06/15/2026
๐บ๐ธ At HSLDA, we maintain and expand the freedom to homeschool by representing homeschooling families in courts and legislatures all over the country, and happily we have had great success since our founding in 1983. Homeschooling is now legal in all 50 states and we are able to resolve the vast majority of conflicts involving members outside of court.
However, there is still work to be done.
Not all school officials understand the right to homeschool, and many people in the government and private sector continue to discriminate against homeschool students by failing to recognize their academic achievements. But we can trace the right to homeschool and its legitimacy all the way back to the beginning of this country.
The Founding Fathers wrote of truths they found to be self-evident in the Declaration of Independenceโโthat all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable [or fundamental] Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.โ
They moved to secure these rights in the covenant between citizens and their government that is the Constitution. Their aim was to โestablish justice,โ and โsecure the blessings of liberty,โ among other things. Soon after that, James Madison enumerated these rights more clearly in a series of amendments to the Constitution, which were then ratified by most of the states.
The federal government was charged with protecting and advancing these rights for every citizen, and that charge is still in place 250 years later. Among the first of these rights enumerated for protection was the free exercise of religion, outlined in the First Amendment. Later the 14th Amendment established that no state shall โdeprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.โ
In these two amendments we find the grounds for the right to homeschool, as established over many years by the Supreme Court. The first of these cases was Pierce v. Society of Sisters in 1925, which dealt with a parentโs right to choose the method of education for their children.
Here the Supreme Court found that the state of Oregon could not compel all children to attend public school, because it violated the due process clause of the 14th Amendment. โChildren are not a mere creature of the state,โ the court said, and parents have the right to direct their childโs education outside attendance at a public school, in this case to attend private Catholic schools.
Then in 1972, in Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Supreme Court ruled that the Yoders, an Amish family, could not be required to send their children to a public school, because it violated the parentsโ free exercise of their religion as protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court held here that an individualโs interest in the free exercise of religion outweighed the stateโs interests in compelling public school attendance.
In following cases, the Supreme Court developed a standard for protecting religious freedom. If the offended party could demonstrate that a law being enforced by the state interfered with their sincerely held religious beliefs, the burden shifted to the state to show sufficient cause to override those beliefs. The state would have to demonstrate that the law being enforced was of a compelling interest, i.e. essential, and that it was the least restrictive means available to achieve the states interest.
However, in 1990, the Supreme Court drastically reduced the burden of the state in Employment Division v. Smith by requiring the offended party to prove that the state law being enforced was designed to target their personal religious practice, as opposed to a generally applicable law.
Now the state would only have to demonstrate that the law was reasonable, a much easier burden for the state, which made it almost impossible for a person to win a case on the grounds that a law violated their free exercise of religion. This took away a vital and much-used defense by religious homeschooling families to defend against compulsory attendance at public school.
To correct this, Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in 1993, written by Michael Farris, HSLDA founding president. This was an attempt to restore the legal standard courts had applied prior to Smith. However, the Supreme Court weakened it by ruling that it could only apply to federal laws, not state laws. And Congress then enacted a law to that effect.
Since the issue of compulsory attendance is primarily a state law issue, RFRA does not help in homeschool freedom cases. However, many states have passed their own versions of RFRA. In those states, homeschooling families can assert their religious convictions as a defense of their right to educate their children at home.
All parents can still defend their choice to homeschool based on the 14th Amendment and Pierce v. Society of Sisters. More recent cases, such as Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025), have also recognized parental rights as a fundamental right requiring the state to prove a compelling interest and least restrictive means to prevail, a very high standard.
These rulings have formed the basis of HSLDAโs ongoing battle for the freedom to homeschool in the courts. We didnโt win every case, but we won enough cases so that state after state has passed legislation recognizing the right of parents to choose home education for their children. The good news is that every state now recognizes the right to homeschool, although the amount of regulation in each state varies from none to excessive and burdensome.
HSLDA continues to advocate to maintain the law in states where homeschool freedom is properly recognized, and for more freedom in the few states left with excessive regulation.
The Founding Fathers wove a fundamental right to liberty into the basic fabric of the United States. Itโs this fundamental principle that has made the freedom to homeschool in every state possible. And we who homeschool are grateful for their insight into what it would take to have a country where the citizens are truly free.
As we celebrate 250 years of freedom we thank God for our nation where parents remain free to direct the education of their children. May we prove faithful stewards of that freedom, guarding it for our children, grandchildren, and every generation to come until the Lord returns.
๐Read the article here: ๐https://chaponline.com/2026/06/15/250-years-of-freedom-includes-the-freedom-to-homeschool/
