It’s October, which means I’d rather be watching playoff baseball than thinking about the General Assembly’s veto session, but duty calls (as does acknowledging the Cubs may be eliminated before everyone gets back to Springfield).

Looking ahead requires a little look back: revisiting a June 18 column about the measures left incomplete in the spring. Among them are tweaks to the Tier 2 pension system, the financial crisis facing city and suburban public transportation agencies and whether the Chicago Bears can hoodwink enough lawmakers into finding a clever way to allocate public resources for their private arena development.

One item unlikely to gain new traction later this month is House Bill 2827, the Homeschool Act. That might’ve been a safe prediction anyway, given the vocal and visible opposition during the spring session, but one recent development could be a strongly mitigating factor: the bill’s primary sponsor is leaving the Legislature.

State Rep. Terra Costa Howard, D-Glen Ellyn, will be a new DuPage County Circuit Court judge. The Illinois Supreme Court announced her appointment last month to fill a retirement vacancy starting Oct. 17 and concluding Dec. 7, 2026, unless she wins a permanent seat during next year’s general election.

That career switch doesn’t inherently kill the idea of regulating homeschoolers, but it does raise the political question of who else would take up the mantle of a divisive issue.

Plenty of legislative proposals are perennial, some with the same diligent sponsors and a few that represent old ideas under new names. On rare occasions, one party claims the other’s idea as its own and runs it up a different flagpole.

That won’t happen with HB 2827, as Republicans have been united in opposition to start regulating an otherwise untouched aspect of the education system.

Capitol News Illinois detailed Costa Howard’s position following its 2024 investigation with ProPublica (tinyurl.com/CNIhomeschool), revealing “little accountability for parents who pull their kids from school and then fail to ensure they receive an education. In the worst cases, the investigation found, parents isolated and mistreated their children.”

The original version of HB 2827 empowered state and local school officials to request homeschool parents provide an “educational portfolio” to prove teaching is happening, but in April, a House committee passed an amendment stipulating this could only happen during a truancy investigation.

That version stalled in the House. While Costa Howard – who reported hostile feedback, including a death threat – was open to further changes, the veto session demands a higher bar than seemed attainable.

No legislation ever fully dies, but for this concept to return in January, another lawmaker with similar passion – such as Costa Howard’s “extensive experience in juvenile court,” per CNI – would need to embrace the challenge.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.