28 December 2023
Content warning: Mentions of abuse and neglect towards children throughout, as well as the discussion of a Nazi curriculum
Homeschooling, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), is “an innovative, effective educational option that gives parents and caregivers the freedom and flexibility to tailor education to each child’s and their family’s needs, pace, and schedule” (1). If you understand homeschooling as just that basic definition, then you might assume homeschooling is a relatively cut-and-dry subject. After all, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, most school-age kids partook in homeschooling, where they were taught school subjects at home. Children learned online unless the child’s parents or guardians preferred their kids learn offline. Offline homeschooling methods include alternative, more hands-on approaches to learning such as exploratory learning or creating their own curriculum (2). However, homeschooling isn’t just the definition provided by the HSLDA. It’s a whole other world where a child learns politics, opinions, and power controls with little input from any government. It’s a world where child abuse and servitude thrive and perpetrators can get away with little to no consequences, and the Home School Legal Defense Association single-handedly causes this problem by refusing corrective regulation.
A Brief History of Homeschooling
John Holt created the modern concept of homeschooling in 1977, which his friend Raymond Moore later expanded upon (3). They called for parents to “liberate their children from formal education and instead follow a method today known as ‘unschooling’” (3). They believed leaving the public school system would allow children to develop a stronger moral, educational, and psychological foundation and vowed to fund any parent-requested legal aid so that parents would be able to school their child without any argument from the state (3). They also encouraged guardians to work with “their local school boards, meeting requirements and submitting their home education plans” (3). At this time, laws surrounding homeschooling were quite tight—at least six states required parents to be licensed teachers—but local public schools generally still respected home educators (3).
However, in the 1980s, fundamentalists and evangelical Christians began to take issue with the public school system, citing violent political conflicts regarding church and state—the reason behind the Catholic private school system—as reasons for pulling their children from school (3). Their refusal to work with public schools to create curricula as well as their engagement in legal battles kickstarted a negative feedback loop; when the Christians didn’t get their way, they would sue the schools, leading the schools to respond negatively to the litigation the homeschoolers wanted. Eventually, all of this fighting led to the homeschoolers lobbying their respective state governments (3). By the 1990s, all fifty states created different laws for homeschooling, as the Reservation Clause of the 10th Amendment prevents federal law from directly regulating education. Some laws only saw the addition of a sentence, but others were newly composed, directing home educators down a certain learning path (3).
The battle between the Christian homeschoolers and the public education system signified the end of Holt and Moore’s original concept of ‘unschooling.’ Holt died in 1985 and Moore was essentially excommunicated from the homeschooling community by leaders who “did not consider him ‘Christian’ enough” (3). Leading this change in homeschooling was Michael Farris, a homeschooling parent and legal defense attorney who would go on to create the HSLDA. The HSLDA protects all homeschooling parents (as long as they pay a $130 fee annually) from any legal proceedings from the state, and pushes for less homeschool regulation.
Why would people homeschool?
Today, there are an estimated 3.7 million homeschooled children in the U.S. (2). They are homeschooled for a variety of reasons, the most common reason being that caregivers have concerns about the public school environment. Many with right-wing and fundamentalist beliefs took issue with the masking and social-distancing mandates in schools, so they pulled their child out (2)(4)(5). Meena Hart Duerson, a reporter who has worked with news sites such as Vice and MSNBC, worked with Vice to create a documentary that looked at the world of homeschooling, titled, The Secret Power of Homeschoolers. In this documentary, we learn that parents pull their children out of schools due to fears of what is being taught. Ryan Spitz, the owner of California Adventure Academy—a homeschool co-op where parents pay $800 a month for guides to teach their children in nature—did not allow his children to return to school after the pandemic, citing worry that what was being taught in public schools was not “pure,” and that Critical Race Theory (C.R.T.) or sex education would corrupt his children (5). This common fear among many homeschool parents—that public school teachings are not following God’s intent—is causing homeschooling to become a moral fight.
Of course, morality isn’t the only reason for homeschooling. Some children have some sort of illness—whether it be physical or mental—that requires them to stay home due to its constraints (being in and out of a hospital, emergencies, etc). A common public school environment would not be an effective approach to education for these children. In other cases, homeschooling is used to protect against public school discrimination.
