Religious groups have long worked to stymie any efforts to impose reasonable requirements for homeschooling or to ensure the safety and well-being of homeschooled students.
Quick Facts
Just 12 states require homeschooling instructors to meet basic qualification requirements in order to teach.
While some states require occasional testing, only 9 states require annual testing and evaluation of student progress for homeschooled students.
Religious exemptions in 13 states undermine even the basic regulations that do exist, allowing parents to opt-out from these critical accountability and welfare protections
Our Position
American Atheists supports qualification requirements, regular testing, and safety and wellness protections for young people who are being homeschooled. We oppose any religious exemptions from these requirements and minimum standards.
Background
Although homeschooling is not always a religious issue, it cannot be denied that religious groups have long dominated this issue area. Such organizations have worked to stop any efforts to impose reasonable requirements for homeschooling or to ensure the safety and well-being of homeschooled students.
As education policy is primarily the domain of state governments, we monitor and analyze laws in all fifty states and, where necessary, advocate for changes to state laws to ensure young people have access to high quality education that prepared them for their futures even if they are homeschooled.
Few states require homeschooling instructors (whether parents or outside instructors) to meet any qualification requirements. We support these minimum standards to ensure that teaching homeschooled students (usually, but not always, parents) are capable of providing quality instruction.
Unfortunately, even fewer states require evaluation of homeschooled students’ academic progress annually. Some states use standardized testing to measure progress while other states use progress reports detailing what a child learned during a certain period of time. Even among states where students’ academic progress is regularly monitored, few have remediation process so that efforts can be made to help homeschooled children when they fall behind.
We’ve also examined whether state law protects children by disallowing homeschooling where an adult in the household has been convicted of certain crimes, such as homicide, aggravated assault, rape, or child abuse. Unfortunately, research has clearly shown that homeschooled children are at greater risk for abuse and neglect. Without basic protections in place, homeschooling can allow child abuse to go undetected because there can be a lack of contact with adults outside the home.
Finally, as with many other areas of law, religious exemptions undermine the minimal patchwork of protections and standards that do exist across our nation. Some states exempt parents from homeschooling laws and oversight if the parents claim a religious objection to such requirements.
Some states, such as Texas, do not even require families to notify their school district that they are homeschooling their children. Others go even further and explicitly prohibit any oversight of homeschooling by school districts.
Recent Developments
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