Every four years, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts its National Household Education Survey. Beginning in 1999, the NCES has collected data on homeschooling as part of this survey. This data offers the most comprehensive statistical information we have on homeschooling in the United States. Last month, the NCES released its most recent findings, which covered data collected during 2015-2016.
Unlike studies of homeschooling that draw from convenience samples gathered via individuals a researcher knows or emails sent out by homeschool organizations, the NCES uses a nationally representative random sample for this survey. Even so, this data is not without its challenges. The NCES switched from phone surveys to mail-in surveys when conducting the 2011-2012 survey, and some researchers have questioned whether this or that method may favor different types of respondents.
The NCES does not collect information on students’ test scores; as a result, their surveys primarily provide demographic data. Below, we report some of the key findings of the 2015-2016 survey; we cover numbers, language, income, parental education, grade level, and parents’ reasons for homeschooling. Remember, as with any survey data, this information should be approached with some degree of caution.
1. The homeschool rate has stopped increasing, ending a long period of homeschool growth.
One of the most significant findings of the 2015-2016 National Household Education Survey is that the homeschool rate has ceased growing and has perhaps even declined slightly. In 2011-2012, 3.4% of school-aged children were homeschooled; in 2015-2016, that number dipped slightly to 3.3%. Overall, the number of homeschooled children declined from 1,770,000 in 2011-2012 to 1,704,000 in 2015-2016. This finding is not as surprising as it might initially seem; state level homeschool enrollment data has, in recent years, been mixed, with some states showing declines while others have seen growth. Additionally, the pace of growth had already been slowing; while the number of children being homeschooled increased by 38% between 2003 and 2007, it grew by only 17% between 2007 and 2011-2012.
2. One in ten homeschooled children does not have a parent/guardian who speaks English.
According to the 2015-2016 data, 11% of homeschooled students live in household where no parent or guardian speaks English. This is the first year the National Household Education Survey asked this question, so we cannot compare this finding to previous years. However, the finding may be related to a dramatic rise in the number of Hispanic students being homeschooled: in 2015-2016, 26% of homeschooled students were Hispanic, up from 15% in 2011-2012. While white, non-Hispanic students were still homeschooled at the highest rate, fewer white, non-Hispanic students were homeschooled in 2015-2016 than in 2011-2012. (White, non-Hispanic students made up 59% of homeschooled students in 2015-2016, down from 68% in 2011-2012 and 77% in 2007.)
3. Children living below the poverty line are more likely than other children to be homeschooled.
The most recent NCES survey found that children living below the poverty line were more likely to be homeschooled than other children. This appears to have shifted over time. In 2007, just 1.8% of school-age children in poverty were homeschooled, compared with roughly 3.2% of those not in poverty. In 2011-2012, in the midst of the Great Recession, the rate was practically identical for each group—3.5% of children in poverty and 3.4% of children not in poverty were homeschooled. In the latest data, however, 3.9% of children in poverty were homeschooled compared to 3.1% of children not in poverty. Children living in poverty were 26% more likely to be homeschooled than children not living in poverty.
4. Parents without a high school diploma or GED homeschool at a higher rate than other parents.
According to the most recent data, 4.4% of children whose parents do not have a high school diploma or GED are homeschooled as compared to only 3.6% of children with at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree. To break it down another way, 15% of homeschooled children do not have a parent who has completed high school. Nearly one-third of homeschooled children are being educated by parents with a high school diploma or below. Less than half of homeschooled children (45%) have a parent with a bachelor’s degree or above.
In 2015-2016, for the first time since the NCES began collecting data, the rate of homeschooling among children whose parents have a bachelor’s degree or above declined. The high rate of homeschooling among children whose parents have not completed high school is also a new thing; in 2007, the first year to release data on homeschooling rates among parents who had not completed high school, only 0.4% of parents without a high school diploma or GED homeschooled; in 2015-2016, that number was 4.4%.
5. High school students are homeschooled at a higher rate than elementary school students.
In 2007, the homeschooling rate was slightly higher for elementary school children than for middle or high school students. More recent data suggests that this has changed. In 2011-2012, high school students were 19% more likely to be homeschooled than young elementary students; in 2015-2016, this number changed to 31%. It is difficult to tell what is driving this shift. While the overall rate of homeschooling declined slightly between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016, the rate of high school students being homeschooled actually increased slightly.
It is possible that the rise in virtual education has led to an increase in the number of high school students being homeschooled; in 2011-2012, at lest one-fifth of all homeschooled students were enrolled in online courses through a public school. It is also possible that changes taking place in the nation’s elementary schools over the past few years have made them more attractive to parents who might otherwise have homeschooled their children.
6. The percentage of parents homeschooling for religious or academic reasons has been declining.
On the 2015-2016 survey, 17% of parents listed a dissatisfaction with academic instruction in other schools as their most important reason for homeschooling, down slightly from 2011-2012 when 19% of parents selected this reason. Overall, 61% of parents listed a concern about academic instruction as one of their reasons for homeschooling, down from 74%. The percentage of parents who listed a desire to provide religious instruction as their most important reason for homeschooling declined similarly from 17% to 16% between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016; those who selected it as a reason overall declined from 64% to 51%.
The percentage of parents selecting a concern about the environment in other schools as their most important motivation for homeschooling increased from 25% to 34% during this period, though but the percentage of parents selecting it as a reason overall declined from 91% to 80%. The percentage of parents homeschooling to provide a nontraditional education or because a child has special needs, meanwhile, remained largely unchanged.
