Q. Why do parents decide to home educate their children?
A. Most parents decide to home school because they feel they can provide a better education for their children than public schools or private schools offer. The rampant problems of drugs, crime, violence, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases in our nation’s schools are compelling parents to find alternative learning environments free from these social ills. Home schooling allows parents to promote good academics, common sense morality, and family unity.

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Q. Is home schooling legal in all 50 states?
A. Yes. Each state has its own statutes, court decisions, or regulations that pertain to home schooling. (For more information on a particular state, please contact HSLDA.)

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Q. What are the legal problems home schoolers face and how does HSLDA attempt to solve them?
A. Many families are contacted by school or government officials questioning the legality of home schooling. The majority of legal challenges we handle are resolved amicably, through peaceful negotiations. However, thousands of families have faced situations which are far from pleasant. Hundreds have ended up in court or administrative hearings. For example:

• Warrants were issued for the arrest of Mark and Chris DeJonge, home-schooling parents in Michigan who were home schooling without a certified teacher. After being found guilty by lower courts, the DeJonges’ case was eventually appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court. In 1993, the Court ruled that the teacher certification requirement for religious home schoolers was unconstitutional, transforming Michigan from the worst state in the nation for home schooling to one of the best. The criminal convictions of the DeJonge family were reversed.
  

• HSLDA filed a federal civil rights action, Jeffrey, et al v. O’Donnell, et al, on behalf of nine home-schooling families against 11 oppressive school districts in 1986. In 1988, a U.S. District Court Judge ruled that “the tutorial provision of Pennsylvania Compulsory Attendance Law . . . is unconstitutionally vague” and therefore, unenforceable. As a result of this victory, over twenty cases in court against HSLDA families were won or dismissed.
  

• In February of 1994, thousands of home schoolers from across the nation flooded the U.S. House of Representatives with phone calls urging an amendment that protected home schoolers from a teacher’s certification requirement in H.R. 6. An amendment protecting home and private schools was passed overwhelmingly.
  

• The Lund and Reimche families in North Dakota were tried and convicted for the crime of home schooling their children. HSLDA appealed their case to the North Dakota Supreme Court. The Court ruled in favor of the families and reversed their truancy convictions.

HSLDA has also worked successfully to achieve legislative victories by assisting state home schooling organizations with their legislative goals. The following are just a few examples:

• In 1989, Governor George A. Sinner signed into law North Dakota’s new home-schooling law, which repealed the state’s former teacher certification requirement for all teachers.
  

• Kansas home schoolers defeated H.B. 2392 in 1991, which would have required home school children to be taught by certified teachers.
  

• In Oregon, Governor Barbara Roberts signed into law a bill allowing home schoolers to participate with public school students in interscholastic activities.
  

• Maryland home schoolers convinced the Maryland Legislature to remove the home visit requirement from the department of education’s regulations.
  

• In 1993, after making it through the Senate Education Committee with the help of an amendment, H.B. 1260 passed, repealing the South Dakota home visit law.

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Q. What are some of the more restrictive states for home schooling?
A. The battlegrounds shift around the nation. Over the years we have faced fierce or multiple legal conflicts in South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Iowa, Tennessee, New York, Rhode Island, and North Dakota just to name a few.

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