Pennsylvania is one of the strictest states regarding homeschool laws. Homeschoolers fall under rigorous state requirements to prove that their home education meets state expectations. Time and again, studies have shown children who participate in homeschool programs outperform their publicly schooled counterparts and that the amount of state regulation does not directly correlate to positive outcome. States with lax requirements achieve similar results to those like Pennsylvania with overbearing laws. In fact, only nine of our fifty states currently require evaluations.

In Pennsylvania, homeschool programs are required to register annually with the school district by providing affidavit, objectives, and health records; test students in three grades; use logs; record attendance; keep a portfolio; and pay for an evaluation which gets turned in to the district. This is not taking into consideration the laws which dictate if you are even eligible to homeschool your child and which subjects must be taught. The burden of homeschooling law in this state is overwhelming to parents who feel this is the best option for their child and deters some from starting. This should not be the objective of the state. The objective should be for each child to be placed into the best learning scenario possible. For large families, there is a great financial burden of paying an evaluator for each child being evaluated on top of paying for all materials, books, testing, affidavits, and field trips.

In this age of understanding that one size does not fit all, it is time for Pennsylvania to loosen the laws of homeschooling that were set into place 40 years ago so that it is less of a burden to those whose right it should be to school their children the best way possible. With more and more families feeling an urgent need to update their child's schooling to a homeschool program, now is the time to update our state's homeschool regulations.