A fundamental change
The MHSA goes after the very foundation of homeschooling in this country. In Section II.1:
Findings, the MHSA asserts that no state currently provides “adequate protection for homeschooled children.”
It doesn’t matter if the state’s homeschool law dates from the early 1990s (as many do), is
based on court cases from before that (like New Jersey, Indiana, and Illinois), or is enshrined
in the state constitution (as in Oklahoma)—under the MHSA, each state would have to bend
the knee to the bill’s assertion that homeschool law is not adequate to protect homeschool
children.
While the MHSA is unlikely to be introduced or passed in full, this assertion makes clear the
underlying assumption behind the model bill: Homeschooling laws across the nation are insufficient, and the practice should be heavily regulated.
Misuse of child protective services
Probably no section of the MHSA has raised more red flags than section XI.2(B).
Under this section, parents who undergo an investigation by child protective services (CPS), regardless of the outcome, wouldn’t be able to withdraw their children to homeschool for three years, unless CPS makes an initial home visit and the family agrees to
additional monthly visits for at least a year.
HSLDA grieves for the victims of child abuse. We have also seen firsthand how children
are harmed when CPS gets misused. In a recent issue of the Court Report, HSLDA Litigation
Attorney Peter Kamakawiwoole wrote about this matter. “Courts and legal scholarship have
consistently found that CPS investigations often have significant harmful effects on families—especially in situations where the parents or guardians have done nothing wrong,” he said.[2]
This restriction cuts close to the bone for me. I’ve had an investigator show up at my front
door when a neighbor saw my 12-year-old son riding his bike barefoot in November and
thought it was too cold for him to be outside without shoes. Under the MHSA, if I’d had a child
in public school, I wouldn’t have been allowed to homeschool for three years. And, as you will
see, this model bill contains a multiplicity of new reasons that parents could be reported to
CPS, which could seriously threaten their chances to homeschool.
Annual notices
Section IV of the MHSA would mandate annual homeschool enrollment and give
school superintendents inordinate power to trigger a CPS investigation of a family
that does not perfectly comply. Over the years at HSLDA, we’ve seen such notice
requirements cause unnecessary hassles, a huge paperwork burden, and needless
CPS investigations all over the country.
Consequently, only a minority of states currently require annual notice for all homeschooling
families. Thirteen states that originally required such notice have decided it wasn’t worth the
paperwork burden and dropped it.
The MHSA would require notice at the beginning of the school year or “within 30 days” prior
to starting a homeschool. As written, this phrasing is unclear and will lead to confusion as to
whether the waiting period is mandatory or not. I believe the strange wording will cause conflict
with school districts.
HSLDA has always opposed this kind of “notify and wait” statute as unconstitutional, and we
have successfully helped many new homeschooling parents to withdraw immediately, even
when their school district was attempting to enforce a waiting period. In an age when parents
are often choosing to begin homeschooling due to bullying incidents in public schools, such a
waiting period is also unsafe.
Additionally, if parents don’t file notice of intent under the MHSA, the superintendent will
give them a written warning. Failure to provide notice deemed acceptable within 30 days
would result in immediate referral to CPS—an extreme response to what is essentially a
paperwork dispute.
This early involvement of CPS has been a huge problem for numerous homeschooling
families HSLDA has represented in states like Massachusetts and New York. If this part of the
MHSA passes, I foresee many more pointless CPS investigations.
Required subjects
The MHSA includes two versions of how states should regulate the subject matter
of homeschool instruction. The “preferred version” would automatically link
homeschooling to public school instruction, meaning any updates to public school
curriculum requirements would automatically apply to homeschooling families. This
could also leave the door open to regulate how those subjects are taught in homeschools.
The “alternative” provision would list subjects homeschooling parents must teach. Most
states do not list subjects required for homeschool graduation—an implicit recognition that
students and their needs are different.
From a personal perspective, such a law would have seriously hampered my parents’ ability
to craft my education toward my unique interests. Now as a lawyer, husband, father, and
enthusiastic church volunteer, I have no regrets regarding my homeschool education.
This section as drafted would also require instruction to be “provided in a sequentially
progressive curriculum.” This would outlaw unschooling entirely, and even pose a problem for homeschooling parents like me who are simply eclectic.
My son’s senior music project was a history of rock music based mostly on listening to and
analyzing songs from various bands and artists. And my daughter (an aspiring author) was
required to read most of the Newbery Medal books before we issued her a high school diploma.
She had excellent examples of children’s literature to guide her writing. In both cases, there
was no curriculum, much less a sequentially progressive one.
Required hours
Section VI of the MHSA mandates that homeschools must have at least 875 hours
of instruction per year (the average for the eight states that currently mandate
instruction hours). This may sound just fine on its face—if you’re not familiar with
the efficiency of one-on-one instruction.
As an adult, I was fortunate to see one of my favorite elementary school teachers in
action. I was impressed again by his teaching, but noticed how much of his time was spent in
classroom management.
He taught a short lesson and gave a 10-question quiz. I had just given a similar quiz to my oldest, and it took about four minutes. But that same length quiz to a public school class took 30
minutes. I was struck that the system is so terribly inefficient that even a great teacher was stuck
telling kids to sit down, stop bothering each other, and cease talking—all the while not being
able to focus on education.