Conclusion
What does all of this mean? For one thing, it means that homeschool demographics are beginning to more closely resemble those of the nation as a whole. Before the last decade or so, families that homeschooled tended to be more likely to be white, less poor, and better educated than other families. Data from the most recent National Household Education Survey suggests that this may no longer be the case. These changes may point to increasing use of online public school programs and other virtual school options, which could be attracting students with a different set of demographics than traditional homeschooling.
In 2016, the NCES released a full analysis of the homeschooling data it had collected in 2011-2012. This report explained that, when initially contacted, some of the respondents had asked for the homeschool survey while others had asked for the enrolled in school survey and then marked that their children were homeschooled part-time. This latter group had a distinct demographic profile. These individuals were more likely to be Hispanic, far more likely to be poor, and much more likely to not have a high school diploma or GED. While the full analysis of the 2015-2016 data will not be released for some time, we may be seeing a similar effect.
These changing demographics throw into stark relief the limitations of current research on homeschooled students’ academic achievement. Studies of homeschooled students’ performance have typically drawn on convenience samples that skew heavily toward white children with college educated parents. These findings cannot be generalized to homeschooled students with vastly different demographic factors. Our lack of knowledge about these students is especially concerning in the wake of a 2015 Stanford study which found that, over the course of a year, virtual charter school students lagged behind their demographically matched peers in reading and showed no progress whatsoever in math.
Are public schools offloading problem students onto online programs? Are virtual charter school programs attracting a new demographic of students to home education? Or are the demographics of homeschooling changing across the board, regardless of the method or means of instruction? The 2015-2016 NCES data leaves these and many other questions unanswered.
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by CRHE
Jesse M.: “Some of these things would most likely not have been done if they were not required”
“I am grateful that a minimal amount of planning was required at the beginning of the school year and that some type of assessment was required at the end of each school year. I’m also grateful that medical checkups were required. Some of these things would most likely not have been done if they were not required.“
I am in favor of homeschool oversight because homeschooled children need their rights to health, safety, and education legally protected. Without oversight, parents or guardians can claim to homeschool as a means to hide abuse, neglect, and failure. This misuse of the freedom to homeschool must be stopped. I support oversight of homeschooling because I had the benefit of some oversight in the states where I was homeschooled. Even well-intentioned, responsible parents can benefit from the guidance and structure that legal protections provide and homeschooling as a whole will have a better reputation if it is not misused. It is simply unacceptable that homeschooled children in many states do not have adequate legal protection for their health, safety and education.
Homeschooling has inherent weaknesses, such as a tendency toward isolation within the family, fewer opportunities for a child to develop independence and a self-concept separate from their family, and the risk that children will have no escape from the effects of damaging parental issues, such as depression, illness, addiction, or domestic violence. Because a homeschooled child’s family life and school life are so tied together, a dysfunction, sickness, or other crisis in the family can devastate the child’s life both academically and personally. While there are pros and cons with every form of education, homeschooled children depend on their parents to provide their education instead of professional teachers and thus do not have that alternative support system of teachers and peers to turn to at times when their parents may not be willing or able to meet their needs.
Deregulation of homeschooling in many states has given parents the ability to have an almost totalitarian control over their children. But to those who think that parents always know what is best for their children, consider this: To be a parent the only real requirement is that a person have a functioning reproductive system. This says nothing about the person’s intellectual capacity, level of education, or ability to teach. To those who think that parents are always well-intentioned and try their best, I point to the parents of all the murdered and abused children whose stories are chronicled at hsinvisiblechildren.org. Any good intentions these parents might once have had are clearly not enough. Their children needed legal protection. And many other homeschooled children still need legal protection.
I was homeschooled in New York up to age 10 and in Pennsylvania from age 10 to age 18. These are both states with the highest levels of oversight of any in the country. Yet even these levels of oversight are not actually that high, and parents can sometimes falsify records to make their homeschool look good and hide problems, for example by claiming to have homeschooled more days than they actually did, or doctoring their children’s schoolwork to make it look good for the portfolio. Since homeschooling parents in Pennsylvania can choose their evaluator, it can be a family friend who may agree to pass the family even when they discover that the child copied their work from the answer key when Mom wasn’t looking. In my experience, accountability for homeschooling parents is a good thing, because it sets clear standards so that they have goals to motivate them even if they cheat to achieve them. It also reveals problems that they may not have been aware of, but will hopefully try to address once they see how they are failing.
Reasonable oversight gives responsible parents a way to measure their efforts and stay accountable. Having a reasonable amount of oversight can benefit a homeschooling family by giving them a sense of structure and positive goals to work toward. Homeschooling is hard work. Even responsible parents are sometimes distracted, overwhelmed or short sighted. As the second oldest of twelve children, I experienced many times when my family became overwhelmed and disorganized. I am grateful that a minimal amount of planning was required at the beginning of the school year and that some type of assessment was required at the end of each school year. I’m also grateful that medical checkups were required. Some of these things would most likely not have been done if they were not required. While oversight can’t fix or mitigate every problem a homeschooling family might have, it can establish clear standards to show when a child is being neglected or abused, and when homeschooling is failing a child, whether or not the parents have good intentions.
