“Now that I am a parent myself, I recognize the pride and naivety of any parent—no matter how loving and well-meaning—who thinks they can be the sole adult and authority in their kids’ lives.”
I was lucky, academically speaking. My mom loves learning, and had a commitment to making sure we had a balanced education. However, our interactions were often with other homeschoolers and never professional adults. We didn’t have access to oversight. Still, compared to many of my peers, I had an overall good experience.
My biggest argument for oversight is the implementation of safety nets that homeschool children do not currently have.
I had childhood depression and anxiety due to trauma. My parents didn’t know what to do with me. Thanks to religious stigma and limited outside influence, my parents just thought I was being rebellious. I wonder now what might have happened had I had access to school counselors and teachers. If more people who are trained to recognize childhood issues, would someone have noticed what I was ignoring?
My parents aren’t bad people. They tried to do their best by me. They loved me. But now that I am a parent myself, I recognize the pride and naivety of any parent—no matter how loving and well-meaning—who thinks they can be the sole adult and authority in their kids’ lives. Parents are flawed people, like all of us. And they can’t do it alone.
Dean Hunter was homeschooled in Louisiana and North Carolina from 1994 to 2008. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
“Mathematics education is a very important focus area in homeschooling, as there is evidence for a homeschool math gap, and many anecdotal accounts of homeschooled girls in particular receiving subpar mathematics education.”
To this day, my sisters and I love bragging about how our mom isn’t afraid of anything. Whether the obstacle was a steep ski slope, an impossibly tall rock climbing wall, or a giant spider, we could expect her to be there for us, and somehow always unfazed. She’s hardcore and adventurous in ways we could only dream of being, and these characteristics along with her unlimited determination extended to the ways in which she homeschooled us as well.
From an early age, I always had an interest in math. I would check out all the number books I could find in the library, and just sit around and think about multiplication. Playing with the numbers by myself was fun, but sometimes I would have anxiety about whether the next grade level in school would be too hard for me. Fifth grade math in particular made me nervous—the numbers had so many more zeroes on the ends of them, and when I looked at the contents of the pages of my new textbook everything just had an unfamiliar and complicated-looking feel. I admitted that I was very nervous to start fifth grade math, because it involved such big numbers. My mom almost laughed, saying “it’s no different from when you started third grade or fourth grade math. You could handle those then because you were ready, and you’re ready for these things now.”
I soon learned she was right. Some notation may have looked different or more complicated, but so many of the things I was doing were similar to the things I had done before. The math may have looked impressive and complex to me on paper, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t learn it. I just had to get past my fear and take things piece by piece.
I talk about math because it was my favorite subject, but it’s worth noting that my mom would not say the same thing for herself. She often had teachers growing up who were scared of math themselves, and were uncertain how to teach it. When she decided to teach us though, rather than dreading the math part, she looked at it as an opportunity to broaden her own understanding. She could push past her own anxiety of the unknown and replace it with an excitement to learn, and that rubbed off on my sisters and me. Despite the fact that we like to say “mom’s not afraid of anything,” we know the reality is that she never lets fear have the last word.
Today I am a PhD student in theoretical physics. The percentage of women in physics is still only around 20%, and that percentage is often lower in theory areas. Sometimes these numbers in particular get me down (though it’s worth noting that self-doubt is very common among graduate students in general, regardless of gender.) It helps to remember my mom, though. I know it’s not really true that she’s not afraid of anything, but the reality is even better. She has more tenacity than anybody else I know, and if my sisters and I can manage even a small fraction of that for ourselves, we’ll be just fine.
Mostly this has been a love letter to my mom, but I think there are a couple of broader points to be made as well. First, every parent has different academic strengths, but no subject should be neglected. For less confident subjects, all the more care should be taken (this article about parents and math illustrates the pitfalls well). Second, mathematics education is a very important focus area in homeschooling, as there is evidence for a homeschool math gap, and many anecdotal accounts of homeschooled girls in particular receiving subpar mathematics education. To the contrary, I had a stellar mathematics education, one that had certain advantages when compared to other education modes. I want homeschooling to be as great an option for others as it was for myself, which is why I support CRHE and its work to uphold and promote homeschooling standards.
Emilie Huffman was homeschooled in North Carolina from 1995 to 2008. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
When the modern homeschool movement began in the 1970s, some parents found ways to homeschool under existing laws while others sought permission from local school boards or homeschooled ‘under the radar.’ As the number of families interested in homeschooling grew during the 1980s, legal questions grew. In some cases, existing statutes prohibited homeschooling or were unclear on its legality; in other cases, local superintendents became unwilling to work with homeschool parents (or vice versa). Early homeschool promoters Raymond Moore and John Holt traveled around the country testifying in defense of homeschool parents who were taken to court, and a number of existing legal groups played a part as well. By the early 1990s homeschooling was legal in every state, largely as a result of legislative change at the state level.
