An article in ProPublica in June of last year was the first indication to many in Illinois that they may be facing an assault on their homeschool rights from lawmakers. Titled “How Illinois’ Hands-Off Approach to Homeschooling Leaves Children at Risk,” the piece chronicled the story of a child in the state who was abused and, at the time of the discovery, was being homeschooled. 

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The premise of the investigation makes the case that more regulation would have protected children like this 9-year-old, known as “L.J.,” who was removed from public school and confined in a one-bedroom apartment without instruction, food, or adequate care — experiencing abuse and neglect before state authorities intervened only when he entered foster care.

Growing opposition to homeschooling often seizes on this talking point, that homeschooled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse because they are not in school. 

In response to the ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois piece, Illinois lawmakers introduced the Homeschool Act. Its supporters claimed it would protect Illinois children by requiring families to notify their school district when homeschooling begins, ensuring parents have a minimum educational level, possibly having parents submit teaching materials or student work for review, and mandating the reporting of data on homeschooled students. The mandated reporting was where Illinois truly went off the rails, putting homeschool parents at risk for criminal prosecution. 

The backlash to H.B. 2827 was immediate and intense. Opponents called it the most authoritarian homeschooling bill introduced anywhere in the United States in at least 30 years. The Home School Legal Defense Association quickly joined forces with local groups such as the Illinois Christian Home Educators, Ad Hoc, the Illinois Homeschool Association, and the Illinois-based International Alliance for Freedom in Home Education. They were supported by the private school community, national and state-level organizations from across the political spectrum, and lawmakers from both parties, underscoring that homeschooling is a bipartisan issue. Most crucially, the resistance was fueled by the advocacy, determination, and tireless efforts of tens of thousands of homeschooling families across Illinois.

Opponents of the bill argued that its proposed regulations wouldn’t have prevented the specific situation cited by ProPublica. On a recent episode of the HSLDA podcast Homeschool Talks, HSLDA President Jim Mason interviewed Jeffrey Lewis, president of the Illinois Christian Home Educators. Lewis clarified that the child profiled in the ProPublica piece, referred to as “L.J.,” had been in public school for over a year before briefly being homeschooled for just three to four months. He explained that the boy had already been on the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ radar before being homeschooled. According to Lewis, the ProPublica authors effectively “tried to turn the facts and twist them in a way that says, ‘See, it’s all about homeschooling,’ when in fact, it wasn’t.”

If the bill became law, parents would be required to submit an annual declaration to the state, detailing personal information about their children, including names, birth dates, grade levels, home addresses, and gender identity. To qualify as homeschooling instructors, parents would need to hold at least a high school diploma or its equivalent. 

The bill also granted local public school officials the authority to request student work samples at any time and for any reason, possibly requiring parents and children to appear in person for interviews. These portfolios would be evaluated to determine whether the home education provided is comparable to public school standards. Additionally, the bill empowered the Illinois State Board of Education to impose further regulations and collect more data from homeschooling families without legislative oversight, which could have included enforcing public school health and immunization requirements. Parents who failed to comply with these mandates could face serious consequences, including truancy charges, possible jail time, or even the removal of their children from the home. 

There was no recent precedent for a state attempting to impose automatic criminal penalties on homeschool families that fail to file a specific piece of paperwork, as stipulated in the original bill, or automatically refer them to a state attorney for prosecution, as in the amended bill.

Nor was there precedent for the public’s response. As the bill advanced, 2,000 homeschoolers arrived at the state Capitol with cherry pies during ICHE’s annual rally, engaging with lawmakers and offering baked goods as a friendly show of force. Their message this year was direct: “Please protect homeschool freedom by opposing House Bill 2827.”

Despite the pies, the bill was scheduled for a hearing on March 19. With just one week’s notice, local groups sprang into action — chartering buses and organizing carpools to Springfield so families could attend the hearing in person.

The March 19 rally was historic. Between 5,000 and 8,000 homeschool supporters flooded the Capitol, prompting officials to close the doors for safety reasons. Outside, at least 500 more parents and children stood by, unable to enter but unwilling to leave.