Jesse M. was homeschooled in New York and Pennsylvania from 1989-2001. For additional thoughts and experiences of homeschooled alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by CRHE
Rebecca A.: “I feel I have been denied the opportunity to live up to my potential”
“My days revolved around taking care of my siblings and our home. Our mother would leave her bedroom periodically to yell at us for being too noisy and messy. I spent most of my teenage years being overwhelmed and depressed.”
I attended Christian (Protestant) schools through most of my education, having been homeschooled in 4th grade. When I entered 7th grade in 1988, the school I was attending closed a few months into the school year and there was no choice but to attend public school. I had been so sheltered that this new reality was a literal hell for me, especially considering that I was not allowed to acclimate—let alone assimilate. I was bullied and physically assaulted to the point where I refused to go anymore. My parents decided to homeschool us (myself and two siblings). This time it was much different.
In 4th grade, my parents had been involved in a correspondence group that sent curriculum, lesson plans, teaching guides, etc. This time money was tight, and my parents fought with the local school board for the right to borrow textbooks for us to use under a provision of the Homeschool Act passed the year before. It was early 1989, and I was 13.
My father was working a full-time job, as well as being a full-time pastor of a tiny church. My mother had checked out, both physically and mentally, the previous year, following the birth of my youngest sibling. She would wake us up around 7am each morning, tell us what Bible verses to read, and go back to bed. We waited until all was quiet and then also went back to sleep until the baby would wake us up.
Taking care of the baby was my primary responsibility. After everyone was fed for the morning, I would try to direct my siblings in schoolwork, but I was 13. Not only did my siblings recognize that I held no authority over them, but at 13 I knew nothing about lesson planning or even where to begin. They at least had workbooks they could slog their way through. I had actual textbooks and no idea what to do with them. I would read and answer questions at the end of chapters. But I wasn’t so much being homeschooled as I was attempting to self-educate.
There are some subjects that are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to teach yourself—particularly math and science. I struggled with algebra. When the higher math textbooks arrived, I had no idea what to do. When I approached my parents for help, they both answered that they had gone to a vocational high school school and had taken business math. This meant I was basically on my own to figure out algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. I failed miserably. I basically bluffed/cheated my way through. (These were the days before the internet—so no help there.)
The only subject area in which my parents were proactive was science. They did not want us learning anything about the theory of evolution. Not that they supplemented the stuff we couldn’t read with anything else. They were also adamant that religious studies were the most important.
There were no outside groups to be involved with—we were very isolated. There was one other homeschooling family in our area, and periodically we would get together to play and that was considered our physical education. Being in my early teens, I had no interest in playing with little kids, and spent the time acting as babysitter more often than not.
I graduated in 1992, having “skipped” two grades (7th and 12th). I received a diploma from a homeschooling group located a few hours away. Unbeknownst to me, they were not state accredited at the time so my diploma meant nothing. I only learned this when I attempted to enter nursing school and was told that I’d need to get my GED to attend.
Oversight would have been great. I needed help and guidance and there was no one there for me. I’m still bitter about the experience. I feel like I could’ve learned so much more in a structured setting with knowledgeable people to direct and assist me.
When I attended college, I failed the math portion of the entrance exam, which meant extra classes just to get me caught up to my peers. When I took college biology, I was at a complete loss—while my classmates were basically taking a refresher course, I was learning the subject for the first time. And I hate to break it to my parents, but the “theory” of evolution actually makes a lot of sense. It’s so much more complicated than the “man came from monkeys” line I was fed my entire childhood.
As part of oversight, I would like to see school districts become more cooperative and involved with their homeschooling families. After my parents asserted their right to borrow textbooks from the local school district (as provided under the Homeschool Act passed in 1988), our district lent us outdated textbooks in terrible condition—missing pages and moldy from water damage. I believe this was done out of spite against my parents, but it hurt me, not them. I particularly remember one geometry textbook that was signed and dated by students in the 1960s.
No one knew how and if we were being educated. I don’t think anyone cared. There was absolutely no outside interference or support. There was minimal adult supervision. My days revolved around taking care of my siblings and our home. Our mother would leave her bedroom periodically to yell at us for being too noisy and messy. I spent most of my teenage years being overwhelmed and depressed.
My lack of a decent education has been a stumbling block on so many levels. And that doesn’t even include the social aspect. I feel like I have been denied the opportunity to live up to my potential. Honestly, it makes me angry.
Had someone stepped in and done a basic evaluation of our education and curriculum and provided some sort of guidance, there may have been a world of difference for me. I’ve always been told how smart I am, but most days I feel like an idiot because I’m constantly learning new things that everyone else seems to already know.
Rebecca A. was homeschooled in Pennsylvania from 1985-1986 (4th grade) and from 1989-1992 (8th grade through graduation). For additional thoughts and experiences of homeschooled alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 12 October, 2017 by Rachel Coleman
NCES Data Points to Changing Homeschool Demographics
Every four years, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts its National Household Education Survey. Beginning in 1999, the NCES has collected data on homeschooling as part of this survey. This data offers the most comprehensive statistical information we have on homeschooling in the United States. Last month, the NCES released its most recent findings, which covered data collected during 2015-2016.
Unlike studies of homeschooling that draw from convenience samples gathered via individuals a researcher knows or emails sent out by homeschool organizations, the NCES uses a nationally representative random sample for this survey. Even so, this data is not without its challenges. The NCES switched from phone surveys to mail-in surveys when conducting the 2011-2012 survey, and some researchers have questioned whether this or that method may favor different types of respondents.
