Illinois HOUSE

04/14/2025

HB2827 Update - Saturday, 4/12/2025 Speaking with my Illinois Homeschool Association (ILHSA) hat on....

First off, as I said Tuesday night, I AM SO STINKIN' PROUD OF YOU!!! You folks have totally rocked Springfield with the witness slips and showing up at the capitol to advocate for your freedoms! Well done everyone!

Tuesday's second 'gut and replace' amendment of HB2827 has taken out a few worrisome sections but has a few even worse areas.

1) The most terrifying in my opinion: page 40, line 20 says that if there is a truancy complaint the truant officer "SHALL meet with the child or children complained of and make an initial determination of whether there is cause to start a truancy investigation."
This does not indicate if a parent can be in the room or not. This does not mention if the truant officer will need to interview the parent at all.

If a child is shy, on the spectrum, dealing with severe anxiety, has echolalia, etc. the child will appear afraid and this will trigger a call to DCFS. Anyone who has ever done any work with abused children knowns that abused children do not talk to strangers about their abuser. They tell strangers everything is great because they know they will be abused further the minute the stranger leaves if they tell the truth.

The bill's sponsor says this was to allow the most flexibility possible, but this vague language once again sets up an incredibly uneven application between truant officers of one area vs truant officers in another area. The bill's sponsor is clearly trying to help abused children, but this is not the way.

2) It allows the state to ask what curriculum we will be using on the annual registration form. This is a gateway question. It opens the gate to more rules and control over homeschools.

Does this mean they will soon approve or not approve your curriculum? What happens if you change curriculum? What happens if you use unit studies? What happens if you are deschooling?

3) New homeschoolers leaving the public school would have only 3 days to fill out the form!

4) This bill removes us as private schools in 2 ways:
a) It would literally change the language of section 26.1 of the Illinois School Code that relates to non-public schools. We legally homeschool under this law. In the sponsor's current version of the bill she rewrites it (see page 33 lines 7-12) by saying: "Any child attending a private school, a parochial school, or a homeschool where children are taught the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools." Right now we ARE private schools. This separates us out away from other private schools and makes us far easier political targets for further defining of who we are and what we do.

b) Page 3 line 18 begins a definition of Homeschool that has many worried. Note the "for the sole purpose":

"Homeschool" means a program where instruction is provided
19 in a student's home environment and which may have more than
20 one student so long as all students in the homeschool are
21 members of the same household, except that students in
22 homeschool are deemed private school children for the sole
23 purpose of providing equitable services using proportionate
24 share funds under the federal Individuals with Disabilities
25 Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1400.

Removing us as private schools with all of the rights, privileges and responsibilities of every other private school could have far reaching consequences. For instance, as private schools in Illinois under the Levison decision we have the right to graduate our students out of our own private (home) schools. It would be very easy for another bill to come along and strip us of that right if this language passed into law.

To be clear, this bill is opening the gate to striping us of our private school status.

There are a lot more possible horrors in here too. The bill has a mix of old and new language instructing us to both submit registration forms to the local public school (old language) and directly to the ROE (new language). The bill defines the homeschool as the student's home environment but says to provide the address of the place at which the student is physically present while receiving the majority of instruction (pg 4, lines 24-26). So grandma's address would need to be on the form if the kids are with grandma 3 days a week - but not their home address?

The one good thing is it is a bit more transparent. At least this time they can't deny the truant officer is doing the investigating. This time too it makes it very clear everyone found suspicious will go directly to court.

Remember: the whole purpose of this bill is to save children from abuse and neglect under the guise of "homeschooling". Yet, "homeschooled students are 40% LESS likely to die by child abuse or neglect than other students nationally" (Williams, Roger. (2017, July 28). Homeschool Child Fatalities Fewer than National Average) has apparently not been heard or believed (?) by those seeking oversight.

The fact that the public school system is clearly failing many of our students < https://www.illinoisreportcard.com/State.aspx... > and many families have chosen non-public school options out of desperation in an effort to meet their student's needs also seems to not matter.

Please continue to urge our legislators to put this money and energy into supporting - or revamping entirely - our failing DCFS system. Urge them to help the thousands of children and families already identified and in desperate trouble. Urge them to save lives by building up existing infrastructure instead of trying to create new rules to regulate those of us already acting in the best interests of our children.

Urge our legislators to realize this is a solution in search of a problem.

www.ilhsa.org

HB2827 Update - Friday 3/21/2025 The Ad Hoc Committee consensus today (remember, this includes ILHSA, RCHEN, and ICHE) is that we ONLY call our elected representatives at this time. Don't call everyone else's right now - it is still a bit early for that. We have heard of numerous Representatives

03/24/2025

From the Illinois Coalition of Non-Public Schools

03/08/2025

HB2827 update 3/7/25 at too late in the evening.
On behalf of ILHSA and the Ad Hoc Committee.....