In 2019, it was reported that 1.2% of homeschoolers aged five to seventeen are black, 1.9% are Hispanic, and 2.7% are two or more races (6). The black homeschooling population is the fastest-growing population of homeschoolers. When asked why she thinks this is, homeschool mom Amber Johnston replied with the question, “Do I want to put my child in an environment where they’ll see what others really think of them?” (4). Public school systems are more likely to criminalize black children from a very young age, often targeting them and setting them up to fail (5). In a home environment, these kids can learn to be proud of their heritage, learning their history through a non-criminalized lens. They don’t have to navigate a system that doesn’t care for them; they get to learn in an unbiased environment and grow up not facing the turmoil awaiting them in public schools (4).
Finally, possibly the simplest reason for homeschooling is that some kids just need a nontraditional approach to learning. Some can’t sit for eight hours a day for thirteen years. Some need a more hands-on approach where they can take breaks and learn on their own time.
From High to No Moderation: Who guarantees your child receives a proper education?
Fun fact: I was homeschooled from second grade until seventh grade. Fortunately, I grew up in the state of Pennsylvania, which has some of, if not the most homeschooling regulations in the U.S.. Upon taking on this project, I asked my mom for whatever records she had, so that I could compare them to records and laws in different states. All of Pennsylvania’s regulations fall under Act 169, which states that a parent, guardian, or person having legal custody of a child may homeschool their child as an option for complying with compulsory school attendance (7). Act 169 also mentions Section 1327.1, which establishes the rest of the rules a homeschooler must follow in order to remain home in Pennsylvania. For one to educate their own child, they have to have a notarized affidavit that grants permission for home education. This affidavit has to be refiled on or before August 1st every year a child is to be homeschooled. If you move to another part of Pennsylvania during your homeschooling career, a new letter of transfer must be filed 30 days before you intend to move (8)(9). Additionally, if the child’s education isn’t approved by the superintendent of the district a parent is moving to, they can no longer homeschool and their transfer letter will be denied (8)(9). Every child must complete 180 days of school in compliance with the Pennsylvania mandate, and there are minimum education requirements at the secondary level, such as four years of English and mathematics, three years of sciences and social studies, and two years of art and humanities (9). There must be a record of their education, and the record must be put into a portfolio and evaluated at the end of the year by an administrator or someone akin to one. Standardized testing must also be given in a monitored space outside of the child’s home when they are in grades 3, 5, and 8, by someone who is not the child’s parent, and reported to the state (8)(9).
Of course, Pennsylvania isn’t perfect in what it dictates a homeschooler must do. The biggest flaw that comes to mind is that a homeschooled child does not have to be educated or have a record of education until they are eight years old. My sister, who didn’t attend public school until third grade, never had to keep a record of what she was learning. My mom simply taught her what she needed to know, and then went about her day. This flaw allows for children younger than eight to slip through the cracks and be ignored by their parents, which then inhibits their learning in the future. This does not seem to be the case, though, seeing as homeschooled children tend to score higher on national tests. In 1997, for example, homeschooled children scored in the 80th percentile on standardized achievement tests (10). So, even though Pennsylvania doesn’t require children under eight to have a record of education, it doesn’t really affect a child’s level of intelligence.
Unfortunately, most of the other states do not have as tight of homeschooling laws. If you go to the HSLDA website, you can find out how strict the regulations on homeschooling are in your state. Besides Pennsylvania, I chose to examine Utah and Missouri’s laws due to their levels of homeschool moderation. Utah has low levels of homeschool regulation, and Missouri has none.
Utah, surprisingly, does have regulations on homeschooling, albeit not many. A one-time filing of an affidavit is required, stating that you want to homeschool your child. A new affidavit is only necessary if you move school districts. From that point forward, no evidence is needed to prove a child is using instructional days or learning state-mandated subjects (11). They also don’t need to be evaluated at the end of the year (11). The state does not care what children learn under homeschooling; they assume the parent will teach them properly so that they are prepared for life beyond grade school.
Then, there are states with no regulations, like Missouri. In Missouri, as long as a child has participated in 1,000 hours of instruction over a 12-month period, with at least 600 of those hours being state-mandated subjects, parents can do whatever they want with their kids. They don’t even have to notify the schools that their child is being removed from the system; they can just take them out and no one will try to prevent it. Also, Missouri cannot track if homeschooled children are learning state mandated subjects (12).
Curricula
Now that we’re aware of the laws and why someone would homeschool, we can pick apart some of the curricula used by parents.
