Timeline
The homeschool movement, 1837 to 2026.
84 milestones across legal precedent, movement founding, publisher launches, method codification, ESA funding, and international developments. Mann to Mason. Holt to Wilson. Moore Formula to Memoria Press. Pierce v. Society of Sisters to the Wyoming Steamboat ESA Supreme Court reversal of May 14, 2026.
1830s
- 1837Legal
Horace Mann appointed Massachusetts Secretary of Education
Horace Mann becomes the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education and launches the common-school movement that frames public, tax-funded schooling as the normative path for American children. The movement establishes the institutional and ideological backdrop against which all subsequent compulsory-school laws and home-education exceptions are written.
1850s
- 1852Legal
Massachusetts passes first compulsory-education law
Massachusetts enacts the first compulsory-school-attendance statute in the United States, requiring children aged 8 to 14 to attend school for at least twelve weeks per year. Other states follow over the next sixty-six years; Mississippi becomes the last to pass a compulsory-attendance law in 1918.
1880s
- 1886Method
Charlotte Mason publishes Home Education
English educator Charlotte Mason publishes Home Education, the first of what will become her six-volume series articulating a developmental philosophy built on living books, narration, short lessons, and the dignity of the child as a person. The work seeds the Parents' Educational Union movement and circulates among middle-class English families educating children at home.
- 1887Movement
Parents' National Educational Union founded
Charlotte Mason and a circle of supporters in Bradford and London formally constitute the Parents' Educational Union (later the Parents' National Educational Union, PNEU) to disseminate her method to parents educating children outside conventional schools. The PNEU becomes the organizational vehicle for Mason's curriculum, conferences, and correspondence programs across the English-speaking world.
1890s
- 1890Movement
The Parents' Review begins publication
The PNEU launches The Parents' Review, a monthly journal that publishes Mason's lectures, curriculum schedules, book lists, and correspondence from member families. The journal runs continuously into the 1990s and becomes the canonical archive of Mason-method materials later digitized by Ambleside Online and other revival projects.
- 1892Method
Mason opens the House of Education at Ambleside
Mason establishes the House of Education at Scale How in Ambleside, Cumbria, as a training college for governesses and parent-educators in her method. The Ambleside training site gives the method its informal name and remains the geographic and bibliographic anchor of the revival a century later.
1920s
- 1922Legal
Pierce v. Society of Sisters
The Supreme Court rules in Pierce v. Society of Sisters that an Oregon statute requiring all children to attend public schools is unconstitutional, holding that parents have a fundamental liberty interest in directing the education of their children. The decision becomes the foundational federal precedent later invoked by home-education advocates against state efforts to bar private or home instruction.
- 1923Method
Mason publishes A Philosophy of Education
Charlotte Mason publishes A Philosophy of Education, the sixth and final volume of her series and the most systematic statement of her twenty principles. The volume becomes the primary text for twenty-first-century revivalists, who treat it as the canonical summary of the method.
- 1923Legal
Meyer v. Nebraska
The Supreme Court strikes down a Nebraska statute that had criminalized the teaching of German to young children, holding that the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment includes the right to acquire useful knowledge and the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children. The decision is later paired with Pierce v. Society of Sisters as the parental-rights foundation cited in home-education jurisprudence.
- 1925Legal
Scopes Trial
Tennessee teacher John T. Scopes is convicted of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act, in a trial that crystallizes the early-twentieth-century conflict between religious and modernist visions of American schooling. The trial does not directly involve home education, but it shapes the cultural environment from which the late-twentieth-century Christian home-school movement later emerges.
1950s
- 1957Publisher
The Writing Road to Reading published
Romalda Spalding publishes The Writing Road to Reading, codifying the Spalding Method of integrated phonics, spelling, and writing instruction drawn from the work of neurologist Samuel Orton. The text becomes a standard reference for phonics-based reading instruction in homeschool and remedial-classroom settings for the next seven decades.
1960s
- 1964Movement
John Holt publishes How Children Fail
Teacher and education reformer John Holt publishes How Children Fail, an observational critique of conventional classroom dynamics that argues children learn defensively and inauthentically under institutional pressure. The book sells widely and establishes Holt as a public voice for radical school reform.
