Kentucky law intended to reduce truancy drives some families to homeschool
A state law aimed at cutting down on rampant truancy rates in Kentucky led more families to withdraw their children from public school districts in favor of homeschooling, according to local officials.
The unintended consequence of the 2024 law, which took effect in the 2024-25 academic year, meant some districts lost students — and the precious state education dollars that follow them, officials at half a dozen school districts told the Herald-Leader.
It also raised concerns that some students who withdrew for homeschools wouldn’t receive much, if any, real education, and has exacerbated declining enrollment in some districts.
The new law requires a public school district to notify the county attorney when a student has racked up 15 unexcused absences during a school year. The prosecutor then has the option to pursue a charge against parents or guardians based on truancy.
Officials in several districts told the Herald-Leader they think parents removed students from public schools to avoid reaching the 15 absences and facing possible court action under the law.
“They’ll go to homeschool before they’ll go to court,” said Brett Johnson, director of pupil personnel for the Harlan County school district, who will take over as superintendent July 1.
In December, there were about 450 students in the district that parents had withdrawn to attend homeschools, Johnson said. That number had jumped to about 550 by early May.
Lawmakers approved the measure, House Bill 611, in 2024 to try to improve attendance in Kentucky’s public schools, which has suffered since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2022-23 school year, nearly 30% of students in Kentucky schools were considered chronically absent, meaning they had missed at least 10% of school days, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.
Harlan County Superintendent Brent Roark said lawmakers had a good goal in mind in approving the new law, but that it has had the unintended result of an “explosion” in the number of students removed to homeschools.
“They passed a law with good intentions, but it’s killing us,” said Roark, who is retiring
Public schools in Kentucky receive state money based on enrollment, so they lose funding when a student switches to homeschooling.
Karen Baker, the Letcher County director of pupil personnel, said there were about 240 homeschool students in the county at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year.
By May, parents or guardians withdrew an additional 78 students for homeschooling, she said.
All of them had been chronically absent, she said.
“It’s a lot of kids to lose to homeschool,” Baker said.
‘A bit of a mixed bag’
State law requires all children ages 6 to 18 to be enrolled in school. Directors of pupil personnel are the officials tasked with enforcing attendance rules.
Several said the experience under HB 611 has varied.
While some school districts lost larger numbers of students to homeschooling, the number of homeschool students statewide as of late April was not significantly higher than in the 2023-24 school year — 40,708 compared to 40,695, said Jennifer Ginn, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education.
The Kentucky Department of Education did not have statistics on how many students withdrew to homeschools during the 2024-25 school year. The department receives that information once a year from local districts.
Officials in some districts said their homeschool numbers did not go up significantly under the first year of the law. Some credit the law for helping keep some students in school.
Justin Gay, director of pupil personnel in Clay County, said he believed HB 611 has been a factor in withdrawals to homeschools there, though he said the law also has motivated improved attendance for some students.
“It’s a bit of a mixed bag,” Gay said.
There were about 30 more homechool students in the district in mid-May than in the 2023-24 school year, Gay said.
Teresa Smith, director of pupil personnel for the Laurel County school system, said there were 947 homeschooled students in the district in early May, down from 978 the year before.
Smith said while there are many factors in that, she believed alternative learning opportunities helped keep some students in the school system, and that HB 611 had played a role as well.
“I do think it caught the attention of some parents and students to improve overall attendance,” she said.
State law allows parents and guardians to remove students for homeschooling simply by notifying the superintendent of the public school district.
‘A way to avoid truancy’
Switching students to homeschools over truancy concerns — or because of other factors such as disagreements over discipline or grades — is not new.
Eighty-two percent of pupil personnel who responded to a survey said they’d seen families withdraw students to homeschools “because they are trying to avoid consequences of truancy,” according to a study of homeschooling in Kentucky by the state Office of Education Accountability released in September 2018.
That happened often, according to 46% of respondents, and it happened sometimes, according to another 36%.
The report is the most recent available on homeschooling from the agency.
The report said 30.2% of the students who withdrew to homeschools in 2017 had been absent at least 20% of school days at the time they withdrew, compared to just 2.7% of students who didn’t leave the public schools.
The difference with HB 611 in place, however, is the requirement for public school districts to refer information to the county attorney when a student reaches 15 unexcused absences.
There was no deadline for school officials to get court officials involved in truancy cases before.
