Legislative Update April 18, 2025

“The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy." Isaiah 35:1-2

*Members of the Missouri Homeschool Alliance Board of Directors are not lawyers. This update is for information purposes only.

Your weekly dose of what-you-need-to-know in Jefferson City.

What hasn’t changed:
In our last post, we covered several bills that could potentially affect homeschool freedoms in Missouri. Many of those bills, including SB 190 ,  SCS/SB’s 195 & 53, HB77, SJR 6 ,and HB31 have not changed their status or seen any movement through the legislative process at all this week. Please see our previous post for more in-depth coverage of each of these pieces of legislation.

Also in Committee:

We continue to monitor SB24 and HB1082, although they have yet to be scheduled for a hearing in Committee.

What DID see some change this week:

This week SB63, was passed out of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee. It has now been sent to the House Rules Committee, where it will be heard in Executive Session on Wednesday, April 23. SB63, sponsored by Senator Ben Brown seeks to establish provisions related to participation of certain students in non-traditional educational settings—in other words, it would allow homeschooled students and virtual public school students to participate in events and activities offered by the public school district in which they live without needing to enroll in public school. This bill seeks to make requirements for participation in public school activities fair across the state. Understand that if your student chooses to participate in sports or activities in the public school, you will be subject to whatever requirements the district places upon their enrolled students. This bill also seeks to remove from statute the optional declaration of enrollment for homeschoolers. MHA is NEUTRAL this bill. While we do support the removal of the declaration of enrollment, we remain neutral overall towards this bill as it does not seek to reduce homeschool freedoms. We encourage you to investigate the issue of public school participation and contact the members of the Rules Committee if this issue is important to your family. We are watching this bill closely, as it moves through the process, to ensure that it remains clean, without affecting homeschool freedoms. At this point, it must pass this second House Committee, and then it may be taken up by the full House of Representatives for Perfection.

The Members of the House Rules Committee are as follows:

Rep. Brenda Shields, chair
Phone: 573-751-3643
Email: Brenda.Shields@house.mo.gov

 Rep. Tim Taylor, vice chair
Phone: 573-751-0169 
E-Mail:Tim.Taylor@house.mo.gov

Rep. Ian Mackey, ranking minority member
Phone:573-751-3859 
E-Mail:Ian.Mackey@house.mo.gov

Rep. Brad Christ
Phone:573-751-2150 
E-Mail:Brad.Christ@house.mo.gov 

Rep. Dave Griffith
Phone:573-751-2412 
E-Mail:Dave.Griffith@house.mo.gov 

Rep. Philip Oehlerking
Phone:573-751-9765 
E-Mail:Philip.Oehlerking@house.mo.gov 

Rep. Chad Perkins
Phone:573-751-4028 
E-Mail:Chad.Perkins@house.mo.gov 

Rep. Raychel Proudie
Phone:573-751-0855 
E-Mail:Raychel.Proudie@house.mo.gov

Rep. David Smith
Phone:573-751-9753 
E-Mail:David.Smith@house.mo.gov  

Rep. Melanie Stinnett
Phone:573-751-0136 
E-Mail:Melanie.Stinnett@house.mo.gov 

Nearing the finish:

The last day of the Legislative Session in Missouri is May 16 this year. Historically, these last couple of weeks can get a little crazy as legislators work to push their bills across the finish line prior to the end of session. We will be watching the Missouri Legislature closely and will be in communication with regard to anything that could potentially affect homeschool families in Missouri. We ask that you pray for us and most importantly, pray for our Missouri Legislators to act rightly and with integrity over the next 4 weeks, and that Missouri will remain a free state in which to educate our children.

Thank you.

We at Missouri Homeschool Alliance thank you for your interest in following homeschool legislation in Jefferson City. Your efforts to hold our government accountable to the people, and your ability to express yourselves intelligently and with dignity most definitely makes a difference with our legislators. We appreciate each and every one of you.

If you believe in the mission of Missouri Homeschool Alliance and wish to support our work in the State Capitol, please consider joining us as a paid member. Your dues of just $5/month help to ensure that we are able to continue our fight to secure parent-led, privately funded homeschooling remains strong in Missouri.

This blog has been updated to correct a mistaken link that did not lead to the members of the House Rules committee as intended. We apologize for any confusion.