HB2827 – Homeschool Act (2025)

UPDATE: Wednesday 3/19/2025

Today the Education Policy committee in the IL House of Representatives passed HB2827 and it will now be sent to be voted on by the entire IL House of Representatives. If it comes to a vote and passes there it will go to the IL Senate. There it will go through the same process it did in the House. If the Senate changes any language it will then go back to the House. If passed in full by both houses it will go to the Governor's desk for a signature.

We have a long way to go folks!

So, for those of you feeling a bit lost right now, here is a "brief" summary.

Seventy five years ago there was an IL Supreme Court case called The People v Levison (1950). It made IL homeschools legally the same as any brick and mortar religious schools, Montessori schools, Waldorf schools, etc. We are all non-public schools. We all must teach the core subjects and teach them at an appropriate grade level. We all have a lot of autonomy otherwise. None of us report to the public school system.

A number of Illinois Representatives since 1950 have felt that it is the state's right to know where every child in Illinois is and where and how they are being taught. Historically, these legislators have felt that knowing where each child is will somehow protect the children. Also historically, children harmed by their parents are already under the watchful - but very overburdened eye - of DCFS (the Department of Children & Family Services). The facts have not mattered - control of the children is what mattered.

We have won the right to homeschool freely in each of these situations. <Please see https://www.ilhsa.org/ - Historic Cases and Information for more details.>

The Illinois House of Representatives has several members who, again, seek oversight of non-public schools.

A bill was recently introduced that very closely resembles a model bill created by a small but well funded organization from Boston. These homeschool graduates, unhappy about the education they received, formed the ironically named Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE). The CRHE have taken several studies and outright lied about what the conclusions of the studies were and created a lot of very misleading statements that make it sound as though almost half of all homeschoolers are abusive to their children. Our legislators believed their lies.

To be bit overly simplistic, this current batch of oversight seeking legislators want all non-public schools in IL to provide names, addresses, ages, etc. to the state. They are also trying to create several additional legal pathways so they can ensure homeschoolers would have more direct contact with mandated reporters such as DCFS workers, truant officers, and the court system.

The fact that "homeschooled students are 40% LESS likely to die by child abuse or neglect than other students nationally" (Williams, Roger. (2017, July 28). Homeschool Child Fatalities Fewer than National Average) has apparently not been heard or believed (?) by those seeking oversight.

The fact that the public school system is clearly failing many of our students < https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/State.aspx?source=trends&Stateid=IL > and many families have chosen non-public school options out of desperation in an effort to meet their student's needs also seems to not matter.

We are urging our legislators to understand this bill is:

1) A very expensive unfunded mandate. Why pay for the additional layers of bureaucratic paperwork (at the local school districts, Regional Offices of Education, and the Illinois State Board of Education), truant officers, DCFS employees, and court costs including State Attorneys General and Public Defenders?

The money is desperately needed for our public school classrooms! If the public schools were better, far fewer families would be choosing homeschooling in the first place. Please, please, we urge our legislators to put the money and energy into improving the public school system!

2) A disaster in the making for our special needs population who often have very specific needs so that no truant officer will be able to judge properly if the child is meeting the grade appropriate goals for that unique individual child.

3) Creates a policy where a child in a public school classroom can be reading at the 13th percentile for their grade level but the same child, a few days later in a homeschool setting, is expected to be reading at grade level. Many of these families are worried they will end up being dragged through stressful, expensive, and unnecessary court proceedings if this bill becomes law.

4) This bill will not save lives. In every single case they have brought to us of an abused child not in school it has become clear that Child Protection Services already knew of the family and was stretched too thin to help.

We urge our legislators to put this money and energy into supporting - or revamping entirely - our failing DCFS system. We urge them to help the thousands of children and families already identified and in desperate trouble. We urge them to save lives by building up existing infrastructure instead of trying to create new rules to regulate those of us already acting in the best interests of our children.

We urge our legislators to realize this is a solution in search of a problem.

UPDATE: Mar 7, 2025 10pm

On behalf of ILHSA and the Ad Hoc Committee.....

It has been confirmed by both the sponsor of the bill and the Ad Hoc lobbyist that the hearing will not take place this coming Wednesday and is currently going to be held on March 19th.

If you have hotel reservations, see if you can change them. We understand most hotels are booked for the night before so you may have trouble.

We will all need to fill out new witness slips when they become available. They will become available when the new hearing date is formally announced. (The upside? (This gives the folks that want a "do over" a chance to have one!)

For the many people who want to have a voice in the hearing and were disappointed to learn we are allowed a total of 2 speakers - we are still asking for letters to be mailed! This is your way of being heard! Please mail letters of homeschooling success stories to PO BOX 74, Ringwood, IL 60072. Letters are addressed "To Whom It May Concern". If possible, get them notarized.