Jim Flynn, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, said he was sure HB 611 has contributed to an increase in homeschool withdrawals “because it upped the consequences.”
Homeschool numbers in 2024-25 in the Bell County school system were the highest in his 15 years as director of pupil personnel, and HB 611 has been a factor, said Chris Warren.
There were 157 homeschool students in the district in mid-May, up from 135 at the end of the prior school year, he said.
“I do see many guardians withdrawing after they receive the notice to appear in court for truancy,” he said. “It’s a way to avoid truancy.”
Warren said HB 611 had helped with attendance in some cases as well, however, calling it a “double-edged sword.”
Homeschoolers compare well on assessments
Without fail, public-school educators said that they support the right of parents and guardians to homeschool kids and that some homeschools provide high-quality education.
The 2018 state report report bore that out.
Data for 2017 showed that homeschooled students who enrolled in postsecondary institutions in Kentucky earned higher grade point averages than students coming out of public and private schools. They also had higher ACT composite scores than public school students, the report said.
The report noted, however, that those findings might not represent outcomes for all homeschool graduates because only about 20% enrolled in college in Kentucky.
The report said some of the most common reasons parents chose to homeschool their children were concerns about safety, drugs and the social environment in public schools; dissatisfaction with the instruction in public schools; and a desire to provide religious instruction in their children’s education.
While acknowledging there are good homeschools, public-education officials argued that many homeschools in their counties are inadequate or outright shams aimed at avoiding accountability for truancy or other issues.
State Rep. Scott Lewis, a Republican from Hartford and former school superintendent in Ohio and Hancock counties, said most of the homeschools he encountered were not providing a good education.
“Very seldom, I’d get a good one, and then I would get 10 to 15 more bad ones,” said Lewis, chair of the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee and a co-sponsor on HB 611.
The 2018 report said concerns that Kentucky school officials had about homeschools were based in part on home visits.
“Because (directors of pupil personnel) are required to visit the homes of truant public school students, they often have experience with families who ultimately withdraw their children to homeschool, and they worry that the conditions they observe in the home — lack of parental education or of instructional materials — make it unlikely that the homeschooled children will be educated,” the report said.
School officials also had observed “documents submitted by homeschool families who appear to have difficulty with basic written communication,” the report said.
‘We’re talking educational neglect’
Public school educators worry about an increase in homeschooling in part because of a belief that many parents and guardians aren’t prepared or able to provide home instruction — or that they don’t really plan to operate a school because their real intent is to avoid truancy.
“At best, we’re talking educational neglect” with many homeschools, said Flynn, head of the superintendents association.
Republican state Rep. Timmy Truett, a school principal in Jackson County and one of the co-sponsors of HB 611, said he was aware of a case in which a woman who had been in special education classes in school withdrew her own child to homeschool.
When she was asked who would handle instruction, she said “Me am,” Truett said.
Some states, including Tennessee and West Virginia, require adults who intend to homeschool students to have at least a high school diploma or a GED.
There is no educational requirement for homeschool teachers in Kentucky, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association.
‘We definitely are concerned’
Some local school officials said students in homeschool may also miss out benefits available in public schools, including socialization, help with emotional and mental health and even food.
“The school provides way more than an education,” said Baker, the DPP in Letcher County.
Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said there are some excellent homeschools in Kentucky, but others that raise concerns.
Those include possible abuse or neglect of kids that would be harder for someone outside the family to spot if the students stay home, he said.
Homeschools may also be covers for child labor in some cases, he said.
“We definitely are concerned about the maltreatment issue and how that might be impacted by homeschool,” Brooks said.
Flynn, head of the state superintendents association, said in a May 9 post that while homeschooling can be a “legitimate and meaningful educational choice for families,” the current laws in Kentucky “create a dangerous loophole that enables some parents to use it as a shield against accountability.”
According to a guide from the Kentucky Department of Education, state law requires people operating a homeschool to establish a “bonafide” school; to keep track of students’ attendance and progress in courses; to teach 1,062 instructional hours over at least 170 attendance days; and to cover reading, writing, spelling, grammar, history, mathematics, science and civics.
The law says homeschools shall be “open to inspection” by directors of pupil personnel from public schools, who can ask to see reports on attendance and grades.
But school officials told the Herald-Leader they don’t have the time or staff to visit every homeschool, or even the majority of them.
