Do I need a lawyer? aka homeschooling with confidence

Many new homeschoolers ask me if they need to join a certain national legal defense group for homeschoolers. My answer is always a resounding 'no way'.

Why? Because homeschooling is legal in every state and you don't need a lawyer to engage in a perfectly legal activity. What you need is knowledge of the law for your state and a little bit of confidence. I cannot in good conscience ever recommend joining that particular national organization that claims to speak for homeshoolers because I have serious reservations about their mission and strong objections to their activities.


They are into creating an unnecessary culture of fear around homeschooling, as if the truant officer, the social worker or the school district is just lying in wait to snatch your kids as soon as they can find a way to catch you. They send out alarmist alerts and newsletters filled with parents whose freedoms have been threatened until they rode in to save the day--when in fact, those situations are the exceptions rather than the norm.

The reality is, the vast majority of homeschoolers never encounter any opposition from any official source. If they encounter difficulties with local school authorities, it is almost always resolved by understanding the law, remaining calm and having a civil conversation about the law's requirements with the appropriate official. Often just a simple letter solves the issue.

That same organization is also the architect of the most restrictive HS laws in the nation. They are also trying to enact Federal legislation that is at least unnecessary and at worst brings the federal govt into the business of regulating homeschooling [shudder]--and who needs to deal with federal regs on top of state ones? Of course, if that happened then you might need a lawyer...gee, would that increase the membership of a certain organization.

They have a national presence that they could be using to encourage, educate and empower homeschoolers (like another group NHELD does), instead they use scare tactics to build their membership--I personally find it reprehensible.

BTW, most legal cases that involve homeschoolers are custody cases--and that big national organization doesn't even take custody cases.

So here is my conclusion:
Empower yourself with knowledge and homeschool with confidence, because homeschooling with confidence is Morethanfine.

Barb