Home-Schooling Laws
Home-Schooling: Laws
Why this matters
No single aspect of home-schooling worries new home-schoolers more than its legality. Education laws exist in all western and many eastern countries.
Parental discretion (historical)
- Until the common school movement of the late nineteenth century, education was primarily a matter of parental discretion.
- Parents decided what children needed to learn to become competent adults.
- They chose home teaching, apprenticeship, or no formal education.
Universal free public education
With free public education came compulsory attendance statutes and truancy regulations.
Limiting State Control: Key 1920s US Cases
Nebraska
A statute forbade teaching of foreign languages before completion of grade eight. The Supreme Court overturned it, ruling that a teacher had a right to teach, a student had the right to learn, and parents had the right to determine what their child should be taught.
Oregon
The Oregon state required by law that all children attend public schools; private or home schooling was illegal. In 1925, the Supreme Court overturned the rule, holding that the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognise and prepare him for additional obligations.
After these rulings
People in other states started challenging state power and acquired similar rulings allowing power over their children’s education.
Common Home-Schooling Laws
Notification
Many countries require families to notify their local department of education or the local authorities of their intent to home-school.
Parent qualification
Some countries require no qualification beyond being the child’s parent or legal guardian; others require a specific level of formal education or work with certified teachers.
Attendance
- Some countries require compulsory attendance at schools.
- Others specify the number of days home-schooled children must study at home.
Proficiency
Children must demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in various subjects.
Standardised testing
At various grade levels in various jurisdictions, home-schooled children must take state-prescribed standardised tests. The most frequent subjects tested are reading, writing, and mathematics.
Private school status
Some jurisdictions consider home-schools as private schools, subject to private school regulations.
Subjects and curriculum
Some jurisdictions require the same curriculum as public schools; others do not list specific subjects.
Contact with local school district
Many jurisdictions require home-schoolers to maintain some contact with local school personnel.
Record keeping
Some require records of attendance, progress reports, summaries of curricula, reading logs, test results, sample writings.
Special needs
Some jurisdictions specify home-school guidelines for children with special needs (autism, ADHD).
Home-schooling operates within a legal framework that varies considerably across jurisdictions. The article works through the historical shift from parental discretion to state regulation, the key court cases that protected home-schooling rights, and the common features of home-schooling laws that families navigate today.
From parental discretion to state regulation
No single aspect of home-schooling worries new home-schoolers more than its legality. Education laws exist in all Western countries and in many Eastern ones. Families considering home-schooling must understand the legal framework in their jurisdiction; the framework determines what is possible.
Until the wide success of the common school movement in the latter half of the nineteenth century, education was primarily a matter of parental discretion. Parents decided what their children needed to learn to become competent adults. They chose whether to teach their children at home, to arrange apprenticeship for vocational training, or to allow no formal education at all. The state did not generally intervene in these decisions.
The common school movement changed this. The advent of free universal public education came with compulsory attendance statutes and truancy regulations. The state, for the first time, required children to attend school. The change shifted the default from parental discretion to state-mandated attendance, with home-schooling needing to operate inside the new exemption frameworks.
The shift was not without legal resistance. The 1920s saw the leading major court cases limiting the power of government to control education. The cases established constitutional protections for educational choice that home-schooling still relies on today.
The Nebraska case concerned a state statute that forbade the teaching of foreign languages before completion of grade eight. The Supreme Court overturned the statute. The Court ruled that a teacher had a right to teach, a student had the right to learn, and the parents had the right to determine what their child should be taught. The ruling established that the state’s power to control educational content was not unlimited; teachers, students, and parents had constitutional rights that limited state authority.
The Oregon case was more consequential. The state of Oregon had required by law that all children attend public schools; private or home schooling was illegal. The law was challenged, and in 1925 the US Supreme Court overturned it. The Court’s ruling included a line that home-schoolers have quoted ever since: the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognise and prepare him for additional obligations. The ruling established that the state could not monopolise education; parents had a constitutional right to choose private or home alternatives.
After these rulings, people in other states started challenging the power of the state and acquired rulings of their own allowing them power over the education of their children. The constitutional foundation for home-schooling in the United States was established by these 1920s cases, and the modern home-schooling movement of the 1960s onward built on this foundation.
