April 9, 2025
Dear editor;
Another unnecessary anti-family bill is advancing in Springfield. The Homeschool Act (HB 2827) will impose fines and jail time on parents who don’t file a “Homeschool Declaration Form.” In other words, those that don’t register with their local district and provide their curriculum for the school to review will be punished, fined, and can even serve jail time.
Many parents choose to homeschool in response to the mandates being passed into law in Springfield. For example: Since 2019, students are now required to be proficient in LGBT history. In 2021, they passed a law that required sex ed be taught starting in kindergarten. Five-year-olds are taught to define what lesbians, homosexuals, and transgenders are, while the curriculum gradually gets more graphic in older grades. It’s some of the most sexually explicit material in the Nation, supplied by Planned Parenthood, the Nation’s largest abortion and sex-ed curriculum provider. Such curriculum is an invitation to early sexual activity.
Moreover, this bill allows a truancy officer to interview a child without a parent present for the purpose of launching an investigation.
The bill redefines homeschooling to a single family and prohibits two or more households from receiving instruction under a cooperative agreement.
One seriously flawed reason for this bill is to protect children from homeschooling parents “who don’t do it the right way.” As if the state does it better!
On average, homeschooled students score 15 to 25 percentile points above their public school counterparts on standardized tests. Black homeschooled students test scores are even higher, 23 to 42 percentile points higher than black public school students!
The Illinois Report Card is the state’s official window into how students are testing in math, English Language Arts and Science. The 2024 numbers are nothing but shocking, as they have been for many years.
Only 31.1% of high school seniors met or exceeded proficiency in ELA while the graduation rate is at 88%. If more than two-thirds of students can’t read, why are they passing them to the next grade and then graduating them? Public schools are sending them into the world ill-equipped. The overwhelming majority can’t read! And our tax dollars are funding this ongoing disaster.
Math is even worse. Only 26.1% of high school students can do math at high school level.
They need to focus on the glaring problems in Illinois public schools and not the families who sacrifice to equip their children to become well-educated productive citizens.
I say, “Get them out of public schools and start homeschooling!” Homeschooled children are not the problem. They are the solution!
Urge your state lawmakers to reject HB 2827.
Kathy Valente,
Director of Operations,
Illinois Family Institute
Tinley Park