While the legality of homeschooling is no longer in question, the battles of the 1980s remain a part of many homeschool parents’ communal memory. Along with this memory comes a question: Is it worth laying out the money to become a member of one of several homeschool legal protection organizations currently in existence? These organizations charge homeschool parents an annual membership fee and, in exchange, defend their members should they run into homeschooling-related legal problems. If you are a homeschool parent pondering whether it is worth purchasing a membership from one of these organizations, here are several points to consider.
1. Homeschooling is legal in all fifty states.
You don’t need an attorney on retainer to drive a car. In the same way, you don’t need an attorney on retainer to homeschool. Not only is homeschooling legal, the practice has also become increasingly socially acceptable over the past several decades and is no longer viewed with the suspicion it once was. There are occasionally superintendents who overstep, but this is relatively rare and can in most cases be corrected by simply pointing the official to state law. In the vast majority of cases, simply following your state’s homeschool law and complying with its requirements will be sufficient.
2. Pay attention to what your money is supporting.
Some homeschool protection organizations have a history of taking positions and engaging in advocacy on issues which are unrelated to homeschooling, such as opposing marriage equality. Ask whether an organization engages in lobbying in addition to offering legal counsel, and make sure you investigate an organization’s lobbying efforts to ensure that you are comfortable with your membership fees being used to fund these causes. In some cases, homeschool protection organizations have been known to defend parents who are abusive or who are not educating their children. Make sure you know what your money is supporting.
3. Watch out for scare tactics.
Homeschool protection organizations that provide legal services to dues-paying members frequently depend on selling memberships to turn a profit. This gives them an incentive to convince homeschooling parents that legal trouble is inevitable. Such organizations may unnecessarily antagonize government officials, turning a minor misunderstanding into a major legal event and then using the situation to sell memberships to their organization. They may also exaggerate the severity of conflicts in their marketing materials. Be judicious when evaluating information from organizations whose profits depend on convincing you that homeschooling without their support is dangerous or risky.
4. Read the fine print.
Homeschool protection organizations do not offer legal insurance. In the unlikely event that your homeschool encounters a legal challenge, you may find that your membership in a homeschool protection organization does not entitle you to pro bono representation. If the possible cost of securing legal representation is a concern for you, you may be best served by purchasing a legal insurance plan rather than membership in a homeschool protection organization. Legal insurance plans cover a variety of legal needs and come with a contract guaranteeing you certain services.
5. A local attorney will likely serve you better.
If you do get into legal trouble, a local attorney will likely serve you better than a national homeschool protection organization. First, local attorneys with experience in family court or your jurisdiction’s equivalent are likely to have personal connections with the social workers, school officials, and court personnel who will be handling your case. That local knowledge—which a national organization is unlikely to have—will help an attorney de-escalate and resolve the situation. Second, national homeschool protection organizations may have incentives to escalate situations rather than simply resolving them: they may hope to create test cases and set legal precedent; or they may hope to use the situation to convince other parents to purchase memberships. A local attorney, in contrast, benefits most from resolving the situation to your satisfaction.
“I support homeschool oversight because most child abuse is committed by parents against their own children. I believe people oppose homeschool oversight because most people only worry about their own kids. They won’t admit it, but as long as their own kids aren’t at risk, even “good” homeschoolers just don’t care.”
I was homeschooled through a church. Regarding quality of education, it was a joke. Kids I knew who were in the program since birth actually believed the Salem Witch Trials has been about real-life witches. We were taught seven-day creationism. I got a D in one year of highschool biology because I refused to say the Earth was only 6,000 years old. I remember writing “4 billion” in the answer, my mom tearing up the sheet and giving me a blank copy and again writing “4 billion.” I was a rebel.
When I was six, my dad was convicted of sexually assaulting and battering my mother. That alone should have disqualified him from being involved with any kind of homeschool program. He’d never be allowed to teach. But being given unlimited control over his own children and isolating them from outside help? Totally LEGAL!
My mom chose to stay with my dad even after the conviction. The sexual assault and battery of my mother was a regular occurrence in our home. Most people don’t understand just how brutal and violent and disgusting it was. He would call her a whore, fat, a pig, scream about her sexual history—and scream Bible verses about submission all while she screamed and begged for help. All in front of me when I was as young as six years old.
My father also abused me, although my mom denied it when I told her, insisting that he only ever harmed her. My father was openly into “sexy little girls” and I’ll leave this at that.
The short end of it is, after my public school tried to get involved to protect me and get me counseling when I was in fifth grade, my parents’ response was to move to a new suburb where I didn’t know anybody and to put me into an extremely isolationist homeschool program. Homeschool is an abusive parent’s dream. Total isolation, with no outside influence save a church with invested interest not to stir the pot? Oh goody.
Needless to say, with free range my dad’s abuse intensified.
After running away from home as a young adult and living in extreme poverty (I got down to 86 lbs), I reached out to my homeschool program’s director. Without prompting, she said to me, “I knew your father was abusive, but I never reported anything because they’re always trying to shut down homeschool.”
At first, I was elated that she said that because I finally had acknowledgement that I’d been abused. I even joked to my friends about being part of a church cover up, but years later the hurt is very real.
