Issue Description

Homeschoolers support a parent's right to determine the appropriate ages for his children to begin and complete formal schooling. The resources on this page provide arguments against expanding the range of compulsory attendance ages.

Issue History

In 1852 Massachusetts enacted the first compulsory attendance law, and the rest of the states soon followed suit. By 1929 all of the states had some sort of mandatory attendance requirement. HSLDA was started with the purpose of making it legal for families to homeschool despite the compulsory attendance law. We have been fighting this issue for almost twenty years.

A newer outgrowth of compulsory attendance has been the early education system, including Head Start, a government program created to bring children 0-5 into the public school system. HSLDA believes that parents should have the freedom to direct the education of their children at all ages, and continues to fight for this freedom in both the legal and legislative arenas.

Early Education (pre-elementary Education) is growing in popularity throughout the United States. This popularity is largely fueled by professional educators who believe early classroom training is important to a child's mental development and by parents who view early education as a form of day care. As a result of this growing trend, both state and federal legislators are passing legislation dealing with early childhood education.

HSLDA believes that parents should have the freedom to direct the education of their children at all ages, and continues to fight for this freedom in both the legal and legislative arenas. HSLDA is most concerned with attempts by state legislators to lower compulsory attendance age. We continue to fight against any early education legislation both that would increase regulations on homeschoolers.