It started with voicemail.
An official from the Eastern Lancaster County School District called a homeschooling mother to announce that she’d be coming by the next day at 8:30 a.m. Not dropping off a note or asking a question. She demanded to see the mother’s high school diploma, as though a government officer could appear uninvited at a private home and demand personal papers.
And the next morning, she did exactly that — arriving on the family’s doorstep with a school social worker in tow. It was an unmistakable display of power.
There was just one problem: Pennsylvania law doesn’t authorize any of that.
Under Pennsylvania’s homeschool statute, parents have a simple legal duty: file an affidavit, or unsworn declaration, confirming they meet the law’s requirements, including that the parent has a high school diploma or its equivalent, and sign it under penalty of perjury. That sworn statement is the only proof the law requires. The statute doesn’t permit demands for original diplomas, surprise inspections, or sending district agents to intimidate families at their front doors.
This kind of government overreach isn’t limited to one small district. It’s part of a larger pattern we see across the country when officials forget that their authority has limits.
Days before, when ELANCO officials refused to accept the families’ sworn statements, the Home School Legal Defense Association, the nonprofit advocacy group I lead, wrote them, twice, explaining exactly what the law requires and what it does not. Those letters went unheeded. Instead of correcting course, the district escalated, sending staff to the families’ homes.
That’s when we sued. Our argument was simple: The law is clear, and school districts cannot make up new requirements.
This isn’t the first time Pennsylvania homeschoolers have had to remind officials where their authority ends. In 1988, the HSLDA handled Jeffrey v. O’Donnell, a federal case that struck down the state’s previous homeschool statute as unconstitutionally vague.
Back then, too, school districts made it up as they went, with as many as 34 different policies depending on where you lived. The court’s rebuke prompted the General Assembly to pass Act 169, giving Pennsylvania and its school officials a clear and comprehensive homeschool law.
But the ELANCO officials didn’t follow it.
This week, we dismissed the case after the district agreed to settle. In a signed agreement, ELANCO promised to follow the law; to handle any future homeschool disputes through the proper process, certified letters and a neutral hearing; and to accept parents’ sworn statements as sufficient proof of their qualifications.
This kind of overreach isn’t unique to Pennsylvania. At the HSLDA, we deal with officials who want more than the law requires all over the country. Most of the time, a letter explaining the law is enough — and they back off, as they should. ELANCO surrendered only after we sued them. But sometimes, we’ve had to go further.
In 2019, a Virginia school district took the extraordinary step of passing a local policy that added to Virginia’s statewide homeschool law. When Kirk and Kristen Sosebee, who were both homeschooled growing up, declined to follow those unlawful demands, the district threatened to prosecute them for truancy. Despite repeated attempts by the HSLDA urging the district to relent, it did not.
So we sued.
And that district, unlike ELANCO, persisted right up until the Virginia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that it was out of line. The court reminded officials that parental rights and the rule of law go hand in hand.
The same is true here. The Brennan and Stoltzfus families stood firm not only for their own children but for thousands of Pennsylvania families who simply want to teach their children without fear or undue interference.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY IS STILL KEEPING PARENTS IN THE DARK
Homeschooling is not a loophole or an act of defiance. It is a lawful exercise of parental responsibility that helps children thrive and flourish. When officials overstep their lawful boundaries, they don’t just violate homeschoolers’ rights — they undermine the rule of law itself.
And that should concern everybody. Whether you homeschool or not, we should all want a government that honors the limits of its authority. The peace and trust between citizens and their public servants depend on it.
Jim Mason is the president of the Home School Legal Defense Association.