Sometimes, parents will write their own curriculum, giving them complete control over what their child learns. Other times, they’ll use an online schooling system that already has a detailed lesson plan so there is no pressure of scheduling and teaching the kids themselves. Or, they will outsource and buy a program that covers all of their needs. When I was homeschooled, we used Sonlight, which is a “fully planned, flexible curriculum that comes with all of the materials you need, including lesson plans and notes” (13). They gave us book lists that had books like Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (14) (with noted chapters that we would skip because they weren’t age appropriate), A Cricket in Times Square, and an easy-to-read Epic of Gilgamesh (15). From those booklists, my mom would expand upon what we were learning by encouraging me to read other mythology or dive deeper into the history of the time period we were researching. Within the curriculum we had bought, I would spend months learning about events like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, or the history and engineering behind the Titanic. Sonlight’s lessons gave my mom the ability to educate us in the way she thought was best and curated our learning around it.
However, other purchasable curriculums aren’t like that. The HSLDA has three Christian publishers they recommend to homeschoolers: Abeka, ACE, and Bob Jones University (BJU). All navigate history, science, and literature through a conservative Christian lens. For example, Abeka’s book World History and Cultures proclaims that “The beginning of the 20th century witnessed a cultural breakdown that threatened to destroy the very roots of Western Civilization” and that “the cause of this dissolution was an idea or philosophy known as liberalism.” (4). Books similar to this one whitewash non-Christian cultures and fail to note the problems that this bias causes. They refuse to mention the harm that colonization did to the world and they often frame other religions as wrong. When they do have to explain other religions, they do so through the Christian gaze, always repeating the undertone of “this is a false religion” and “we’re mentioning it because we have to.” In fact, this is pushed in every subject. I wasn’t allowed to read the Harry Potter series for literature or use a syllabus with the series listed at my co-op, where other moms taught subjects to homeschooled students, because it didn’t fit in with the co-op’s conservative foundation. According to their rationale, Harry Potter promotes witchcraft and evil, which aren’t allowed to be considered in their beliefs. I read Harry Potter on my own, as did most other kids in that co-op. When I asked why we couldn’t read Harry Potter but could read the Percy Jackson series and discuss mythology, I was told that because Percy Jackson is based on a culture’s myth that we know to be untrue, the series was fine to be read and discussed.
Unfortunately, unless a parent curates the curriculum themselves and does their own research, homeschool parents are going to have to interact with these types of ideals somewhere. I was taught science—specifically, chemistry and ecology—from a conservative standpoint and by authors who believed in ideas such as the Earth being 6,000 years old, the nonexistence of evolution, and humans living amongst dinosaurs. My mom was not well-versed enough in science to teach me herself, so she had to outsource to the co-op. And that textbook, God’s Design for Chemistry and Ecology: Properties of Atoms and Molecules is not the only one of its kind. Many others, including BJU’s biology textbook, argue the same beliefs (3), even though scientists have proven those beliefs to be untrue. HSLDA does not push other non-conservative textbooks forward, and most homeschool parents will pick what is easiest for them to use to teach their children. Youtuber FunkyFrogBait, who was homeschooled, says in their video on “Van Life” parents that because of homeschooling, their “writing, reading, and history were massively accelerated but [their] math, sciences, and social development were pretty stunted.” (16). That is what these conservative curricula can do because when homeschooled kids get to college, they have to relearn science from the correct standpoint. Homeschooling allows for proven facts to be warped to fit an agenda. Obviously, that argument can be made anywhere, like we saw with public schools whitewashing black history. However, because there are no regulations and no easy way to find accurate curricula, these kids are stuck with a wrong education unless their parents know what they’re doing, which most of the time, they don’t.
Meena Hart Duerson asked Ryan Spitz, the owner of California Adventure Academy, what credentials he had to open a school, and he didn’t have any. He doesn’t have a background in education, he doesn’t have a license to teach, and none of his guides have them either. He doesn’t need one. In the state of California and many other places in America, you don’t need a background in education to be a homeschool parent (5). The extent of what and how you teach your child is your choice.
So, this means that parents in these states can do whatever they want with their kids. If they don’t want to use an online curriculum, that’s completely okay. If they want to create a whole new style of homeschooling, that’s perfectly legal as well.