- 1967Movement
Holt publishes How Children Learn
Holt's companion volume How Children Learn argues that children are intrinsically motivated investigators and that adult-directed instruction often disrupts the learning the child would otherwise undertake. Together the two books move Holt from school-reform advocate toward what he will later name unschooling.
1970s
- 1970Movement
Raymond and Dorothy Moore found their research institute
Raymond and Dorothy Moore, both former public-school administrators, begin compiling developmental research arguing that formal schooling before ages eight to twelve is correlated with negative cognitive and emotional outcomes. Their work becomes the empirical anchor for what is later called the Moore Formula and reaches a national evangelical audience through Focus on the Family broadcasts in the 1980s.
- 1972Legal
Wisconsin v. Yoder
The Supreme Court rules in Wisconsin v. Yoder that the state cannot compel Amish parents to send their children to school beyond the eighth grade, holding that the Free Exercise Clause protects religiously motivated education choices against generally applicable school-attendance laws. The ruling becomes a foundational federal precedent for later religiously framed home-education claims.
- 1975Movement
Better Late Than Early published
Raymond and Dorothy Moore publish Better Late Than Early, synthesizing their developmental research and arguing that delayed formal academics produce better long-term outcomes. The book becomes a touchstone text for early Christian and secular home-educators and remains in print through Moore Foundation channels.
- 1977Movement
Growing Without Schooling founded
John Holt launches Growing Without Schooling, the first periodical in North America written by and for families educating their children at home outside formal school enrollment. The magazine runs through 2001 and provides the network through which the secular and progressive wing of the American home-education movement organizes.
- 1979Publisher
Abeka Book Publications enters the home-school market
Pensacola Christian College's curriculum arm, then publishing under the A Beka Book imprint for Christian schools, begins offering its full K-12 catalog directly to home-educating families. Abeka's traditional textbook-and-workbook model becomes the dominant Christian home-school curriculum format for the next two decades.
1980s
- 1981Movement
Logos School founded in Moscow, Idaho
Douglas Wilson and a circle of Christ Church members in Moscow, Idaho, found Logos School as a private classical and Christian K-12 school. Logos becomes the institutional prototype for the American classical-Christian school movement that Wilson will formalize a decade later with Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning.
- 1983Movement
HSLDA founded by Michael Farris and Michael Smith
Attorneys Michael Farris and Michael Smith found the Home School Legal Defense Association in Virginia to provide membership-based legal representation to families facing state truancy and compulsory-attendance enforcement. HSLDA becomes the largest national legal-advocacy organization for American home-educators and the principal lobbying force behind state-level home-school statutes through the 1980s and 1990s.
- 1983Movement
John Holt dies; Patrick Farenga continues Growing Without Schooling
John Holt dies on December 14, 1985, after which Patrick Farenga assumes editorship of Growing Without Schooling and management of Holt Associates. Farenga becomes the principal custodian of Holt's unschooling literature and continues publishing through the 2020s.
- 1984Publisher
Sonlight Curriculum founded
John and Sarita Holzmann found Sonlight Curriculum as a literature-based homeschool program initially designed for missionary families overseas. Sonlight's Charlotte Mason-adjacent living-book approach and bundled-package model become a long-standing presence in the American Christian homeschool market.
- 1985Movement
NHERI founded by Brian D. Ray
Brian D. Ray founds the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Oregon, as the first US research organization dedicated to studying home-education demographics, academic outcomes, and social characteristics. NHERI's annual population estimates and outcome studies become the primary statistical references for advocacy organizations, state legislatures, and the press.
- 1988Legal
Pennsylvania enacts Act 169 homeschool law
Pennsylvania passes Act 169 of 1988, instituting one of the most procedurally detailed home-education statutes in the United States, requiring an annual notarized affidavit, a written objectives portfolio, and an end-of-year evaluation by a state-approved evaluator. The Pennsylvania regime remains a reference point for high-regulation states through the 2020s.
- 1989Publisher
Bob Jones University Press enters direct-to-home sales
Bob Jones University Press begins selling its Christian K-12 textbook line directly to home-educating families. BJU Press becomes, alongside Abeka and Alpha Omega Publications, one of the three dominant traditional-textbook publishers serving the conservative Christian home-school market of the 1990s.