It hurts insanely bad to know I was so low on her totem pole that knowing what was happening to me, she couldn’t be bothered to take the risk that her program might be scrutinized. She wouldn’t risk losing her comfy job as a “director” of a church homeschool program where she got paid for planning BBQs and arranging dances. God forbid she stick her neck out for a kid.
The truth is, in the homeschool program and the church I was a pariah. I was treated like a bad kid. Nobody ever admitted to me then that they knew I was abused. Instead they justified their inaction and protection of my dad by dehumanizing me. I was told I was sinful; I was picked out for private sessions by the youth minister who would tell me I was godless. I was told the way my dad treated my mother was his right as a husband and I needed to stop fighting God’s plan or whatever.
So while I was dealing with my abusive and openly pedophilic father at home, I was being labeled a sinner and shamed into silence at church. When I tried to talk about abuse they turned the blame around on me and told me I needed to accept God in my life. The message I got was that the abuse was my fault for not being a good Christian, that I was “less-than” and shit. It’s taken me years to come to the conclusion that those were lies. I now am convinced that they were relieved when I ran away because I was a thorn in their side. I was the sacrificial lamb who wouldn’t die.
I support homeschool oversight because most child abuse is committed by parents against their own children. I believe people oppose homeschool oversight because most people only worry about their own kids. They won’t admit it, but as long as their own kids aren’t at risk, even “good” homeschoolers just don’t care. They’d rather sit by and watch someone else abuse their own children than have to deal with a little bit of regulation.
My answer to that is: “Most elementary school teachers/administers are good. So we should eliminate background checks?” Of course not, because then YOUR kid might be in danger. Try not to think of kids as property and instead as individuals who can experience suffering and who deserve a fair shot at life even if their parents are shit bags. Don’t lump kids in with their parents and then discount their suffering because you don’t like the people who birthed them. Odds are, they don’t either.
Jessica A. was homeschooled in California from 1997 to 2004. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last summer, we inaugurated our summer internship program. The project was a success, resulting in new infographics, innovative social media content, additional published state histories, progress on various research topics, and, ultimately, a new staff member! We are happy to announce that we will be accepting internship applications for a second summer.
We are looking for individuals willing to serve as interns for CRHE on a part-time as-available basis. While we cannot fund these positions (i.e. you will not be paid), these internships will provide you with valuable experience. At the end of the summer, we will send you closeout information with a quote for your LinkedIn page and lines for your resume. All internships will take place remotely, via computer, so a strong internet connection is required.
We are offering the following internships:
Social media intern Graphic design intern Junior research intern Senior research intern Policy intern Web development intern
To apply, please fill out our CRHE Internship Application. We will be accepting applications through Friday, May 13th. You can read a description of each of these internships below.
Social media intern
As social media intern, you will work closely with our social media director to create innovative social media content and shape awareness-raising social media campaigns. You will use both Facebook and Twitter accounts and may gain some experience creating memes. You will gain social media experience that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Familiarity with Facebook and/or Twitter is required.
Duties:
Create and curate social media content for both CRHE and HIC.
Summarize HIC cases for Twitter and post excerpts on Facebook.
Flag inappropriate comments on Facebook pages.
Help plan, and be available for, scheduled social media events (such as a twitter rally.)
Research and present outreach tactics, such as Twitter/Facebook contacts, hashtags, blog link-ups, etc.
Maintain pleasant, appropriate public demeanor even when talking about difficult subjects.
Time commitment: 5-10 hours a week, 1-2 hours per weekday
Graphic design intern
This internship is for those interested in working on infographics, memes, and other graphic design projects! You will gain experience with infographic software and develop graphic design skills that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Must be familiar with Pixelmator, Photoshop, or equivalent software.
Duties:
Brainstorm and pitch useful graphic concepts to enhance CRHE’s social media presence.
Create shareable images, infographics, and memes using stock photos and original designs.
Assist the Social Media Director in using social media insights to increase the effectiveness of CRHE’s graphics on Facebook and Twitter.
Be available to create shareable images both ahead of time and in real-time for scheduled social media events (such as twitter rallies.)
Collect and organize stock imagery.
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Junior research intern
Our junior research interns provide support on a variety of projects. We are interested in taking on several junior research interns, so you may have some camaraderie in working with other interns. You will gain experience with research, data entry, and working both independently and as part of a team that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Some familiarity with using Google Drive is recommended but not required.
Duties:
Assist research team with data entry
Research and write entries for HIC
Collect media contact information
Fact-check and edit published information
Assist with various projects for CRHE as needed
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Senior research intern
We are interested in taking on several senior research interns, so you will be able to choose the projects that most interest you. We hope to see our senior research interns help us complete a variety of policy briefs and white papers. You will gain experience with research, writing, and working both independently and as part of a team that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Familiarity with Google Drive is recommended but not required. Some college required.
Duties:
Read and synthesize existing research
Write compellingly and convincingly
Research existing policy and make recommendations
Conduct small informal research studies
Communicate with various officials
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Policy intern
We would like an intern to help us develop a more efficient and streamlined system for tracking legislation. This intern would also conduct research on recent homeschool legislation and create state-by-state briefs of homeschool-related legislation. This internship may involve related projects as interest directs and would be ideal for someone with long-term interests in policy or law. Some familiarity with Google Drive is recommended but not required.