HSLDA senior counsel Will Estrada told the Washington Examiner, “Attendees stood there and sang songs and prayed and talked to legislators and staff as they came through. Every hearing room was full. Every hallway was full. Every stairwell was full.” In addition to groups like HSLDA and ICHE, national organizations such as Americans for Prosperity stepped in, covering the cost of transportation and coordinating logistics.

In addition to the in-person turnout, homeschool families and advocates set a new record by overwhelmingly submitting over 71,000 witness slips to oppose the act. NBC Chicago explained, “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.” Estrada told the Washington Examiner that, according to staff at the Capitol, bills with a higher profile garner between five and 10 witness slips. 

The turning point for H.B. 2827 wasn’t in Springfield — it was in Chicago’s Daley Plaza. The bill was under intense pressure from liberal black legislators, particularly, who came under intense pressure after being inundated with calls and visits from homeschooling families in their districts, which pushed them to reconsider their stance. According to HSLDA’s Estrada, the bill’s “high-water mark” was reached on April 3 at a rally in Chicago in which Democratic state Rep. La Shawn Ford spoke out and warned that the legislation amounted to a “pipeline to the criminal justice system for parents.” Ford, a progressive Democrat, used the language of his own team to frame his opposition in alignment with his commitment to “restorative justice.” Ford cited the growing popularity of homeschooling in the black community since COVID-19, from 3.3% of black families choosing to homeschool their children to almost 17%. 

Ford told NBC Chicago the bill’s bureaucracy would strip homeschoolers of autonomy, commenting, “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.”

Writing in the Chicago Tribune, Aziza Butler, a former Chicago Public Schools teacher, now a homeschooling mother of six, framed her opposition with the same message. Butler wrote, “In a society already disproportionately surveilling and policing Black lives, this bill introduces another dangerous pathway to criminalize loving Black parents.” During a press conference on April 9, Butler and her husband, Chris, an influential pastor in Chicago, put a face on the opposition of black families to the bill. On the track record of the public school system in the city, Aziza Butler said, “Even with 100% regulation, they are still struggling and failing so many children.” Aziza Butler’s remarks about the failure of the public education system in the city as a former teacher were a particularly effective indictment. 

During his remarks, Chris Butler had a message for Democrats: “You have to pay attention to what is happening in your own community.”

The coalition opposing the bill defied expectations. Progressive elites who used ProPublica to attack homeschooling assumed it was a bastion of white, conservative Christians. But the pandemic-era collapse of public school quality and safety, driven in part by extended closures championed by teachers unions, sent many minority families searching for alternatives. That shift eroded traditional progressive coalitions, especially among black Democrats, who had long been reliable allies.

HSLDA was widely credited by both supporters and opponents as instrumental in the bill’s defeat. Emily Allison, an activist with the Coalition for Responsible Home Education and one of the bill’s key supporters, told NBC, “HSLDA has a demonstrated track record of mobilizing and weaponizing their base, either against regulation bills or for deregulation bills.”

Estrada, however, was humble about his organization’s role. He pointed to the strength of a broad, diverse coalition as key to the victory. And while HSLDA is often portrayed as a conservative, white-led group, Estrada described himself in committee testimony as a “proud Puerto Rican homeschool dad” — a line that struck a chord with a Puerto Rican legislator who referenced his identity when choosing to abstain from the vote.

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The bill failed because opponents used the Left’s own rhetoric against it. A progressive black lawmaker from Chicago, invoking restorative justice, short-circuited the bill’s momentum. After the April 3 rally and the April 9 press conference with the Butlers, the legislation stalled in committee and died when the session ended in early June.

Supporters say they’ll try again to regulate homeschooling in Illinois. If they do, they’ll likely awaken the same grassroots movement that they themselves helped create. 

Bethany Mandel (@bethanyshondark) is a homeschooling mother of six and a writer. She writes and podcasts at The Mom Wars.