- 1980sPublisher
Alpha Omega Publications launches LIFEPAC
Alpha Omega Publications, founded in Tempe, Arizona, publishes the LIFEPAC self-paced workbook curriculum that becomes a staple Christian homeschool option for K-12 families seeking a mastery-based independent-study format. The company is later acquired by Glynlyon and continues publishing LIFEPAC, Horizons, and Monarch online programs into the 2020s.
1990s
- 1991Method
Wilson publishes Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning
Douglas Wilson publishes Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, extending Dorothy Sayers's 1947 Oxford essay The Lost Tools of Learning into a programmatic call for an American classical-Christian school movement. The book becomes the founding text of the institutional movement that crystallizes as the Association of Classical Christian Schools two years later.
- 1993Publisher
Memoria Press founded by Cheryl and Brian Lowe
Cheryl Lowe, a Latin teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, founds Memoria Press to publish Latina Christiana and a classical Latin-centered curriculum. Memoria Press becomes one of the principal publishers of the American classical-Christian movement and the curriculum publisher for the Highlands Latin School network.
- 1994Movement
Association of Classical Christian Schools founded
A group of school heads and pastors associated with Logos School and Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning incorporate the Association of Classical Christian Schools (ACCS) to accredit and network classical Christian K-12 schools. ACCS membership grows from a handful of schools at founding to more than three hundred member schools by the mid-2020s.
- 1996Publisher
Veritas Press founded
Marlin and Laurie Detweiler found Veritas Press in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, publishing classical-Christian curricula and the Veritas Press Scholars Academy of online live and self-paced classes. Veritas Press becomes one of the largest publishers and online providers in the classical-Christian segment.
- 1999Method
The Well-Trained Mind published
Susan Wise Bauer and her mother Jessie Wise publish The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, articulating a developmental reading of the trivium as three childhood stages of grammar (roughly ages six to ten), logic (ten to fourteen), and rhetoric (fourteen to eighteen). The book becomes the most widely read classical-homeschool reference of the next two decades and the bibliographic backbone of the Well-Trained Mind Academy, Peace Hill Press, and the broader Bauer-aligned classical movement.
- 1999Method
Ambleside Online founded
Karen Glass, Leslie Noelani Laurio, Donna-Jean Breckenridge, Lynn Bruce, Wendi Capehart, and Anne White assemble Ambleside Online as a free, volunteer-run online curriculum reconstructing Charlotte Mason's PNEU programs from primary sources. Ambleside Online becomes the most-used Charlotte Mason curriculum in the English-speaking world and the principal point of entry for twenty-first-century Mason adopters.
- 1997Publisher
Classical Conversations founded
Leigh Bortins founds Classical Conversations in West End, North Carolina, as a community-based once-a-week tutorial model layered on Bauer-derived trivium-stage curriculum. Classical Conversations grows into one of the largest US homeschool program providers, organized around state and regional Foundations, Essentials, and Challenge program communities.
- 1990Publisher
Saxon Math acquired and expanded for homeschool
John Saxon's incremental-spiral mathematics curriculum, first published for institutional schools in the 1980s, is adapted for the home-education market through Saxon Publishers and becomes one of the most widely adopted homeschool math programs of the next thirty years. Saxon Math is later acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and continues to publish under that imprint.
- 1993Publisher
Beautiful Feet Books founded
Rea Berg founds Beautiful Feet Books, publishing literature-based history study guides built around Genevieve Foster and Holling C. Holling living-book classics. Beautiful Feet becomes a staple supplier in the Charlotte Mason and Sonlight-adjacent literature-based history segment.
- 1990sLegal
All 50 US states recognize home education as legal
By 1993, all fifty US states and the District of Columbia formally recognize home education as a legal alternative to public-school enrollment, completing a decade-long state-by-state legalization process driven by HSLDA-supported litigation and lobbying. Statutory regimes vary widely, from notification-only to portfolio-and-evaluator requirements, but the categorical legality of home education is settled nationally.
- 1997Publisher
Tapestry of Grace founded
Marcia Somerville begins developing Tapestry of Grace as a classical, Christian, unit-study humanities curriculum integrating history, literature, geography, fine arts, church history, and worldview across a four-year cycle and four learning levels. The program becomes a long-standing option in the Reformed and classical-Christian humanities segment.
