The state bill, protested by hundreds of homeschooling families at the Illinois State Capitol, will move the committee off the committee on Wednesday, heading to the Capitol floor sometime next week, Fox News learned.
House Bill 2827, known as the Homeschool Act, passed away from the Education Policy Committee on 8-4 votes. If it passes a House floor vote, the bill goes to the full house to vote, then the Senate followed before going to Illinois Governor J.B. Pretzker's desk.
Democrat Pretzker has not made his position public on the bill. Fox News has contacted his office multiple times, asking if he supports the bill and if it reached his desk but would like to sign if he has not received a response so far.
The bill establishes requirements for parents to meet to homeschool their children, and if they do not comply, they could face Class C misdemeanors punished in prison for up to 30 days. Hundreds of homeschooling families gathered inside the state Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, and on Wednesday denounced the bill as an overreach by lawmakers.
Will Estrada, senior advisor to the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, told Fox News that the bill's language was “freely ended because unelected and inexplainable bureaucrats could write a variety of regulations.”
“If this bill is passed to the law, it will expand further restrictions on homeschool and private school families in the future,” Estrada said after testifying at a hearing on Wednesday. “The homeschooler records show us that we do well academically, socially and emotionally, so why are we messing around with them? That's the question. This bill is a solution for the problem.”
Illinois parents, lawmakers, alarms sound their alarm about the proposed homeschooling bill: “Direct attack on family members.”
Will Estrada, senior advisor to the Homeschool Law Defense Association, explains his opposition to House Bill 2827, known as the Homeschool Act. (Fox News)
“We became homeschoolers after seeing all governments go too far in 2020. So the fact that they are coming for us again with government overdues feels that it's an attack on parental rights,” Michelle Langwasy said the homeschooling mother who appeared at the National Capitol told Fox News. “Some of the bills say schools are determining where children's records go.
“That's a very awful overdue of what the nation should be able to do, and they also say that students should be educated to serve the nation. That's absurd,” Langworthy said. “I'm not in line with the nation. I don't want a state prioritizing family priorities. We have a different value system. We are not ownership of the nation.”
House Bill 2827, which was protested by hundreds at the Illinois State Capitol. (Fox News)
“We're doing well. We're getting high scores. We're doing great things. We're involved in the community,” she said. Chicago Public Schools system. “They have no right to come to our side of the lane.”
Another homeschooling parent, Luke Stahter, told Fox News on the Capitol on Wednesday that the bill is “a step back for freedom of homeschooling, but it will take a step forward.”
Chicago Public Schools, Teachers' Unions reaffirm that it is a “sanctuary space” ahead of the Trump administration
“We are concerned that this is opening that door because we want to choose what we teach our children, how to raise them, how we instruct them. And the next thing is, “Hey, we need to tell them what the subject you are teaching is. “This will avoid these efforts and bring them back under the public school system's authorities and careful eyes.”
On March 19, 2025, signs are displayed on the balcony of the Illinois State Capitol Building in Springfield to read “HB 2827 stopped, unconstitutional overreach.” (Fox News)
The bill requires the state board of education to create a “homeschool declaration form.” Homeschooling parents must submit essentially submit to register their children at the nearest public school. According to the bill's summary, children of parents who do not submit the form will be “deemed absenteeism and penalties will be applied.”
The local education department or school district may also require homeschooling parents to pass on a set of child records, such as a “educational portfolio,” or a log of writing samples, workbooks, worksheets, and other curriculum materials.
The portfolio states “as evidence that homeschooling programs for homeschool administrators provide sufficient teaching courses to meet the educational requirements set out in Sections 26-1 and 27-1 of the School Act, which are at least comparable to the standards set out for public schools.” Section 26-1 sets the mandatory school age between 7 and 17, unless the child has already graduated from high school, but Section 27-1 aims to ensure that the areas of education taught in public schools do not discriminate due to the gender of the students.
One homeschooling mother, Michelle Langworthy, told Fox News at the Illinois State Capitol about her opposition to House Bill 2827. (Fox News)
Click to get the Fox News app
The bill also requires homeschooling parents of children participating in public school activities on or off the school grounds to “provide evidence that the child has received all necessary vaccinations and health checks or signed religious exemption certificates.”
Patrick McGovern of Fox News contributed to this report.