The 875-hour requirement translates to almost five hours a day. I have homeschooled my
own children from grades 1–12, and in the early years,
schooling only took about an hour a day, broken up into
small segments to keep them interested. Even if another
homeschooling parent doubled or tripled that time, they
would still fall far short of this hourly requirement.
A requirement that children be instructed five hours a day when they were 6 or 7 makes
absolutely no sense to me, and it would have quickly drained my children’s love of learning.
This is precisely what many new homeschooling parents tell me when they take their second
grader out of public school!
Annual assessments
The MHSA would require annual assessments that must be submitted to the
local superintendent. This would set up legislative battles in dozens of states,
since 28 of them don’t require assessments at all and nine others don’t require
them to be turned in.
These provisions would allow the illusion of choice by providing parents to opt for
an educational portfolio review, state test, or nationally standardized test. However, no matter
which option is chosen, a “qualified educational professional” (QEP) would have to review the
assessment. This review would include an in-person meeting with the student that does not
include the parents.
And the MHSA allows for more than just annual assessments. If the QEP that is so heavily
relied on in this section “believes” that the student is not making sufficient progress, he or she
must submit a request to the superintendent to have the child assessed. Note the low standard—no evidence or reasonable belief is required. Similarly vague requirements have been used in
various ways by unscrupulous superintendents in Pennsylvania and Florida to require homeschooling families to jump through hoops.
The MSHA specifically forbids administering standardized tests in the student’s home, which
is simply bad testing protocol. Especially for younger students, taking a standardized test in
an unfamiliar environment may lead to a lower result.[1] My children always tested better when
they were able to do it at the kitchen table rather than the local library (the location I used
when I had four children in various grades to test at the same time).
Finally, the QEP reviewer must be chosen “from a list of professionals designated by the
superintendent.” There are two problems here. First, this would be yet another task delegated
to the public school superintendent that really doesn’t fit his job description of running the
public school system.
Second, I’ve worked at HSLDA for over 25 years, and the number of public school districts
that really understand how homeschooling works is, in my experience, extremely low. So the
odds of them choosing QEPs who understand homeschooling are also low.
Interventions
The “Intervention” section of the MHSA is the most intensive change to homeschool
law and the longest section. You can find all the details here,
but here’s the broad outline. The provision would allow a superintendent to simply
declare that a student has not made satisfactory academic progress—even overruling the
QEP reviewer—and place the homeschool program on probation.
No state in the country allows such an intrusive process, nor have they ever done so. This
isn’t just going back to the 1980s wave of now-archaic homeschool laws; this is regressing
beyond that to a time when there were no clear homeschool laws and states had an “approval”
process.
The MHSA has teeth in this section too: “If, at any time during the probation process, the
superintendent determines that the home educator is not cooperating with the educational
professional assigned to convene the student support meeting or is not implementing the
remediation plan in good faith, the superintendent may require the child to be enrolled in
public or non-public school and remain enrolled for at least two years, unless a high school
diploma is awarded sooner” [emphasis added].
Ah, the lovely word “cooperating.” I have lost count of how many times I have read CPS petitions claiming that a family was not “cooperating.” By which the CPS investigator meant “the family would not comply with all of my demands (whether legal or not) immediately.” I simply
do not trust a law that allows a public school superintendent to determine unilaterally that a
homeschooling family is not cooperating with their hand-picked probation overseer.
Recordkeeping
Another legislative battle will arise over a small section on “Recordkeeping” that
would require annual submission of either immunization or an immunization
exemption. In many states, this will not be insurmountable, but California and
New York, which currently require vaccinations for both public and private school
students but not for homeschool students, do not recognize the exemptions listed in
the MHSA. As such, in these states, there would now be no way to educate a child without full
immunization.
What comes next?
In the 40 years since HSLDA was founded, we have seen bills of many different kinds introduced to restrict homeschool freedom. Usually, these bills are piecemeal assaults on one front
or another and sometimes are not aimed at homeschooling, as when a bill lowers the age of
compulsory school attendance. But the Make Homeschool Safe Act is different. It is an all-out
attack on homeschool liberty from beginning to end.
So, what should we as homeschooling advocates do to oppose the MHSA if or when it gets
introduced in our state? First, we can pray. For those who are Christians, there are two commands in the Bible that instruct us here. Jesus told his followers in Luke 6:28 to pray for those
who threaten them. And Paul encourages Christians to pray for our leaders, “that we may lead a
peaceful and quiet life” (1 Timothy 2:2 ESV).
HSLDA also strongly recommends getting
to know your state legislators. This has been a
strength for homeschooling families in past battles for freedom. When I was a homeschooled
teen in New Hampshire in 1990, my family met personally with several state senators and
representatives during a fight to change the law. Your family’s experience providing a quality
education to your children is a potent counterexample to the negative vision of homeschooling outlined in the MHSA.
Additionally, I recommend all homeschooling families join their state’s homeschool
organization(s). I belong to both major groups in my state. These organizations monitor bills
in their states and notify their members, leaving you in peace to continue homeschooling your
children.
And lastly, there is no better way to support homeschool freedom across the country—indeed, around the world—than to join HSLDA. Since 1983, we’ve been successfully leading the
charge against unnecessary government restrictions on homeschooling. From court battles in
California, to litigation in Louisiana, to fighting for freedom in Florida, we’re here as advocates
for homeschooling.
Endnotes