2000s
- 2000Movement
Highlands Latin School founded
Cheryl Lowe and a circle of Memoria Press-aligned families found Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky, as a classical Christian K-12 school using Memoria Press curriculum end-to-end. Highlands Latin becomes the anchor model school for Memoria Press's curriculum design and cottage-school licensing program.
- 2000Publisher
K12 Inc. founded
Former US Secretary of Education William Bennett and entrepreneur Ronald Packard found K12 Inc., a for-profit operator of state-funded virtual public schools and a direct-to-family curriculum line. K12 Inc. (rebranded Stride, Inc. in 2020) becomes the largest commercial online provider serving the overlap between public, charter, and home-education markets.
- 2003International
Singapore Compulsory Education Act with home-education exemption
Singapore enacts the Compulsory Education Act 2003, requiring children of compulsory school age to attend a national primary school but permitting a home-education exemption granted by the Ministry of Education on a case-by-case basis. The exemption requires an approved curriculum plan and an annual assessment, making Singapore one of the most procedurally regulated jurisdictions permitting home education in Asia.
- 2005Publisher
Khan Academy founded
Salman Khan begins posting math tutoring videos for a cousin and incorporates Khan Academy as a nonprofit in 2008. The free video library and mastery-based practice platform become one of the most widely used supplemental resources in American homeschooling across every worldview and method segment.
- 2007Movement
Cathy Duffy publishes 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum
Curriculum reviewer Cathy Duffy publishes 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum, distilling two decades of comparative reviews into a single reference framework organized by learning style and educational philosophy. The book and the companion Cathy Duffy Reviews website remain the most widely cited independent curriculum-evaluation source through the 2020s.
- 2007Movement
Voddie Baucham publishes Family Driven Faith
Pastor Voddie Baucham publishes Family Driven Faith, advancing a theological argument for parent-led discipleship and household-based education within the Reformed evangelical tradition. The book becomes a reference text for the family-integrated church movement and the broader Reformed home-education segment.
- 2003Publisher
Math-U-See expands to national homeschool distribution
Steve Demme's Math-U-See, originally developed in the late 1990s, expands national homeschool distribution through Demme Learning during the early 2000s. The manipulative-based, mastery-sequenced program becomes one of the most adopted homeschool math curricula for families seeking a visual, hands-on alternative to spiral programs.
- 2002Publisher
Heart of Dakota Publishing founded
Carrie Austin founds Heart of Dakota Publishing, producing literature-based, Charlotte Mason-influenced unit-study programs for Christian homeschool families. The catalog grows into a complete K-12 sequence and becomes a long-standing alternative to Sonlight in the literature-based Christian segment.
- 2009Publisher
IEW Structure and Style program codified
Andrew Pudewa's Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) consolidates its Structure and Style writing methodology, drawn from the work of James B. Webster, into the form that becomes the dominant classical-Christian writing program of the 2010s. IEW becomes the writing curriculum bundled by Classical Conversations, Memoria Press affiliates, and many independent classical co-ops.
- 2008Movement
Beautiful Feet, MFW, MOH alternatives mature
By the late 2000s, the Christian literature-based history segment matures into a stable set of alternatives: Mystery of History (Linda Lacour Hobar, 1999), My Father's World (David and Marie Hazell, 1996), Beautiful Feet (Rea Berg, 1993), Sonlight (1984), and Tapestry of Grace (1997). The segment serves the substantial subset of Christian homeschool families that select literature-based humanities programs over textbook-based ones.
- 2003Publisher
Saxon Publishers acquired by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt acquires Saxon Publishers, consolidating one of the most widely used homeschool math curricula into a major institutional textbook publisher. The acquisition coincides with the rise of Right Start, Singapore Math, Math-U-See, and Beast Academy as differentiated alternatives in the classical and gifted segments.
- 2008Publisher
Notgrass History founded
Ray and Charlene Notgrass found Notgrass History, publishing complete one-year history-plus-Bible-plus-literature curricula for elementary, middle, and high school grade ranges. The catalog becomes a staple option in the Christian one-year-survey segment alongside Mystery of History and My Father's World.
