A new bill that will soon be passed along for a full vote in the Illinois state House takes aim at religious schools and parents who homeschool their children.
On Wednesday, lawmakers on the House Education Policy Committee gathered to consider HB 2827, better known as the Homeschool Act.
The bill not only requires all private and religious elementary and secondary schools to register with the state annually, but it also requires these schools to share sensitive information about their students, like names and home addresses. It also requires these private schools to make plain their policies and specifically promise not to restrict hairstyles “historically associated with race” or “ethnicity.”
‘This bill invades our privacy, is unconstitutional, and … interferes with parental rights.’
Furthermore, the bill requires all homeschooling parents and guardians — who must have a high school diploma or the equivalent — to fill out a homeschool declaration form about their homeschooled children and submit the form to the public school or school district the children would otherwise attend. The form must be resubmitted every year that the children are homeschooled, or the child may be considered truant.
District and/or office of education officials may also demand that homeschool administrators provide a homeschooled child’s “educational portfolio” — comprising “samples of any writings, worksheets, workbooks, or creative materials used or developed by the child” — on demand.
Homeschooled children who wish to participate in extracurricular activities at public schools, such as sports, must likewise submit proof of immunizations and health examinations or provide a certificate of religious exemption.
Homeschooling parents and guardians who fail to comply with the measure could face misdemeanor charges, WTTW reported.
The bill was introduced by state Rep. Terra Costa Howard (D-Glen Ellyn) and enjoys more than a dozen cosponsors, all of whom are Democrat, many of whom are women, and at least one of whom has blue hair.
Costa Howard claimed the bill is necessary to protect children who may be the victims of abusive parents or guardians. Such parents, the theory goes, can conceal their maltreatment by keeping their children at home and away from the scrutinizing eyes of teachers, administrators, and coaches.
“Currently, Illinois has zero, I’m going to say it again, zero regulations,” Costa Howard said during deliberations about the bill. “Thirty-eight states have regulations. Illinois is an outlier. This is not something we want to be an outlier on.”
“We have tracked over 500 cases of extreme abuse and neglect in homeschool settings where the abuse escalated because of the isolation afforded through homeschooling,” claimed Jonah Stewart, research director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.
However, homeschooling parents and advocates decried such presumptions about their motives.
“The proponents claim that children who are being homeschooled are at greater risk of abuse and neglect. This is not supported by the two peer-reviewed studies that have been produced,” countered Will Estrada, senior counsel at the Home School Legal Defense Association.
“This bill targets homeschool parents and treats us as criminals, guilty until proven innocent,” said Aziza Butler, a former public school teacher who now homeschools her children.
“We believe [this] is religious persecution,” added homeschool parent Latasha Fields. “That’s what we believe. We believe it really is because this bill invades our privacy, is unconstitutional, and it does. It threatens, and it overreach[es], and it interferes with parental rights.”
Some worry that the bill could be selectively enforced and possibly lead to harassment of law-abiding Christians and other homeschoolers, though Costa Howard insisted that investigations into homeschooling families would occur only in response to serious allegations.
Others noted that children have not necessarily been safe on the campuses of their local public schools. Just last week, Christina Formella, a 30-year-old special education teacher and soccer coach in Downers Grove, Illinois, was charged with multiple sex-related offenses after she allegedly engaged in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy inside a classroom in December 2023.
Thousands of concerned parents like Fields and Butler crowded the capitol on Wednesday, singing hymns and patriotic songs to protest the bill — a far cry from the disruptive and sometimes violent demonstrations by leftists at other capitol buildings around the country in recent years.
These parents and homeschooling groups also submitted a staggering 40,000 witness slips opposing the bill, while supporters garnered fewer than 1,000 witness slips.
Nevertheless, the bill passed the House Education Policy Committee 8-4. All Democrats voted in favor of it except one, who voted present. The bill will now move on to the entire state House floor for a vote.
Of note, three of the Democrat cosponsors of the Homeschool Act are among the top recipients of political donations from the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Since 2010, the campaigns for state Reps. Costa Howard, Katie Stuart, and Janet Yang Rohr have received more than $630,000 in donations total from the IFT, according to watchdog group Illinois Policy.
The Illinois Education Association even honored Costa Howard with an award for her “deep support of public education” and positive impact on “all our education support personnel.”
“Costa Howard is champion of the rights for our education employees. We are proud to honor her with our Friend of Education award,” the union stated in April 2022.
Costa Howard did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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