Homeschooling at Risk: The Most Significant Legislative Battles This Year

VIRGINIA:

The religious exemption

State Senator Stella Pekarsky submitted the bill to repeal Virginia’s religious exemption on January 7. The exemption was first enacted in 1976, several years before the birth of the modern homeschooling movement and was sponsored by then-state Senator Douglas Wilder, a Democrat who would later serve as Virginia’s first Black governor.

The exemption allows families who object to public school attendance on religious grounds to educate their children at home. It has remained largely unchanged since it was first signed into law, but Pekarsky and other pro-authoritarian advocates sought to change that with S.B. 1031.

Homeschool advocates gather to oppose S.B. 1031

In its original form, the bill did not directly repeal the religious exemption. Instead, it added on requirements from one of Virginia’s other methods of homeschooling, the home instruction statute. The requirements, including annual notice and testing, would have essentially negated the exemption’s purpose by allowing the government intrusion it was originally supposed to prevent.

HSLDA and Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) have been closely monitoring a growing threat for some time, and had already submitted several pro-homeschooling bills in preparation for the 2025 legislative season. As soon as S.B. 1031 was filed, both groups began to coordinate the opposition.

“Everything shifted to killing this bill,” recalled Callie Chaplow, director of government affairs at HEAV. She coordinated state groups to oppose the bill and refocused plans for their capitol day.

Scott, Callie, and Anne Miller at the capitol to testify against S.B. 1031

At the same time, HSLDA began organizing our members. “We immediately began drafting an alert,” said Scott Woodruff, HSLDA legal director, who has been defending families seeking a religious exemption for over 20 years. HSLDA also began a large-scale media push, contacting multiple state news agencies and creating a coordinated social media campaign against the bill.

A subcommittee hearing for the bill occurred within a matter of weeks, and Woodruff traveled to Richmond to testify against it. Already, a substitute version of the bill had dropped all pretense, amending the language to make it an outright repeal of the religious exemption.

The day of the hearing, homeschooling families and advocates from all over the state showed up in droves, wearing red. Numerous homeschool advocates testified against the bill, including the assistant superintendent of the Virginia Department of Education.

In the hearing, Pekarsky and other supporters of the bill argued that repealing the exemption was necessary to protect children from abuse and neglect. However, no empirical evidence exists to support the claims that homeschooled children are at a higher risk for abuse.^[1] What is more, regulating thousands of innocent parents because a small handful abuse and neglect their children runs afoul of the principle laid out by the Supreme Court in Parham v JR when it called that notion “repugnant to American tradition.”^[2]

Despite extensive testimony against the bill, the subcommittee voted 3–2 to send it to the full Senate Health and Education Committee.

Governor Glenn Youngkin, however, stood against it. During HEAV’s capitol day, his office contacted Chaplow to arrange an event he could attend to express support for their cause.

“We were able to pull together a couple hundred homeschooling parents and children,” Chaplow said. “We got some moms to speak, some kids to speak, and the governor came out very forcefully and said, ‘I will veto this bill’.”

A few days after the subcommittee hearing, HSLDA hosted a statewide webinar detailing the ideological origins of the bill and its attack on homeschooling. Woodruff explained the core philosophical differences between HSLDA’s approach to homeschooling and the approach of pro-authoritarian opponents of homeschooling, such as CRHE.

Anne, Callie, and other members of HEAV celebrate the defeat of S.B. 1031

“Our baseline is, we trust parents,” Woodruff said. “The other side takes the opposite view. They presume that parents will do bad things, and therefore we should impose all these laws on parents to make sure they don’t do bad things.”

As the bill progressed, homeschooling families in Virginia made their voices heard. Chaplow said some Senate offices received between 2,000 and 3,000 calls and emails in opposition to the bill and few, if any, in favor of it.

“When I was working in a legislative office, if we received just 15 calls or emails, we paid attention,” Chaplow said. “This is thousands.”

As opposition mounted, the bill morphed yet again. The outright repeal of the religious exemption was replaced with the formation of language to create a study group that would examine the religious exemption and make a recommendation to the Senate.

After this change, the bill made it through the Senate Health and Education Committee, but it was effectively killed when the Senate Finance Committee voted 13–2 to “Pass by Indefinitely.” It remains unclear whether it died on principle or as the result of a political calculation, since there was no floor vote.

The bill’s defeat was undoubtedly a major win for homeschool freedom, but this particular battle may not be over, as it may be reintroduced next year. And with statewide elections on the horizon this fall, the landscape of the legislature is uncertain.

“It was a pleasure to work with Chaplow and HEAV against this threat to homeschool freedom,” Woodruff said. “We remain alert and vigilant on the matter.”

