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Heritage Defense: 5 Reasons We Recommend This Homeschool Organization

By January 15, 2025No Comments

We strongly recommend joining Heritage Defense, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization defending homeschool families in matters related to medical decisions, child discipline, and other non-homeschooling issues.

It covers Child Protective Services (CPS) matters for the whole case, including representation in court. Included in your MPE membership is a 20% discount on your monthly or annual membership.

If you’re new to this nonprofit, here are a few good reasons why we’re such passionate supporters of their work:

Heritage Defense membership helps protect against “those unlawfully persecuted.”

Homeschool families can feel unnecessarily criticized or even targeted by those who don’t understand their decision to educate their children at home.

Heritage Defense is … dedicated to advancing the Kingdom of Christ by protecting and empowering the biblical family. Our strategy for accomplishing this mission is simple. By uniting Christian families across the country as members of Heritage Defense, we hope to help the Body of Christ join together in protecting one another, defending the Gospel, advancing biblical practices, and championing the causes of those unlawfully persecuted by the state for obeying God’s commands in raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

In one recent example, Megan Richland felt uncomfortable after a doctor insisted on speaking to her 16-year-old daughter, Natalie, alone during a regular checkup. Her daughter has autism and other special needs.

Later an investigator for CPS appeared at the Richlands’ home, saying an allegation had been made against the family.

After the Richlands reached out to Heritage Defense, CPS later closed the case as unfounded.

homeschool foster care

Heritage Defense provides a vault of free legal resources.

Check out this free “Law and Policy Vault” for anyone to access, even without a membership: https://my.heritagedefense.org/access-the-vault

Below are just some of the topics and themes within the vault:

  • Vaccine mandates for homeschoolers
  • When parents can leave a child unattended at home
  • Minor consent to healthcare
  • A brief summary of your state’s law, plus an article explaining the topic
  • Our grade based on the law’s effect on parental rights
  • Citations to the statutes, regulations, and court cases
  • Helpful links to government websites, where applicable

It gives you affordable access to expert legal counsel.

Two homeschooling attorneys, Don Hart and Bradley Pierce, founded Heritage Defense and know firsthand the challenges that come with home education.

We appreciate how all these legal services are available at just $19 a month – less than the average cost of one hour with an attorney!

Your membership benefits other homeschool families.

Because of its presence in all 50 states, this nonprofit helps families nationwide to unite “as members of the Body of Christ coming together to build one another up as we seek to advance the kingdom of God,” according to its website FAQs.

The founders of Heritage Defense see a critical need for a legal advocacy organization which unites families, family-focused organizations, and other Christian leaders to provide for the common defense of family freedoms. 

Heritage Defense promotes grassroots lobbying efforts.

Today’s homeschool freedoms came about primarily through the efforts and sacrifices of previous generations who fought for the right in numerous court and legal battles.

For example, a school district charged the Sawyer family with truancy in the Kansas City area in the 1980s “even though they had formally withdrawn their children to open a non-accredited private school in their home.”

In this video, Amy Buchmeyer and Mike Smith of Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) explain the early history behind the homeschool movement in the Kansas City area, Kansas and Missouri. Listen to firsthand testimonials of homeschooling pioneers Suzanne Alongi, Sherry Rink and Sharon Bellas, who all began their home-education journey in the 1980s.

Heritage Defense encourages its members “to play a greater role in the political process through our grassroots lobbying efforts.”

Who knows – you may be instrumental in helping us keep homeschool freedoms thriving in the Midwestern region and beyond!

As part of our commitment to Heritage Defense’s work, we’re happy to provide a discount off an annual or monthly membership when you join MPE at a Family-level membership and higherPlease sign up with MPE first, and then we can provide you with a group discount code; it cannot be applied retroactively to your Heritage Defense membership.

Shanxi Omoniyi

Shanxi Omoniyi (@ShanxiO on Twitter) is MPE's online content director. A homeschool alumna, Shanxi graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in journalism and English. Her company, Wordspire Media, helps businesses and nonprofits share their stories through content marketing, social media management, and email marketing.

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