HEF Connect Fund Match - August 2025!
- HEF Admin | Crystal Crawford
- Aug 4
- 3 min read
Did you know that home education has only been legal in Florida since 1985? It's true—2025 marks the 40th anniversary of parents' rights to home educate in Florida! It's officially been 40 years since Craig and Brenda Dickinson (HEF's founders) helped write the statutes that made home education a legal attendance track in our state.
In the years since that momentous legislation went into effect, the Home Education Foundation (HEF) has been a full-time presence in the Florida Capitol, diligently protecting parents' rights to educate their own children as they see fit—whether that's home education, private school options, or now Personalized Education Programs (PEP).
Over these four decades, HEF has been instrumental in securing ongoing freedoms for home education in Florida, as well as expanding opportunities for home-educated students, including:
access to Bright Futures (s. 1002.41(5))
dual enrollment (s. 1002.41(6))
the Gardiner scholarship, now called the Unique Abilities scholarship (s.1002.394)
the ability to play sports at public schools (s.1006.15, named the Craig Dickinson Act, after Brenda's late husband)
and more.
We here at HEF continue to work year-round, every year, to ensure those opportunities and freedoms are protected and that parents' God-given authority to direct their own children's education remains forefront in Florida's education statutes.
We also have a non-profit, HEF Connect, through which we work tirelessly to ensure parents have accurate, reliable information about their educational rights and freedoms, and will gladly advocate for parents as needed, free of charge. (Our help and information are never behind a paywall for parents in need.)
Not familiar with HEF/HEF Connect or what we've been up to lately? Dive into some of our recent podcasts for more info:
With HEF's rich history of securing and protecting home education rights in Florida over the past 40 years, surely HEF/HEF Connect have a wealth of support from donors to continue this important work, right?
You might be surprised.
We do not have any massive organizations supporting our work... just the accumulation of individual donations from parents and/or local small businesses across the state.
(If you're one of those, we're immensely grateful!)
There are now, as of the latest count:
114,370 Home Education families in Florida...
(and approximately 153,000 total Home Education students).
Of those 114,370 families...
about 100 currently support HEF.
That's less than 1%.
(Less than 10% of 1%, to be more accurate.)
If even ONE PERCENT of Florida's Home-Educating families chose to financially support our work, our reach and impact could increase exponentially.
Want to help support the work we do? (Or get the word out to others, if you're already a supporter?)
NOW'S YOUR CHANCE!
We have been promised a $6000 donation match for the month of August...which means:
If we can reach $6000 in new or upgraded donations for August 2025, that $6000 will be matched!
It would only take 50 new (or upgraded) monthly Supporters at the $10/month tier to reach this goal.
That's so very reachable... but only with YOUR help!
For August 2025 only, EVERY new or upgraded Supporter counts toward this $6000 Match Goal... meaning if you choose to Support at more than $10/month, you're counting for more than one of our needed 50!
$10 per month is hardly more than a cup of coffee each month... and helps secure the protection of your parental rights and freedoms.
Do you love your educational freedoms in Florida?
And please, share this post with any other home-educating parents you know!
We sincerely appreciate your Support to help us protect parent-directed education in Florida.