The NCES does not collect information on students’ test scores; as a result, their surveys primarily provide demographic data. Below, we report some of the key findings of the 2015-2016 survey; we cover numbers, language, income, parental education, grade level, and parents’ reasons for homeschooling. Remember, as with any survey data, this information should be approached with some degree of caution.
1. The homeschool rate has stopped increasing, ending a long period of homeschool growth.
One of the most significant findings of the 2015-2016 National Household Education Survey is that the homeschool rate has ceased growing and has perhaps even declined slightly. In 2011-2012, 3.4% of school-aged children were homeschooled; in 2015-2016, that number dipped slightly to 3.3%. Overall, the number of homeschooled children declined from 1,770,000 in 2011-2012 to 1,704,000 in 2015-2016. This finding is not as surprising as it might initially seem; state level homeschool enrollment data has, in recent years, been mixed, with some states showing declines while others have seen growth. Additionally, the pace of growth had already been slowing; while the number of children being homeschooled increased by 38% between 2003 and 2007, it grew by only 17% between 2007 and 2011-2012.
2. One in ten homeschooled children does not have a parent/guardian who speaks English.
According to the 2015-2016 data, 11% of homeschooled students live in household where no parent or guardian speaks English. This is the first year the National Household Education Survey asked this question, so we cannot compare this finding to previous years. However, the finding may be related to a dramatic rise in the number of Hispanic students being homeschooled: in 2015-2016, 26% of homeschooled students were Hispanic, up from 15% in 2011-2012. While white, non-Hispanic students were still homeschooled at the highest rate, fewer white, non-Hispanic students were homeschooled in 2015-2016 than in 2011-2012. (White, non-Hispanic students made up 59% of homeschooled students in 2015-2016, down from 68% in 2011-2012 and 77% in 2007.)
3. Children living below the poverty line are more likely than other children to be homeschooled.
The most recent NCES survey found that children living below the poverty line were more likely to be homeschooled than other children. This appears to have shifted over time. In 2007, just 1.8% of school-age children in poverty were homeschooled, compared with roughly 3.2% of those not in poverty. In 2011-2012, in the midst of the Great Recession, the rate was practically identical for each group—3.5% of children in poverty and 3.4% of children not in poverty were homeschooled. In the latest data, however, 3.9% of children in poverty were homeschooled compared to 3.1% of children not in poverty. Children living in poverty were 26% more likely to be homeschooled than children not living in poverty.
4. Parents without a high school diploma or GED homeschool at a higher rate than other parents.
According to the most recent data, 4.4% of children whose parents do not have a high school diploma or GED are homeschooled as compared to only 3.6% of children with at least one parent with a bachelor’s degree. To break it down another way, 15% of homeschooled children do not have a parent who has completed high school. Nearly one-third of homeschooled children are being educated by parents with a high school diploma or below. Less than half of homeschooled children (45%) have a parent with a bachelor’s degree or above.
In 2015-2016, for the first time since the NCES began collecting data, the rate of homeschooling among children whose parents have a bachelor’s degree or above declined. The high rate of homeschooling among children whose parents have not completed high school is also a new thing; in 2007, the first year to release data on homeschooling rates among parents who had not completed high school, only 0.4% of parents without a high school diploma or GED homeschooled; in 2015-2016, that number was 4.4%.
5. High school students are homeschooled at a higher rate than elementary school students.
In 2007, the homeschooling rate was slightly higher for elementary school children than for middle or high school students. More recent data suggests that this has changed. In 2011-2012, high school students were 19% more likely to be homeschooled than young elementary students; in 2015-2016, this number changed to 31%. It is difficult to tell what is driving this shift. While the overall rate of homeschooling declined slightly between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016, the rate of high school students being homeschooled actually increased slightly.
It is possible that the rise in virtual education has led to an increase in the number of high school students being homeschooled; in 2011-2012, at lest one-fifth of all homeschooled students were enrolled in online courses through a public school. It is also possible that changes taking place in the nation’s elementary schools over the past few years have made them more attractive to parents who might otherwise have homeschooled their children.
6. The percentage of parents homeschooling for religious or academic reasons has been declining.
On the 2015-2016 survey, 17% of parents listed a dissatisfaction with academic instruction in other schools as their most important reason for homeschooling, down slightly from 2011-2012 when 19% of parents selected this reason. Overall, 61% of parents listed a concern about academic instruction as one of their reasons for homeschooling, down from 74%. The percentage of parents who listed a desire to provide religious instruction as their most important reason for homeschooling declined similarly from 17% to 16% between 2011-2012 and 2015-2016; those who selected it as a reason overall declined from 64% to 51%.
The percentage of parents selecting a concern about the environment in other schools as their most important motivation for homeschooling increased from 25% to 34% during this period, though but the percentage of parents selecting it as a reason overall declined from 91% to 80%. The percentage of parents homeschooling to provide a nontraditional education or because a child has special needs, meanwhile, remained largely unchanged.
Conclusion
What does all of this mean? For one thing, it means that homeschool demographics are beginning to more closely resemble those of the nation as a whole. Before the last decade or so, families that homeschooled tended to be more likely to be white, less poor, and better educated than other families. Data from the most recent National Household Education Survey suggests that this may no longer be the case. These changes may point to increasing use of online public school programs and other virtual school options, which could be attracting students with a different set of demographics than traditional homeschooling.
