Homeschool families are facing a crisis that could destroy their educational freedom.
Democrat legislators are using one tragic case to justify massive government overreach that would affect thousands of successful families.
And homeschool families were stunned by this shocking power grab that threatens parental rights.
Illinois lawmakers pushing unprecedented control over homeschooling
Illinois is currently one of just 12 states that gives homeschool families complete freedom to educate their children as they see fit.
But Democrats in the state legislature are determined to change that with House Bill 2827, which would impose strict government control over homeschool parents.
State Rep. Terra Costa Howard, the Democrat who introduced the bill, made it clear she thinks Illinois needs to fall in line with more restrictive states.
“Thirty-eight states have regulations. Illinois is an outlier. This is not something we want to be an outlier on,” Costa Howard stated when pushing for the new restrictions.
The bill, which recently passed the House Education Policy Committee and is now heading to the full House, would force homeschool families to register annually with the government, meet teacher qualification standards, and submit to invasive oversight from local education officials.
These bureaucrats would have sweeping authority to demand curricula, inspect student work, and even determine if homeschooled children are learning “properly” according to government standards.
Democrats using one tragic case to punish all homeschool families
The push for these draconian regulations comes after ProPublica and Capital News Illinois published a story about a boy called “L.J.” who was removed from public school in 2021 when he was told he’d have to repeat third grade.
L.J.’s mother and her boyfriend claimed they were homeschooling him but instead subjected him to physical and emotional abuse while providing little to no education for over a year.
It’s a heartbreaking story that’s now being exploited by anti-homeschool activists to justify sweeping restrictions on all Illinois homeschoolers.
The reporters who broke the story suggested that Illinois’ “lax homeschooling laws” were to blame, writing that “No oversight also means children schooled at home lose the protections schools provide, including teachers, counselors, coaches, and bus drivers – school personnel legally bound to report suspected child abuse and neglect.”
Regulations wouldn’t have saved L.J. but will hurt successful homeschoolers
What the Democrats and media aren’t telling you is that the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) was already investigating L.J.’s case soon after he was pulled from school.
The system failed not because of a lack of homeschool regulations, but because DCFS conducted multiple investigations before finally removing L.J. in December 2022 – more than a year after concerns were first raised.
Homeschool expert Aaron Garth Smith exposed this government failure, noting: “This was a DCFS failure, not a homeschooling failure.”
Research also shows that homeschooled children are no more likely to be abused than public school students. Smith cited studies finding “no relationship between the amount of homeschool regulations and the frequency of homeschool abuse.”
While teachers and school staff are mandatory reporters, less than 25% of child welfare referrals in 2023 came from education personnel according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Even more damning for the Democrats’ argument: education personnel had the lowest substantiation rates among professional reporters at just 12.7%, far below law enforcement (39.4%) and medical personnel (34.9%).
Government officials would target successful alternative approaches
The real threat of House Bill 2827 is that it would give government bureaucrats unprecedented power to interfere with legitimate homeschooling methods that don’t conform to public school standards.
Many homeschool families use alternative approaches like “unschooling” or self-directed learning, where children learn by pursuing their interests rather than following rigid curricula.
Homeschool expert Kerry McDonald described unschooling as “the act of fusing living and learning, of seeing them as one and the same.”
Under the Democrats’ proposal, parents using these proven alternative methods could face truancy charges or worse if a hostile school official doesn’t approve of their educational approach.
This government power grab comes while Illinois public schools are failing their own students, with a staggering 41% of fourth graders unable to read at a basic level.
Instead of fixing their broken system, Democrats would rather control successful homeschool families who are achieving educational success without government interference.
The power struggle over homeschooling in Illinois represents a fundamental question about whether parents or government bureaucrats should control children’s education. The fate of educational freedom for thousands of Illinois families now hangs in the balance.