Duties:
Gain familiarity with bill-tracking software
Create bill alerts for specific keywords
Look through and sort lists of past legislation
Create a database of legislation
Analyze patterns and make recommendations
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Web Development Intern
We would like an intern to help keep up the day-to-day of website management with the opportunity to work on a couple programming projects (in their language of choice) if they are interested. Must be familiar with WordPress. Basic HTML5/CSS3 knowledge is ideal but not required.
Duties:
Update themes, plugins, core
Check for guestbook entries, delete spam comments
Once a week check for any updates that need to be pushed
Additional programming projects as interested
Time commitment: 2-5 hours a week, flexible schedule
For Immediate Release: Lax Homeschool Laws Implicated in Boy’s Disappearance
Canton, Ma., 4/21/16—Ten years ago, nine-year-old Colt Clark was reported missing by his aunt and uncle, who alleged that he had run away. After a decade of unanswered questions, police have filed murder charges against the Seminole County couple based on allegations of severe beatings, whippings, and torture leveled against them by Colt’s now-adult brother, Homer. Critically, both brothers were homeschooled, which prevented them from having the same daily contact with mandatory reporters as other children. “This case mirrors many of the patterns we’ve seen in other homeschool abuse cases,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit founded by homeschool graduates. “We need to critically examine the ways homeschooling can be used to hide or cover up child abuse.”
Colt’s aunt and uncle were also his foster parents, and the child had a social worker assigned to his case. In the month leading up to his disappearance, Colt’s social worker tried several times to see the child, but was prevented from doing so by his aunt and uncle, who made excuses for his absence. “When a child attends school, a social worker can go to the school and interview them there,” Coleman noted. “When a child is homeschooled, the social worker has to gain access to their home, which gives the parents or guardians added opportunity to stonewall an investigation.” A couple in Ohio used similar excuses to prevent social workers from gaining access to fourteen-year-old Teddy Foltz-Tedesco; the homeschooled child died at his stepfather’s hands a year later. In Colt’s case, it was after the social worker made it clear to his aunt and uncle that she would no longer accept excuses that the couple reported him missing, claiming he had run away.
Homeschooling has played a role in a number of high-profile child abuse fatalities in the last few years. In the fall of 2014, a Florida public school official attempting to follow up regarding a homeschooled student’s annual academic assessment was told the child had moved to another state; young Janiya Thomas was found dead in her mother’s freezer a year later. In March 2015, Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry’s bodies were also found in their mother’s freezer; the two children’s deaths had gone unreported for almost two years. In fall 2015, Adrian Jones’ Kansas parents attempted to cover up his death at their hands by feeding his body to their pigs; that he was missing did not come to light until two months later. In a 2014 study of child torture, nearly 50% of the children studied were homeschooled.
Oklahoma has some of the most lax oversight of homeschooling in the country; parents are not required to notify education officials that they are homeschooling, and there are no educational requirements or assessments of any kind. Colt is the third known homeschooled child to die of child abuse in Oklahoma in past decade. This number is higher than expected given the number of child fatalities in the state and the percentage of school-age children homeschooled. In 2008, eleven-year-old Cheyenne Wolf, a disabled girl in Bokchito, was beaten to death by her parents; her body was concealed in storage bags and her death did not come to light for over a year. In 2011, ten-year-old Marcus Holloway was locked in a room and starved to death by his parents in Fort Sill. The state has a long list of additional severe child abuse or neglect cases that involve homeschooling as well. “We need to acknowledge the role homeschooling can play in hiding child abuse and take steps to prevent these sorts of cases from happening,” said Coleman. “These children should not be forgotten.”
In early March, HSLDA’s Scott Woodruff accused the media of “hurting the cause of child abuse reduction” by drawing attention to cases where parents have used homeschooling to hide abuse. In his piece, Woodruff writes that “experts in the field have worked to identify common risk factors in child abuse and neglect” and links to an article from the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect which he says does not include homeschooling as a risk factor. What Woodruff fails to mention is this article does list “social isolation” as a risk factor. While many homeschooled children have large social networks, homeschooling gives malicious or negligent parents the ability to isolate their children in a way they could not if their children attended school.
That homeschooling can be used to isolate children is something we can’t risk not discussing.
Woodruff quotes the director of the Jackson County, Kansas, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) stating that: “We have no evidence that children who are homeschooled are more likely to be abused or neglected.” Woodruff’s use of this quote is problematic on several levels. First, we have “no evidence” because little attempt has yet been made to conduct statistical research on this question—in other words, we do not know either way. Second, the question of primary importance is not whether homeschooled children are more or less likely to be abused or neglected but rather what happens when homeschooled children are neglected or abused.
