You did not pull your child out of a broken system just to have the government come knocking at your door asking for permission to approve how you teach them.

But that is exactly what is being proposed in statehouses across the country right now. And if you have been feeling uneasy, wondering if your right to homeschool is genuinely at risk, that instinct is not paranoia. It is discernment. The landscape is shifting and every homeschool mom needs to understand what is actually happening before it lands in her state.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, roughly 2 to 3 percent of school-age children in the United States were homeschooled. During the pandemic that number climbed as high as 11 percent. Today it sits at approximately 6 percent nationally, and more than a third of the 30 states that publicly report enrollment recorded their highest homeschool numbers ever during the 2024 to 2025 school year, even surpassing pandemic-era peaks. (Stateline, January 2026)

That growth is significant. And it is not going unnoticed by the institutions losing those students and the funding that follows them.

When families leave the public school system in growing numbers, the system responds. And right now, the response is coming in the form of legislation.

In July 2024, an organization called the Coalition for Responsible Home Education released a 23-page model bill called the Make Homeschool Safe Act, or MHSA. A model bill is a legislative template distributed to lawmakers to influence state legislation. It does not automatically become law, but provisions from it can be inserted into real bills in any state at any time. (HSLDA, November 2024)

If fully adopted, the MHSA would:

The Home School Legal Defense Association has called the MHSA more radical than any regulation any state has ever attempted, noting that even highly regulated states like New York and Pennsylvania have nothing approaching this level of government oversight. (Focus on the Family, September 2025)

No state has adopted the full bill. But the battle to keep it out is happening right now.

Here is the part that does not make the headlines but lives in the DMs, the Facebook groups, and the 2am worry spirals of homeschool moms across the country.

You are already doing the work. You already second-guess yourself enough without the government adding its voice to your doubts. You pulled your child out because the public school system was not serving them, and now the same system wants to supervise you. You are being asked to prove you are qualified for a job you have been doing faithfully, sometimes for years.

That is the real pain behind this moment. It is not just a policy debate. It is a direct attack on your identity as the primary educator and authority in your child's life. And for the moms who are already battling impostor syndrome, curriculum overwhelm, and the pressure to justify their choice to every skeptical family member, this legislative climate adds an entirely new layer of weight to carry. You should not be carrying it alone.

Illinois has been the most active front. The Homeschool Act, HB 2827, would require families to notify school districts of their decision to homeschool, mandate that parents hold a high school diploma, and allow regional education offices to request a family's educational portfolio under certain conditions. The bill's sponsor called Illinois an outlier, noting that 38 other states already have some form of homeschool regulation. (WTTW Chicago, March 2025) Thousands of families flooded the statehouse in opposition. The bill did not pass in its initial session but the sponsor has publicly stated she will continue pushing it. (Chalkbeat, July 2025)

Connecticut moved to tighten regulations following a high-profile case in which a man was reportedly held captive for two decades after being withdrawn from school in the fourth grade. More than 2,000 homeschool families showed up at the Legislative Office Building to protest, arguing that state agencies had already failed that child long before his removal from school. (Stateline, January 2026) Advocates accused lawmakers of scapegoating homeschoolers for institutional failures the government itself was responsible for. (Inside Investigator, September 2025)

West Virginia has seen repeated attempts to pass Raylee's Law, named after a child who died from abuse after being withdrawn from public school. The bill continues to face opposition from homeschool advocates who argue it would penalize good-faith families for the criminal actions of a small minority. (Stateline, January 2026)

Virginia saw a bill introduced that would have required families homeschooling under religious exemption to comply with the same regulations as all other homeschool families. It did not advance out of the Senate. (Virginia Mercury, October 2025)

It is worth understanding the case being made on the other side, clearly and honestly, because informed advocacy is more effective than reactive fear.

Supporters of increased regulation point to documented cases where children were withdrawn from school to conceal abuse from mandatory reporters, the teachers, counselors, and staff who are legally required to report suspected harm. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education states it has tracked over 500 cases of extreme abuse and neglect in homeschool settings where isolation enabled the harm to escalate. (WTTW Chicago, March 2025)

That is a real and serious concern.

What homeschool advocates consistently argue in response, and what the data supports, is that those tragedies represent failures of existing child welfare systems, not failures of homeschooling itself. In nearly every cited case, authorities had prior contact with the family before the child was withdrawn from school. The problem was not a lack of homeschool regulation. It was a failure to act on information already in hand. (Inside Investigator, September 2025)

Opponents also note there is no evidence that homeschooled children are at greater risk of abuse than their peers in public schools. (WTTW Chicago, March 2025)

This is not the moment to go quiet. This is the moment to get grounded, get organized, and get connected.

Know your state's laws specifically. Requirements vary enormously. As of now, 12 states have no requirements at all to begin homeschooling. Others require notification, annual assessments, or portfolio reviews. (Virginia Mercury, October 2025) Knowing exactly what your state requires means you are never caught off guard.

Document your homeschool consistently. Attendance records, progress reports, and portfolio samples are not about justifying yourself to anyone. They are about having organized, honest evidence of your child's education ready if you ever need it. Done-for-you templates for exactly this are available inside the Homeschool Mom Baddie shop.

Stay connected to advocacy organizations. Groups like the Home School Legal Defense Association (hslda.org) and the National Home Education Legal Defense (nheld.us) track legislation in real time and alert families when action is needed. When bills move, these organizations move first.

Show up when it matters. The families who packed statehouses in Illinois and Connecticut changed the outcome of legislation. Your presence, your testimony, and your vote are not small things.

Here is what nobody is talking about loudly enough. This legislative pressure is landing on moms who are already stretched thin. Moms who are teaching their children, building businesses, managing households, and now trying to track policy debates in multiple states while wondering if their choice to homeschool is about to be regulated out from under them. That is too much to carry in isolation.

BaddieHood, the Homeschool Mom Baddie Skool community, exists for exactly this moment. Inside BaddieHood you are not just getting encouragement. You are getting strategy. You are getting the frameworks, the legal awareness, the documentation tools, and the community of women who are homeschooling with clarity and confidence even when the outside world is loud and uncertain.

You made a bold decision when you chose to take ownership of your child's education. BaddieHood is the community that holds you to that boldness, equips you with what you need to protect it, and walks alongside you every step of the way.

Join Here! Come join us.

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