2010s
- 2010Movement
NHERI estimates 2.04 million US homeschool students
The National Home Education Research Institute estimates that approximately 2.04 million students were home-educated in the United States during the 2009-2010 academic year, roughly four percent of the K-12 population. The estimate is later cited as the baseline against which subsequent pandemic-era growth is measured.
- 2011Funding / ESA
Arizona launches first state ESA program
Arizona becomes the first state to launch an Empowerment Scholarship Account program, originally restricted to students with disabilities and depositing state per-pupil funds into a parent-controlled education account redeemable for tuition, curriculum, tutoring, and therapy. The program is later expanded in 2022 to universal eligibility for all Arizona K-12 students.
- 2011Publisher
Acton Academy founded
Jeff and Laura Sandefer found Acton Academy in Austin, Texas, as a microschool combining Socratic discussion, mastery-based digital learning, and quest-based projects. The Acton Academy affiliate network grows into a network of franchised microschools that serve as a hybrid alternative for families straddling home education and small-school enrollment.
- 2011Publisher
Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool launched
Lee Giles begins publishing the Easy Peasy All-in-One Homeschool curriculum as a free Christian K-12 program delivered entirely through her family blog. Easy Peasy becomes one of the most widely used free Christian homeschool curricula in the English-speaking world and the canonical low-budget option for families with internet access.
- 2012Publisher
Brilliant.org launches
Sunil Singh and Sue Khim launch Brilliant.org, an online platform for problem-solving courses in math, science, and computer science aimed at gifted and self-directed learners. Brilliant becomes a widely used supplement in classical, gifted, and rigorous-math homeschool tracks.
- 2013Publisher
Outschool founded
Amir Nathoo, Mikhail Seregine, and Nick Grandy found Outschool as a marketplace of live online classes taught by independent teachers for K-12 learners. Outschool's catalog expands rapidly through the COVID-19 period and becomes a principal mechanism for cooperative, enrichment, and specialty class enrollment in the homeschool market.
- 2014International
Romeike family granted indefinite stay in the United States
The US Department of Homeland Security grants the Romeike family indefinite deferred-action status, allowing them to remain in the United States after fleeing Germany's Schulpflicht compulsory school-attendance regime. The case becomes the most prominent contemporary illustration of the legal gap between US and German home-education law.
- 2014Movement
ScholeSisters podcast network launched
Mystie Winckler, Brandy Vencel, Pam Barnhill, and Abby Wahl launch Scholé Sisters, a podcast and community organized around restful classical home-education for mothers. Scholé Sisters becomes a central node in the Charlotte Mason-classical hybrid segment alongside Ambleside Online and the Read-Aloud Revival.
- 2015Publisher
The Good and the Beautiful founded
Jenny Phillips founds The Good and the Beautiful, publishing language-arts, math, science, and history curricula sold directly to families. The publisher self-identifies as non-denominational Christian; the founder and primary catalog author are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the publisher's category in this directory is LDS.
- 2017Movement
Sarah Mackenzie launches the Read-Aloud Revival podcast
Sarah Mackenzie launches the Read-Aloud Revival podcast and membership community, organized around family read-aloud practice and a Catholic-Charlotte Mason adjacent literary sensibility. The podcast becomes one of the largest English-language audio properties in the homeschool segment.
- 2018International
Brazil STF rules home education not constitutionally protected
The Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) rules on September 12, 2018, in RE 888.815 that home education is not unconstitutional but is not a constitutionally protected right absent enabling federal legislation. Subsequent attempts to pass enabling federal legislation have repeatedly stalled in the National Congress.
- 2018Movement
Pam Barnhill publishes Better Together
Pam Barnhill publishes Better Together: Strengthen Your Family, Simplify Your Homeschool, and Savor the Subjects That Matter Most, codifying the morning-time multi-age circle practice that becomes a staple of Charlotte Mason and classical hybrid households. The book and its companion plans circulate widely through the Scholé Sisters and Read-Aloud Revival networks.
- 2010Publisher
Right Start Mathematics gains national adoption
Joan A. Cotter's Right Start Mathematics, originally developed in the 1990s as a manipulative-rich elementary program drawing on Japanese Soroban and Montessori methods, achieves broad adoption in classical and Charlotte Mason households during the early 2010s. The publisher continues to operate under the Activities for Learning imprint.