It has been confirmed by both the sponsor of the bill and the Ad Hoc lobbyist that the hearing will not take place this coming Wednesday and is currently going to be held on March 19th.

If you have hotel reservations, see if you can change them. We understand most hotels are booked for the night before so you may have trouble.

We will probably all need to fill out new witness slips when they become available. They will become available when the new hearing date is formally announced. (The upside? This gives the folks that want a "do over" a chance to have one!)

For the many people who want to have a voice in the hearing and were disappointed to learn we are allowed a total of 2 speakers - we are still asking for letters to be mailed! This is your way of being heard! Please mail letters of homeschooling success stories to PO BOX 74, Ringwood, IL 60072. Letters are to addressed To Whom It May Concern. If possible, get them notarized.

Folks that were trying to schedule events and busses to get people around the Capitol building will work on rescheduling these things. We don't have details right now but they will come. It is the weekend, but updates will come next week.

Edited to add: the change was made Friday late afternoon. No one is in Springfield until Tuesday and they don't legally have to change the web site until Wed afternoon. They had a ton of bills all listed in a 2 hour time slot. I knew something was fishy. They have been saying they will do rewrites. They now realize they truly have stepped on the 3rd rail of IL politics. They are regrouping.

Send a message to learn more

02/26/2025

02/22/2025

Re: IL HB2827 Feb, 2025

Send a message to learn more

02/22/2025

Send a message to learn more

02/10/2025

RE: HB2827 UPDATE 2/8/2025

There seems to be a lot of confusion about how a bill becomes a law in Illinois. We are at the highlighted step in the attached image. We have a long way to go folks. Take a deep breath.

Quite a few folks went rogue Friday and made a ton of calls against the wishes of the team that has been preparing for this for a year. We can not hound reps who are already against this and we don't yet have a list of who they are. (See below!)

We have been asked to NOT call the sponsor of this bill unless you are a constituent of hers - at this time - for very specific reasons. The sponsors of this bill feel they are protecting children and any calls against this are being interpreted poorly. Only call a bill sponsor if you have the power to vote them out of office in two years.

Please only call YOUR Rep and, after Friday's chaos, only call ONCE. One and done. (See below!)

We know you want to do more (thank you!!!) so here are a few actions we all still need to do now that we have a few moments:

1) This whole thing has been started by the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. Read up on their goals for all 50 states and their efforts in Virginia last month. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org/ They are planning to take this to every freedom loving state in order to 'save the children'.

2) If you haven't read the bill in full please do so! It is long, but important.
https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp...
Show your older kids. This is government by the people, for the people in action!

3) If you have made your ONE call to your Illinois House of Representatives office then you are done for now. If you have not, we ask you make that call next week. Ask your friends and neighbors to call their Illinois House of Representatives rep. You do not want to say you are a homeschooler, but make sure to say they are a constituent. You do not need to be a homeschooler to make this call but you do need to be voting age.

4) Post below the name of any Rep that has said they will vote NO. We need to make a list and hope to have that done before they return to Springfield.

5) Gather your friends together and help each other write a positive testimonial (one per person) about how homeschooling has helped you and or your family. Yes, we were asked for these last week. We originally asked for these by May 1st but this was introduced sooner than expected. We would like them as soon as possible now so if there is a hearing we can read a few out load and dump a thousand more of them on the table and show the number of folks with wonderful homeschooling experiences vs their 10 folks with bad experiences.
Get it notarized if possible. DO NOT ADD YOUR ADDRESS if you are actively homeschooling (only name and city). Send the letter ASAP to [email protected] or mail to PO Box 74, Ringwood, IL 60072.

6) Invite your Rep to a local homeschool support meeting or call and ask for a 10 minute meeting at their local office. Bring the kids on their best behavior (and some home baked cookies?). Explain in person why you are against this bill. They are at their local offices from 2/10 - 2/14.

7) Donate to the Ad Hoc Committee for Illinois Home Education Legal and Legislative Matters or one of the three statewide organizations that have come together despite their differences to protect the rights of IL homeschoolers. They are the folks paying for the lobbyist who has been working hard for many, many years for us, who alerted us this was coming, and alerted us again the minute it became a reality. They need to continue to pay the lobbyist month after month, year after year for just a situation like this. https://www.il-adhoc.org/contact

There are two ways to contact an Adhoc member. You may either reach out to the individual member directly or email [email protected]. Either way, someone will get back to you as quickly as possible. Thank you! Home Oriented Unique Schooling Experience (H.O.U.S.E.) www.illinoishouse.org Illinois

11/19/2024

2024 Fall Meeting Minutes have bee posted. To read them in full, for those that are paid members please contact your local group or the All Around Illinois HOUSE page.

