Home schooling deregulates, surges in popularity

Wanting their five children to learn values such as morality and purity, and study science without evolution, Amy and Jon Zobel have home-schooled their kids for more than a decade — working with a certified teacher who each quarter reviewed samples of their schoolwork.

But since legislators deregulated home schooling in 2013, Amy Zobel is among a growing number of Iowa parents who've stopped registering or formally monitoring their children's progress.

She still uses the same curriculum, still participates in a home-school group near her home outside of Tipton and plans to continue testing their progress every other year at a nearby Christian school. But she no longer has to fill out home-schooling paperwork — unless she wishes to take advantage of public school offerings as community college courses.

"It gave us a little more freedom," Zobel said.

The loosening of regulations was long sought by home-schooling activists. The Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators returns to the Capitol on Thursday for an annual lobbying day.

Iowa joins a growing number of states that, since the mid-'90s, have loosened home-school regulation or failed to pass laws requiring more oversight. Home-schooling supporters say it's an acknowledgment of parental rights. But others see it as a step away from accountability — and, they fear, has the potential to be misused.

It's unknown how many children are home-schooled in Iowa or across the United States, because families are no longer required to register in many states. But estimates put the number nationwide around 2 million, and researchers agree that home schooling is continuing to grow in popularity.

"We have a lot of really, really good home-school families, wonderful families," said Leslie Dahm, coordinator of Des Moines Public School's Competent Private Instruction, whose teachers work with home-school families seeking advice and lead activities such as dissecting frogs that can be difficult to organize at home.

But with Iowa law no longer requiring even a basic education check, Dahm worries that it created a loophole for parents of truant children or who are unable or unwilling to provide quality home instruction.

"It's the lost children," said Dahm, who believes a small but growing number are slipping through the cracks. "There are kids out there that may not get a good education because their parents can simply say: 'I don't want to deal with this,' and pull them out of school."

Choosing home schooling

In many home-schooling families, parents spend countless hours researching curriculum, connecting with other home-school families and tailoring their children's instructions to fit their needs.

Many also participate in activities where they make friends and socialize. In the Des Moines area, for example, home-school students may also take art and gym classes together, and participate in extracurriculars such as 4-H or choir.

Diana Plorins said she was attracted to home schooling several years ago, after seeing how a friend's family approached it and the relationships she had built with her children. Once Plorins' family decided to educate at home, she spent time checking websites and studying Iowa's laws to ensure she was following the state's regulations.

"I didn't want to lose the privilege to home-school," said Plorins, now a board member of the Ankeny home-school group HUGS, or Homeschooling Under God's Supervision.

Today, Iowa no longer requires home-school families to file paperwork, unless they seek public education resources, such as through district-run support programs, enrollment in a specific class or services such as speech therapy. Many do.

Researchers such as education professor Milton Gaither of Messiah College in Pennsylvania say that home-schooling laws like Iowa's are often endorsed by conservative Christians and well-organized groups such as the Home School Legal Defense Association.

"Anytime these kinds of issues come up, home-schoolers come out," Gaither said. "Hundreds of them show up at the courthouse or statehouse, and maybe one or two lobbyists (on the other side). There's no challenge."

The deregulation means that Iowa home-schoolers no longer are required to cite the curriculum they'll use. Nor do they need to work with a certified teacher or, as an alternative, have children tested annually to monitor their progress.

In addition, the law allows home educators to give their children driving instructions that would otherwise have to be taken through a class.

"All this law is doing is making sure home education is treated fairly or equitably with other private education, which is that the government has no control," said Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute in Oregon. "The government has no control over Catholic schools, or new-age pagan schools, or Jewish schools."

Concerns persist

And yet, concerns continue that the deregulation will allow some children to slip through the cracks.

Educators say they've seen families withdraw children from school midyear as a way of solving a conflict, as well as families who make the decision without doing advanced preparation for schooling at home.

Since February, the families of at least 24 children who left school have sought assistance through Des Moines' Competent Private Instruction. What remains unknown, however, is how many children withdrew midyear — and never sought support.

"There are plenty of cases and stories of wonderful home-schooling environments," said Robert Kunzman, managing director of the International Center for Home Education Research in Indiana.

But, he said, "We don't have any way of knowing how home-schoolers are doing across the board, and there are cases of home-schoolers or families who say they are home-schooling, who are, in fact, not doing so."

In Iowa, children are required to attend school from about age 5 through the school year they turn 16, and some fear that families could claim home schooling for children who are running afoul of the state's compulsory education law.

Individuals who are concerned about a child's education may contact their school district, the county attorney's office, which is responsible for enforcing truancy laws, or — if there are concerns about a child's safety — the Department of Human Service's Child Welfare office.

But it's not clear just how much latitude those officials have to investigate whether a child is, in fact, receiving an education at home. Thomas Mayes, an attorney with the Iowa Department of Education, said that the 2013 law is so new, it hasn't been tested in court.

"They have the authority to check," Maze said of school officials. "Would it be enough for the parent to say, 'I'm doing home instruction without reporting, you know that now, goodbye.' "

Home-school parents say they shouldn't be punished for the transgressions of a few. Parents interviewed by The Des Moines Register said they take the responsibility to educate their children seriously, and they don't want to see others shirk it either.

"The decisions should be left up to the parent," said Liza Tatz of Urbandale, who also home-schools her children. "We all love our children, and we are going to do what's best for them."

Home schooling: By the numbers

• 2 million — Estimated number of home-schooled children across the nation, according to researchers who use data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

• 10,700 — Home-school children in Iowa in 2012 that registered with school districts, when it was required, according to the Iowa Department of Education. The number has likely grown, although it's unknown how much.