Parents, lawmakers battle over Illinois Homeschool Act. What to know

When state Rep. Terra Costa Howard began her efforts to pass new legislation that would reform Illinois’ homeschooling system, she never imagined tensions escalating like they did on April 2, 2025.

It was that day that Costa Howard(D-42nd), from Lombard, received an anonymous letter stating, “If we have to break the sixth commandment, so be it. God said ‘Do Not Kill’, but he also said ‘Smite Thine Enemy’. We’re watching …”

The threatening letter, now under investigation by Lombard police, offers a snapshot into the intense controversy surrounding the bill, HB 2827 or the Homeschool Act, which Costa Howard has proposed to enact regulations around homeschooling in Illinois.

A photocopy of the letter, postmarked from New Jersey, was included in a Lombard police report obtained by the DePaul University Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence (CJIE) through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

“The intensity of [the letter] does not match the intent of the bill, which is to keep kids safe and to make sure they get an education,” Costa Howard said.

Illinois is one of 12 states with virtually no enforced regulations around homeschooling, but the bill would change that. Sponsored by 16 other Democratic state representatives, the law aims to reduce “abuse and neglect” of homeschool children.

Since its introduction on Feb. 5, the bill has stirred a sharp divide between parents and policymakers. Supporters like Costa Howard argue the legislation is necessary to keep vulnerable students from “falling through the cracks” of an unregulated system.

Opponents, however, see it as a threat to parental autonomy, and say it would give the state too much power over how families choose to educate their children.

Currently, Illinois does not require parents to have a high school diploma to homeschool their children. It also does not require parents to register their children as homeschooled or submit any curriculum records, according to the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

DePaul CJIE filed FOIA requests about this matter to every state government agency that monitors education, including the ISBE, Regional Offices of Education and Department of Children and Family Services. All confirmed they have no “mechanism to know how many students are being homeschooled … or to ensure those students are actively engaging in daily instruction,” the ISBE said.

Costa Howard said that, just as homeschooled children are nearly invisible to the state, homeschool alumni have been invisible within the debate around the bill. Jennifer, a homeschool graduate from Illinois, said “it's time for people in this conversation to start listening to people who have this education.”

When Jennifer, who asked to be identified by only her first name for privacy concerns, visited a public school in eighth grade, she realized her education was far behind other students her age.

“I basically was just flying by on a third-grade education,” she said.

She said Illinois’ lax enforcement of guidelines around homeschooling left her vulnerable to receiving insufficient schooling. Though state law requires homeschoolers to teach core subjects like language arts and math, it sets no rules for school day length, academic calendars or curriculum records. It also does not outline any enforcement mechanisms, leaving state agencies without authority to ensure students are receiving an adequate education.

Jennifer said her support for The Homeschool Act stems from her desire to “create accountability” for educators responsible for foundational parts of children’s schooling. If passed, the bill would require parents to register their children through an annual “homeschool notification form.”

If parents fail to submit this form, truancy officers would be able to begin investigations into a child’s homeschool environment, in which they could request a student’s “educational portfolio,” or documentation of the materials they are being taught. The bill states portfolios would serve as a “log of curriculum,” but does not outline any specific materials that parents would be required to teach.

The bill states this system of “notification and oversight” would help reduce instances of “educational neglect,” which Costa Howard said are pervasive within Illinois’ homeschooling environments — a sentiment echoed by Jennifer.

“If people have concerns, there should be a way to check in on that because people who have this education have no way themselves,” she said. “They don't have any agency installed to make sure they're getting educated.”

Opponents like Lisa Edison, a homeschool mom from Lombard who runs a homeschool co-op program called Thrive Homeschool Enrichment, said the bill and its advocates are attempting to paint a “misleading” picture of what homeschool environments in Illinois really look like.

“It tugs on the heartstrings of people thinking that everyone in homeschool is in danger, and that parents who homeschool just want to hide their children away and be abusive,” Edison said. “That is quite literally the opposite of what homeschoolers do.”

