Home schooling is one of the fastest growing educational options in the United States. In 1995, the National Home Education Research Institute reported the number of home-schooled children to be approximately 500,000 students, one percent of the total school-age population. Parents choose home schooling for various reasons including differences in religion, concerns about the safety of public schools, overcrowding of public schools, contrasting views about discipline, providing a better learning environment for special needs children, avoiding negative peer pressure, devoting more time to development of children's special talents and interests, and beliefs that school curricula are ineffective or irrelevant. Research indicates that home schoolers score as well or better than their public school peers on achievement tests. This can be attributed to the significant amount of time parents' devote to their children's education and the availability of educational resources for home schooling. Because rural communities have different needs and resources from those found in the populated areas, nontraditional programs such as home schooling are becoming more prominent. With the advent of technology and personal computers, home schooling in rural areas is no longer dependent upon parental education or community resources. In addition, home schooling is cost-effective when compared to the time and money required to transport students to large, centralized schools. Idaho is considered one of the United States' leaders in home-schooling and has several home-schooling advocacy organizations. Idaho legislation passed in July 1995 gives home-schooled and private-school students access to the academic, elective, and extracurricular programs of public schools. Educators should comply with and support the requirements of their state legislature concerning home schooling. (LP)