2025 Legislative Recap
Each year, thousands of bills are introduced in the Mississippi Legislature. MHEA, along with Home School Legal Defense Association, monitors bills that could impact home education.
Below are some of the more significant bills we flagged for review in the 2025 legislative session and how those bills were handled. "HB" refers to a House Bill, and "SB" refers to a Senate Bill. We are grateful to the Lord that this legislative session did not result in loss of our freedoms.
· HB 279, 305, 464, and 547. These bills in various ways addressed voluntary Pre-K. MHEA monitored the bills to ensure that none were amended to make Pre-K mandatory. The bills died in Committee.
· HB 341. This bill would have created a Promise Scholarship for which home-educated students would be eligible. MHEA generally supported this bill, but it died in Committee.
· HB 443. This bill would have required teaching Mississippi History and U.S. Government in “[a]ll private, parochial and home-based school programs.” Furthermore, the title of the bill used the term “HOMESCHOOL PROGRAMS.” MHEA agrees that instruction in Mississippi History and U.S. Government are important subject areas. However, MHEA believes that parents should decide appropriate subject areas for their children. Additionally, MHEA opposes any attempt to impose an obligation on homeschooling families to use the same curriculum as public schools. MHEA opposed this bill, and it died in Committee.
· HB 729, 761, and 1617. These bills in various ways would have permitted home-educated students to participate in public school activities. MHEA generally takes a neutral position on such bills. HB 729 and 761 died in Committee, but HB 1617 was amended in Committee. The amendments would have materially increased the regulatory burden on homeschooling families participating in public school activities. The amended bill would have required standardized testing of participating homeschooled students and would have required “appropriate documentation” of scholastic proficiency, including standardized test scores or a “portfolio of the student's schoolwork from the previous year demonstrating the student's proficiency appropriate for the student's grade level, as determined in the discretion of the school principal or counselor.” The bill would also have given school officials the right to require a grade-level placement examination of the homeschooled student “if the documentation provided gives the local school board reasonable suspicion that the documentation is false in its claims of satisfaction of academic standards and grade placement.” The amended bill was passed by the House but died in the Senate.
· HB 1080, 1081, 1098, 1385, and 1516. These bills in various ways would have supported the rights of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. MHEA supported these bills, but they died in Committee.
· HB 1610. This bill would have required parents to add their “district of residence” to the annual certificate of enrollment required for each child. While this was not necessarily an onerous burden, it was unnecessary, and MHEA opposed the bill. The language was removed by an amendment on the House floor. The amended bill died in the Senate.
· HB 1188. This bill would have criminalized false allegations of child abuse. MHEA supported this bill, and it was adopted in Committee; however, it died on the House calendar.
· SB 2179. This bill would have permitted home educators to participate in public school activities. MHEA takes a neutral position on such bills. The bill died in Committee.
· SB 2459, 2460, and 2467. These bills in various ways addressed false claims of child abuse. MHEA supported SB 2467, but the other two bills were a mixture of good and less-than-good provisions. All the bills died in Committee.
· SB 2615. This bill would have lowered the compulsory school age to 5. MHEA opposes attempts to lower or raise the compulsory age as parents are the best judges of when their children should start formal education and have completed it. Therefore, MHEA opposed this bill. It died in Committee.
· SB 2618. Like HB 1610, this bill would have required parents to add their “district of residence” to the annual certificate of enrollment for each child. The bill was passed by the Senate but died on the House calendar.
· SB 2870, 2896, and 2897. These bills in various ways would have supported the rights of parents to direct the education and upbringing of their children. MHEA supported these bills, but they died in Committee or on the Senate calendar.
· SB 2527. This bill would have created a Resident Promise Program providing college grants for which home-educated students would be eligible. MHEA generally supported this bill, but it died in Committee.
One of MHEA’s goals is to do what we can to enable each of you to get up every morning and home educate your children in freedom. We try to work in the background, using political capital wisely, and we are usually able to stop harmful bills in Committee. On the rare occasion when proposed legislation is particularly harmful, we ask Home School Legal Defense Association to send out alerts for you to contact appropriate legislators. Please pay attention to those alerts!
2026 Legislative Session
The 2026 legislative session is almost upon us. Your prayers are appreciated as we monitor bills!
In the 2026 session, we expect School Choice to be a major battleground that could affect home educators in Mississippi. Over the last two years, more than 44 states have introduced School Choice legislation, and many of these bills extend benefits to home educators. Some of these bills (such as private savings plans or tax credits) do not involve public funding – they simply permit families to retain more of their own money. But other School Choice bills provide for various forms of government funding. One of the challenges is that home educators are not united on this issue.
Some home educators believe it is only fair that home educators should be able to receive government funds since we pay taxes to support a public school system we do not use. Other home educators fear that accepting government funds for home education purposes will sooner or later lead to greater government regulation since “he who pays the piper calls the tune.”
MHEA--working with HSLDA--will carefully monitor School Choice bills. Be on the lookout for the possibility of alerts and updates on this issue.