WYOMING:

Advancing freedom

While a battle to defend existing freedoms raged in HSLDA’s backyard, homeschool advocates were making a case to expand homeschool freedom on the other side of the country in Wyoming. Jan Loftus, a longtime lobbyist and retired homeschooling mom, informed Brenna Lowry, Homeschool Wyoming board president, that the 2025 session would be an opportune moment to further homeschool freedom.

With that, HSLDA and Homeschool Wyoming set to work. HSLDA Senior Counsel Will Estrada helped craft language for a bill, while the coalition began to look for a sponsor.

“It proved to be a challenge for a while,” Lowry said. “But eventually we were able to find a sponsor. She herself is a homeschool mom, so she was willing to take it on.”

Will, Douglas Pietersma, Erin Waszkiewicz, Monique McInnis, Brenna, and Brad McInnis at the Wyoming statehouse to testify in support of the bill.

H.B. 46 sailed through the Wyoming House in an overwhelming 54–6 vote, and was sent to the Senate. Then came the hard part.

“Our concern was the Senate,” Estrada said, noting the Senate Education Committee vote was expected to be tight. “If the committee deadlocks, the bill doesn’t go anywhere.” He flew out and testified in support of the bill alongside Lowry and other homeschooling advocates.

“We were concerned we were going to barely squeak through on a 3–2 vote,” Lowry said. “Then one of our votes didn’t show up that day.”

It wasn’t looking good, until a homeschooling mom stood up to speak. She happened to know one of the committee members and had spent significant time with his family. As she testified, he paid attention.

A few moments later, the committee voted unanimously to move the bill forward. The bill went to the Senate floor, where it passed 28–2. Just three days later, Governor Mark Gordon signed it into law, making Wyoming the 12th state in the nation to abolish notice requirements for homeschooling families, and the first to do so by legislation.

Will and Wyoming Senator Evie Brennan, a homeschooling mom, moments after H.B. 46 passed out of committee.

“Homeschool Wyoming was fully engaged. HSLDA was fully engaged,” Estrada said. “There was no daylight between our organizations. Now we can go to other states and point to Wyoming as an example.”

Lowry is thrilled with the victory but noted its concerning national context. “As we look across the nation, we know that we still have to be vigilant to guard these freedoms this year, or the next year,” she said. For her, homeschooling is much bigger than just her family.

“I have traveled the state to cast the vision that we stand on the shoulders of giants who fought the fight for our homeschool freedoms,” she added. “We are now the shoulders that future generations will stand on, and we need to guard, protect, and by God’s grace in Wyoming, advance those freedoms.”

ILLINOIS:

Egregious restrictions

As legislative battles progressed in Virginia and Wyoming, a third battle teed off in Illinois, one of the states with no notice requirements. The current legislative storm had been brewing since the summer of 2024, when ProPublica published a story blaming lax homeschool laws for several high-profile cases of child abuse.

Lost in the article was the fact that the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) had been aware of all the cases named and had failed to properly implement the regulatory powers officials already had. Nevertheless, State Representative Terra Costa Howard responded by saying it was time to regulate homeschooling families. In February she put forward H.B. 2827.

In addition to annual notice requirements, the bill would allow the education department to demand a portfolio review for any reason and at any time, and it would not restrict the frequency of those reviews.

Most egregiously, the bill as originally introduced would automatically level criminal truancy penalties on parents if they fail to file the annual notice on time. “Not a single state does that,” Estrada remarked. “Even highly regulated states like New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island have civil penalties.”

What is more, the bill leaves open the possibility of additional regulations at the discretion of the Department of Education that would bypass the legislative process. “This is nothing more than a gateway bill to add further regulations in the future,” said Kirk Smith, director of Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE).

The heavy regulatory burden of H.B. 2827 flies in the face of a 75-year history of homeschool freedom in Illinois dating back to a state Supreme Court ruling in People v Levisen.^[3] The landmark decision granted extensive freedoms for homeschooling families, with the stipulation that a homeschool education must be commensurate to the local public school education.

Smith said H.B. 2827 is a “nonsensical” approach to a problem that doesn’t exist. “Furthermore, it adds nothing to the laws on truancy, educational neglect, and abuse that are already on the books and have been for years.”

Homeschooling advocates had filed more than 50,000 witness slips against the bill by the time it received a committee hearing—a record number. By contrast, around 400 people filed slips in support of the bill.

Then an estimated 8,000 homeschooling parents, children, and supporters arrived at the capitol to express their opposition to the bill on the day of the hearing—setting another record. The fire marshal was forced to close the capitol building, leaving another 500 advocates outside.

Hundreds of homeschool advocates gather outside the Illinois statehouse to oppose H.B. 2827.

Nevertheless, the overwhelming opposition failed to sway the committee. After three hours of powerful testimony from Estrada and prominent homeschool advocates, the committee voted along party lines to advance the bill.

