(ABC 6 News)- A new amendment in a senate bill at the state level could affect children’s education in the future, in particular those who are home-schooled.

And in Minnesota, that makes a lot of students.

• Homeschooled students are up 18% since the 2022-23 school year
• According to the Minnesota Department of Education, over 31,000 students were home-schooled in the 2024-2025 school year, out of 900,000 total students.

The amendment to the bill focuses on changes to the state’s education policy focusing on kids from K-12, in particular new home school requirements that disqualify individuals with certain criminal records to operate a home school.

As a result, one parent who homeschools her kids , is now sharing concerns that this can effect homeschooling in general.

“It’s taking that control out of the classroom and away from teachers and putting it in the hands of someone else. We don’t want more regulation,” said Myastinga Hagen, a parent of homeschooled kids.

Hagen has been homeschooling her kids ever since they were in grade school, and thinks changing the law isn’t necessary.

“We’d like things to just stay how they are, and you know just to be able to continue to educate our children in a way we see fit, and continue to be able to help them learn in the best way possible,” Hagen said.

With crimes such as murder, domestic assault, and child abuse, among others, part of the amendment not allowing a parent to operate a homeschool, she thinks the focus of the amendment should be taken out of education.

“We have laws like that already in place, and have avenues to regulate that, there’s no place in educational law,” said Hagen.

Representative Peggy Bennett from District 23A agrees that the amendment shouldn’t be passed.

“First of all, this was not a well thought out amendment. It should have come before a committee,” Bennett said.

Saying if a child is at risk in a homeschool situation, they wouldn’t be in the home in the first place.

“If the child is at risk living in that home, then they wouldn’t be living in the home. So it’s ridiculous to say, these people can’t homeschool because they’ve committed this crime or this crime,” said Bennett.