As snow blanketed the lawn of the Home School Legal Defense Association office in Purcellville, Virginia, in the early weeks of January, a major threat to homeschool freedom was brewing in Richmond, just three hours south. A Virginia state senator was authoring a bill to repeal the commonwealth’s long-established religious exemption method of homeschooling.
On the other side of the country, a different kind of legislative effort was underway, as lawmakers and advocates in Wyoming submitted a bill which would fling wide the doors of homeschool freedom for families in the state. As these two bills moved through their respective legislatures, a third sat waiting in the wings of the Illinois statehouse, representing the largest and most coordinated threat to homeschool freedom that we have seen in many years.
The tide of homeschool opposition is rising, so these bad bills come as no surprise. We are seeing an outworking of a dangerous trend toward an authoritarian approach to homeschool regulation, put forward by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE) and their Make Homeschool Safe Act. Yet homeschool freedom continues to advance, as we saw in Wyoming.
Whether to defend or further the cause of homeschool freedom, HSLDA is ready. Our lawyers traveled all over the country this legislative season to stand with thousands of homeschooling families and advocates who made their voices heard.
Let’s take a closer look at the most
significant legislative developments this
year—the bills in Virginia, Wyoming,
and Illinois.