Homeschooled children do not have the same daily contact with mandatory reporters as children who attend school. Because of this, homeschooling offers abusive parents a way to isolate their children and thereby conceal and intensify their maltreatment. We have spoken with numerous homeschool alumni who also had experience attending school; they have told us the abuse was worse when they were homeschooled, because their parents knew they didn’t have to hide their bruises. Additionally, Barbara Knox of the University of Wisconsin found that nearly 50% of the cases in her 2014 study of child torture involved homeschooling. “This ‘homeschooling’ appears to have been designed to further isolate the child,” she wrote of these cases. The ability for abusive parents to use homeschooling to isolate their victims should not be taken lightly.
When the mother of young Janiya Thomas of Florida began homeschooling, the girl’s caseworker suggested that the change might be good for her, giving her more one-on-one time with her mother. If that caseworker had been aware that unscrupulous parents sometimes use homeschooling to isolate their children and thereby conceal abuse, Janiya’s move to homeschooling amidst the household’s long history of child abuse and neglect reports might have sent up a red flag. The same is true for Emani Moss, whose parents began homeschooling her after teachers reported bruising on the girl’s back. Imani had spent several months in foster care two years prior, and her removal to homeschooling, like Janiya’s, should have sent up red flags. Dozens of children have died over the last four years alone because politicians and local government officials have not taken seriously the potential for abusive parents to use homeschooling to isolate their victims.
The real problem here is not media coverage but rather homeschool advocates’ insistence that “homeschooling” and “child abuse” should never be used in the same sentence. This is a problem we have grappled with since our inception as an organization. Many homeschool advocates, understandably concerned that an educational method they love may get a bad name, have argued that this is an abuse problem, not a homeschooling problem. But what kind of problem does it become when homeschooling is used to isolate a child and in this way playsa very real role in concealing or intensifying abuse?
We have to be able to talk about this. It is in homeschool advocates’ best interests to stop denying this problem and start addressing it. We don’t want their educational method associated with child abuse any more than they do, but the real solution is to fix the problem, not to ignore it and pretend it’s not there.
I have always wanted to go to college. I’ve always been a motivated learner, and the pseudo-classroom environments I occasionally had with other homeschoolers and parents armed with teacher’s guides were places I really enjoyed being and learning in.
Growing up, my parents’ plan for me initially included sending me to a vo-tech school to learn things I had no interest in. Over time, as my parents gradually became more conservative and more entrenched in stay-at-home daughters ideology, they looked at me and only saw a uterus. They determined that college was not God’s plan for my life and would only get in the way of my highest calling of being a wife and mother.
However, they did occasionally let me entertain the idea of going to a super conservative school after being done with homeschooling. When I was seventeen and a half, they even encouraged me to apply—I gathered my “transcript”, I wrote an essay, I had letters of recommendation, and all I needed was for my parents to sign the form. They refused, again telling me, for the final time, that I had no right or reason to pursue education, that going to college was contrary to God, and that I needed to continue my decade-long training of being a helpmeet. I was devastated.
This was just one more in a long series of unrelated blows to what I hoped was my future. But this essay isn’t about how my parents thwarted my education over and over again and left me to pick up the pieces. This is about something I discovered recently—that I’m not alone, that attending college in my mid-twenties isn’t that weird, and that community colleges have programs for people like me, people like us.
For something unrelated I was looking up how to obtain a diploma in Washington State, it was there that I found out the state community colleges have a HighSchool 21+ program in addition to the GED program. I got distracted looking at the Continuing Education/personal enrichment classes that they have, with the thought of taking an art class, but they all seemed pretty expensive. Then, I saw it, under pre-college “Adult Basic Ed. & GED”. Since I have an HSLDA printed diploma I don’t feel the need to get my GED, but, for $25 a quarter, I could totally take a math class.
Math, that subject that had been abandoned because I couldn’t teach it to myself, because I wasn’t deemed worthy enough to learn it, because I have a uterus. Suddenly, there was a way I could be in a classroom with someone who knows how to teach math, and learn enough algebra to be able to get past the blocks I was having trying to learn various programming languages.
I signed up to take the Adult Basic Ed. (ABE) class for the winter quarter (Jan – Mar) without really knowing what I was doing. I just knew that at this point, because I was in a good mental and emotional place and could afford the $25 tuition, I had no excuse not to at least try.
So I walked into class and my teacher had us write goals for the quarter. I wrote that if I improve and learn things, if I keep coming to class consistently and don’t talk myself out of it, then I will have succeeded. I surpassed my goals. For the last three months I’ve been going to school 4 nights a week, making a lot of progress in math. I learned algebra and I’m actually good at it, and being enrolled in a college—even as sort of an outsider as an ABE student—has opened up a world of opportunities, just by being a night student.
My teacher believes in me and my abilities—is impressed with how well I’ve been improving in math and encouraged me to take the placement test for english (the math gap is real). I aced it and placed in Eng 101 which I am starting in April. I’m taking my first ever actual college-level class at age 25. The other adults in my class are varying ages, some have grown children, some have babies, but we’re all in ABE because we want to improve—whether that means continuing on to college classes (like me) or getting their GED or High School Diploma to improve their job opportunities.