In 2016, the NCES released a full analysis of the homeschooling data it had collected in 2011-2012. This report explained that, when initially contacted, some of the respondents had asked for the homeschool survey while others had asked for the enrolled in school survey and then marked that their children were homeschooled part-time. This latter group had a distinct demographic profile. These individuals were more likely to be Hispanic, far more likely to be poor, and much more likely to not have a high school diploma or GED. While the full analysis of the 2015-2016 data will not be released for some time, we may be seeing a similar effect.
These changing demographics throw into stark relief the limitations of current research on homeschooled students’ academic achievement. Studies of homeschooled students’ performance have typically drawn on convenience samples that skew heavily toward white children with college educated parents. These findings cannot be generalized to homeschooled students with vastly different demographic factors. Our lack of knowledge about these students is especially concerning in the wake of a 2015 Stanford study which found that, over the course of a year, virtual charter school students lagged behind their demographically matched peers in reading and showed no progress whatsoever in math.
Are public schools offloading problem students onto online programs? Are virtual charter school programs attracting a new demographic of students to home education? Or are the demographics of homeschooling changing across the board, regardless of the method or means of instruction? The 2015-2016 NCES data leaves these and many other questions unanswered.
Posted: 12 September, 2017 by Rachel Coleman
Factless Attack on Facts Falls Flat: A response to Joel Kurtinitis’ Op-Ed in the Des Moines Register
Joel Kurtinitis’ opinion piece, “Attacks on homeschooling are short on facts,” published in the Des Moines Register on September 8, 2017, was missing some facts of its own.
Kurtinitis claimed that the “neither the Federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities nor the Mayo Clinic mentions homeschooling in their list of abuse risk factors.” He neglected to mention that the Commission did not publish a list of risk factors, and that the Mayo Clinic’s list of risk factors includes “social or extended family isolation.” In a 2014 study of child torture, child abuse researcher Barbara Knox wrote that “the majority of children … were isolated from people outside the immediate family” and that “this social isolation typically involved preventing the child from attending school.” Forty-seven percent of the school-aged cases Knox examined involved children removed from school to be homeschooled: “This ‘homeschooling’ appears to have been designed to further isolate the child and typically occurred after the closure of a previously opened CPS case,” Knox wrote.
In another breach of facts, Kurtinitis asserted that homeschooled students “enjoy a 30-plus point margin on standardized tests over public schoolers.” This is quite simply false. The research Kurtinitis cites surveyed only select homeschooled students, primarily from non-poor college-educated families, and more comprehensive data suggests that homeschooled students score below their public schooled peers in math; there is also some reason to believe that homeschooled students are less likely to attend college.
More pertinently, Kurtinitis compared our database of homeschool abuse cases to the number of reports investigated by CPS each year to claim that homeschooled students are 4,000 times less likely to be abused than public schooled students. This is absurd. Fewer than 20% of reports investigated by CPS are founded, only a small minority involve physical abuse, and many involve children who have not yet reached school age. Further, our database only includes homeschool abuse cases which are especially horrific and which hit the news. When we compared the fatalities in our database with a comprehensive list of child abuse fatalities nationwide, we found that, even with an incomplete list, homeschooled children were no less likely to die from child abuse than children who attend school.
Our contention has never been that homeschooled children are abused at a higher rate than other children. Instead, our contention has always been that abusive parents can and do use homeschooling to isolate their children and conceal their abuse. In his opinion piece, Kurtinitis wrote that most homeschoolers are not isolated and that these students “have every avenue to report abuse that public schoolers do.” That is all well and good, but what about those homeschooled students who are isolated? Natalie Finn’s parents nailed shut her bedroom window. Sabrina Rey was so malnourished that she went through the garbage when she took out the trash. What avenues did Finn and Rey have for reporting their abuse? They had no trusted teacher, no guidance counselor, no friend’s parent, no school nurse.
Homeschooling can also exacerbate abuse. Knox found that when the child torture victims she studied were removed from school to be homeschooled, their isolation “was accompanied by an escalation of physically abusive events.” We have spoken with abuse survivors who attended school for part of their education; they report that the abuse they suffered was worse during the years they were homeschooled, because their parents had fewer constraints—they did not have to worry about their abuse being seen or reported.
With the deaths of Natalie Finn and Sabrina Rey, the people of Iowa saw firsthand how homeschooling can be used to isolate victims and hide maltreatment. How many more children like Finn and Rey will die in Iowa and across the country before lawmakers have the willpower to create protections for homeschooled children, too?
Last Updated: 30 October, 2023 by CRHE
Savannah Leckie’s Death Implicates Missouri’s Lax Homeschool Oversight
For Immediate Release: The death of a Missouri teen raises questions about the lack of protections for homeschooled children in the state
Canton, Ma., 08/29/2017—Earlier this month, the ashes of sixteen-year-old Savannah Leckie’s body were found concealed on a farm in a rural area of Missouri. Authorities believe Rebecca Ruud, Leckie’s birth mother, dissolved her body in lye before burning it. “Savannah is at least the third sixteen-year-old girl to die of child abuse in a homeschool setting in the past twelve months,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization founded by homeschool graduates that advocates for homeschooled children. “It is long past time for state legislatures to protect vulnerable children like Savannah.”
