For many years, Ohio was one of the strictest homeschooling states in the nation. That all changed in 2023, when legislators repealed almost all state oversight ushering in a new era of homeschooling. In only a few years, the impact has been substantial. This change has proven to be majorly popular for Ohio families as they are homeschooling now more than ever. Let’s dive into Ohio’s homeschool regulation landscape to understand how they got to where it is now and what it could mean for your state’s homeschooling requirements.
What Changed?
Before the changes, Ohio was among the top 12 most regulated states in the nation for homeschooling. Homeschoolers were required to report that they were homeschooling to the state and request exclusion from compulsory attendance from their school district. They were also mandated to submit progress reports and a yearly assessment test, which meant the homeschool instructor would be required to hold a high school diploma. Following the new law, once a family notifies their local school district that they plan to homeschool, they are free to, with no further enforcement, oversight or review by the state. These changes were significant and meant that basically overnight Ohio went from one of the more regulated states to one of the least.
The following 2023-2024 school year, homeschooling increased by 15%, and has continued to grow at a rapid rate. The changes have been well received among homeschooling families. Advocates of the changes argue that this new reduced administrative burden on families is creating a surge of interest. In the year following the reforms, homeschoolers reached roughly 61,000 students, and data for the current 2025–2026 is expected to show a continued growth for homeschooling once released in mid-September.
What Could This Mean for Your State?
There is a current surge in political changes happening at the state level around regulatory policy for homeschooling and alternative schools. We get it, ‘state-level education regulatory policy’ may not sound like cutting edge political reform in our nation. It’s easy to imagine regulatory policy as the kind of thing that makes a person’s eyes glaze over as they sift through the minutiae. However, these changes that are happening in real time will likely impact homeschools (and every type of student) for years to come.
Case studies like Ohio give us a picture of what outcomes might be produced from such policies and where upcoming policy trends are headed. A state like Ohio may inspire advocates in another state to take action. In some states, such as New Hampshire, we are seeing the backlash to such rapid deregulation. Now that we are a few years into the passage of experimental and sometimes extreme changes to our education policy, it’s helpful to take stock of what the actual outcomes are of these changes.
State-level change can have significant impact on the day-to-day lives of homeschoolers living there, yet often local level changes aren’t closely tracked, which is why we have focused our recent blogs on state level changes happening. Has your state recently changed homeschooling or School Choice policies? Leave us a comment below!