Texas homeschoolers have it relatively easy. Homeschools here are considered as private schools, and private schools in Texas are not regulated by the state. Texas homeschool families have had our share of challenges, though, most notably from the Texas Education Agency back in the 80s when they were pushing to have homeschoolers arrested on truancy charges. TEA lost that battle, but the war was only just beginning.

The 1987 Leeper court decision reconfirmed that Texas homeschools are indeed private schools and as such do not fall under the compulsory attendance statute for public schools. But, the Leeper decision did something else too—it added a decree specifying a written curriculum as a legal condition for valid homeschooling. Leeper states that reading, grammar, spelling, math and a course in good citizenship must be taught in a "bona fide" manner. Curriculum requirements did not exist before the Leeper decision, and now these added requirements of legitimacy create a situation where parents are answerable to the state to meet the minimum requirements of the Texas Education Code (TEC).

Click here for a more detailed analysis of home schooling in Texas.