She said the vast majority of homeschool educators, like herself and the families she works with at Thrive, are deeply invested in their children’s schooling, making the legislation an unnecessary “invasion of privacy” that will interfere with families’ educational freedom.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-8th), a leading Democratic voice in the fight against the bill, said he received calls from many of his constituents who share Edison’s concerns.

“There's a lot of bureaucracy when you think about education and the school system,” Ford said. “That's one of the reasons why parents want to homeschool, because they don’t want to deal with (someone) telling them how they should teach their kids, what they should teach their kids.”

Attempting to make their voices heard, hundreds of parents showed up to two rallies — at the Illinois State Capitol in March and Chicago’s Daley Plaza in April — to demonstrate their opposition to the legislation. The first draft of the bill also received more than 33,000 witness slips, or documents indicating a person’s position on potential legislation, with the overwhelming majority opposing it, according to DePaul’s CJIE analysis.

Costa Howard has amended the bill twice since its introduction in response to the pushback it has received. Earlier versions required homeschool educators to hold a high school diploma, penalized parents who didn’t file declaration forms, and barred those with certain criminal convictions — including sex offenses — from teaching. All of those provisions have since been removed. Across all three versions of the bill, more than 71,000 people submitted witness slips overwhelmingly in opposition to the act.

The volume of public response the bill has drawn is highly unusual for the state: the average Illinois House bill over the past five years received zero witness slips. Illinois does not verify the origin of submitted slips, meaning it’s unclear how many came from state residents. Duplicate filings were accounted for in DePaul’s CJIE analysis.

One factor that could help explain the massive public outcry is various homeschooling groups’ efforts to organize parents against the bill, like Illinois Christian Home Educators and Illinois Family Institute. While Edison said that parents’ reaction to the bill has been completely natural, Costa Howard said these groups have tried to purposefully “stir up anger and fear” in parents by spreading misinformation about the bill.

“Their agenda is not about what is best for kids,” Costa Howard said. “Their agenda is completely about control…”

Costa Howard, Jennifer and Emily Allison, a homeschool graduate from Illinois and activist at the Coalition for Responsible Homeschool Education, all point to one group as the main driver behind the opposition.

“The Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has a demonstrated track record of mobilizing and weaponizing their base, either against regulation bills or for deregulation bills,” Allison said.

Allison said the HSLDA, a legal advocacy and lobbyist group, has used their “resources, volunteers, supporters and money” to fight any attempts to regulate homeschooling over the last few decades. Since the 90s, Illinois lawmakers have tried to pass three other bills similar to the Homeschool Act, but have been defeated every time.

“I wish I could take the credit for it,” said Will Estrada, senior counsel at the HSLDA. “It’s really been — I’ll be quite honest — kind of mind-blowing to me to see the level of opposition from homeschool families in Illinois.”

Though efforts from the opposition have stalled the bill on the House floor, Costa Howard and co-sponsors said they still hope to break the cycle to pass regulations around homeschooling in Illinois.

“We are committed to spending the future months continuing to engage with stakeholders about refining the language and educating our colleagues on what the bill does and how it might benefit vulnerable youth,” state Rep. Michelle Mussman (D-56th), a co-sponsor, said in a statement to CJIE. “Our work is not finished.”

Mussman said that she and Costa Howard plan to reintroduce the bill in the next legislative session.

“Even if the bill has not passed yet, there is significant merit in the conversations it spurs about how we can better identify and assist youth who may be at risk of educational neglect, as well as, potentially other forms of neglect,” Mussman said. “If not something like this, then what?”

Costa Howard agreed, saying she will not stop in the face of fierce opposition.

“I do not back down to bullies,” Costa Howard said.

Edison said homeschool families don’t plan on backing down either.

“There was a whole other generation of homeschoolers that pushed against (past) bills, and there will be generations to come that will push against other bills,” Edison said.