hslda and alternatives

Hi

Both are Christian! I have been a member of both! One yr the homeschool conference I attended offered HLA membership for attending. In turn, HLA offered a free Will and Testament too! They are with CLA which is Christian Law Association. They do many good things for churches, schools, business, etc in upholding rights of believers. HLA is cheaper than HSLDA.

I like them both! Right now we are members of HSLDA. But I wouldn’t hesitate being a member of HLA.

Our state has it’s own group…you might want to see whether your state has one.  I’ve been told they are more in tune with our state’s laws than the national groups are.

My husband is an attorney.  In fact, he is an attorney that has trained with the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund) he has belonged to the Christian Legal Society.  He has worked on constitutional cases defending a myriad of religious liberties.  He, from a legal standpoint, would be quite competent to research and defend our family should the need ever arise.  YET, he INSISTS that we belong to the HSLDA.  The reason is because they SPECIALIZE in homeschool law and liberty.  THEY better than ANYONE are able to defend you, should you need it.  Is it likely that you’ll need it?  Depending on the state you live in, probably not…. some states MORE than others.  Yet, it’s kind of like car insurance – you probably DON’T NEED car insurance if you live in a super rural area and barely EVER drive into town – what’s the likelihood of really using your car insurance?  Probably none, but if you happen to rear end a Mercedes on your monthly trip into town and you don’t have insurance – it’s going to cost you thousands of dollars…. and unless your husband is a Mercedes authorized repairman, you’re likely not going to be able to get off fixing it for less. 

All that to say, our family doesn’t go without legal insurance.  Your state run homeschool organization is PROBABLY run by volunteers and not full-time staff, let alone competent legal counsel. (HOLLYS – this is not in response to what you posted, but rather the link to the article above, but I would recommend that you find out what exactly your state homeschool organization will do for you if social services comes knocking at your door.  – I’ve lived in some fairly populous states and even those don’t have full-time legal staff on call 24/7 as HSLDA does).   SURE, you can ask another homeschool mom how to comply with state law, but it’s likely that she is not a lawyer and hasn’t even read the actual statutes pertaining to your legal right to homeschool.  And while HLA is probably a good alternative if you can’t afford HSLDA, you’re still not going to get the BEST representation.  My dh loves to help people out and would WANT to generously offer his time to help another homeschool family if they needed representation, BUT he wouldn’t do it, because he knows he’d be doing them (and even possibly the whole homeschooling community) a disservice.  When someone represents themself, if it leads to a bad decision, it is possible for that decision to become precendent and effect homeschoolers in an entire state/region.

I know I sound alarmist, but we’ve witnessed too many cases where children have been removed from homes, forced to go back to public school, been placed under unreasonable scrutiny and undue stress to not strongly support membership in the HSLDA.

Blessings,

Rebekah

My dh is also an attorney.  Like Rebekahy, we belong to HSLDA.  Even when money is tight.  He insists on it, too.  I find that pretty telling!  

My husband and I were on the board of our state organization for 8 years which worked closely with HSLDA. We’ve seen their passion to protect the rights of homeschool parents. We will support them even when we no longer homeschool