Many parents critical of public education have removed their children from public schools and are schooling them at home. Home schooling has generated a number of lawsuits. Controversies have arisen over the definitions of "school" and of "equivalent instruction," parents' qualifications to teach, and religious exemptions from state compulsory school attendance laws. Parents have focused recent efforts on the political process. Since 1982, 30 states have eased restrictions on home education programs. During the 1992 Indiana legislative session, a bill calling for extensive regulation of home education was dropped without a hearing. In Indiana, the number of registered home schoolers since 1985 has more than tripled: from 519 to 1,713. nationwide, the number of children being educated by home schooling is increasing, and this will likely be accompanied by pressure on state legislatures to deregulate home schooling. State policymakers face difficult decisions in striking the appropriate balance between state and individual interests. (Contains 35 references.) (MLF)