CRHE runs a database that tracks deaths like Savannah’s. “Our goal is to identify themes that will help us prevent these tragedies before they happen,” said Coleman. “Many of the themes we have identified, including adoption, disabilities, and rehoming, were present in Savannah’s situation.” While many parents use homeschooling to provide children with an individualized education in a nurturing home environment, a growing number of severe and fatal child abuse cases in homeschool settings have led lawmakers in several states, including neighboring Iowa and Kentucky, to propose protections for at-risk children being homeschooled.
Savannah was adopted at birth by Sandra Montague (Leckie) and David Leckie of Minnesota, who are now divorced. In August, 2016, after conflict in the home, Savannah was sent to Missouri to live with her birth mother, Rebecca Ruud. “We see ‘rehoming’ in multiple cases in our database,” said Coleman. “When children are not enrolled in school, it is easier for them to be passed from home to home, often without the safeguards you would see in a formal adoption.” 27% of the cases in CRHE’s database involve adoption, suggesting a higher rate of child abuse among adoptive families who homeschool than among adoptive families overall.
Like Natalie Finn of West Des Moines, Iowa, and Sabrina Ray of Perry, Iowa, homeschooled teens who died of starvation and abuse in separate cases in October, 2016, and May, 2017, Savannah had special needs. Deaf and disabled children are particularly vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and homicide, and are victimized at much higher rates than able-bodied children. Disabled children need accommodations and accessible devices to ensure access to their community and education. These needs are not always met, and abusers may purposely deny accommodations to Deaf and disabled children to further isolate and victimize them.
Savannah died in Missouri, a state that does not require homeschooling parents to have contact with state or local homeschool organizations. There is no list of homeschooled students and no followup to ensure that children are being educated and have access to a support network. “Missouri has one of the laxest homeschooling laws in the country,” said Coleman. “It’s not surprising that Savannah fell through the cracks. The bigger question is, how many kids like Savannah are still out there?”
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education is a national organization founded by homeschool alumni and dedicated to raising awareness of the need for homeschooling reform, providing public policy guidance, and advocating for responsible home education practices.
Last Updated: 28 October, 2023 by Rachel Coleman
Why Can’t a School Act if an At-Risk Child Is Withdrawn to Be Homeschooled?
When we began our Homeschooling’s Invisible Children database, we quickly noticed many cases where a child was removed to be homeschooled following a concerning history of family services involvement. We recommend creating a background check process to screen for these situations when parents first start homeschooling. We are sometimes asked why schools and social workers don’t simply investigate such cases as things are now. Shouldn’t something already be triggered when a child with an elevated risk of child abuse or neglect is removed from school? In fact, there is usually nothing a school district can do in these cases.
Where the Law Stands
Currently, it is completely legal for parents with a past history of abuse or neglect to homeschool children in their custody. With one exception, no state’s homeschool statute bars (or requires outside approval for) homeschooling by parents with past child abuse or neglect convictions; parents who have previously had a child removed from the home; or parents with a concerning history of child abuse or neglect reports. Several states have introduced bills that would implement such measures, but so far none of these efforts have met with success. Officials cannot report or investigate something that is legal.
A Case Study: Emani Moss
In early 2010, after a school employee called in a tip, Emani Moss was removed from her Georgia home for several months while her father and stepmother took anger management courses. After family services determined that the risk of harm in the home was reduced, she was returned home. In late 2010, her case was closed. Eighteen months later, in May 2012, school officials again made a report, but the it was screened out as legal corporal punishment and no case was opened. That summer, Emani’s parents withdrew her from school, and in November 2013, police found Emani’s body in a trashcan outside of her family’s home.
In theory, a red flag should have gone up when Emani’s parents began homeschooling. Emani had previously been removed from the home due to abuse, her stepmother was still on probation on child cruelty charges stemming from Emani’s initial case, and Emani was withdrawn from school immediately after the school reported concerns. However, in practice, there was no legal way to act on these red flags. There is nothing in Georgia’s homeschool law (or that of any other state) to prevent a parent subject to past founded abuse allegations or recent abuse reports from homeschooling.
Closed Family Services Cases
Without an open case, family services has no way of knowing when a child whose family was previously under investigation is removed from school to be homeschooled. This may be why, as University of Wisconsin pediatrician Barbara Knox found in a 2014 study of child torture, parents tend to remove a child from school after a case is closed:
“Twenty-nine percent of school-age children were not allowed to attend school; two children, though previously enrolled, were dis-enrolled by their caregiver and received no further schooling. An additional 47% who had been enrolled in school were removed under the auspice of ‘homeschooling.’ This ‘homeschooling’ appears to have been designed to further isolate the child and typically occurred after closure of a previously opened CPS case.”
When a family services case is closed, monitoring of the family ends. Family services is unable to open a case based solely on the family’s decision to homeschool, regardless of past history; even if a school official did try to call in a report, it would be screened out.
Open Family Services Cases
Some states prevent foster children from being homeschooled to ensure that they are seen by multiple caregivers. The authority caseworkers have over whether a child with an open family services case but living with their parents may be homeschooled is a more difficult question, and has at times been the subject of lawsuits. However, whether or not homeschooling is permitted in these cases, children with open family services cases do have caseworkers who check in on them periodically and may notice signs of escalating abuse.
Conclusion
In most states, homeschool policy is set by the legislature and is not something that can be changed by family services or a state board of education. School administrators and social workers are bound by state law, and current law allows all parents to homeschool, regardless of past convictions, family services cases, or reports.