One of the new styles of homeschooling that has sprung up over the years is called Dissident Homeschooling. Created in 2021 by Logan and Katja Lawerence under the aliases Mr. and Mrs. Saxon in Ohio, Dissident Homeschooling is a homeschooling program that openly embraces Nazi ideology and white supremacy and discourages parents from “letting their white children play with or have any contact with people of any other race.” (17). It comes with a built-in lesson plan and encourages meetups amongst the members. The 2,400 members of this program often quote Hitler and act like Nazis. The program can be joined with a simple click of a link. When asked why she created this program, Katja replied that she “was having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material for [her four] homeschool children.” (17). The Ohio Board of Education doesn’t have to do anything about this, as it technically falls under their homeschool laws. There are two reasons that the Lawerences can get away with their Nazi curriculum, the first being that they informed their school district they were homeschooling by filing an affidavit. The second reason they can get away with this is Ohio doesn’t monitor homeschoolers to ensure the state subjects are being taught the same way they are taught in the public schools. Legally, the Lawerence’s history education—where they praise people like Hitler and Robert E. Lee—is a perfectly acceptable homeschooling option, because they’re still teaching the state-mandated subjects (18).
Abuse
One of the biggest problems in homeschooling that the HSLDA has ignored is the amount of abuse and child servitude that goes on behind closed doors. Because homeschooling in the U.S. is so unregulated, no one truly knows how many kids are homeschooled and the estimate of 3.7 million is just that: an estimate. Because so many states have laws that say they don’t have to check on the child’s education, many kids are left neglected or are stuck “playing mommy” to their younger siblings. Take for example TikTok user Anna (@SpookyPatootie), who in 2021, started posting about her experiences as a homeschooled child in Utah. A normal school schedule for her family involved listening to classical music, reading the Bible, studying math and handwriting, reading more of the Bible, and then doing chores the rest of the day (4). On her high school transcript, Anna’s mother made up things. She gave Anna half a credit for medical studies, because she was in and out of the hospital, 3.5 credits for home economics, which was just chores and watching her younger siblings, and more credits for classes she did not complete (19). The state of Utah did not verify any of this and just gave Anna her high school diploma (19).
That is just a lighter case of servitude and neglect. In most cases, the abuse is more severe. Many children are pulled out of the public school system under the guise of homeschooling. Homeschooling’s Invisible Children, an organization that conducts studies on the abuse and neglect of homeschool children, found in their research that “homeschooled children are at a greater risk of dying from child abuse than traditionally schooled children” from the discipline and maltreatment they receive from their parents (20). There are almost zero regulations on homeschooling with an abusive parent; only two states actually require background checks on the parent. In 2018, parents pulled 380 students from six districts in Connecticut to be homeschooled, and 138 of those students lived in homes that had at least one prior report of abuse or neglect (21). Why are there no regulations? Most child welfare laws were written well before homeschooling was legal in all 50 states, so they all rely on the notion that children will be in school and seen by other adults. When homeschooling became legal, none of the laws were updated (4).
The closest any state has gotten to putting down laws about homeschooled children in abusive homes was West Virginia in 2018. That year, a child named Raylee was pulled out of her school after her father was reported for abuse. A few weeks later, she died of neglect. Because of this incident, legislatures proposed “Raylee’s Law,” which said that parents in West Virginia could “not authorize instruction in the home if there is a pending child abuse or neglect investigation” or “if either custodial parent or a person…has ever been convicted of domestic violence..or child abuse or neglect…” (4). This proposed law never came to pass, as the HSLDA blocked it. As of 2023, Raylee’s Law has been declared a dead bill (22).
The HSLDA does not consider abuse to be a homeschool problem. In 2015, then-HSLDA president Michael Smith spoke on child abuse regulations, saying they should not be put in place because “child abuse is a parental issue. Why should we for just a few, for just a few [sic], invade all of the other innocent parents? It’s prior restraint, it’s unconstitutional, it’s un-American.” (4). He was then asked if there was any policy that could be put in place to protect children from abuse, to which he licked his lips and said, “No.” (4)
See, the unfortunate thing is, he’s not wrong. That is, about there being nothing he can do— not the whole child abuse isn’t my problem thing. There isn’t enough evidence of child abuse in homeschooling to push for wide regulation. Elizabeth Bartholet, Harvard Law professor, originally pushed for more homeschooling regulation. While researching, she discovered that since many homeschooled children aren’t accounted for and parents aren’t required to be mandated reporters, reports of abuse are not mandatory. She also found that the Connecticut study mentioned earlier didn’t include all eleven school districts in the state, which makes the study look like it was fulfilling a selection bias. There isn’t enough concrete evidence to successfully push for states to regulate abuse in homeschooling (23).
Furthermore, the HSLDA can protect abusers. If the state visits a homeschooling house, the parent is told not to open the door and to call the HSLDA’s 24-hour hotline, which will handle the argument for them. TikTok user Anna’s sister mentions in another TikTok that her mother would force her children to run drills on what to do if the state came to the house, often hiding the kids in the basement to avoid being caught and charged with neglect or abuse (4). If the HSLDA handles the state’s complaints against homeschoolers, they can twist the argument in the homeschooler’s favor, which then harms the child if the child is being abused.