That the child is not the mere creature of the State, and parents have the right to choose home or private education over public school
The Oregon state had required all children to attend public schools, making private or home schooling illegal. The Supreme Court overturned this in 1925, ruling that the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognise and prepare him for additional obligations. The ruling established the constitutional foundation that modern US home-schooling rests on. Combined with the Nebraska ruling on teaching content, the 1920s cases limited state monopoly over education.
Common features of home-schooling laws
Once the constitutional foundation was established, jurisdictions developed specific home-schooling laws within it. The laws vary across countries and within them, but a set of common features appears in most jurisdictions. The most common features are worth knowing because they shape what home-schooling families do in practice.
Notification. Many countries require families to notify their local department of education or the local authorities of their intent to home-school their children. The notification establishes that the children are accounted for under the exemption to compulsory attendance rather than being truant. Some countries require notification only for children who are leaving school to be home-schooled, rather than children who have been home-schooled from the beginning; the regulatory burden varies.
Parent qualification. Some countries require no qualification beyond being the child’s parent or legal guardian. The reasoning is that parents have the constitutional right to direct their children’s education, regardless of their own credentials. Other countries require parents to have a specific level of formal education (a high school diploma, in some places; a college degree, in others) or to work with certified teachers who oversee the home-schooling work. The variation reflects different judgements about who is competent to teach.
Attendance. Some countries require compulsory attendance at schools (with home-schooling exempted under specific conditions). Others specify the number of days required of home-schooled children to be studying at home. The home-schooling family must document that the equivalent of school-year attendance has happened, even if not in a school building.
Proficiency. Children are expected to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency in a variety of subjects to be considered educated. Different jurisdictions have different laws regarding proof of academic aptitude. Some require formal testing; others accept portfolio review of student work; others accept parental affidavit; others have no proficiency check at all. The variation is substantial.
Standardised testing. At various grade levels, in various jurisdictions, home-schooled children are required to take state-prescribed standardised tests in order to prove their academic proficiency. The frequency and format of these tests varies. The most frequent subjects tested are reading, writing, and mathematics. Some home-schoolers find the standardised tests intrusive; others welcome them as a check that the home education is actually working.
Private school status. Some jurisdictions consider home-schools as private schools, so home-schools fall under private school regulations. This can be a convenient legal status (private school regulations are usually well-established) or an awkward one (private school regulations were not designed for single-family schools).
Subjects and curriculum. Jurisdictions vary on whether they list specific subjects home-schoolers must teach. Some require the same curriculum as public schools, which can be restrictive for home-schoolers who chose home-schooling specifically to escape the public curriculum. Some require certain core subjects (reading, writing, mathematics, history, science) without specifying detailed curriculum within them. Others list no specific subjects, leaving the family to determine the curriculum entirely.
Contact with local school district. Many jurisdictions require home-schoolers to maintain some sort of contact with the local school district personnel. The contact may take various forms: registration paperwork, periodic reporting, attendance at meetings, participation in standardised testing. The contact ensures the local district knows what is happening with the children in their area; some home-schoolers find the contact reasonable, others find it intrusive.
Record keeping. Some jurisdictions require home-schoolers to maintain records of attendance, progress reports, summaries of curricula and textbooks used, reading logs, test results, sample writings, and other documentation of the educational work. The record-keeping burden can be substantial. Others require no records, relying on the parents to organise their own work as they see fit.
Special needs. Some jurisdictions specify home-school guidelines for children with special needs such as autism or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The guidelines vary; some help home-schooling families access services for their children with special needs, others impose additional requirements on families who are already managing complex situations.
The cumulative effect of these features is that home-schooling in any specific jurisdiction can be more or less demanding bureaucratically. Some jurisdictions (in the United States, this includes Texas and some other states) are very permissive; families can home-school with minimal interaction with the state. Others (some US states, many European countries) are more restrictive, with substantial notification, testing, and record-keeping requirements. Some countries (including Germany) effectively prohibit home-schooling entirely, treating compulsory school attendance as inviolable.
Notification, parent qualification, attendance documentation, proficiency demonstration, standardised testing, private school status, curriculum requirements, contact with local district, record keeping, special needs provisions
The specific requirements vary widely across jurisdictions. Some are permissive (minimal state interaction); others are restrictive (notification, testing, record keeping, contact with state personnel). A few jurisdictions effectively prohibit home-schooling entirely. The cumulative effect: home-schooling in any specific jurisdiction can be more or less demanding bureaucratically. Anyone considering home-schooling needs to research the specific legal framework where they will be doing it.
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