Note: Pennsylvania bars homeschooling when an individual in the household has been convicted of a list of offences within the past five years; Arkansas bars homeschooling when a sex offender resides in the home. However, neither state conducts background checks to ensure that these restrictions are enforced.
Last Updated: 28 October, 2023 by CRHE
Iowa Legislature Hears from Homeschool Organization with a History of Opposing Child Welfare Measures
For Immediate Release: Opposition to homeschool accountability contributes to child abuse deaths like those of Natalie Finn and Sabrina Ray
Canton, Ma., 06/05/2017—On Monday, June 5, the Iowa legislature’s Government Oversight Committees are holding a joint hearing on child welfare. This hearing was triggered by the deaths of two homeschooled adopted Iowa teenagers, Natalie Finn and Sabrina Ray. “We are pleased to see the Iowa legislature investigating what can be done to prevent future such tragedies,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization founded by homeschool graduates that advocates for homeschooled children. “But we were concerned to learn that Scott Woodruff of the Home School Legal Defense Association, well known for its opposition to accountability, is the only outside expert scheduled to speak to the committees about homeschooling.”
The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) does not speak for all homeschooling parents. “HSLDA member families make up only around 6% of the total homeschool population,” Coleman notes. HSLDA has a controversial reputation within the homeschooling community; many parents vehemently oppose the organization’s methods or its opposition to homeschool accountability and services. Additionally, HSLDA’s curious position as both a pro-homeschooling advocacy organization and a legal clinic for homeschooling parents makes it an odd choice for providing testimony at a hearing on child welfare.
In 2013, HSLDA opposed a Pennsylvania bill that would have required a risk assessment when a child was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled within 18 months of a founded abuse or neglect report. The organization claimed “[t]here is no connection between homeschooling and child abuse,” despite the bill being based on recommendations issued by the state’s Task Force on Child Protection. After the bodies of two homeschooled children were found in a Detroit freezer in 2015, a Michigan bill was introduced that would have required parents to notify the state annually that they were homeschooling and to have their children meet twice a year with a mandatory reporter such as a teacher, doctor, or member of the clergy. HSLDA again opposed this child-welfare legislation.
HSLDA is no stranger to allegations of abuse among homeschooling families. HSLDA assists member families facing abuse allegations and advises homeschooling parents to prevent their children from speaking with social workers. In a 2005 case, HSLDA responded to allegations that homeschool father Michael Gravelle was keeping his eleven adopted children in cages by praising Gravelle. “They had nothing to hide,” HSLDA’s Scott Somerville told the press. “He told me why they adopted these children and told me the problems they were trying to solve. I think he is a hero.” Gravelle and his wife were later convicted of two misdemeanor and four felony counts of child endangering and five misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
CRHE regularly receives reports from homeschool graduates who were taught to distrust and fear social workers based on materials their parents received from HSLDA. In several cases, homeschool graduates have told us that they reported their parents after leaving home, only to see their allegations come to nothing; they blame their parents’ membership in HSLDA. Homeschool graduate Sarah Henderson remembers that when her father was accused of child abuse when she was nine, he called HSLDA. After providing advice and moral support, HSLDA connected Henderson’s father with a local lawyer willing to take on the case for an affordable rate. The charges were dismissed, and the family moved to avoid further scrutiny. A decade later, after she had left the home, Henderson called in another child-abuse report. This time, her father was convicted. He had let his HSLDA membership lapse.
“HSLDA is not part of the solution,” said Coleman. “Until it changes its approach to child abuse and neglect, it is part of the problem.” In a 2014 study of child torture by Barbara Knox, a child abuse researcher at the University of Wisconsin, 47% of school-age victims were homeschooled. “Lax homeschool laws allow abusive parents to turn to homeschooling to isolate their children,” said Coleman. “The time to hide our heads in the sand is long past.”
To view Coleman’s testimony before Iowa Government Oversight Committee Members on March 6th, click here. For her written testimony, click here. To read Coleman’s response to Scott Woodruff’s January 26th letter to Sen. Sinclair, click here.
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education is a national organization founded by homeschool alumni and dedicated to raising awareness of the need for homeschooling reform, providing public policy guidance, and advocating for responsible home education practices.
Last Updated: 28 October, 2023 by CRHE
Kansas Should Strengthen Its Mandatory Reporter Laws
For Immediate Release: Contact with Mandatory Reporters Could Have Saved Homeschooled Adrian Jones
Canton, Ma., 5/18/2017—On Tuesday, May 16th, the Kansas House Committee on Federal and State Affairs heard testimony on House Bill 2425, introduced in response to the tragic 2015 death of seven-year-old Adrian Jones of Kansas City. HB 2425 would make any adult residing in a home a mandatory reporter of child abuse or neglect. “As advocates for homeschooled students, we support taking steps to ensure that students have contact with mandatory reporters,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization founded by homeschool graduates in 2013. “Homeschooled children like Adrian Jones do not have the same daily contact with teachers and other mandatory reporters as children who attend school.”
At least one unrelated adult lived with Adrian Jones’ family for a time but failed to report the abuse she witnessed. HB 2425 would require adults to report child abuse if they have reason to believe it is taking place in their place of residence. While HB 2425 would apply to all families regardless of their method of education, Judy Conway, Adrian’s grandmother, is also calling for changes to the Kansas’ oversight of home education.
