Survey: Homeschooled students face less abuse. So why are Illinois lawmakers targeting families?
The “Homeschool Act” adds taxpayer costs and exposes families’ religion and private information – all in the name of curbing child neglect and abuse. Trouble is, a survey showed state lawmakers are targeting the students where they are least at risk.
An Illinois bill to regulate homeschool and private school students was filed in response to a child abuse case, but a study showed homeschooled students face half the risk of abuse and neglect than when they leave home.
“Thus, the chances of abuse for homeschooling children at family are half or less than at community or school,” according to a nationally representative survey in the Journal of School Choice.
They found the homeschoolers’ greatest risk came when they were at public schools for extracurriculars or out in the community.
House Bill 2827, filed by state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Lombard, would impose extensive regulations on homeschool families and private schools.
For homeschool families, it would require filing an annual declaration form with their local school district giving personal information on themselves and their children. Failing to file the form carries the threat of fines or jail time.
The bill also imposes mandates on private schools to provide information on students and their families without an option for families to stay off the government lists.
While the bill would significantly increase the burden on Illinois homeschool families and privates schools, school administrators predict it would also come with increased workloads and steeper but still unknown costs for the state and local agencies charged with enforcement.
“This [bill] increases the workload,” stated Gary Tipsord, the executive director of the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, which supports the regional offices of education charged chiefly with bill enforcement.
“There’s likely to be additional costs. Those currently are unknown. We just don’t know what the cost would be,” Tipsord continued. “You would anticipate additional cost or moving resources from one area to another.”
Senior counsel with Home School Legal Defense Association, Will Estrada, said the bill would also significantly increase the workload for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services but provides no new funding for the state agency.
“The staff are overworked, underfunded, there are not enough staff, there’s high burnout, PTSD among case workers, social service investigators, child abuse investigators,” Estrada said. “HB 2827 would put even more responsibility on the plates of the authorities to monitor loving homes.”
Proponents claim the bill is necessary because Illinois’ limited regulations on homeschooling have allowed bad actors to conceal cases of child abuse and neglect. But researchers determined there was no clear association between where study respondents went to school and their experience with neglect or abuse growing up when controlling demographic factors such as household poverty or family structure.
The current version of HB 2827 received a record-breaking 51,000-plus public declarations of opposition. It’s the most on record since the 97th General Assembly (2011-2012) started allowing online public opinions on bills.
Illinois already bucked national trends by stripping 15,000 low-income students of the ability to attend private schools when teachers unions got state lawmakers to kill the Invest in Kids scholarship program. Now lawmakers are going after the personal information of those students who are homeschooled or attend private schools, making them the tracked subjects of the public education system their parents rejected.
Illinois should continue to empower parents to oversee their children’s educations rather than empower bureaucrats to track parents’ schooling decisions.
Use our Take Action tool to contact your lawmaker and tell them to vote “no” on HB 2827.