A German family punished for homeschooling their children has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Dirk and Petra Wunderlich submitted a final appeal last week asking the ECHR to protect their right to homeschool their four children. Home education has been banned in Germany since 1918 and carries criminal penalties.

U.S. Education Secretary John King created a flurry of frustration and fear among homeschool advocates last week with comments viewed as ignorant at best or, at worst, hostile toward alternative education.

Despite many European countries’ statist policies making home education difficult or even illegal, homeschooling appears to be on the rise in Europe.

In England, data recently gathered by the BBC from 190 local school systems show a 65 percent increase over the last six years in students learning at home. The U.K. now has more than 36,000 home-educated children. But experts say this number might be vastly understated.

DALLAS—The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case that at first glance would appear to have far-reaching effects on the state’s more than 120,000 homeschool families—about one-sixth of the nation’s total homeschool population.

At issue is how much latitude local and state officials have in requesting proof—in the form of lesson plans or curricula—that homeschool students are being educated in a way that satisfies vague standards laid out by the Texas Education Agency.

Voddie Baucham is a husband, father, pastor, author, professor, conference speaker, and church planter. He currently serves as pastor of preaching at Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, Texas. He’s also served as an adjunct professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Houston.

A Connecticut task force formed after the Newtown shooting is recommending a new policy that would allow the state to keep a close eye on homeschoolers and mandate certain instruction for parents opting students out of public school special education programs.

The state has placed increased scrutiny on its roughly 5,000 homeschoolers since the December 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 26 people.

The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) and much of the homeschooling community are bristling after an Indiana-based energy company rescinded a job offer to a home-educated graduate.