Did you know that May is Homeschooling Awareness Month? If you’re following education trends or talking to your Millennial neighbors with school kids, you may already be aware that more people are interested in homeschooling than ever.
While data on homeschooling is more difficult to find than public school data, researchers at the National Home Education Research Institute estimate that there were 3.408 million homeschool students during 2024-2025, which is approximately 6.3% of the school-age student population.
The growth in homeschooling was exponential after the COVID-19 pandemic. After a slight dip right after traditional schools reopened, the number of homeschoolers has continued to increase, meaning we’ve never returned to baseline since the COVID-19 surge. Fundamentally, the education landscape has forever changed, and so has the appetite and capacity for homeschooling.
In this article, I dive into some of the top issues that should be on the minds of policymakers as they seek to develop policies that increase education opportunities for students at home.
The difference between homeschooling and home-based education models is important
Not all policymakers are steeped in education policy, or education choice policy, so it’s worth highlighting some distinctions.
Many homeschool advocates work hard to remind policymakers that what is considered traditional homeschooling (no state funding used and not connected to the public school structure) is different from other types of learning that might also take place at home, but which may be funded by the state through a scholarship program or provided by a public online school, etc.
This means that while more people may colloquially say they “homeschool,” they may simply be educating at home in one of many ways. At this point, a growing range of methods and public policies are being discussed in legislative and public discussions about homeschool families.
Some might be referring to an education savings account-funded education that primarily takes place at home, a state program that offers a virtual course on certain topics, a charter school that offers various in-person/at-home schedules, or it might simply mean a family that privately pays and provides instruction for their children outside of any formal school.
Keeping these distinctions clear can help policymakers understand which proposals cut against or support the different policy options in meaningful ways. With those specifics in mind, they can better weigh issues like accountability or transparency, while keeping principles like choice, flexibility, and parent-decision-making at the center.
There is an increase in restrictive homeschooling legislation
While some states are seeking to improve traditional homeschooling, the growth in homeschooling is resulting in a new wave of legislation that would restrict it.
At the center of many years of homeschooling debates is parents’ liberty to raise and educate their own children without interference from the state. This is often in tension with those who claim homeschooling can threaten the safety of children, especially when egregious wrongs have been committed by negligent or abusive parents who were homeschooling their children at the time, allowing the crimes to go unnoticed. The question comes down to what legally justifies burdening a parent’s ability to exercise their fundamental rights, including the right to homeschool, to protect against these risks.
In 2024, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education published a model bill called “Make Homeschool Safe Act,” which, at its core, presumes that there is not enough protection for homeschooled children (as stated in the language, in fact). The model bill seeks to restrict homeschooling in several ways, including an aggressive use of child protective services for authorization, annual notices to the state, required subjects, mandated hours, annual assessments, and wide-scope intervention authority for a superintendent if a child is not making progress.
It’s clear that the bill is aimed at fundamentally changing the homeschool policy landscape, with significant freedom and flexibility being lost for families. Scholars at the Home School Legal Defense Association have published an analysis on the threat this poses to homeschool.
The power of any model bill is that it can be adopted wholesale, adopted in part, or adapted for a state, thereby providing thought leadership and efficiency for policymakers looking to act in this space. While there are different legislative movements in the states, some clearly advance themes or provisions like those in the model bill.
For example, this year, Connecticut successfully passed a bill that would significantly impact homeschooling, requiring all parents to complete a form indicating whether their child will attend public or private school or be homeschooled. Families that withdraw their kids for the first time are subject to a check from the Department of Children and Families, and if there was an open case, the family cannot withdraw the child. The law was stated to be a response to horrific stories of children being abused under the guise of homeschooling. Opponents of the law are concerned that the policy is too heavy-handed to address the issue, saying families are subject to “background checks just to exercise a basic parental right.” Its passage is no doubt seen as a setback for the traditional homeschooling movement.
This month, Rhode Island introduced a bill that would allow local school committees to approve or deny homeschooling plans based on the best interests of the child, suggesting a greater appetite for restrictions on homeschooling.
Last year, in 2025, saw other attempts to regulate homeschooling more robustly. For example, Illinois debated a bill (that ultimately died) that would have increased oversight of homeschooling as well, requiring families to provide annual notice and mandating that parents had to have a certain level of education (high school graduation or GED). In 2025, Virginia also introduced a bill that would have effectively removed a long-standing religious-liberty exemption at the heart of the state’s homeschooling law by adding in new requirements, but the effort ultimately died as well.
At the same time, Wyoming passed a bill last year that reduced regulations and requirements for families, removing any requirement to notify or check in with the government when they are homeschooling. In 2024, Ohio also passed a bill that relaxed regulations for homeschoolers, including removing assessment, teacher qualification, and mandated hour requirements.
Furthermore, proposed restrictions and legal hurdles are hitting states with publicly funded scholarship programs, such as education savings accounts, which also let families educate their children at home if they choose. Legal battles are morphing, but it’s clear that the positive momentum for all types of education choice has become a target for restrictive legislation.
Conclusion
More families are interested in home-based education than ever before. That’s good news for the many students who would thrive there more than in other environments. New and veteran lawmakers need to know the different ways families educate at home and which policies advance traditional homeschooling versus subsidized scholarship models. With an increasing number of legislative efforts that would negatively impact traditional homeschooling and other home-based education options, staying aware of these trends can help Utah make the best policy for its families.
Sutherland Institute policy intern Sydney Dean contributed research to this article.
