☆ What's behind the growth (and pushback) to homeschooling—locally and statewide? (1/2)
Petrus Van der Velden: A student, c. 1860
Why are Silicon Valley families flocking to homeschooling? How do (even well-meaning) Sac legislators end up restricting homeschooling? And, um, how’s the Dept of Pesticides involved? An Opp Now exclusive Q&A with Home School Legal Defense Association’s senior counsel Will Estrada, Esq., and Family Protection Ministries’ executive director Nathan Pierce.
Opportunity Now: Even post-Covid, state homeschooling rates remain 70% higher today than they were pre-pandemic. Why are local families leaving traditional public schools, according to your research?
Will Estrada: Homeschooling has just exploded since the pandemic; in fact, it represents the fastest growth in education. And California as a state has one of the most significant percentages of students being educated at home [Editor’s note: in the Bay Area, estimated at 35.1%].
Families pursue homeschooling for a variety of reasons, as the community itself is quite diverse. It’s estimated (based on the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey) that up to 40% of homeschool families now are Black and brown.
With that said, I think the best answer comes from the National Center for Education Statistics. They found (in September 2024) four top reasons why families choose to homeschool: dissatisfaction with other schools’ environment, dissatisfaction with other schools’ academic instruction, to provide moral instruction, and to emphasize family life.
Nathan Pierce: There tend to be the same main motivations (e.g., experiences with bullying), which trade places over the years. Even the Department of Education has acknowledged that some students work best in a private environment with their parents in the leading role.
ON: Could you give us a brief history of homeschooling legislation in California?
WE: In 2008, the landmark Jonathan L. case first officially legalized homeschooling as a kind of private education in California. Prior to this case, there were two cases dating back to the ‘80s where homeschooling families were prosecuted but narrowly got off on technicalities. Homeschooling’s status in California was popular but legally unclear until 2008.
Today, under state law, families can homeschool through a PSP (private school satellite program), by filing an annual affidavit with the Department of Education (which recognizes that homeschool as its own private school), or as a private tutor if they are a licensed teacher.
ON: And in what areas has there been controversy since the 2008 ruling?
WE: Perhaps the most well-known attempt to put legal restrictions on homeschooling was in 2018. There were two bills. Ms. Eggman’s bill proposed we start a commission to establish a set of regulations for homeschooling (e.g., teacher credentialing, health and safety standards, curriculum standards) to model after other states.
And then the other bill, Mr. Medina’s, actually proposed home inspections by local fire marshals to make sure families’ homes were safe for children. Surprisingly, this was the one that made it to committee.
So when Medina’s bill got to a hearing, homeschooling families came out to Sacramento to make their voice known. All kinds of families—Christian, secular, LGBTQ, bullied, etc. There hasn’t been a major legislative attempt since then, since 2018.
NP: Our organizations have observed restrictions going back to the ‘80s. But they’re less common today. In the ‘70s, homeschoolers were generally conservatives or hippie types. In 2025, there’s a tremendous range of families homeschooling, and they tend to be more involved in their communities. Even in the legislature, there's broad support for giving families the choice to homeschool.
Nevertheless, we still see some restrictions proposed. A couple years ago, a statewide school database was brought back from the ‘70s, and it was suggested we include information on private schools (including homeschools). But they decided against it.
There have also been proposals to extend required schooling from ages 6–18 (barring exemptions) to, for instance, 4–20 years old. Depending on how it’s worded, this could require homeschooling families to prove they’ve fulfilled the standards for required subject areas during those years.
ON: 20 years old?
NP: The idea was to mitigate when students get out of high school but don’t know what they want to do—give them a couple extra years to figure it out. There are some legislators that consider it the government’s duty to place high school graduates in work or education. But I’d consider that overstepping.
Most of the work I do today is determining the unintended consequences of other bills for homeschooling. Not direct legal attacks, but unanticipated byproducts.
Last year, there was a bill with the Department of Pesticides—did you know we had one?—to protect schools a certain distance from pesticides. They wanted to put all schools, including homeschools, on a map so farmers knew where to stay away from. But that would be an invasion of privacy—and unnecessary, we found, since existing law already keeps pesticides away from homes (at a greater distance). So we worked with them on fixing the bill language.
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