- 2012Publisher
Beast Academy launched by Art of Problem Solving
Art of Problem Solving, founded in 2003 by competition-mathematics alumni, launches the Beast Academy elementary mathematics curriculum to extend its competition-pipeline pedagogy down to grades two through five. Beast Academy becomes the default elementary math choice for many classical-gifted and accelerated-track homeschool households.
- 2018Publisher
BookShark spins off from Sonlight as secular alternative
Sonlight launches the BookShark imprint as a secular literature-based alternative drawing on the Sonlight catalog structure but with the explicit Christian content removed. BookShark serves the substantial subset of secular and interfaith homeschool households that want a Sonlight-style literature-based program without devotional or apologetic content.
2020s
- 2020Movement
COVID-19 pandemic; US homeschool population doubles
The COVID-19 pandemic closes American schools in March 2020 and triggers the largest single-year increase in US home-education enrollment on record. US Census Household Pulse data for fall 2020 report that the share of households home-educating doubled from 5.4 percent in spring 2020 to 11.1 percent in fall 2020, with NHERI estimating roughly 3.7 million students home-educated by 2020-2021.
- 2021International
France LOI 2021-1109 restricts IEF to prior-authorization regime
France enacts LOI n° 2021-1109 of August 24, 2021 confortant le respect des principes de la République, replacing the prior simple-declaration regime for instruction en famille (IEF) with a prior-authorization regime in which families must apply for permission from the rectorat each year. The change becomes the most significant European tightening of home-education law of the early 2020s.
- 2022Funding / ESA
Arizona expands ESA to universal eligibility
Arizona enacts HB 2853, expanding the Empowerment Scholarship Account program to universal eligibility for all Arizona K-12 students regardless of prior school attendance or disability status. The award amount is set at approximately ninety percent of the state per-pupil base funding, approximately $7,000 per student at launch.
- 2022Funding / ESA
Iowa Students First Scholarship and West Virginia Hope Scholarship launch
Iowa enacts the Students First Act creating the Students First Scholarship account program, and West Virginia launches the Hope Scholarship after a state-supreme-court challenge. Both programs deposit state per-pupil funds into parent-controlled accounts redeemable for private-school tuition, curriculum, tutoring, and related expenses.
- 2023Funding / ESA
Florida FES universal expansion
Florida enacts HB 1 in March 2023, expanding the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES) program to universal eligibility for all Florida K-12 students through the FES-EO and FES-UA tracks. The FES-UA track explicitly enrolls home-educating families and becomes the largest universal ESA-style program in the United States by enrollment.
- 2023Funding / ESA
Utah Fits All Scholarship enacted
Utah enacts HB 215, creating the Utah Fits All Scholarship as a universal-eligibility ESA program administered by the Utah State Board of Education. The program deposits approximately $8,000 per student into parent-controlled accounts and is later subject to state-supreme-court litigation in 2025-2026.
- 2023Funding / ESA
Indiana and Ohio expand voucher and ESA eligibility
Indiana enacts HEA 1001 expanding the Choice Scholarship voucher to near-universal eligibility and Ohio enacts HB 33 expanding the EdChoice voucher to universal eligibility. Both states join the wave of 2022-2023 state-level expansions that move private-school and home-education public funding from disability- and income-restricted to universal-eligibility models.
- 2024International
South Africa Basic Education Laws Amendment Act signed
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signs the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act 32 of 2024 on September 13, 2024, creating new statutory requirements for the registration and monitoring of home education by provincial heads of department. The Act becomes the most significant African home-education regulation of the decade and is challenged by home-education advocacy groups before the Constitutional Court.
- 2024Funding / ESA
Texas SB 2 ESA enacted
Texas enacts SB 2 in the 89th Regular Session, creating a state-funded education savings account program of approximately $10,000 per accredited private-school student and a smaller stipend for home-educated students. The Texas program is the largest by appropriation among the 2023-2024 wave of state ESA enactments.
- 2024Method
Against Worldview published by Lexham Press
Simon P. Kennedy publishes Against Worldview: Reimagining Christian Formation through Lexham Press in December 2024, arguing that the dominant 'worldview' framework in evangelical Christian education has displaced an older patristic and Augustinian formation tradition. The book becomes a reference point in evangelical and classical-Christian conversations about the philosophical foundations of K-12 education.
