School districts are increasingly demanding that homeschooling families file notice of intent paperwork online, rather than through the old-fashioned “snail mail,” to the point where it is rapidly becoming a national problem.
Our digitally connected world and the continued growth of technology are only exacerbating the problem. As a result, more and more families are facing extralegal requirements from their school district each year. How did we get here?
The legal outlook for homeschooling was very different in the ’80s and ’90s when homeschooling was becoming more popular. HSLDA battled in legislatures across the country to advance homeschool freedom. We worked successfully with pioneering homeschooling parents, homeschool leaders at the state and local level, and freedom-loving state legislators.
Decades later, homeschooling is legally protected in all 50 states. However, there is no one-size-fits-all national standard for homeschooling. Some require annual notices of intent. Some require a one-time notice of intent. Some are more strict. Some are more lenient. In some states, no filing is required.
We have a patchwork of 50 state laws, and that is a good thing. We don’t want to see homeschooling nationalized or federalized, as federal government involvement will invariably
lead to a loss of freedom overall. More importantly, the Constitution does not give the federal
government the authority to have any involvement in controlling education (this is why the
Department of Education generally attempts to regulate public education through federal
spending authority).