Court Report

Homeschool Freedom is a Team Sport

Our work advocating for homeschool freedom here at HSLDA goes through a few predictable seasons. We think of late summer as our “busy” season.

As public schools begin to open, many families begin to homeschool for the first time, and they tend to have lots of questions. Some states require families to submit notices during that season, and compliance issues and questions arise.

As officials return to work after the summer break for the start of the new school year, compliance issues left over from the previous school year tend to come to a head. Our legal hallway’s telephones ring a lot during the summer busy season.

Another season we go through every year is legislative season. There are some 57 legislatures in these United States (50 state, 1 district, 1 federal, and 5 territorial), and the one thing they all have in common is a love for passing new laws.

Some legislatures are year-round, but many convene in January and finish their work a few months later. At the start of the season, our legal team begins tracking bills that might affect homeschool freedom and monitors their progress from introduction, to assignment, to subcommittees, through testimony, and all the way through to the end.

Sometimes we determine that a bill has no chance of passing. We may let you know about the bill, but not ask you to do anything. Some bad bills, though, do need our attention. And by “our” attention, I mean HSLDA’s and yours—the homeschooling moms, dads, and kids who would be directly affected by the bill.

We may send you a legislative alert and ask you to contact your representative. We may ask you to attend a committee hearing in the state capital.

Our lawyers work closely with homeschool leaders in your state, and it is common for them to travel to your capital to testify against bad bills and in favor of good bills.

But nothing is so persuasive to a state legislator as seeing hundreds of civic-minded homeschoolers respectfully exercising their rights of assembly and to petition their government when a bill is being debated. This is why we might ask you to join us at a committee hearing.

As many of you know, HSLDA has several tools that we use to keep you informed and involved.

You can find all the bills being monitored by HSLDA attorneys, organized by category or state, at our our Legislation Action Center (hslda.org/legislation). If a bill requires further action from our members, it is listed under “Current Campaigns,” along with detailed information about the bill and ways to reach out to the appropriate legislators.

Another inspiring part of legislative season in many states is the topic of this issue’s cover story, “Invest in freedom: Attend your state’s capitol day,” by Zan Tyler. Zan is a legendary homeschool mom, leader, and pioneer, who more than any other single person brought homeschool freedom to South Carolina more than 30 years ago.

Capitol days are basically good old-fashioned rallies in the state capitol building to introduce legislators to a vibrant subset of their constituency—homeschooling families like yours and mine. Often held in the rotunda or on the capitol steps, they sometimes attract hundreds of homeschoolers from around the state—moms, dads, and kids—on a civics field trip.

You might even spot a stray HSLDA attorney. As I write this, some of them are returning to the office from capitol days in states as far-flung as Nebraska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Minnesota.

When I first attended capitol days many years ago, a legislator who supported homeschooling might show up to address the crowd. Later, it became more common for a legislator who also homeschooled her own kids to make an appearance. At the most recent capitol day I attended, a state legislator who had himself been homeschooled and was homeschooling his own kids delighted the crowd—and made a tough act for me to follow.

Homeschool freedom is a team sport. I encourage you to get involved. Let your voice be heard. Introduce your kids to their state capitol, their representatives, and to the great experiment that is our federal republic.

Jim is an attorney, litigator, and homeschooling dad who has helped HSLDA win a number of landmark cases establishing and protecting homeschool freedom.

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