Here is a snippet though that I think are important reminders for all IL homeschoolers knowing that a bill is likely to be introduced soon that may need active participation IF our lobbyist (and the knowledge that messing with homeschooling is considered the "third rail" of IL politics) isn't enough to change the situation:

Please note that it has long been the stance of ILHSA that we do not want or need people from outside the state of Illinois speaking to our legislators "for us" and that we are more than capable of handling these issues on our own as a collective and diverse group. Frankly, every time outsiders come in they cause more harm than good and weaken us. This absolutely is currently still the case.

Important Reminders:

· Our lobbyist is on first name terms with most of the IL Reps and Senators and is usually able to change the wording of a bill to better protect our needs. We do not want the word / term homeschooling (or home schooling or home education) in law because then the term would need to be legally defined by legislation. To be defined is, inevitably, to be limited. We prefer bills have a phrase to the affect that this ‘is for all schools with greater than 15 students between the ages of 6 and 15’ or similar.
For instance, when a law was to be passed that all schools must test their water twice a year for lead, our lobbyist quietly had it amended to say that schools with more than 15 students would need to test their water twice a year – exempting homeschools. While this was otherwise a terrific bill designed to protect children from lead poisoning, it would have been very difficult for many homeschooling families to comply with. Likewise, homeschoolers don’t have to serve 2 bread servings with every meal, only clean with organic cleaners, fill out bussing forms, and a wide variety of other things larger schools must do. This is all because we have a lobbyist in Springfield.

· We do not homeschool by regulation – we homeschool under the authority of the IL Supreme Court (case law). We do not want homeschooling clarified or defined further. Right now, we are simply non-public schools.

· If and when a legal situation arises and you are asked to please contact your representatives, please respond professionally by phone or in writing.

· The lobbyist is an individual hired by Ad Hoc
and reports to one person – the current Ad Hoc president. We have had several people complain that they can’t speak directly to the lobbyist and are upset that we don’t share their contact information. Asking anyone to be willing to speak individually to tens of thousands of individual homeschoolers is clearly impossible let alone someone who needs to be spending their time looking carefully at each new bill and remaining in direct contact with the IL legislators.

We appreciate you may have questions or concerns about current legislation. You are each strongly encouraged to contact your Ad Hoc Rep or, if you truly have a desire to become involved, to volunteer as an Ad Hoc Alternate Rep.

Send a message to learn more

11/19/2024

Homeschooling Freedoms Aren’t Free!

As Illinois homeschoolers are all aware, we are the beneficiaries of seven decades of homeschoolers fighting for the freedom to teach their children the way that works best for their unique families. A huge part of this work has been carefully monitoring what was happening in our state legislature. The primary way homeschoolers have been able to monitor such activity in the Illinois legislature is through a wonderful, dedicated lobbyist.

Three culturally diverse statewide homeschool groups make up the Ad Hoc Committee of Home Education Legal and Legislative Matters (Ad Hoc). http://www.il-adhoc.org/ to provide Illinois homeschoolers with a voice in Springfield. Ad Hoc pays a portion of our lobbyist’s salary. Ad Hoc representatives read the reports from the lobbyist and provide feedback. They quietly and respectfully take action on small but crucial concerns affecting small changes to proposed legislation to help us keep our freedoms. Occasionally, Ad Hoc alerts the homeschooling community that their individual voices need to be heard.

(Please note: No other local, state, or national homeschool group has a lobbyist in Springfield. They all get their information from Ad Hoc's lobbyist. Money given to a national group does not stay in Illinois.)

We urge every Illinois home educator or supporter of home education to please join a local group that is a member of one of the statewide groups listed below, Join one of these statewide groups as an individual, or donate directly to Ad Hoc. Your donation today will help keep a lobbyist in Springfield tomorrow. These three groups are as follows:
• Illinois Homeschool Association, non-sectarian/secular homeschooling support: www.ilhsa.org

• Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE): http://iche.org/

• Roman Catholic Home Educators Network (RCHEN): https://www.il-rchen.org/ 630-858-9215

***If you do not wish to join one of these groups and only want to donate to the lobbyist’s salary you can do so by donating directly to Ad Hoc on their web page. Your donation will be kept separate and used as per your wishes.