Passing the Homeschool Act isn’t overreach; it’s common sense.
Our (unedited) letter to the editor
IL HB 2827 moved out of committee yesterday, despite stiff opposition. This morning, the Chicago Tribune published a letter to the editor that
and I put together with another IL homeschool alumna. I’m glad to see it published, but they did trim a sentence that I think is extremely important—one that highlights homeschool students’ access to mandated reporters.So here’s the full version of our letter:
The Editorial Board’s decision to oppose the Homeschool Act ( HB 2827) (Springfield bid to regulate homeschooling and private schools overreaches, March 11) is an unfortunate attack on the safety of all students.
When people make decisions that impact vulnerable homeschooled children, they rarely ask homeschool alumni for input. As homeschool alumni with a combined 27 years of home education, please listen when we clearly state that the Homeschool Act will protect our children.
The Editorial Board opens with a scare tactic from the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, a Christian organization dedicated to removing all homeschool regulations. “Homeschooling parents who fail to comply with H.B. 2827’s new mandates could face truancy charges, potentially resulting in jail time or having their children forcibly removed from home,” says the HSLDA. Passing a law without any enforcement measures is pointless; the possibility of truancy charges is a useful incentive for parents to file the required homeschool declaration form.
We agree with the Editorial Board that Illinois’ public schools need support and reform, but using public schools to divert attention from a vulnerable group of students is a logical fallacy. We do not need to choose which students deserve protection; we can emphasize safety for all students.
Too often, homeschooling families assume that regulations aren't needed because abuse is infrequent or non-existent. Hundreds of homeschool alumni offer a cautionary tale: abuse and educational neglect in homeschooling families is far too common. We have experienced this firsthand; one of us was homeschooled in Illinois from 3rd to 8th grade and emerged with a 3rd-grade education in math and science. The Homeschool Act could have helped prevent that educational neglect.
Many homeschooling parents are wonderful educators, but we do a disservice to children when we ignore the fact that parents are the leading actors in child abuse. According to statistics from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), perpetrators of child abuse are most likely to be parents of the child. In 2023, 18,827 out of 23,081 perpetrators in the state of Illinois were a child’s parents. That number is likely a serious undercounting of abuse cases. Many homeschooled students never encounter a mandated reporter and their abuse goes unnoticed.
The Homeschool Act offers a minimum threshold for responsible home education regulations. Every child deserves a safe schooling environment. Passing this bill isn’t overreach; it’s common sense.
— Whitney Evans Harrison, Carol Stream; Melody Schwarting, Bolingbrook; and Abigail Nye, Milwaukee
One-time homeschool parent with two adult hybrid HS/PS alumni here, longtime observer of the homeschool world. I reviewed the proposed bill and I really can't see anything particularly objectionable about it. HSLDA wants a complete laissez-faire approach to homeschooling with no real accountability to anyone. No big surprise there, but after several decades of legal homeschooling, we've got more than enough accumulated experience of homeschool alumni that deserves to be heard. Kudos to you for putting such a cogent presentation together.
I was a part of a community called Homeschool Alumni, sort of an adopted kid having gotten involved early in its existence, more or less grandfathered in as a member. It gave me a chance to get to know some really excellent people and left me favorable toward homeschooling my own kids. I did have some reservations, however, about the fundamentalist Christian homeschooling world.
The world fascinated me because I am a cult survivor. I observed certain similarities between what I was raised in and some of the practices and beliefs of the this subculture. with many respect, it was like looking at a window of my past.
Apparently, Illinois has virtually no oversight over home education and of course, that's how HSLDA likes to roll. We homeschooled in Wisconsin and the state requirements here were relatively minimal. Compliance was actually quite easy, but we still had people blustering about that. Some parents didn't even want to keep records on their educational progress, which can very much come back to bite their kids down the road.
It seems a bit ironic that the advocates of homeschooling tout the high achievement of home educated students but when society asks for any measure of educational accountability, documenting that achievement seems like a monumental ask. Demonstrating that children are being adequately educated and protected should be relatively easy for any given family if their kids are in fact, being educated and protected, should it not?
I'm not one who believes that government regulation is the answer to everything. In fact, sometimes it can be as much of a hindrance as a help, but turning a blind eye to the progress and experience of homeschool students and hoping for the best is no solution either.
Jim K.