03/25/2026
South Carolina's Homeschool Day at the Capitol this Thursday, March 26, 2026, could be one of the most important field trips your family takes this year! Please join us as we meet and greet legislators who love seeing happy families who are positive and passionate about the homeschooling message.
Threats to homeschooling happen! In 1985, South Carolina experienced its first all-out threat to home education when the State Department of Education promulgated regulations requiring homeschooling parents to have a college degree and to use only state-approved texts and curriculum. This effectively outlawed the use of faith-based curriculum and resources. Later legislation included state-mandated testing for homeschooled students in public schools, as well as 4½ hours per day of instruction. Those burdensome requirements were not entirely mitigated until 1992.
During the past year, and in this current legislative session, we have watched homeschool freedoms come under more scrutiny than we have seen in years. And already, with the voucher/"unbundling" bill, the State Department of Education is requesting that those homeschool children’s test scores be turned over to the State in an eerily similar way to those early onerous and burdensome requirements in the 1980s.
Homeschool Day at the Capitol is our chance to make our voices heard and let elected officials know that we care about homeschool freedom.
Come join us at the South Carolina Home Educators Association (SCHEA) Homeschool Day at the Capitol Freedom Rally! Meet your representatives and senators. These are your elected officials who are here in Columbia representing you.
Don't let the legislative process be intimidating. Bring your family and your homeschooling friends to learn more about how South Carolina's government works.
- 9 am: "Know the Process: How Homeschoolers Engage Legislators and Shape Laws" by Zan Tyler
(Room 108 in the Blatt Bldg.)
- State House Tours
(sign up at the SCHEA table on the south side steps of the Capitol)
- 12 pm: Homeschool Freedom Rally featuring Zan Tyler's "Ten Lessons I Learned on the Way to Jail: Empowering You and Your Kids to Stand for Freedom"
(South Side Capitol Steps)
- Governor's Mansion Tours at 10:30am and 11:00am
(sign up on the south side steps of the Capitol)
- Sit in the gallery, deliver one of our homeschooling informational packets to your legislators, and meet your representatives and senators.
See South Carolina Home Educators Association (SCHEA) on Instagram and Facebook for maps and more information, including ordering lunch from Chick-fil-A.
This year, as we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, it is worth remembering that the cost of freedom has never been cheap. As Thomas Jefferson is attributed with saying, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
