CHEA is the only California state organization that advocates for and promotes private Christian home education 24/7, year round.

CHEA, along with Family Protection Ministries (FPM) and Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), is an integral part of the infrastructure that protects homeschool freedoms in California. CHEA fills the important role of the common organization necessary to keep things cohesive. Due to our network of members and groups, we can rally a call to action with very short notice when the need arises to protect our homeschool freedoms. We have had great success in protecting parental and homeschool rights in California over the years using this approach. When we are silent, the government tends to encroach on our liberties.

Without CHEA, the homeschooling community becomes fragmented; fragmented communities flounder and are easy prey for outside negative influences.

Media outlets need a reputable and reliable source that can provide accurate information. We deal with the media, sometimes on a daily basis, advocating for homeschooling, putting a positive face forward, and providing correct information. With CHEA gone there would be no central voice on Christian homeschooling distilling the important aspects to the media.

We work with many research organizations such as the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) to provide general demographic information for their studies. This results in better demographic information about homeschoolers which can be used by the state and which benefits all homeschoolers. Without CHEA many of the positive results of this research would disappear. This is not something that individuals can do themselves.

As a membership group, CHEA is able to show that it represents a large segment of the Christian homeschooling community/population. This helps when we need to encourage our legislators to fight a bill that FPM brings to our attention. A chord of three strands is not easily broken. Membership in CHEA allows us to show our strength to organizations who would not take a single homeschooler seriously.

Our staff has worked with many organizations to establish discounted events to some fun places in California with “homeschool days.” Check out homeschool days at Legoland, Six Flags, and Dodger Stadium to name a few. With CHEA gone, we will not be able to advocate on behalf of homeschoolers to these organizations that there is a community of Christians who want to visit their parks/events. We can get these discounts only when we represent a large group behind us.

Our website, www.cheaofca.org, all of our publications, and our events are Christ-centered. There are a variety of other Christ-centered websites and publications, but only CHEA is a Christ-centered resource for all of these.

This organization provides practical how-to homeschool training for home educators by engaging in research and publishing that information to the homeschool community. These resources are all in one place so individuals do not have to search the internet which may not provide accurate, reliable data. Visit www.cheaofca.org for more information on this, including line-by-line instructions for filing the Private School Affidavit, updated each October. Again, while other entities may also be involved in these activities, CHEA is the trustworthy central clearing house. Without CHEA acting as the hub, accurate information would be scat-tered and harder to find.

We offer an educational consultant, available by phone five days each week. She is a wealth of information and encouragement.

Practical training is also offered via CHEA’s conferences and conventions. Past day-long con-ferences have focused on parenting from a biblical worldview and teaching children with special needs. Our flagship event, the Annual Christian Home Educators Convention, which we’ve held for more than 32 years in the Southern California area, offers Christ-centered practical and inspirational workshops and curriculum, plus the opportunity to make connections with other like-minded individuals, groups, and resource companies. Without CHEA, this type of statewide event and its benefits would not be available.

CHEA is a non-profit organization which, as required by law and its self-imposed mission, reinvests all profits back into the California homeschool community. If we were an out-of-state, for-profit entity, profits would likely be invested in other, non-homeschooling ventures. Without CHEA, for-profit businesses could become strong in California and do just that, and private, Christian home education would be weakened.

CHEA provides support and training for homeschool leaders via annual leadership confer-ences, smaller regional meetings, and a bi-monthly leadership publication.

What happens if CHEA goes away? Sometimes our small staff feels like the little boy with his finger in the dike, holding back the water. Without this organization, each private homeschooler and homeschool group becomes an island on its own. Our infrastructure with Members and Sup-port Network groups for private Christian home educators in the state of California provides a framework for FPM and HSLDA to protect our rights. If CHEA goes away, Family Protection Ministries will as well, and no other organization is working in the capitol specifically with homeschool rights as a focus.

Standing together we create a tangible presence, a force to be reckoned with, to those who would oppose private Christian home education in Sacramento.

CHEA is the statewide private home education voice that is committed to Christ and reminding Christian homeschoolers that our triune God is most important, and this message is in-fused in the practical and wisdom-producing resources we provide homeschooling parents in their daily homeschool journey.

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