Personally, as an educationally neglected ex-homeschooler, taking the ABE has been so liberating—not just because I’m learning the things I was told I’d never be able to, but also because having a teacher who believes in her students and encourages questions is empowering. She encourages everyone in their progress, even if it’s small progress, because progress is progress.
If you’re an educationally neglected former homeschooler and you feel like you’re ready to attempt college but feel so lost (it’s so daunting!), see if your community college has ABE classes. Adult Basic Education helped me get my foot in the door, get used to being on campus, set me up with an advisor, and gave me the ability to see if college is right for me, and a place to ask questions about continuing my college education if that was something I wanted to do. You won’t be the only person over the age of 18, supporting yourself, and having gone through some shit.
I encourage everyone who’s curious and thinking about taking classes, but also anxious about it, to at least look into it. It’s a less expensive way to get your feet wet, and it might be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made. And if not, it was still less expensive than tuition for a full college or reparative course!
For Immediate Release: Limiting Assessments Hurts Homeschooled Children
Canton, Ma., 3/30/16—Yesterday, Earl Ray Tomblin, Governor of West Virginia, signedHouse Bill 4178, deregulating homeschooling in the Mountain State. This follows the signing of a similar measure, House Bill 1013, last month by South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard. “Homeschooled children are a forgotten constituency,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an organization founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for greater safeguards for homeschooled children. “Deregulation measures generally focus not on the needs of homeschooled children but on homeschool advocates’ desire for lack of accountability.”
This year’s measures in the Mountain State and the Mount Rushmore State severely limited the number of years in which homeschooling parents must submit academic assessments to their local school district. “For some children, assessments may be the only contact they have with adults outside of their family or church communities,” said Coleman. “Removing assessments—and removing accountability from assessments—makes it harder for educational neglect to be identified and more difficult for child abuse to be recognized and reported.” The West Virginia measure allows parents to administer their children’s tests and thus making it possible for abusive or neglectful homeschooling parents to prevent their children from having any access to mandatory reporters at all. The bill also no longer requires teachers conducting portfolio evaluations (an alternative to testing) to provide their certification number, making it harder to ensure that evaluations are carried out properly.
There is some evidence to suggest that homeschooled children are at a greater risk of severe child abuse or neglect than other school-aged children. This is because homeschool parents have complete control over who their children come in contact with, and some abusive parents use homeschooling to isolate their children and hide their abuse. “I know of cases where children have been locked in a bedroom for years, starved and sexually abused,” said Coleman. “If these children had had contact with a mandatory reporter each year as part of an academic assessment, they might have had an opportunity to be rescued.” In a 2014 study of child torture, researcher Barbara Knox of the University of Wisconsin found that nearly half of the cases she examined involved homeschooling, and the Homeschooling’s Invisible Children lists dozens of cases where homeschooling children have been killed by their caretakers.
“There are ways lawmakers can act to make homeschooled children safer and improve the homeschool experience,” said Coleman. In 2005, Iowa’s homeschool oversight triggered an investigation that led to the removal of Sarah Neely from her abusive father’s home. In 2014, three children homeschooled through an online program reported the abuse they received at the hands of their step-father to their online teacher; after the teacher called 911, the children were removed from the home and the case was prosecuted. “We have a social duty to ensure that homeschooled children receive a good education in a safe home environment,” said Coleman. “Unfortunately, reducing the number of assessments only puts children in danger.”
For Immediate Release: Removing Protections Undermines Homeschooled Children’s Interests
Canton, Ma., 2/24/2016—New York Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would weaken the state’s oversight of homeschooling by allowing homeschool parents to administer their children’s standardized tests themselves, removing quarterly reports, and making it more difficult for underperforming students to find help. “New York does more than any other state to protect homeschooled children’s interests and should be commended for their dedication to these children and their education,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an organization founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children’s interests. “This legislation would remove a layer of that protection and leave New York’s children at greater risk of educational neglect.”
In New York state, homeschooling takes place under Education Law sections 3204(1) and (2), which allow children to be educated “elsewhere” than a public school if they receive instruction that is “substantially equivalent” to that provided in the public schools. Using this statute as its authority, the New York State Board of Regents created Section 100.10 of the Regulations of the Commissioner, which has governed homeschooling since 1988, with updates and adjustments over time. Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 are intended to take oversight of homeschooling out of the hands of the Board of Regents by turning Section 100.10 into settled law, making requirements harder to change and removing several key provisions. “Section 100.10 has served the children of New York state well for eighteen years,” said Coleman. “There’s no reason to change what isn’t broken.”
Most significantly, Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would allow homeschool parents to administer their child’s standardized assessments. While Section 100.10 requires that the individual administering students’ yearly norm-referenced achievement tests be approved by the superintendent, this new legislation would allow anyone who meets the test publisher’s criteria to administer the test, including the child’s parents. There are numerous testing services that cater to homeschooling parents and consider the parent qualified to administer their students’ tests. “Allowing parents to administer their child’s standardized assessments themselves, in their own homes, creates conditions ripe for cheating,” said Coleman. “We know that abuses occur in states that allow parents to administer their child’s standardized assessments; I have spoken personally with homeschool alumni whose parents gave them help during the test, gave them extra time, or changed their answers.”
Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would also remove the quarterly report requirement. Under Section 100.10, parents must submit a report each quarter outlining the material covered and providing letter grades or a written evaluation of the child’s progress. Under the proposed legislation, this requirement would disappear. “The quarterly report ensures that parents take time to regularly reflect on their child’s progress,” said Coleman. “I have spoken with numerous alumni in states with lower levels of oversight who feel that they would have received a better education if their parents had been subject to more accountability.”
Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would lower the threshold for adequate academic performance from the 33rd percentile to the 23rd percentile, making it harder for underperforming children to receive the remediation they need. At the same time, it would eliminate a provision allowing the superintendent to conduct home visits when a homeschool family is on probation and there is reason to believe the family is “in substantial noncompliance.” When a child’s annual assessment shows inadequate progress, the home education program is put on probation and the parent must create a remediation plan to be approved by the school district. After that the school district has only the parent’s word that the provisions of the remediation plan are being carried out. “We have spoken with numerous individuals concerned about a younger sibling, nephew, or grandchild who is receiving an inadequate and neglectful homeschool education,” said Coleman. “It is important to ensure that the superintendent has a way to ascertain whether a child’s remediation plan is being implemented should there be reason to believe otherwise.”
“New York state has long had some of the most comprehensive protections for homeschooled children in the country,” said Coleman. “I urge the legislature to maintain this record.”
Last Updated: 13 December, 2017 by CRHE
W. S. Hunter: “Parents are flawed people, like all of us”
“Now that I am a parent myself, I recognize the pride and naivety of any parent—no matter how loving and well-meaning—who thinks they can be the sole adult and authority in their kids’ lives.”
I was lucky, academically speaking. My mom loves learning, and had a commitment to making sure we had a balanced education. However, our interactions were often with other homeschoolers and never professional adults. We didn’t have access to oversight. Still, compared to many of my peers, I had an overall good experience.
My biggest argument for oversight is the implementation of safety nets that homeschool children do not currently have.
I had childhood depression and anxiety due to trauma. My parents didn’t know what to do with me. Thanks to religious stigma and limited outside influence, my parents just thought I was being rebellious. I wonder now what might have happened had I had access to school counselors and teachers. If more people who are trained to recognize childhood issues, would someone have noticed what I was ignoring?
My parents aren’t bad people. They tried to do their best by me. They loved me. But now that I am a parent myself, I recognize the pride and naivety of any parent—no matter how loving and well-meaning—who thinks they can be the sole adult and authority in their kids’ lives. Parents are flawed people, like all of us. And they can’t do it alone.
Dean Hunter was homeschooled in Louisiana and North Carolina from 1994 to 2008. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 26 May, 2016 by CRHE
Emilie Huffman: “This has been a love letter to my mom”
“Mathematics education is a very important focus area in homeschooling, as there is evidence for a homeschool math gap, and many anecdotal accounts of homeschooled girls in particular receiving subpar mathematics education.”
From an early age, I always had an interest in math. I would check out all the number books I could find in the library, and just sit around and think about multiplication. Playing with the numbers by myself was fun, but sometimes I would have anxiety about whether the next grade level in school would be too hard for me. Fifth grade math in particular made me nervous—the numbers had so many more zeroes on the ends of them, and when I looked at the contents of the pages of my new textbook everything just had an unfamiliar and complicated-looking feel. I admitted that I was very nervous to start fifth grade math, because it involved such big numbers. My mom almost laughed, saying “it’s no different from when you started third grade or fourth grade math. You could handle those then because you were ready, and you’re ready for these things now.”
I soon learned she was right. Some notation may have looked different or more complicated, but so many of the things I was doing were similar to the things I had done before. The math may have looked impressive and complex to me on paper, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t learn it. I just had to get past my fear and take things piece by piece.
I talk about math because it was my favorite subject, but it’s worth noting that my mom would not say the same thing for herself. She often had teachers growing up who were scared of math themselves, and were uncertain how to teach it. When she decided to teach us though, rather than dreading the math part, she looked at it as an opportunity to broaden her own understanding. She could push past her own anxiety of the unknown and replace it with an excitement to learn, and that rubbed off on my sisters and me. Despite the fact that we like to say “mom’s not afraid of anything,” we know the reality is that she never lets fear have the last word.
Today I am a PhD student in theoretical physics. The percentage of women in physics is still only around 20%, and that percentage is often lower in theory areas. Sometimes these numbers in particular get me down (though it’s worth noting that self-doubt is very common among graduate students in general, regardless of gender.) It helps to remember my mom, though. I know it’s not really true that she’s not afraid of anything, but the reality is even better. She has more tenacity than anybody else I know, and if my sisters and I can manage even a small fraction of that for ourselves, we’ll be just fine.
