🚨 TAKE ACTION TO DEFEND PARENTAL RIGHTS
Tennessee politicians are advancing SB-1968/HB-1823, bills that would block families from starting homeschool based on a truancy label alone. And this time, it’s being sponsored by Republicans who are doing the Democrats’ dirty work. We must stop this legislation now!
Here’s what SB-1968/HB-1823 would mean for homeschool families:
• 🛑 Homeschooling can be blocked after a truancy report.
Once a school labels a child truant, parents may be legally barred from withdrawing their child to homeschool, even when it’s clearly in the child’s best interest.
• 🛑 Truancy standards vary by district.
Because each district sets its own rules, as few as three unexcused absences can trigger state intervention, depending on where a family lives.
• 🛑 Judges – not parents – decide if homeschooling is allowed.
After a truancy report, families must get court approval to homeschool, transferring educational authority away from parents.
• 🛑 No clear due process protections.
The bills give judges broad discretion with no clear standards or timelines, leaving families stuck in legal limbo.
• 🛑 Red-flag laws for education.
School officials define the violation, report the family, and the state suspends parental authority first and sorts it out later.
These bills were introduced by Republicans in a Republican super-majority – Senator Adam Lowe and Kevin Raper – and let’s not forget it was REPUBLICAN State Rep William Slater last year who killed the best pro-homeschooling legislation TN has seen in decades and then immediately turned around and filed anti-homeschooling legislation.
It’s crystal clear that Republicans in Nashville won’t fight for us, so we MUST act now. Sign your petition right away!
Once you’ve done that, take the next step and donate to this fight so we can mobilize more homeschoolers to push back against this kind of dangerous power grab!