathers a minimal amount of information to ensure that we can provide you with the best representation possible in the event that you need our legal services. View our printable membership application here or start our easy online application here.

* In the rare event that HSLDA is unable to approve your application, we will promptly notify you and will refund your membership dues (minus the rush fee, if applicable). Nonacceptance in no way diminishes your right to homeschool and does not prevent you from reapplying in the future.

HSLDA’s mission is primarily to advance homeschooling rights, and this extends to helping families whose decision to homeschool subjects them to suspicions of abuse or neglect.

For example, sometimes a report to child protective services (CPS) arises from a misunderstanding about homeschooling—a neighbor may see children playing outside during school hours and think that the parents are allowing them to be truant. Whether the report indicates actual abuse is occurring or not, some CPS investigators and law enforcement personnel then insist they be allowed to interview the children and search the family’s home without a warrant. They may refuse to tell the parents the allegations against them and, if the parents are hesitant about allowing the interview or home visit, may use threats of removing the children to get the parents to comply.

We agree with what the United States Court of Appeals said in the Calabretta case: “The government’s interest in the welfare of children embraces not only protecting children from physical abuse, but also protecting children’s interest in the privacy and dignity of their homes and in the lawfully exercised authority of their parents.”

However, current CPS and judicial practice often treats child abuse investigations as an exception to traditional constitutional rules that protect children and parents from unnecessary government intervention, especially during the early stages of a CPS investigation. We assist our members in these initial contacts with CPS investigators to ensure that their constitutional rights are protected.

HSLDA’s board of directors has remained steadfast in focusing our resources on maintaining and advancing the freedom of homeschoolers from public school oversight. Therefore, the board will not allow HSLDA to use our resources to force public school districts to allow homeschool access.

HSLDA takes a neutral position when state legislation is introduced to require public school access for homeschoolers, unless the legislation would impose additional regulations on all homeschool students, not just those participating in the public schools.

Special education refers to instruction or assistance in traditional academic areas such as math, language arts, etc. Related services, on the other hand, are aids to a child—like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. These services indirectly improve a child’s ability to learn, but are separate from traditional academic curricula. HSLDA believes that parents whose children receive related services at a public school are still home educators.

Because HSLDA’s board of directors desires to focus our resources on guarding the freedom of homeschoolers from public school oversight, we cannot help homeschooled students obtain access to special education in public schools. However, HSLDA may assist member families seeking related services that have been denied because of homeschooling. We view this as a basic fairness issue, since according to the U.S. Department of Education, homeschooled students are entitled to related services in states where homeschools are considered to be private schools, but in other states, they are not. You can learn about your state’s provisions here.

In general, homeschooling only becomes an issue in a divorce case when the parents cannot agree with each other about the children’s education, and it’s typically only one of many issues over which parents disagree. It is outside HSLDA’s mission to say which parent should be able to determine how the children are educated when the parents disagree. In these cases, the judge must decide what is best for the children based on the evidence before him or her.

When a divorce occurs after the parents have joined HSLDA as a married couple, because both parents are or have been HSLDA members, we cannot ethically represent an interest contrary to either spouse, even though one may be trying to keep the other from homeschooling.

We provide a free information packet containing research on domestic and custody cases involving homeschooling, and where there is no conflict of interest, we will consult with our member’s personal attorney on homeschooling issues. Contact us to request the packet or ask about attorney consultation for your situation.

Our mission is to make homeschooling possible, therefore we focus our efforts solely on supporting homeschooling families—that is, families who are currently homeschooling or who are withdrawing their children from public school to begin homeschooling. Transferring into public school steps beyond the scope of our mission.

It's also important to remember that every school, public or private, has the right to determine their own policy. This means it is up to the discretion of each public school district to determine what credits they will or will not accept, or whether they require prospective students to take placement tests.