Education Alliance seeks input from home-school parents

WEST FARMINGTON — In July of 2023, Maine Home Education Alliance (MHEA) was founded by home-school parents throughout the state to launch homeschooling in Maine into the 21st century, and defend and preserve the legal right to home-school in the state.

“This effort has sprung out of the entrepreneurial, self-determined spirit of Maine’s homegrown businesses, who see the parallels with families who choose to home educate. We want to do a better job at harnessing the untapped potential of Maine’s home-schooled youth by responding to the needs of parents and home-schooled children, particularly teens who are getting ready to launch into adulthood,” explained Becky Grant-Widen, MHEA President.

MHEA will spend the year creating programming, infrastructure and leadership from within the community. Their efforts are focused on determining and ultimately meeting the diverse needs of the growing number of homeschooling families in Maine.

MHEA will hold focus groups for home-school parents in locations throughout Maine. Participants will have the opportunity to help MHEA determine the direction of the programs. Light refreshments will be provided along with a $10 Hannaford gift card at the end of the focus group.

Focus groups scheduled include: 11/2 Machias, 11/4 Farmington, 11/5 Fairfield, 11/6 Windham, 11/8 Augusta 11/18, Guilford, Brunswick and Ellsworth TBD. To request participation, please go to https://mainehea.org/focus-groups/ .

Homeschooling in Maine has almost doubled since 2020 when there were just under 6,800 home-schooled students in the state. Maine Home Education Alliance is encouraged by the growth in the number of families homeschooling and look forward to working alongside families to broaden and strengthen home education in Maine.