Congress targets obscure legal loophole keeping some homeschoolers out of jobs
Sarah Sheldon was ready to get to work last summer after getting a near-perfect score on her cosmetology board exam, but a loophole in a federal law allowed the state of New Jersey to deny her a license to practice because she was homeschooled. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill took one step closer to closing it, bringing relief to families and students.
Lisa Sheldon homeschooled her two children — Noah and Sarah — for several years out of dissatisfaction with curriculum changes and her son’s behavior. Noah excelled with no problems, but Sarah faced issues when she sought her cosmetology license, as New Jersey didn’t recognize her homeschool education.
“My daughter excelled above other students in the class, and it didn’t matter, nor did it matter she had more hours, that on the state-administered cosmetology exam she got a 99% on it,” Sheldon told Straight Arrow News.
Sarah didn’t get her license until December. Sheldon said it meant she was out of work for months.
Another family could be spared the same stressors, as the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill late Tuesday that would formally recognize graduates of homeschool programs as high school graduates. The bill passed during a suspension of House rules, which nullified the need for a roll-call vote. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate, but has yet to be released from committee hearings.
The Home School Legal Defense Association has lobbied for the legislation as parents take on difficult tasks of being their child’s educator and study state laws to do so, Senior Counsel Will Estrada told Straight Arrow News.
He added that the association has sent legal notices to colleges and trade programs to admit students like Sarah and Noah. It’s a common occurrence, he said, as an amendment to the Higher Education Act stated that students were eligible for financial aid, but not considered graduates.
The bill is now headed to the Senate for consideration. Estrada said it’s the final piece of federal legislation HSLDA is focused on to level the playing field in homeschooling.
“We believe it’s a simple change to making it clear that homeschoolers are eligible for federal aid and considered high school graduates,” Estrada said.
Families step in to become educators
A 2019 U.S. Department of Education survey of homeschooled families showed that 80.3% of them chose the option following concerns about student safety, drug use or negative peer pressure. The homeschool survey was administered in 2016 and 2019.
Those were similar reasons Sheldon felt to homeschool her son. She was an active classroom mom when her son attended public school from preschool to second grade. In his classroom, she began to see where his behavior came from.
She considered private schools, but it was unaffordable for the family.
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According to Johns Hopkins University’s Homeschool Hub, 937,943 students were reportedly being homeschooled in the 2024-2025 school year across 29 states.
“Homeschooling came into my path, and I met some people and realized it was something we could do,” Sheldon said. “It trickled to my daughter by default, and she was homeschooled from preschool to senior year.”
New Jersey does not have strict laws governing homeschooling, according to the HSLDA. The group considers the state to be one of the easiest for parents to homeschool in, as they are not required to give notice to the school district or the state about their intentions. Sheldon noted she had to instruct her kids for 180 days and give them an equivalent curriculum to what would be offered at a traditional school.
The mother of two added that she’s not a teacher. Her background is in legal bookkeeping. There were moments she learned material alongside her children. The real trick for Sheldon came when she realized her children learned things differently, with Noah preferring books and Sarah favoring hands-on instruction.
U.S. Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., said before a vote that parents across the nation make choices similar to Sheldon’s, where they opt to be their children’s educators for a variety of reasons. He said many colleges have “discriminated” against homeschooled children because of the Higher Education Act’s loophole.
“My bill makes one simple but critically important clarification to fix this problem once and for all; it states plainly that a homeschooler who earns a diploma recognized under state law is a high school graduate,” Harris said.
The legislation had bipartisan support in the House Education Workforce Committee. Rep. Robert Scott, D-Va., and a ranking member of the committee, said Tuesday that homeschooled students have to jump through “needless exams to prove they have, in fact, graduated.”
Estrada said that colleges and trade programs didn’t exhibit animus against homeschoolers, but instead followed the law exactly as written to protect accreditation.
As for the Sheldon family, Sarah now holds her cosmetology license. Sheldon looks toward the relief it could bring to future families and graduates.
“I’m happy to hear there is something that’s passed,” she said. “Last year was our last, but I would hate for other families to go through this.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