- 2024Publisher
Sonlight begins Cores-to-Levels rebrand
Sonlight Curriculum begins a multi-year rebrand of its program structure from the historical 'Cores' nomenclature to a 'Levels' system, intended to clarify the relationship between literature-based programs and target grade ranges. The rollout proceeds in stages through the 2024-2026 catalog cycles.
- 2025International
Brazil Cichelero ruling sets first criminal-fine precedent
A Brazilian state court rules in September 2025 against the Cichelero family for home-educating without enabling federal legislation, imposing a fine of R$100,000 and a daily penalty of R$1,000 until the children are enrolled in school. The ruling becomes the most consequential enforcement precedent following the 2018 STF decision and renews legislative pressure to pass enabling federal home-education law.
- 2025International
India NEP 2020 strengthens NIOS pathway
Implementation of India's National Education Policy 2020 continues through 2025, strengthening the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) as the principal accredited pathway for Indian home-educators to obtain certified secondary-school and senior-secondary credentials. NIOS becomes the de facto national framework under which most legally documented Indian home-education families operate.
- 2026Movement
April: Every Homeschool launches at everyhomeschool.com
Every Homeschool launches as an independent, reader-supported portal cataloging American home-education curriculum publishers on a single comparative rubric. The launch catalog at publication covers 443 curricula across every worldview, method, and grade range, with state-by-state ESA program tracking and pillar guides on classical, Charlotte Mason, and method-neutral first-year planning.
- 2026Movement
May: How to Start Homeschooling in 2026 booklet published
Every Homeschool publishes How to Start Homeschooling in 2026, a method-neutral field-guide booklet covering entry points from kindergarten through high school, ten methodological approaches, seven worldview formation tracks, eleven international regions, and five worked first-year budgets. The booklet adopts the formation-and-wisdom framing developed in Simon P. Kennedy's Against Worldview (Lexham Press, 2024) as its editorial lens on Christian curriculum traditions.
- 2026Funding / ESA
May 14: Wyoming Supreme Court reverses Steamboat ESA injunction
The Wyoming Supreme Court issues a decision on May 14, 2026, reversing a lower-court injunction that had paused implementation of the Steamboat Legacy Scholarship Act, the state's Education Savings Account program enacted in 2024. The reversal clears the program to resume processing applications for the 2026-2027 academic year.
- 2020Movement
Pandemic acceleration; Black homeschool households quintuple
US Census Household Pulse data for fall 2020 report that the share of Black households home-educating rose from 3.3 percent in spring 2020 to 16.1 percent in fall 2020, a roughly fivefold increase and the largest demographic shift in US home-education enrollment in the available federal data. The shift is widely cited in subsequent demographic studies of the pandemic-era homeschool surge.
- 2023Movement
Washington Post home-education investigation
The Washington Post publishes a multi-part investigative series in fall 2023 reporting that home education is the fastest-growing form of K-12 schooling in the United States and estimating between 1.9 million and 2.7 million home-educated children nationally. The series renews national press attention to home-education regulation, demographic composition, and outcomes.
- 2024Funding / ESA
Carson v. Makin aftermath; state ESA programs proliferate
Following the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Carson v. Makin holding that states may not exclude religious schools from generally available tuition-assistance programs, the 2023-2024 legislative cycles produce universal-eligibility ESA enactments in Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. By the end of 2024, more than ten states operate universal or near-universal ESA programs explicitly open to home-educating families.
- 2020Publisher
Synthesis Tutor and Synthesis School launched
Synthesis launches as an online enrichment program drawing on the SpaceX in-house Ad Astra School model, offering Socratic-discussion-and-simulation classes for school-age children. The program later adds Synthesis Tutor, an adaptive AI math tutor, and becomes one of the more visible new entrants in the post-pandemic enrichment and microschool-adjacent segment.
A correction or addition?
The timeline updates as history moves.
Send corrections, additions, or alternate citations to editor@everyhomeschool.com. The timeline is a living document. New entries are added quarterly to track ESA-program launches, major court rulings, and international developments.