Folks that were trying to schedule events and buses to get people around the Capitol building will work on rescheduling these things. We don't have details right now but they will come. It is the weekend, but updates will come next week.

UPDATE: Mar 1, 2025

Calling all consensus builders! We at ILHSA believe in the power of consensus and everyone (and we do mean everyone) working together as a team. We hope you agree!

Another legislative week has come and gone and this horrendous bill has still not been assigned to a committee. Remember, the Rules Committee 'only' assigns what committee it will go to - it is not the committee that will do any deciding on the bill itself.

Once this gets assigned to a committee we are hoping they will understand from the many calm and considerate phone calls from their constituents (we, the people of their district, who can and will vote them out of office in 2 years if they mess with us!) that at the very least the wording needs to change.

Before they can vote on anything, they need to hold a hearing.

They are required to give 6 days notice before the hearing.

Once we know when the hearing is, there will be a massive push to do two things 1) fill out a witness slip (which will be found on the bill status page) and 2) mobilize to have a calm, respectful, quiet, sit-in at the Capitol building that day. We don't know when - but hearings are usually on a Wednesday.

This, my friends, is the calm before the storm.

Some things to do this week:

1. Learn the steps for how a bill becomes a law in Illinois: https://www.ilga.gov/commission/lis/98bill_law.pdf

2. Read the proposed bill so you know WHY we are opposed: https://legiscan.com/IL/text/HB2827/2025

3. Write a letter on behalf of homeschooling, get it notarized and send it in to Ad Hoc.
   PO BOX 74, RINGWOOD, IL 60072

Understand, some of our Representatives don't really understand what is actually in the bill. Some think it will not cost the state anything! Some only think it will protect children from abuse.

Be prepared, but don't let this get under your skin. Cook a big meal or two for the freezer so when you come back exhausted from your trip to Springfield you can have a nice meal. Wash a nice outfit (business casual - no t-shirts, no heels as you will likely be standing for 6+ hours).

UPDATE: Feb 8, 2025

There seems to be a lot of confusion about how a bill becomes a law in Illinois. We are currently at the first reading/rules Committee step in the attached image. We have a long way to go folks. Take a deep breath. https://www.ilga.gov/commission/lis/98bill_law.pdf

Quite a few folks went rogue 2/7/2025 and made a ton of calls against the wishes of the team that has been preparing for this for a year. We can not hound reps who are already against this and we don't yet have a list of who they are. (See below!)

We have been asked to NOT call the sponsor of this bill unless you are a constituent of hers - at this time - for very specific reasons. The sponsors of this bill feel they are protecting children and any calls against this are being interpreted poorly. Only call a bill sponsor if you have the power to vote them out of office in two years.

Please only call YOUR Rep and, after Friday's chaos, only call ONCE. One and done. (See below!)

We know you want to do more (thank you!!!) so here are a few actions we all still need to do now that we have a few moments:

1) This whole thing has been started by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. Read up on their goals for all 50 states and their efforts in Virginia last month. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/ They are planning to take this to every freedom loving state in order to 'save the children'.

2) If you haven't read the bill in full please do so! It is long, but important.

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp...

Show your older kids. This is government by the people, for the people in action!

3) If you have made your ONE call to your Illinois House of Representatives office then you are done for now. If you have not, we ask you make that call next week. Ask your friends and neighbors to call their Illinois House of Representatives rep. You do not want to say you are a homeschooler, but make sure to say they are a constituent. You do not need to be a homeschooler to make this call but you do need to be voting age.

4) Post below the name of any Rep that has said they will vote NO. We need to make a list and hope to have that done before they return to Springfield.

5) Gather your friends together and help each other write a positive testimonial (one per person) about how homeschooling has helped you and or your family. Yes, we were asked for these last week. We originally asked for these by May 1st but this was introduced sooner than expected. We would like them as soon as possible now so if there is a hearing we can read a few out load and dump a thousand more of them on the table and show the number of folks with wonderful homeschooling experiences vs their 10 folks with bad experiences.

Get it notarized if possible. DO NOT ADD YOUR ADDRESS if you are actively homeschooling (only name and city). Send the letter ASAP to Contact@il-adhoc.org or mail to PO Box 74, Ringwood, IL 60072.

6) Invite your Rep to a local homeschool support meeting or call and ask for a 10 minute meeting at their local office. Bring the kids on their best behavior (and some home baked cookies?). Explain in person why you are against this bill. They are at their local offices from 2/10 - 2/14.

7) Donate to the Ad Hoc Committee for Illinois Home Education Legal and Legislative Matters or one of the three statewide organizations that have come together despite their differences to protect the rights of IL homeschoolers. They are the folks paying for the lobbyist who has been working hard for many, many years for us, who alerted us this was coming, and alerted us again the minute it became a reality. They need to continue to pay the lobbyist month after month, year after year for just a situation like this. https://www.il-adhoc.org/contact