Illinois is among about a dozen states that have little or no homeschooling oversight. Some advocates want to do something about that.

A ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois investigation found that lax regulations led to unreported abuses in homeschool households.

Democrat state Rep. Terra Costa Howard of Lombard said this needs to change.

Howard said without oversight, there is no way to know how many children are homeschooled and if they’re OK. That is why Howard proposed a bill that would create homeschool oversight.

“I work in child welfare, and we were noticing a number of cases where children were being pulled from their schools, and no one even knew these kids existed,” Howard said.

The bill would have parents register their children as homeschooled with their local school district. Howard said the state would then know how many children are homeschooled.

The bill would also make sure parents have a high school diploma or GED to teach and that a parent has no sexual offenses against children. Parents may also have to provide proof of a student’s work if there is concern a homeschooler isn’t getting sufficient instruction.

Howard said most responsible homeschool parents already keep track of records.

“In fact, I would argue that it is actually a really good thing for the good homeschool parents,” Howard said. “The ones who are doing it the right way, because they are easily going to be able to if asked, and again, that's only if they're asked to demonstrate that they are actually providing a true homeschool education following the current law, requiring subjects in attendance. They're already going to be able to do that."

Opposition's criticisms

Homeschool advocates have said these changes would be burdensome and would violate their rights.

Peoria area Republican state Rep. Travis Weaver has a nephew who is homeschooled. Weaver said any further regulation of homeschooling is unnecessary.

“My colleagues on the other side of the aisle that would say homeschooling is growing, and that's how we need to regulate it. I totally reject that,” Weaver said. “That's a false, (mis)nomer of a lot of Illinois politicians that when things are good, it's time for the government to step in. Homeschooling is a massive success.”

Weaver also said it's unfair to target homeschool families in abuse cases. He said incidents of abuse are tied to domestic issues and not whether a child is homeschooled.

“It's a domestic family problem,” Weaver said. “It happens to kids that are in the public school, (that) they're in the homeschool. So, I don't think it's really fair to say that just because it happens in certain instances means that it's a homeschool problem.”

An advocate for more homeschool regulation argued there is a link between homeschooling and abuse and neglect that often goes unnoticed.

“In all 50 states, it's legal for a caregiver to withdraw a child from school to homeschool during or directly after a social services investigation,” said Jonah Stewart, research director for the Coalition of Responsible Home Education. "And we have incidences where parents pull their child out of school to homeschool, not for educational intent, but because they know they can exploit the cover of homeschool in order to isolate children.”

Stewart also said their organization has tracked nearly 200 deaths related to homeschool abuse nationwide since 2000.

Stewart, who was homeschooled themselves, said the law would bring homeschooling more in line with a typical classroom, where a students' right to an education is protected.

“What we want to inject into this debate is that children have rights,” Stewart said. “They have a right to be free from harm, and they have an entitlement to receive an education that prepares them for an open future. And what this bill does is it provides an important counterbalance, ensuring that children's rights are protected.”

Homeschool families say they should have a right to an education without government intervention. Hundreds of them staged a protest last week at the Illinois Capitol with hundreds of homemade pies to convince lawmakers to vote against the bill.

Howard expressed frustration in claiming that critics of the bill are fear-mongering.

“So, what disturbs me about the opposition is, again, they need to lie about what the bill does and doesn't do,” Howard said. “They're straight up telling untruths about it. There's nothing in this bill that infringes upon the rights of parents to choose to homeschool their kids.”

Attempts to regulate homeschooling in Illinois have failed multiple times in the past, but Howard believes this is a good time to revisit the issue as more families are choosing homeschooling and public-school enrollment continue to drop.