Every year, OCEANetwork monitors any bills, initiatives, or rules that may negatively impact homeschool freedoms in Oregon. The need for vigilance is even greater during long legislative sessions, which happen every other year.
OCEANetwork submitted the Homeschool Freedom Bill (HB 2187) for the 2025 Oregon legislative session to remove current notification and testing regulations from homeschool law.
➡️ NOW is the time to call and email the House Committee On Education and urge them to allow the bill to go to hearing! A hearing is a critical step in the process, not only in the attempt to get the bill passed, but the value it brings in educating legislators and the general public about homeschool freedom and the interests of homeschoolers in Oregon.
What to Say / Write
While we encourage you to use your own words, here are talking points you can consider sharing:
Oregon’s current homeschool regulations should be removed from law because they are
- Ineffective – Data shows that regulations like notifications and testing do nothing to improve the academics, safety, or educational experience of homeschool students.
- Unfair – Public schoolers can opt out of testing, while homeschoolers cannot. Testing regulations also penalize lower-performing students, who are typically the very students who benefit most from the homeschooling environment.
- Unnecessary – Homeschool students outperform public and online charter school students in academics, socialization, and civic involvement, including in states where there are no regulations at all.
- Wasteful – ESDs and school districts often don’t understand the laws and attempt to overstep their bounds, resulting in confusion, harassment in some cases, and a waste of time and taxpayer money. It’s also a waste of a homeschool family’s time and resources to complete required notifications and testing when they have no benefit for the students.
If you are calling, you can suggest they look into the data at NHERI.org and HomeschoolingBackgrounder.com.
If you are emailing them, consider linking to one or more of the following:
- Homeschool Freedom Bill Submitted by OCEANetwork
- Homeschool Freedom Bill FAQ page
- Why Exempt Oregon Homeschoolers from Testing
- Five Unfounded Assumptions Embodied in Homeschool Regulation
- Pubic School Safe Harbor Myth
- National Study on Homeschool Child Abuse
Who to Contact
1. Call/Email Committee Members. You’ll be asking each member of the House Committee On Education for a hearing of HB 2187.
- Representative Courtney Neron
Rep.CourtneyNeron@oregonlegislature.gov,
503-986-1426 - Representative April Dobson
Rep.AprilDobson@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1439 - Representative Emily McIntire
Rep.EmilyMcIntire@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1456 - Representative Darin Harbick
Rep.DarinHarbick@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1412 - Representative Zach Hudson
Rep.ZachHudson@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1449 - Representative Hoa Nguyen
Rep.HoaNguyen@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1448 - Representative Ricki Ruiz
Rep.RickiRuiz@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1450 - Representative Boomer Wright
Rep.BoomerWright@oregonlegislature.gov
503-986-1409
2. Call/Email Your House and Senate Representatives. While they aren’t involved at this juncture of the bill process, it is still beneficial for education purposes to call/write your legislators now to tell them why you support the bill and that you’ve contacted the Committee to request a hearing.
Find contact information for your legislators here.
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Thank you for taking action on this.
Rodger Williams
OCEANetwork Freedom Watch Team
If you have questions about this alert, please contact OCEANetwork here so we can forward it on to our Freedom Watch Team.
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