When the alarm bell rings at 9 a.m. on weekdays, Tina Hosek gets her school lessons under way. "Otherwise it's very easy to let the whole day get away from you," she said. "You have to be hard on yourself and discipline yourself."

Saturdays are spent preparing lesson plans and looking at tests to see where her children need extra help.

But Hosek is not a certified teacher - she's a Queen Creek mother who teaches her three children at home.

And if she were living just one state away, her home schooling status could soon classify her as a criminal.

Late last month, a California appeals court unexpectedly issued a ruling that essentially outlawed home schooling in that state unless the parent holds a teaching certificate.

The ruling has created a sense among many home schooling families that their education style is coming under attack - even in Arizona, where home schooling was first written into state law in 1981. The law was revised 10 years later.

"It puts the whole issue of regulation of home schooling back into the public discussion," said Tempe mother Carol Shippy, legislative liaison for Arizona Families for Home Education. "Since 1991, we've had pretty quiet waters in terms of home schooling."

Now, Shippy said, families with home-schooled children across the country are focused on the California case.

"What they are asking themselves is, is this a second wave of criticism that we have to fight off, state by state, across the nation - which we've already done?"

Some 8,700 students in Maricopa County are home-schooled, according to county records, and that number grew by 10 percent from 2006 to 2007. Nationwide, an estimated 2 million students are taught at home by their parents.

Many parents choose home schooling for religious reasons or because they feel their children aren't getting individualized attention at school.

Hosek said she started home schooling when her oldest son, Richie, now 14, was in third grade.

"I went from being PTA president to home schooling over the summer, so it was kind of a shock to everybody," she said. "I just felt like I was losing touch with my son. The school was getting the best hours of his day, and I was getting the leftovers, so I decided to bring him home. ... I would never go back."

Hosek said she was shocked when she learned that families like hers in California might have to give their home schooling up, or face criminal penalties.

"Everyone was freaking out because it can kind of trickle down to other states," she said. "We do enjoy such freedom for home schooling in Arizona that you always have that, in the back of your head, that it could be taken away."

On Feb. 28, the Second District Court of Appeal ruled that California law requires parents to send their children to full-time public or private schools or have them taught by credentialed tutors at home.

That, says the Home School Legal Defense Association, could eliminate the vast majority of parent-led home teaching.

The case started off as a child welfare complaint by a home-schooled child who reported physical and emotional abuse. The case snowballed into a ruling that said California parents "do not have a constitutional right" to home-school their children.

In California, unlike in Arizona, home schooling has been allowed under a private school statute, Shippy said. Many home schooling families in California register with the state as their own private school, then enroll their children.

Arizona law differs greatly because home schooling was legally defined as a way of meeting compulsory education requirements in 1981, Shippy said. Since the practice is defined in state statute, it's not likely the California judge's ruling would spread to similar cases in Arizona, Shippy explained.

In fact, Arizona has fewer regulations on home schooling than most other states.

The only requirement to home-school children is that parents must notify county officials of their intent to home-school.

Still, nothing is a sure bet, Shippy warned families on her organization's Web site. That is why she encourages home-schoolers to know their state lawmakers and to keep up-to-date on what's going on at the Legislature.

Still, some families worry about the implications of the recent California ruling.

"No one is really panicked, but at the same time, there is somewhat of a concern that if this kind of thing can happen in California, it can happen elsewhere," said Marika Connole, a Queen Creek mother who has five children using the Arizona Virtual Academy curriculum, which she then facilitates at home.

"The comment definitely has come up that what happens in California often comes to Arizona next."

Connole also said the ruling is getting home-schoolers to unite.

"There is a lot of talk about this, and a lot of times when these things come up, they take you by surprise and it galvanizes you," she said.

Meanwhile, the family in the California case is planning to appeal to California's Supreme Court, and the Home School Legal Defense Association is petitioning the court to "depublish" the opinion, meaning it can't be used by other California courts.