Politics in Education
Homeschooling has become a powerful bottom-up reformation tool in politics, as the right-leaning parents often “[engage] the policy process and [fight] to have their “rights” embodied by the law.” (24). This has raised concerns from authors like Clive R. Belfield and Henry M. Levin that homeschooling gives parents the chance to prioritize “private interests in education over a broader public interest” (24). As we’ve established, that was never what homeschooling was supposed to be. However, there is a reason behind this swerve in belief. When Michael Farris took control of the HSLDA, he changed its agenda from protecting homeschooler’s rights and education to instead push for more conservative regulations that will protect individualized and privatized beliefs over civil rights or proper education. Nowadays, HSLDA uses the $13 million they earn annually from homeschoolers paying for protection to fight against vaccine mandates, LGBT+ rights, and C.R.T., and to push for parents to have complete control over their child’s education. Upon leaving his role as president, Farris went on to create the Alliance Defending Freedom, which played a massive role in the fight against vaccine mandates, blocked transgender athletes from competing, and was one of the biggest lobbyists in overturning Roe V. Wade. Because of Michael’s background in law and his continued position on the HSLDA board, HSLDA has become one of the nation’s strongest lobbying organizations (4)(5).
Thanks to the HSLDA’s work in litigation, they have managed to block most homeschooling regulations that pass through the courts. Anytime someone in a state asks if they could mandate vaccines for homeschool children or if they could tighten how evaluators check if children are actually learning, the HSLDA is there to argue against them. Most of the time, they win.
It’s not just the HSLDA, though, who is getting into these political battles. Barbara Huchro, the National Director of Development: County Citizens of Defending Freedom USA, says that the parents themselves will look at public schools’ budgets, ban books, and worry about their children (5). They are often people with right-leaning opinions advocating for a complete overhaul of America’s civil rights. Most of the people contributing to and reinforcing the HSLDA’s values are like Huchro. The HSLDA has complete control over the homeschooling world, but they are not the only players.
More and more liberal homeschooling organizations are popping up to fight the HSLDA; the most notable being the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.
Founded in 2013, the CRHE believes that children have rights and that parents have responsibilities to protect their kids. They recognize that “homeschooling does not offer a single unified experience,” and that kids are going to develop differently because of homeschooling (25). They push for a safer, well-rounded experience that gives the parents the freedom to teach their kids how they best see fit without pulling one over on the state. They have “written and proposed draft legislation,” “worked with lawmakers and education officials to craft better homeschool policy,” and “analyzed data that was previously unstudied” (26). They are actively pushing against the grip the HSLDA has on governments across the U.S.. However, because they are not as well-known or as well-supported as the HSLDA, their work often gets ignored or pushed to the side in favor of what the HSLDA wants. Sadly, the welfare of homeschooled children comes down to who has more money and who has been working with the government longer.
Conclusion
In his comedy-news segment on homeschooling, John Oliver compares the HSLDA to the NRA because while “[the HSLDA] represents a large number of people, [they] pursue an outermost fringe version of their agenda.” (4). He’s not far off in that comparison. Homeschooling should continue to be legal in the U.S.; it’s good for many kids who may require a more hands-on approach, or don’t feel comfortable learning in a public school setting. Yet, because so much of the discourse has become about the extreme homeschoolers and the charges of neglect and abuse, we don’t hear about the good. Instead, we hear about the “pro-lifers,” the fundamentalists, the people who don’t want to separate church and state. That’s not fair to everyone else. Tighter regulations on homeschooling are needed; we can’t keep allowing states to ignore homeschooled kids. The HSLDA has a lot of power, yes, but if more people learn about organizations like CRHE, then more money can be directed towards those smaller organizations and they can use the funds to lobby for better homeschooling laws. Homeschooling as a function can and should be protected, but not at the expense of a child’s welfare.
Th author thanks Professor Josh Bleiberg of the University of Pittsburgh School of Education for reviewing this piece and providing feedback.
Image courtesy of the author
Works Cited
(1) HSLDA. “What Is Homeschooling?” HSLDA, January 1, 2022. https://hslda.org/post/what-is-homeschooling-booklet.
(2) Kaminski, Jessica. “The Ultimate Homeschooling Statistics for 2023 – USA Data and Trends.” Brighterly, January 4, 2023. https://brighterly.com/blog/homeschooling-statistics/#:~:text=in%20the%20USA%3F-.
