The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is a United States-based organization that seeks to aid homeschooling families through legal representation. HSLDA describes itself as a "Christian organization." HSLDA is organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, located in Purcellville, Virginia, which is also the home of Patrick Henry College, founded by Michael Farris in 2000. Farris was also CEO of the conservative Christian legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom from 2017–22. History HSLDA was founded by Michael Farris in 1983 for the purpose of defending homeschooling families. At that time, homeschooling was not specifically legal in most of the states of the U.S. under compulsory schooling laws. Those who practiced homeschooling were often harassed or prosecuted. Through a combination of legal action and legislative lobbying, HSLDA played a large part in the legalization of homeschooling throughout the U.S. A high point of HSLDA's existence was its central role in the 1994 defeat of language in bill H.R. 6. This bill would have required all teachers in the U.S., potentially including home educators, to have teacher certification. HSLDA used their grassroots lobbying system in each of the 50 states which coordinated members to contact their legislators about pending legislation. Their members overloaded the phone switchboards at Capitol Hill, and through the efforts of their members and other organizations, the bill was amended to remove the problematic language. While HSLDA is proud of this, some homeschoolers disagreed. As noted by Mark Hegener, then publisher of Home Education Magazine, "HSLDA used homeschooling families to jump strongly on the Federal side of the scale of State's rights vs. Federal rights. For homeschoolers this means someday, some poor federal bureaucrat is going to be stuck with the task of writing regulations which define homeschooling." HSLDA's speech and debate league broke off to form the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association in 2001. That same year, Patrick Henry College was founded by Michael Farris, who was the college's president until 2006. Today, HSLDA's 80,000+ members receive free legal assistance if they are contacted by public school officials, or need legal help in relation to their rights to homeschool. HSLDA has been criticized, from both inside and outside the larger homeschooling movement, for its ties to the Christian Right and its advocacy for various conservative political and religious causes, some of which are unrelated to homeschooling. Other HSLDA programs Generation Joshua In 2003, HSLDA, feeling a need to