The EFA is Public Education

New Hampshire has four educational pathways for school-aged children.

Public education – local district and charters
Private education
Home education
The Education Freedom Account (EFA)

Each of these have separate rights, responsibilities, statutes, and education rules. It is important for families to understand these options so they can determine what is the best fit for their children. That doesn’t make one better than another or good/bad, but providing key differences is important.

“Homeschool” is Generic

For several years, GSHE said that the term “homeschool” is generic, much like kleenex and bandaid, to describe all sorts of education settings — traditional home ed, online classes, remote public-school, VLACS, EFA, and blends of different options.

However, the term home education is specific and defined as a separate educational option in three NH state laws — the compulsory education attendance law RSA 193:1, the home education law RSA 193-A, and the EFA law RSA 194-F.

The EFA is Not Home Education

The EFA law provides a long list of ways the state funding may be used that include private school tuition, various therapies, computer hardware and software, and other purposes. If one were to only look at the child’s learning it may be difficult to identify which educational pathway the student is in as his/her day-to-day experiences may be the same as another.

Regardless of how the EFA funds are used, it is a separate educational option with its own requirements. GSHE prepared a Venn diagram to help distinguish between traditional home education and the EFA.

All home ed families who switch and enroll in the EFA are required in both the home ed 193-A and EFA law 194-F to terminate their home ed programs.

In December 2024, Commissioner Frank Edelblut wrote an op-ed for the Union Leader that is also published on the NH Department of Education’s website. Towards the bottom, he refers to the EFA as a “public education program.”

He repeated this multiple times at the March 2025 meeting of the Home Education Advisory Council (HEAC). He was present at the beginning of the meeting, starting at mark 14:43 of the video.

Why It Matters

The EFA has faced roughly 40 hostile bills since it started in 2021. Of those, four ensnared traditional home education into the fights.

The firewall, the distinction between home education and the EFA in statute, is the only thing that has protected independent home ed from these regulation efforts.

New Hampshire Home Education has been legal, defended, and protected by thousands since initially approved in 1990. Over the years, the community rallied against intrusions into our children’s learning that would require mandatory testing, approval by local school officials, performance minimums, review of curriculum plans, and other common public-ed standards. The freedom and autonomy we enjoy today was won by the vigilance and hard work of those that preceded us and are highly valued in NH’s home education community.

At some point, the EFA is likely to be regulated like public education because it is taxpayer funded. It is tied to property taxes through the State Wide Education Property Tax (SWEPT) and the Education Trust Fund (ETF).

When the top education official in the state calls the EFA “public education,” will anyone be surprised when it is regulated like public education?

If we do not continue to defend and define the Home Education pathway as completely separate from the EFA pathway, there will be nowhere to go when increased regulation comes to the EFA.

“School Choice” Across the Country

As these “school choice” and Education Savings Account proposals are sweeping the country, many include political efforts that threaten independent home ed, including more regulation, wellness checks, and background checks. They are coming from both major political parties and national lobbying organizations.

Illinois

For decades Illinois was a low-regulation state for homeschooling. Nonetheless, the state legislature is considering a draconian bill, HB 2827, that would implement sweeping regulation, that includes annual notification, portfolio reviews by public school officials, data collection at the state level, requirements that parents have particular academic credentials to be allowed to homeschool, and getting Child Protective Services involved for minor paperwork deficiencies.

Arkansas

They passed an Education Freedom Account bill in 2023 that is available to homeschoolers. Just two years later, another bill, HB 1144 sponsored by a Republican, was introduced to require these students comply with all the same statutory and DOE reporting requirements as public schools.

South Carolina

S.62 included a provision that would automatically include participation in wellness checks with screening performed by public school officials away from parents as part of enrollment in their online program. Thankfully, this provision was removed from the bill.

Michigan

In 2024, this state considered extreme legislation that would have required homeschoolers to register with the state due erroneous conflation of homeschooling with abuse.

Tennessee

They passed a bill, the “Education Freedom Scholarship Act,” that could extend regulations to homeschool co-ops and enrichment programs that include data collection, reporting assessment results, and compulsory education attendance. Legislators made it clear they want to extend the program to homeschoolers.

Also, TN homeschoolers tried to pass a bill that would give them separation from other educational pathways, but state Republicans opposed it and correlated home ed with child abuse.

This Republican-majority legislature is also considering regulation proposed by the anti-homeschool organization, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

South Dakota

In early 2025, the SD legislature considered two bills, HB 1009 and HB 1020, that would give the state DOE power to approve curriculum and muddle the distinction between ESA programs and parent-directed alternatives. Local homeschoolers are seeking that enrollment in the ESA be a separate educational pathway in compulsory education. See FairSD for additional information.