State law does not require home schools to prove to public schools that they are providing instruction.
Officials work to keep kids in school
A spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association, a national group that defends the right of parents and guardians to homeschool, said people sometimes switch kids to homeschools over attendance issues.
But in nearly every case the association sees, the absences at issue “should have been excused, for reasons including school safety issues, such as bullying, and chronic illness or mental health struggles that would be improved in a homeschool environment,” said the spokesman, Titus Prude.
“What we regularly see is a parent who has been trying to work with a school to address these issues,” Prude said. “However, once it becomes clear that homeschooling is the best option for the student and the family initiates the process to homeschool, the school decides to pursue the unexcused absences for truancy.”
Officials in Kentucky public schools, however, said they go to great lengths to try to work with parents, guardians and students to improve attendance and fix issues that might be keeping a child out of school, such as clothing needs.
In Letcher County, for instance, a teacher calls parents or guardians after a student misses two days without an excuse, then a counselor follows up on the third absence, Baker said.
After that, the family resource center does a home visit to see if there are needs the school system can help with; on the fifth absence, the school principal sends a letter; and at six, she sends another notification, Baker said.
And in Clay County, schools send a letter to parents or guardians after two unexcused absences, then another letter at six absences, then try to schedule a conference with the parents at 10 absences, Gay said.
He also does home visits.
“We absolutely do everything in our power to resolve issues,” Gay said.
‘Casualty that we hate to see’
Truett, the state representative, said it’s a “casualty that we hate to see” if parents are withdrawing kids to homeschools because of HB 611.
But he said the measure has helped boost attendance, and he thinks the positives outweigh the negatives.
Lewis, another co-sponsor of the bill, also said he believes the bill has been a net positive because it can bring a quicker resolution in truancy cases.
“Our goal was to get kids before they fell way behind,” Lewis said.
One section of a bill introduced in the 2025 legislative session would have barred withdrawing a child to an in-home private school while there was a pending process based on allegations of habitual truancy or neglect or abuse.
That measure did not go forward.
Flynn advocated for a number of changes in state law on homeschooling, including requiring parents to describe the curriculum they intend to use; requiring an annual academic progress report, such as a portfolio of students’ work to be reviewed by a certified educator; and a waiting period to finalize a withdrawal to homeschool, during which officials could verify it is a legitimate homeschool.
“These reforms maintain parents’ right to homeschool while ensuring the state upholds its duty to protect children from educational neglect and harm,” Fynn said.
Lewis said he doubted there is enough support for increased regulations on homeschools among Republicans who control the legislature.
‘Inalienable Constitutional right’
Lawmakers typically face strong pushback from homeschool advocates who see efforts to increase regulation as an intrusion on parental rights.
“We as parents have the inalienable Constitutional right to direct the education of our children,” said A.C. Donahue, a Somerset attorney who has long been involved in homeschooling and has represented homeschool parents in court.
Donahue said that within his experience, only a tiny percentage of homeschools don’t provide a good education.
And for those that don’t, homeschool advocates argue that state law already gives school and state officials adequate authority to exercise oversight of homeschools and the tools to hold bad actors to account.
“Every enforcement tool you need is spelled out,” Donahue said.
What’s more, parents and guardians trying to do a good job with homeschooling want authorities to use that power, Donahue said.
“The last thing we want as homeschool parents is for some child to fall off the map,” said Donahue, who helped update the state’s best practices document on homeschools.
Donahue said people sometimes assume a homeschool isn’t doing a good job because they see kids outside or out in town during a time that would be during the traditional school day.
However, homeschooling isn’t confined to typical school hours or a standard calendar, but rather can happen anytime, anyplace, he said.
That could include things such as participation in a soccer league as physical education; involvement in a theater group; and visits to historical sites or museums on vacation.
“There are a myriad examples of how homeschool children are educated outside of the normal 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Friday,” Donahue said.
Brooks said he wished public-school officials and representatives of good-quality homeschools could agree on some common-sense measures to increase accountability for problem homeschools and make sure kids are getting a proper education.
Brooks said that effort would need to include getting better data on homeschools to support policy discussions and possible changes. He and others also said it makes common sense that anyone teaching kids should have at least a high school diploma.
“Those guidelines have nothing to do with over-regulation or negating parental choice. Instead, they have everything to do with supporting our children in academic and personal ways,” Brooks said.
