A bill that could have vast implications for Connecticut homeschoolers has been referred to the House Committee on Appropriations as of April 14. The law would impose stricter notification requirements on homeschoolers in the state, such as in-person notification to the state of intent to educate at home, annual continuation forms, and what is perhaps the most controversial for homeschool advocates, the requirement that state-approved education methods be used.
The law would represent a change from current Connecticut policy, which had historically only required that a few basic subjects such as math, spelling, and geography be taught by homeschooling parents.
Connecticut’s new law would come just as its close neighbor, New Hampshire, is considering House Bill 1268, which would eliminate annual notification and testing requirements for homeschoolers.
Homeschooling has become more and more popular since the COVID-19 pandemic. Homeschooled students account for about 6% of students across the country now, compared to about 3% before March 2020. As of 2024, there’s about 3.7 million homeschooled students in the U.S.
In response, some states have moved to increase surveillance of the homeschoolers, fearing it would be easier for abusive or neglectful parents to fly under the radar of the state if left to educate their children outside the traditional school system. Other states are moving to loosen restrictions as homeschooling becomes more mainstream in the public eye.
Navigating these disparate laws can be tricky for homeschooling families, especially those that are new to the educational format. Homeschool Legal Defense Associations (HSLDA) hosts an interactive map detailing requirements for each state, but the state of current legislation across the nation adds yet another layer of confusion to an already tedious process.
As it stands currently, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Texas have no notification requirements or regulations for homeschoolers. Other states—such as Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin—require parents to simply send a notice of intent to their local school board, explaining that they will be homeschooling their child.
Hawaii, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia require not only a notification of intent but yearly test scores from state-standard evaluations to ensure the student is being educated adequately. If students can’t take a test, such as when a student has a learning disability, a professional one-on-one evaluation with an educator can sometimes be arranged.
Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont are among the strictest states in regard to homeschool notification laws, requiring not just notification and a standardized test score or professional evaluation, but also direct state approval of their curriculum and often teacher qualification from the parents. Sometimes, state officials visit the homes of homeschool parents to investigate their homeschooling and even parenting practices.
In July of 2023, Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio signed into law a bill that made it much easier to enroll your child in homeschool. Parents were only required to submit a notice of intent to their local superintendent. Whereas previously the state required the notice be sent along with a list of all intended curriculum, textbooks, and assessment information, as of summer 2023, the state only required a letter assuring local school officials their child will receive an adequate and equivalent education at homeschool as they would in public school. The law is the kind that has made it significantly easier for homeschool parents to remove their child from the public education system.
Yet Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia have all introduced bills in recent years proposing even stricter requirements for homeschooling in the state.
Illinois attempted to increase restrictions on homeschoolers in 2025 with a bill that would require annual registration, and the maintenance of curriculum records, in case state officials at any time decided to put a family’s homeschooling practices under investigation. Families who failed to comply could face truancy proceedings and misdemeanor charges. The bill died at the end of the 2025 legislative session in the state but is a good example of how quickly requirements can change for homeschoolers, even in states that previously had very few regulations.
New Jersey, currently a low-regulation state, would, under Senate Bill 3910, require annual notice of intent to homeschool as well as require districts to keep track of the students homeschooled in their district. Opponents worry the bill is not only unnecessary, but would make it easier for homeschoolers to be regulated even further in the future through the creation of a mandatory homeschool student registry.
Virginia’s SB 1031 takes aim at the use of religious exemptions in the state to circumvent homeschool regulations. The bill would require that even those seeking a religious exemption provide proof to the school that they have the ability to educate their child, as well as some sort of evidence of academic progress.
The Make Homeschool Safe Act, designed by The Coalition for Responsible Home Education, is a model bill ostensibly proposed to curtail the use of homeschooling by child abusers, but one that is staunchly opposed by advocacy groups like Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). While some of the bill’s requirements deal more directly with child abuse concerns—such as preventing withdrawing a student from public school within three years of a child abuse investigation or prohibiting anyone convicted of a violent crime from homeschooling—other stipulations would potentially elevate all states to high regulation status if adopted nationwide. The law would require parents to have a high school diploma or GED and for each family to provide annual notification and annual evaluation, such as state tests or curriculum portfolios, to their local school district. While a national law like this would eliminate confusion about homeschooling requirements, it would also significantly increase restrictions in states that have enjoyed low regulations so far.
Providing an exhaustive list of the current status of legislation that could potentially affect homeschoolers in each state would be a significant task. The variety of laws in states across the nation is often a feature of democracy, not a bug. But for parents, it can provide an extra headache and a barrier to homeschooling as they navigate ever-changing laws that could be interpreted in ways that could put them in legal trouble for their educational choices.