Chapter 7: Why Home Schooling Should Be Regulated

Everyone now knows that home schooling has gone mainstream in the United States. Once a fringe phenomenon, home schooling is legal in every one of the 50 states and is widely considered the fastest growing sector of K-12 schooling. Because education in the United States is a matter delegated to the states—the U.S. Constitution does not mention education—each state has different provisions for regulating home schooling. This patchwork regulatory environment shows a clear trend across the country, however: regulations that 30 years ago either forbade or strictly regulated home schooling have been lifted or eased. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), an advocacy group for home schooling that has been instrumental in getting more permissive home school legislation passed in many states, 25 of the 50 states have no regulations governing home schooling except a requirement that parents notify a local public authority that they have set up a home school. Ten of these 25 states do not even require parental notification (Klicka, 2004).