(3) Coalition for Responsible Home Education. “A Brief History of Homeschooling.” Coalition for Responsible Home Education, March 8, 2014. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/research/summaries/a-brief-history-of-homeschooling/.
(4) HBO. “Homeschooling: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).” http://www.youtube.com, October 9, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzsZP9o7SlI.
(5) VICE NEWS. “The Secret Power of Homeschoolers.” http://www.youtube.com, October 12, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kuNycfklN4&t=1696s.
(6) nces.ed.gov. “COE – Homeschooled Children and Reasons for Homeschooling,” 2022. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/tgk/homeschooled-children.
(7) Pennsylvania Department of Education. “Home Education and Private Tutoring.” Department of Education, 2019. https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Home%20Education%20and%20Private%20Tutoring/Pages/default.aspx.
(8) The official website for the Pennsylvania General Assembly. “1949 Act 14.” Accessed October 24, 2023. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/uconsCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&yr=1949&sessInd=0&smthLwInd=0&act=14&chpt=13&sctn=27&subsctn=1.
(9) Education Law Center. “Homeschooling in Pennsylvania: A Fact Sheet,” 1–5. Accessed October 24, 2023. https://www.elc-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/ELC_FactSheet_HomeschoolingPA_5_2_08.pdf.
(10) Murphy, Joseph. “The Social and Educational Outcomes of Homeschooling.” Sociological Spectrum 34, no. 3 (April 17, 2014): 244–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/02732173.2014.895640.
(11) HSLDA. “Utah Homeschool Laws,” 2023. https://hslda.org/legal/utah
(12) HSLDA. “Missouri Homeschool Laws,” 2023. https://hslda.org/legal/missouri.
(13) http://www.sonlight.com. “Sonlight Christian Homeschool Curriculum & Programs.” Accessed October 24, 2023. https://www.sonlight.com/.
(14) Giacometti, Heather. Letter to Keira Giacometti. “Books Read during the 2015-2016 School Year.” Book List, October 23, 2023.
(15) Giacometti, Heather. Letter to Keira Giacometti. “Books Read during the 2016-2017 School Year.” Book List, October 23, 2023.
(16) FunkyFrogBait. “These van Life Parents Are ABUSIVE.” http://www.youtube.com, April 28, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbi9MmXohSw&t=847s.
(17) Shapero, Julia. “Ohio Education Officials Investigating Pro-Nazi Homeschooling Network.” The Hill, February 3, 2023. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/3842937-ohio-education-officials-investigating-pro-nazi-homeschooling-network/.
(18) HSLDA. “Ohio Homeschool Laws.” HSLDA, 2023. https://hslda.org/legal/ohio.
(19) Rose, Anna. “Anna Rose on TikTok.” TikTok, July 6, 2021. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8ktedy2/.
(20) Homeschool’s Invisible Children. “Some Preliminary Data on Homeschool Child Fatalities.” Homeschooling’s Invisible Children, 2014. https://www.hsinvisiblechildren.org/commentary/some-preliminary-data-on-homeschool-child-fatalities/.
(21) “Examining Connecticut’s Safety Net for Children Withdrawn from School for the Purpose of Homeschooling-Supplemental Investigation to OCA’s December 12 2017 Report Regarding the Death of Matthew Tirado.” Office of the Child Advocate State of Connecticut, 2018. https://www.cga.ct.gov/kid/related/20180426_Informational%20Forum%20on%20Homeschooling%20and%20Communication/OCA.Memo.Homeschooling.4.25.2018.pdf.
(22) Bill Track 50. “State Delegate Shawn Fluharty | BillTrack50.” http://www.billtrack50.com, 2023. https://www.billtrack50.com/legislatordetail/20274.
(23) The Education Association of Christian Homeschoolers. “Safer at Home. A Look at the Evidence on Abuse in the Homeschool Community. | TEACH CT • the Education Association of Christian Homeschoolers in Connecticut.” http://www.teachct.org, 2018.
(24) Cooper, Bruce S., and John Sureau. “The Politics of Homeschooling.” Educational Policy 21, no. 1 (January 2007): 110–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904806296856.
(25) Coalition for Responsible Home Education. “A Bill of Rights for Homeschooled Children.” Coalition for Responsible Home Education. Accessed October 26, 2023. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/bill-of-rights/.
(26) “Our Mission & Vision.” Coalition for Responsible Home Education, September 10, 2013. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/about/mission-vision/.
Policy & Political Review 