The United States
A Brief History
The history of home education in the United States is that of an exploration of educational theories and educational psychology. Although homeschooling was legal in every state in the 1970s, the movement began primarily around this time when educational theorist John Holt began touting that traditional schools provided an oppressive environment which did not allow children to explore and critically think (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). Instead, he believed schools created “compliant employees” and advocated for the child-led method of what is known today as “unschooling” (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). Inspired by Holt, another educational theorist, Raymond Moore, began proclaiming children should be educated in the home until about nine years old. By being educated in this way, children would be give a firm “educational, psychological, and moral foundation” (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). This era of the homeschooling movement was connected to the to the liberal education reform movement (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). However, by 1980, the evangelical and fundamentalism Christian homeschooling movement began. The individuals in this movement, headed by James Dobson, were opposed to public education for religious reasons and took an antagonistic stance which garnered backlash and even legislative and legal action (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). Due partially to the work of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) founded by attorney Michael Farris in 1983, by 1990, all fifty states had educational policies which accommodated homeschooling, with various levels of restriction and oversight (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). Due to his legal victories and connections to influential homeschool movement leaders, Farris was able to establish the HSLDA as the “nerve center of a national movement infrastructure”, positioning it as the image of the homeschooling world in the United States (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021). Today, this organization is still extremely powerful and works to lobby for rights around homeschooling, research homeschooling, and provide resources and legal protection to homeschooling families (Coalition for Responsible Home Education, 2021).
How and What Does It Look Like?
Since there is no national legislation which addresses homeschooling, it is addressed by the states individually. Thus, homeschooling in each state may be different. However, there is a common theme of a lack of regulation (Parsons, 2024). In about twelve states, there is effectively no regulation on homeschooling, including no requirement to register the homeschooled child (Parsons, 2024). In addition, in only ten states parents are required to have a minimum education, usually a high school diploma (Parsons, 2024). Even in states which require curriculum submission and yearly portfolio reviews of students’ work, the requirements are such that there is no way to truly verify if the educational progress was made as there are no standardized testing requirements or home visits (Parsons, 2024). Thus, with very little oversight in most states, the mode and methods of homeschooling vary greatly from unstructured to structured, with the homeschooling parent having almost complete control over the education.