Still, the voices of the Illinois homeschooling community were heard around the world, as the hearing generated global news coverage and public debate over the bill continued.^[4] Critics of the bill argued it’s a blatant attack on parents and will not achieve its desired ends. Some took issue with the claim that it would only cost $1,600 to implement, while others argued resources would be better spent reforming the Illinois public school system.

“I reject the premise of the bill,” said Aziza Butler, a homeschooling mom and the founder of WeSchool, a support community that provides classes and resources to parent-educators in urban Chicago. “The premise of this bill is, ‘If you want to homeschool your children, we need to check on you because you might be trying to abuse them.’ It feels burdensome, unnecessary, and intimidating for parents who are just trying to access something new and different for their children.”

Latasha Fields, co-founder of Christian Home Educators Support System and EPIC Café, a grassroots organization dedicated to protecting parental rights in Illinois, argues the bill is an all-out attack on parental rights, and said she finds it hypocritical when compared with the current poor record of Illinois public schools.

“This is not just about homeschooling,” Fields said, noting that Illinois has taken steps to limit education freedom over the years, rolling back programs that help families access alternative education.

Angela Harris, assistant director of CHESS, and her two daughters stand with Latasha and her daughter at the statehouse.

Fields and many others argue the bill would negatively impact all homeschooling families but would be particularly burdensome on Black and low-income families. She is especially alarmed at the automatic triggering of DCFS investigations, which disproportionately target these families.^[5]

Fields created an in-depth analysis and rebuttal of Costa Howard’s claims, which she presented to nearly 40 legislators in the Illinois Black Caucus. In her interactions with legislators and other lobbyists in Springfield, she noted there was significant pushback against the bill. She also organized the Chicago Home Educators’ Summit, which served as a powerful platform to speak out against the bill.

Butler echoed Fields’ assertions about the disproportionate impact on Black families in a Chicago Tribune op-ed. “Homeschooling has become the fastest-growing educational choice among Black parents nationwide, driven by the courageous desire to give their children a safer, more nurturing and academically enriching environment than what they’ve experienced in traditional schools,” she wrote.^[6] Indeed, Black families make up one of the fastest growing homeschooling demographics in the country.^[7]

Shortly after the summit, Costa Howard introduced an amendment to the bill. The amendment technically removed the default application of criminal truancy law, but introduced multiple ways for parents to be referred to the state attorney for prosecution, such as giving parents withdrawing their children mid-year a mere three days to file paperwork before being referred.

Ultimately, the amendment did not address the concerns of the homeschool community, and despite an additional 40,000 witness slips against it in just 12 hours, the bill once again passed out of committee as amended. It moved to the House floor, where it sat until an April deadline to vote on the bill passed. It was then sent back to the House Rules Committee, where, as of the time of writing, the bill now sits dormant.

We must remain vigilant, however, as there are ways the bill could be revived, even much later in the year. Costa Howard has indicated she intends to submit another amendment to the bill, though it is uncertain if she has enough votes on her side to get the bill through the House.

Will and homeschooling mom Rachel Delaney at the Illinois statehouse for capitol day.

“Both HSLDA and ICHE were laser-focused” Estrada said. “We were working hand-in-hand throughout this fight, but I cannot stress enough how effective ICHE is.”

“Their engagement goes back decades,” he continued. “The work that ICHE and Illinois homeschooling families have put in over the years in visiting Springfield, talking to legislators, and building relationships has made a tremendous difference.”

If the bill is revived and passes the House, it must still pass the Senate before going to the governor’s desk. HSLDA will continue to monitor the bill for any movement and keep our members informed.

The vital work that remains

The victories we saw this year in Wyoming and Virginia indicate the appetite for homeschool freedom across the country remains strong. But we cannot be complacent.

“This is the first time in recent memory that we have seen a multi-pronged approach by organized opponents of homeschool freedom,” Estrada said.

The coordinated effort to roll back homeschool freedom in Virginia and Illinois could prove a bellwether for future legislative action in other states. “We can no longer take for granted the freedoms that we have,” Fields said. “We have to fight for all families.”

At the heart of this conflict is a basic ideological difference. While the homeschooling movement stands firmly on the side of liberty and trusting parents, those who oppose homeschooling take a different approach.

“Our core principle is that no person loves their child more than their parents do,” Estrada said. “Any bill which attempts to take away the freedom of loving parents to be able to choose what’s best for their children is a threat to children, a threat to families, and a threat to our constitutional system.”

Chaplow agrees: “People imagine that it’s the government’s responsibility to educate their children. But it’s our responsibility as parents.”

It is more vital than ever that homeschooling advocates are visible, active, and vocal. We encourage you to join your state organization (if you haven’t already). And we will continue to work alongside HEAV, ICHE, Homeschool Wyoming, and other state organizations to defend homeschool freedom.

Endnotes