Idaho

This is another state that has minimal homeschool regulation. Many homeschoolers have great concerns about HB 93 that creates the Idaho Parental Choice Tax Credit. Participation includes tracking, registration, government approval, as well as reporting “student growth.” See more at Homeschool Idaho.

Colorado

A school-choice ballot issue was defeated in November 2024 that would have provided funding for a variety of purposes, including homeschooling. It included an undefined call to “access a quality education,” which many believed would lead to mandatory testing and submission of results to government authorities.

Missouri

This state did not have homeschool registration requirements previously, but shortly after their “school choice” legislation passed, they initiated requirements for all homeschoolers that includes standardized tests, curriculum from approved vendors, certification of the homeschool program, and background checks of anyone over 18 years old in the household.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma introduced a tax-credit program in 2023. Shortly after, OK implemented regulation of homeschooling that includes mandatory notification, background checks by DHHS, biannual wellness checks, testing requirements, and specific parental qualifications. There is more from Homeschool Oklahoma and in this report.

Texas

Even the Republican stronghold of Texas is looking at regulating all homeschoolers with their “school choice” funding bills, SB 2 and HB 3, that could extend to families that choose not to take state dollars. Texas, unlike New Hampshire, does not have state laws that define home education or homeschooling, so an Education Savings Account program could apply to all homeschoolers. Their bill would mandate annual notification, approval of curriculum, academic assessment audits, mandatory data capture, and other oversight requirements.

West Virginia

This is another strong Republican state that is considering more extensive regulation that includes mandatory submission of testing results with performance expectations, requirements to return to public education if minimums are not met, and wellness checks on homeschoolers after a tragic situation of a child that slipped through CPS and other officials.

Also, state officials considered a 2023 bill that attempted to eliminate the distinction of homeschoolers who do and do not receive funding with the Hope Scholarship Program.

As reported by Homeschooling Backgrounder,

“In 2021, West Virginia passed a School Choice law that gave state education money to parents to spend on behalf of their children. It included homeschooled students.

West Virginia homeschoolers worked hard to ensure the law had provisions protecting homeschoolers who do not take the government education money from accountability regulations designed for those who do take the money. The protection mechanism was to separate those who take the state money into a group legally distinct from those who do not take the money.

Fast forward to 2023. West Virginia legislators file a bill to delete the protection mechanism of the legal barrier between homeschoolers who take the money and those who do not.”

New Hampshire

NH does not exist in a protective bubble and Democrats are not the only threat to home ed freedom.

Senator Ruth Ward — a multi-term Republican senator, Chair of Senate Education, Chair of the EFA Legislative Oversight Committee — has repeatedly expressed concerns about “unaccountable homeschoolers” at Home Education Advisory Council meetings for over a year (see 2023-24 summary and March 2025 reports).

This fall, multi-term state representative Mike Moffett said that homeschoolers are “falling through the cracks” and need more accountability; he was unable to distinguish between independent home ed and the EFA. Sadly, Rep Moffett is not alone with this misunderstanding.

Many New Hampshire “school choice” advocates want to ignore what’s happening around the country and gaslight those of us who follow what’s happening. They don’t want to admit there is growing concern from the home education community and conservatives.

All of this is in addition to the dozens of hostile bills filed by NH Democrats against the EFA since 2021. These bills not only attempted to completely remove the program, but mandate the statewide assessment, have it administered by the state DOE, restrict approved uses, require enrollment in a traditional public school for a minimum period, include meeting income eligibility on an annual basis, and more. They showed everyone what they intend to do if they regain a majority in the NH legislature.

Home ed freedom is more fragile than many realize.

Summary

The “EFA is public education” is not intended to scare or intimidate anyone. Sharing facts and monitoring the broader political landscape is not fear-mongering.

The drive to further regulate all “homeschoolers” is happening in many states, even those with Republican majorities; it isn’t limited to one political party.

Maintaining clear distinctions is not adversarial; it is essential in order to preserve and protect home education freedom.

GSHE has always been focused on independent home education families – not broad “school choice” or providers. We welcome everyone – families that utilize a variety of educational pathways for their kids, VLACS, EFA, prospective and former homeschoolers, and supporters. However, we are who we are without apology.

We endeavor to help families stay informed and make good decisions that work for their children, whatever those choices may be.

About

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Michelle Levell, director of GSHE