A Registered Sex Offender Explains His Opposition to Homeschool Regulation

"I think it really complicates issues, and I don’t feel like that justifies the extreme hardship it would put on my family if we weren’t allowed to homeschool."

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Nov 11, 2025

In October, we published our investigation of the registered sex offenders who filed witness slips opposing homeschool oversight in Illinois. The Homeschool movement flooded the state’s General Assembly with online testimony in the spring, successfully preventing it from proceeding through the chamber.

While the publicly available details within the witness list were limited, the coordinated submissions revealed detailed networks of individuals in the Homeschool community. This allowed us to positively identify nine registered sex offenders who committed felonies against minors.

Within the bill were several much needed protections homeschooled children are not entitled to under the current law—one of which aimed to prohibit homeschooling in the homes of registered sex offenders. We reached out to all of the offenders with a request for comment and to ask why they opposed the bill.

Out of the nine identified subjects, we left five messages without a response. Three of the subjects answered and positively identified themselves, but hung up soon after. In the end, only one registered sex offender agreed to speak about their opposition to Illinois’ now-stalled Homeschool Act: HB 2827. Below is our conversation, edited for clarity.

Hi, this is Tony with SBR Sentinel, am I speaking with [Redacted]?
Yes.
Hey [Redacted], like I said, my name is Tony. I’m researching witness participation in Illinois’ homeschool legislation. I’m calling to ask about your witness slips you filed in the spring in opposition to HB 2827. Do you have two minutes?
Yes.
Thank you, I appreciate it. Can you confirm which amendments you submitted witness slips for?
It was the ones against the homeschooling, maybe a few months ago.
And that was for the original bill and the amendments as well?
Yeah.
Excellent, thank you. And real quick, what was in the bill that motivated you to testify against it?
Um, well, I don’t have it in front of me. Are you able to see my comments on that, or did I leave any comments on that?
No, I can’t see any comments.
I kind of forget about what the bill is about in general, but I’ve been homeschooled in Illinois all the way K-12 when I was younger. I went to college, graduated summa cum laude, and went on to get a master’s degree and a doctorate. Homeschooling has been great for me. I homeschooled all of my children. My oldest is starting his first year of college this year. And things go very well when we don’t have government interference with it. I think it’s the parent’s right and responsibility to educate the children. And I live with my children, and I don’t want a whole lot of government interference with that.
And do you participate in any homeschool groups or organizations within the state or nationally?
Yes, we’re lifetime members of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
Okay. So, our story revolves around the section of the bill regarding the prohibition of homeschooling for children in the homes of registered sex offenders. Is there anyone in your household that is on the Illinois Sex Offender Registry currently?
Yes. That would be me.
I appreciate your candor; do you have any additional context that you’d like to provide to that?
Sure. I committed and was convicted of a sex offense. It was not related to my children. Back about a decade ago, I went to prison, did my time. I’ve gotten out, and the law currently prevents sex offenders from residing with their minor children if their children were the victims in this situation, if not. So there’s already provisions in place that would prevent a sex offender from even living with his own children or victims. But they’re unrelated to this circumstance. And, you know, if they’re living with me, the fact that we’re homeschooling them, it really doesn’t make any difference as far as risk to the children. Yeah, I don’t think it’s a necessary law. If we need laws to prevent contact or unsupervised contact with sex offenders, then those are actually already in place. They shouldn’t be living with the sex offender if there’s risk to the children. But if they’re in a situation where the law allows it and has determined that there is not that risk to the children, then the fact that they’re homeschooling doesn’t make any difference to that. It really shouldn’t be a homeschooling issue at all.
Right. That makes sense. And do you see any conflict between your conviction and testifying against this particular bill?
No, that’s why I feel like I have some insight into the situation that most people don’t. I’ve obviously been in the situation, and I’ve talked with other people. I’ve gone to sex offender therapy classes and I’ve talked with other sex offenders and I know the current laws adequately protect the children of sex offenders without making it a homeschooling issue
And in these conversations that you’ve had with others, the consensus is that there’s no danger or issue with the children in the household.
Well, the danger would be whether they’re living with them or not, rather than whether they’re homeschooling them or not. I mean, does that make sense? The fact that they’re spending a few extra hours there each day during school hours when the sex offender is likely at work anyway, like me. Yeah, their mom homeschools them. I’m with them in the evenings whether I homeschool them or not. So the only reason they’re going for this, and I can see why they do it, is if there was abuse happening, the teacher might be somebody who might detect it, whereas if they’re homeschooled, that may or may not be the case. But I think it really complicates issues, and I don’t feel like that reasoning justifies the extreme hardship it would put on my family if we weren’t allowed to homeschool.
Right, that makes sense. Well, I appreciate your time. If you have anything else or anything comes to mind, you can reach me at this number. But that was all the questions that I had.
Okay. I appreciate you calling and probably a little bit of a unique perspective on it—there’s not a whole lot of scenarios like this I’m sure—but yeah glad to help out