During testimony on Tuesday, District Attorney Mark Dupree recommended requiring that homeschooled students have annual contact with the school district in order to identify cases like Adrian’s, where homeschooling is used to hide child abuse. Coleman agreed. “While many homeschooling parents create a positive, child-centered learning environment for their children, most states do little or nothing to prevent homeschooling from being used to isolate children and hide abuse, as it was for Adrian,” said Coleman. “We need laws that promote the wellbeing of all homeschooled students.” CRHE’s recommendations for protecting at-risk children include a section on mandatory reporter contact.
The kind of small nudge toward mandatory reporting included in HB 2425—a statute very similar to those on the books in Arizona, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington, all of which specifically mention parents, family members, or other adults living in the house being mandatory reporters—would have no effect on the vast majority of Kansan households, but its impact on children whose abuse might now be reported is incalculable. “We support HB 2425 and we applaud lawmakers for discussing possible changes to the state’s homeschool statute,” said Coleman. “Adrian’s death should serve as a catalyst for protecting other children in situations like his.”
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education is a national organization founded by homeschool alumni and dedicated to raising awareness of the need for homeschooling reform, providing public policy guidance, and advocating for responsible home education practices.
Last Updated: 12 May, 2017 by CRHE
Fund Our Groundbreaking Homeschool Study!
There are an estimated two million children being homeschooled in the United States today—and researchers, policymakers, and educators have no idea how they’re doing. At a time when education is assessed and measured everywhere, homeschooled kids remain invisible: How are their math skills? Are they reading at the level of their peers? Are they going on to college? Are they getting the resources they need?
Help the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE) complete a study that will provide the most comprehensive picture of homeschooled students’ academic performance to date. Using publicly available but never-analyzed data from Alaska and Arkansas, CRHE will compare homeschooled students’ performance with that of their peers and analyze their performance across a wide variety of subject areas and a range of demographic characteristics.
Where will we get our data?
CRHE will use data released by the Arkansas Department of Education’s Home School Office and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development. This data, which is collected by the state, has never been studied before. For background on this data, read our preliminary article on the Alaska data and this brief discussion of the Arkansas data.
What’s wrong with the studies we have?
Existing studies of homeschooled students’ academic performance draw on volunteer participants, oversampling students from college-educated families and excluding lower-performing students. This leads to misleading information about homeschool achievement. Our study will paint a more representative picture of homeschooled students’ academic performance and needs, reporting how they are really doing.
Why should we care?
Over the past few years, an increasing number of formerly homeschooled students have come forward to say that they were educationally neglected. Many have called for policies to create more accountability for homeschooling. Efforts to create effective homeschool policy are hampered by a lack of accurate data. We advocate for homeschooled children. To do this, we need to understand the factors that contribute to homeschool success or failure.
Our study will ensure that lawmakers have the data they need to legislate responsibly; give parents the data they need to make decisions about whether homeschooling is best for their families; and give formerly homeschooled students a clearer picture of where they fit in the world. You can help us make this happen.
We need your help!
As a 501c3 nonprofit organization, we rely on donations from supporters. Our budget is small and our staff puts in hundreds of volunteer hours to complete our day-to-day work. Our research analysts have been working on the Arkansas and Alaska data for several years, but a lack of funding has severely limited the number of hours they can put in each week. This fundraiser will allow us to finally finish this study.
All money raised will go toward paying our research analysts a fair hourly wage to complete this project. With funding, our research team will be able to enter the data, conduct the analysis, and write up findings by the end of fall 2017. We anticipate being able to submit the study to a peer-reviewed journal by spring 2018.
All donations to CRHE are fully tax deductible.
Our Research Team
Chelsea McCracken, Senior Research Analyst
McCracken has a BA in math and a PhD in social science, including graduate work in statistics. She will conduct a statistical analysis of testing data from Alaska.
Rachel Lazerus, Research Analyst
Lazerus received her MPP at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago with a focus on educational policy. She will analyze testing data and homeschooling populations in Arkansas.
Rachel Coleman, Executive Director
Coleman is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history and wrote her master’s thesis on homeschooling. She will research and outline the background of homeschooling in both states.
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by CRHE
Summer 2017 Internship Program
This summer will be the third year of our summer internship program!
In the past, our summer interns have created infographics, developed social media content, written histories of homeschooling in individual states, contributed to ongoing research programs, and conducted policy research. We have enjoyed working with a variety of individuals, engaging with supporters, and bringing new people into our network. We are excited to see what our summer interns will accomplish this summer!
We are looking for social media and research interns willing to work for CRHE on a part-time as-available basis over the summer. Our internships are unpaid, but the work our interns do provides them with valuable experience and lines on their resume. All internships will take place remotely, via computer, so a strong internet connection is required.
To apply, please fill out our CRHE Internship Application. We will be accepting applications through Friday, May 18th. You can read a description of each of these internships below.
Social media intern
We are looking for two social media interns, one to work on CRHE’s social media accounts and one to work on those associated with our HIC database project. As a social media intern, you will develop social media content and shape awareness-raising social media campaigns. The social media experience you gain may be attractive to a future or current employer. Familiarity with Facebook and/or Twitter is required.
Responsibilities:
Time commitment: 5-10 hours a week, 1-2 hours per weekday
Research intern
Our research interns provide support on a variety of projects. We are interested in taking on several research interns, so you may have some flexibility in choosing which projects interest you most. You will gain experience with research, writing, and working independently and as part of a team–skills that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Some familiarity with using Google Drive is recommended but not required.
Possible Projects:
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule