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About HSLDA
Home School Legal Defense Association is a nonprofit advocacy organization established to defend and advance the constitutional right of parents to direct the education of their children and to protect family freedoms. Through annual memberships, HSLDA is tens of thousands of families united in service together, providing a strong voice when and where needed.
HSLDA advocates on the legal front on behalf of our members in matters which include conflicts with state or local officials over homeschooling. Each year, thousands of member families receive legal consultation by letter and phone, hundreds more are represented through negotiations with local officials, and dozens are represented in court proceedings. HSLDA also takes the offensive, filing actions to protect members against government intrusion and to establish legal precedent. On occasion, HSLDA will handle precedent-setting cases for nonmembers, as well.
HSLDA advocates on Capitol Hill by tracking federal legislation that affects homeschooling and parental rights. HSLDA works to defeat or amend harmful bills, but also works proactively, introducing legislation to protect and preserve family freedoms.
HSLDA advocates in state legislatures, at the invitation of state homeschool organizations, by assisting individual states in drafting language to improve their homeschool legal environment and to fight harmful legislation.
HSLDA advocates in the media by presenting articulate and knowledgeable spokesmen to the press on the subject of homeschooling. HSLDA staff members are regularly called upon for radio, television, and print interviews, and their writings are frequently published in newspapers and magazines across the country. HSLDA’s own bimonthly magazine, The Home School Court Report, provides news and commentary on a host of current issues affecting homeschoolers. And its two-minute daily radio broadcast, Home School Heartbeat, can be heard on nearly 500 radio stations.
HSLDA advocates for the movement by commissioning and presenting quality research on the progress of homeschooling. Whether it’s in print, from the podium, or on the air, HSLDA provides insightful vision and leadership for the cause of homeschooling.
Home School Legal Defense Association . . . tens of thousands of American families working through more than 50 dedicated staff members to preserve each other’s right to homeschool . . . together, “Advocates for Family & Freedom.”
Frequently Asked Questions
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Who we are
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1. What is the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA)?
HSLDA is a nonprofit national membership organization of families who homeschool their children. HSLDA is organized as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, tax-exempt organization under the rules of the IRS.
The Federal Relations Department (formerly known as the National Center for Home Education) is a department of Home School Legal Defense Association that focuses on federal legislation, grassroots lobbying, and research.
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2. Where is HSLDA located?
We are located in Purcellville, Virginia, about 40 minutes west of Washington, D.C.
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3. Where does the membership money go?
We are a nonprofit organization, so membership fees go to our operational expenses. No profits inure to the benefit of any employees or board members. (See Mission of HSLDA.)
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4. Is HSLDA a Christian organization?
Yes; however, HSLDA’s mission is to protect the freedom of all homeschoolers. Although our officers and directors are Christians, HSLDA membership is not limited to religiously based homeschoolers. We respect parents' rights to make the appropriate choices for the upbringing of their children. We have no agenda to make all public and home-based classrooms religious or conservative. Our primary objective is to preserve the fundamental right of parents to choose home education, free of over-zealous government officials and intrusive laws. We do put on a national conference annually and invite the board members of state organizations with whom we have worked for many years. Most, if not all, of those organizations have Christian leaders, but many serve all homeschoolers regardless of religious affiliation, as we do.
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Relationships:
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5. What is HSLDA’s relationship to the Home School Foundation (HSF)?
The Home School Foundation is a related organization of HSLDA. HSF was founded by HSLDA to provide assistance to homeschooling families in need, preserve parental freedoms, promote homeschooling, and support like-minded organizations. (See HSF’s home page for more information.)
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6. What is HSLDA’s relationship to Patrick Henry College (PHC)?
HSLDA’s board of directors founded PHC as a college that emphasizes the apprenticeship model of education and will positively impact our culture.
Patrick Henry College opened its doors on September 1, 2000 to prepare and develop leaders who will fight for the principles of liberty and our home school freedoms through careers of public service and cultural influence. The College's distinctives include a deliberate outreach to home schooled students; practical apprenticeship methodology; financial independence; a general education core based on the classical liberal arts; a dedication to mentoring and discipling Christian students; and a community life that promotes virtue, leadership, and strong, life-long commitments to God, family and society.
The College’s board of trustees is completely separate and distinct from HSLDA’s board of directors and the College operates independently of HSLDA. Michael Farris is chancellor of the College, and is General Counsel of HSLDA directing litigation and federal legislative efforts.
Although Patrick Henry College and HSLDA are separate and distinct organizations, our board’s purpose for founding the College remains the same and HSLDA continues to support Patrick Henry College financially and structurally. Specifically, HSLDA donates use of facility space and a portion of revenue earned from interest income to the College. This support is based upon our belief that it is not enough to rely solely on the defense of homeschooling in the courts and in the legislatures in order to maintain our freedom to homeschool and control the upbringing of our children in the future. We must be proactive in providing virtuous leaders in government and other key spheres of influence in order to preserve our freedoms.(See also Michael Smith’s Washington Times op-ed "A New Generation of Moral Leadership")
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7. What is HSLDA’s relationship with local and state homeschool organizations?
While HSLDA has no official relationship with any local or state homeschool groups, we do provide groups the opportunity to offer HSLDA membership at a discount to their families. Additionally, we work closely with many groups to monitor legislation that may impact homeschooling.
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Where we stand:
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8. Why does HSLDA support efforts to constitutionally define marriage as between a man and a woman?
The following answer is an excerpt from a letter written by HSLDA Chairman of the Board and General Counsel Mike Farris:
. . . We are a Christian organization (see answer to question number 4 above). This colors our way of thinking about many things. Fundamentally, it is reflected in what we believe is truth.
All truth is God's truth. Man's knowledge is limited. We think we know something only to find that future generations have found that we really didn't know what we are talking about.
The truth is that God created the family. It is God's view of the family that is reflected in our western civilization and in our law until very recently. If we tear down this God-based view of the family, then all of the God-based principles in our society are ultimately at risk.
The reason we have parental rights is because our law assumes that God gave children to parents, not the state. If we eliminate the assumption of God from our law, parental rights and human rights themselves are impossible.
I was in the Soviet Union in 1988 arguing for parental rights and religious freedom with the government of the USSR. They asked, "Where are such rights based in any international legal document?"
I answered, "If rights are based on man-made documents they are not rights, they are privileges. What man makes, man can change."
Only if rights come from God is it illegitimate for man to take another's rights.
It is impossible to say that the God of the Bible would sanction rights of homosexual marriage. Thus, there is no such right in a God-based theory of rights. Any man-made theory of rights is no theory at all. ... HSLDA is not willing to move into an era of human privileges. We believe this would jeopardize our liberty to teach our children at home and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Blessings,
Michael Farris
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9. Does HSLDA seek to control the public debate of homeschool issues nationwide?
While we are actively engaged in public debate regarding homeschooling, we do not seek control of the public discussions surrounding homeschooling. Our communications goal regarding mainstream media is simply to promote, honestly and fairly, the merits of home education, for the good of homeschoolers universally. We also generally promote awareness of legal and legislative issues impacting homeschool families. In order to provide timely information to media on demand, HSLDA has employed a professional director of media relations. We view media work as integral to a serious organizational effort to inform the general public about the many positive aspects of homeschooling. In recent years, the media have shown particular interest in our studies on the effectiveness of homeschooling. The hundreds of news stories referring to these studies have been good for all homeschoolers, not just members of HSLDA.
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10. Does HSLDA promote exclusively Christian homeschool support organizations?
We do not. Over 500 support groups participate in our group discount program. Religion is not a criterion for participation. We work in conjunction with secular and religious groups alike to promote and protect home education freedoms.
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11. What is HSLDA's position on charter schools and public school independent study programs?
The mission of Home School Legal Defense Association has always been to defend the rights of families who desire to privately homeschool their children. Homeschooling through charter schools or public school independent study programs is actually a form of public education, and thus falls outside of HSLDA's mission. It is our longstanding policy not to accept as HSLDA members families whose children are enrolled in such a public school option.
Parents have the right to choose whatever form of education they wish for their children. However, we urge those considering charter schools or public school independent study programs to count the cost, making sure they are fully informed.
To date, most charter school programs and all public school independent study programs have been enacted with restrictions regarding religious education. This means that it is unethical and possibly illegal for any religious education to occur during the process of teaching any academic subject through these programs. For example, religious content in a history or English class covered by the official program would be a statutory violation. (This would not be a constitutional violation by the parents—only the government can violate the Constitution. The Constitution has been interpreted to permit but not require states to fund religious education as a component of a broad general program. This means that whatever the state statutes say is binding. If the statutes ban religious instruction in programs funded by the government, then program participants—including homeschooling parents—who teach religious content are violating the law.)
Keep in mind that programs receiving government funding can be directly regulated by governmental standards. For example, teaching homosexuality as an acceptable alternate lifestyle may well soon become a universal requirement for public schools—including charter schools and public school independent study programs.
We understand that the financial pressures faced by families today make publicly subsidized educational programs very attractive. But if accepting government subsidies forfeits your right to teach your children in the way you desire, that price is very high indeed.
HSLDA support tax deductions for all educational expenses, similar to deductions for charitable giving or educational tax credits. But even tax deductions would be unacceptable if the mechanisms adopted allow any governmental interference or regulation of content in homeschool programs. Both HSLDA's experience and the combined history of our nation and western civilization continually demonstrate that with government funding comes government regulation. The price is too high.
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12. What is HSLDA’s position on access to public school facilities and activities?
HSLDA’s board of directors has remained steadfast in focusing our resources on maintaining and advancing the freedom of homeschoolers from public school oversight. Therefore, the board will not allow HSLDA to use our resources to force public school districts to allow homeschool children access. Recently, several states have enacted legislation requiring public school access for homeschoolers. HSLDA takes a neutral position when legislation of this kind is introduced, unless the legislation would impose additional regulations on all homeschool students not participating in the public schools.
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13. What is HSLDA’s position on homeschool students’ use of special education and related services benefits through the public schools?
Special education refers to instruction or assistance in traditional academic areas such as math, language arts, etc. Related services, on the other hand, are aids to a child—like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. These services indirectly improve a child’s ability to learn, but are separate from traditional academic curricula. HSLDA believes the parent whose child receives related services at the public school is still a home educator.
HSLDA may assist homeschool families seeking related services that have been denied because of homeschooling. We view this as a basic fairness issue in that homeschool students in private school states are entitled to related services according to the U.S. Department of Education, but those in homeschool states are not. HSLDA will not assist homeschool students to obtain access to special education in the public school (see number 6, above, for the reason).
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14. Is HSLDA politically active?
HSLDA's mission is to protect and advance the liberty of parents to educate their children at home. Membership dues will never be used for any other purpose.
However, few of us homeschool just for the sake of homeschooling. We homeschool our children because we believe it is the best path for their own future and for the impact that they can have on our nation and the generations that follow. Yes, we want our children to have excellent skills and godly character. But skills and character are designed to equip our children to accomplish great things for God and for the good of our nation.
To help our member families equip the next generation for active, effective citizenship, HSLDA founded Generation Joshua in 2004. A division of HSLDA, Generation Joshua is funded by direct contributions and by Generation Joshua's own modest membership dues. Generation Joshua is not funded by HSLDA membership dues. Please visit Generation Joshua's website at www.generationjoshua.org.
Generation Joshua has three main components, each designed to teach homeschooled teens important aspects of civic involvement: (1) civics education, (2) nonpartisan political activity, such as voter registration drives, and (3) active involvement in the campaigns of a few candidates prayerfully selected by HSLDA's board of directors for their character and their positions on issues of importance to our members.
All candidate campaign activity is funded by HSLDA-PAC, an affiliated federal political action committee created by HSLDA in accordance with federal law. Under federal law, HSLDA may endorse federal candidates in communications to our members and we may solicit our members for contributions to HSLDA-PAC. These PAC contributions will be used to place Generation Joshua teens on selected federal campaigns under the direction and guidance of Generation Joshua staff.
Our children will not grow into leaders just because we hope for that result. They will become leaders who do great things for our nation only if we give them vision and a hands-on opportunity to learn.
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15. What does HSLDA’s Federal Relations Department Do?
What does HSLDA’s Federal Relations department (formerly National Center for Home Education) do? The Federal Relations Department supports state homeschooling leaders and HSLDA members by keeping watch and taking quick action on national homeschool issues. (See the Federal Relations home page for more information.)
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16. Does HSLDA take a position on the United Nations?
We do not have an official position regarding the United Nations. However, it is accurate to say that we’ve become more and more concerned about the sovereignty of the United States vis-à-vis the United Nations as expressed by its policies on religious liberty, human rights, children’s rights, and the family. The UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child is an example of the UN’s view of the family. We oppose the UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child because it would strip parents of much of their authority to educate, train, and nurture their children according to the dictates of their conscience.
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17. Does HSLDA take a position regarding gun ownership?
We do not take a position on gun ownership. In 12 states, homeschoolers operate as private schools under the private school law of that state. Many states and the federal government have laws that make it illegal to have a gun within 1,000 feet of any school. After concerns expressed by member families who live within 1,000 feet of a school and own guns, we asked the United States Attorney General’s Office whether this law applied to private homeschools or not. The United States Attorney General’s Office has indicated that the law does not apply to these private homeschool situations.
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18. Does HSLDA take a position on the use of Social Security numbers?
We do not have a position. However, some of our member families object to obtaining Social Security numbers for their children in order to get a dependent’s deduction on their income tax return. Until several years ago, the IRS would accept alternative forms of identification to obtain the deduction. However, the law has now changed to allow ONLY a Social Security number to be used as the identification required for a deduction. The National Center for Home Education is discussing with members of Congress the possibility of introducing a bill that would again allow families to use alternative forms of identification to obtain the deduction.
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