Frequently Asked Questions

CRHE does not support homeschool policy that results in prohibitive financial costs to parents, creates unfunded mandates for districts, or is wasteful of taxpayer dollars. We believe that feasibility studies and cost-benefit analysis have a place in homeschooling policy, but that safeguarding the interests of homeschooled children is worth an investment. The cost of effective homeschooling oversight is relatively minimal and saves money in the long run because today’s healthy children are tomorrow’s responsible adults. We propose that public school districts or state departments of education set aside a portion of state or federal education funding to cover the expenses of homeschool oversight and allow access to services such as standardized testing or formal evaluation at no cost or a discounted rate. Similarly, we support providing public schools with education funding for the services they provide homeschooled students, including part-time enrollment and special needs services.

Religious fundamentalism can in some cases contribute to abuse and neglect. However, abuse and neglect occurs in nonreligious homeschool settings as well, and many fundamentalist religious parents are able provide their children with a healthy upbringing and sound education. While religion is a factor in some of the abuse and neglect cases listed in the Homeschooling’s Invisible Children database, it does not play a role in the majority of the cases. When abuse and neglect do occur in religious fundamentalist families, homeschooling can compound the problem by allowing parents to isolate their children and by offering parents the opportunity to act on sexist ideas about gender and education.

While homeschooling does not make parents abusive, it does provide abusive parents with a powerful tool they can use to isolate and control their children, hiding visible signs of abuse and limiting social access to responsible and trusted adults in their child’s life. While all forms of abuse and neglect are bad, former homeschooled students who have attended school for part of their childhood typically report that their abuse was worst when they were homeschooled because there was no regular contact with mandatory reporters to serve as a check on their parents’ abuse. Similarly, there are numerous documented cases of abusive parents withdrawing their children from school in order to remove them from contact with mandatory reporters who might notice and report their abuse.

We support efforts to better protect all abused and neglected children. While there are numerous organizations working on the prevention of child abuse, their efforts to protect children who are abused or neglected often assume that children will attend school—thus overlooking homeschooled children. We hope to fill this gap by focusing on protections for homeschooled students specifically. We understand that school attendance does not in and of itself prevent abuse or neglect, but we also know that abusive and neglectful parents can and do use homeschooling to further isolate their children and conceal their abuse to devastating and often tragic ends. As former homeschooled students ourselves, we advocate for protections for these students.

Bullying can occur anywhere a group of human beings gather, including parks, churches, schools, workplaces, homes, and soccer fields.  Bullying in public schools has long been a problem, and there is now a known connection between childhood bullying and adverse adult health and well-being measures. In recent years, public schools have recognized this issue and, in conjunction with mental health providers, most have taken steps to reduce the prevalence of cultures conducive to bullying. Due to increased training on the topic, educators who in the past may have shrugged their shoulders now have a framework in which to understand bullying and what must be done to prevent and reduce it. We see this as a very positive change.

In some homeschools—particularly ones where domestic violence, authoritarian attitudes, or harsh corporal punishment occur—damaging amounts of bullying can happen within the family. Homeschooling alone does not serve as protection from bullying.

The homeschool community is currently not doing a good job of self-policing, for several reasons. It is always difficult to report a friend, family member, or neighbor to child protective services, and many people with valid concerns fail to report for fear of being identified as the reporter. Many homeschool communities also have a culture of individualism and family sovereignty that may get in the way of intervening in troubling situations or reporting concerns. Further, many of the homeschooled children most in need of help—those being abused or neglected—may be hidden or isolated from involvement with their local homeschool communities.

While individual social workers may have their own biases, they are screened before hiring to ensure their ability to fairly and effectively investigate abuse or neglect in families of any background and beliefs, and trained to respect individual cultural differences. Social workers also are expected to adhere to the Social Work Code of Ethics. They look for signs of abuse or neglect and only write reports about actual suspicious evidence of maltreatment of the child, and cannot legally discriminate based on religion or educational choice. Like other public employees, social workers are accountable to their superiors and their actions and decisions will be investigated and may be appealed should concerns of professional misconduct arise. Social workers have reported that it can be intimidating to investigate cases involving homeschooling. The chance of being accused of inappropriate interventions by prominent homeschool associations defending dues-paying members against social workers and child protection agencies can create an adversarial culture and an atmosphere of suspicion. CRHE hopes to build cooperation and trust through education and dialogue.