Thanks for your support! Please keep sharing this petition, and, if you haven't already, reach out to your IL representative to respectfully advocate against HB2827.

As Rep. Mussman has noted to many of us, homeschool is the nation's fastest growing form of education. As such, our lawmakers owe it to homeschoolers and their families to do the research about what homeschool is, versus what it is not. 

Given the latitude this 45-page bill gives the state to regulate our lives, it is critical that sponsors provide data-backed research that relies on more than supposition to justify its existence/advancement:

• Have legislators examined how many documented cases of truancy and/or abuse have been definitively associated with homeschooling in Illinois---versus the number that have occurred in public schools throughout the state? 
• If the former setting is not conclusively linked to a disproportionately higher level of truancy and/or abuse, then wouldn't state resources be more appropriately allocated to rectifying outstanding issues within Illinois's public schools? 
• Can lawmakers delineate whether the instances of truancy and/or abuse they're citing are first observed while students are in public school, versus when they transition to a homeschool environment? Can they articulate the distinction between when a problem is first documented, versus when it's formally addressed?

It's critical not to forget the reasons that prompted many families to pursue homeschooling/withdraw from public education in the first place. It's equally important to treat the issues of truancy and child abuse with the deference they deserve by obtaining credible data and analyzing it accurately. 

Thanks for your ongoing support!