Mostly this has been a love letter to my mom, but I think there are a couple of broader points to be made as well. First, every parent has different academic strengths, but no subject should be neglected. For less confident subjects, all the more care should be taken (this article about parents and math illustrates the pitfalls well). Second, mathematics education is a very important focus area in homeschooling, as there is evidence for a homeschool math gap, and many anecdotal accounts of homeschooled girls in particular receiving subpar mathematics education. To the contrary, I had a stellar mathematics education, one that had certain advantages when compared to other education modes. I want homeschooling to be as great an option for others as it was for myself, which is why I support CRHE and its work to uphold and promote homeschooling standards.
Emilie Huffman was homeschooled in North Carolina from 1995 to 2008. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by CRHE
Do I Need Membership in a Homeschool Protection Agency?
When the modern homeschool movement began in the 1970s, some parents found ways to homeschool under existing laws while others sought permission from local school boards or homeschooled ‘under the radar.’ As the number of families interested in homeschooling grew during the 1980s, legal questions grew. In some cases, existing statutes prohibited homeschooling or were unclear on its legality; in other cases, local superintendents became unwilling to work with homeschool parents (or vice versa). Early homeschool promoters Raymond Moore and John Holt traveled around the country testifying in defense of homeschool parents who were taken to court, and a number of existing legal groups played a part as well. By the early 1990s homeschooling was legal in every state, largely as a result of legislative change at the state level.
While the legality of homeschooling is no longer in question, the battles of the 1980s remain a part of many homeschool parents’ communal memory. Along with this memory comes a question: Is it worth laying out the money to become a member of one of several homeschool legal protection organizations currently in existence? These organizations charge homeschool parents an annual membership fee and, in exchange, defend their members should they run into homeschooling-related legal problems. If you are a homeschool parent pondering whether it is worth purchasing a membership from one of these organizations, here are several points to consider.
1. Homeschooling is legal in all fifty states.
You don’t need an attorney on retainer to drive a car. In the same way, you don’t need an attorney on retainer to homeschool. Not only is homeschooling legal, the practice has also become increasingly socially acceptable over the past several decades and is no longer viewed with the suspicion it once was. There are occasionally superintendents who overstep, but this is relatively rare and can in most cases be corrected by simply pointing the official to state law. In the vast majority of cases, simply following your state’s homeschool law and complying with its requirements will be sufficient.
2. Pay attention to what your money is supporting.
Some homeschool protection organizations have a history of taking positions and engaging in advocacy on issues which are unrelated to homeschooling, such as opposing marriage equality. Ask whether an organization engages in lobbying in addition to offering legal counsel, and make sure you investigate an organization’s lobbying efforts to ensure that you are comfortable with your membership fees being used to fund these causes. In some cases, homeschool protection organizations have been known to defend parents who are abusive or who are not educating their children. Make sure you know what your money is supporting.
3. Watch out for scare tactics.
Homeschool protection organizations that provide legal services to dues-paying members frequently depend on selling memberships to turn a profit. This gives them an incentive to convince homeschooling parents that legal trouble is inevitable. Such organizations may unnecessarily antagonize government officials, turning a minor misunderstanding into a major legal event and then using the situation to sell memberships to their organization. They may also exaggerate the severity of conflicts in their marketing materials. Be judicious when evaluating information from organizations whose profits depend on convincing you that homeschooling without their support is dangerous or risky.
4. Read the fine print.
Homeschool protection organizations do not offer legal insurance. In the unlikely event that your homeschool encounters a legal challenge, you may find that your membership in a homeschool protection organization does not entitle you to pro bono representation. If the possible cost of securing legal representation is a concern for you, you may be best served by purchasing a legal insurance plan rather than membership in a homeschool protection organization. Legal insurance plans cover a variety of legal needs and come with a contract guaranteeing you certain services.
5. A local attorney will likely serve you better.
If you do get into legal trouble, a local attorney will likely serve you better than a national homeschool protection organization. First, local attorneys with experience in family court or your jurisdiction’s equivalent are likely to have personal connections with the social workers, school officials, and court personnel who will be handling your case. That local knowledge—which a national organization is unlikely to have—will help an attorney de-escalate and resolve the situation. Second, national homeschool protection organizations may have incentives to escalate situations rather than simply resolving them: they may hope to create test cases and set legal precedent; or they may hope to use the situation to convince other parents to purchase memberships. A local attorney, in contrast, benefits most from resolving the situation to your satisfaction.
Last Updated: 18 May, 2016 by CRHE
Jessica A.: “Homeschool is an abusive parent’s dream”
“I support homeschool oversight because most child abuse is committed by parents against their own children. I believe people oppose homeschool oversight because most people only worry about their own kids. They won’t admit it, but as long as their own kids aren’t at risk, even “good” homeschoolers just don’t care.”
I was homeschooled through a church. Regarding quality of education, it was a joke. Kids I knew who were in the program since birth actually believed the Salem Witch Trials has been about real-life witches. We were taught seven-day creationism. I got a D in one year of highschool biology because I refused to say the Earth was only 6,000 years old. I remember writing “4 billion” in the answer, my mom tearing up the sheet and giving me a blank copy and again writing “4 billion.” I was a rebel.
When I was six, my dad was convicted of sexually assaulting and battering my mother. That alone should have disqualified him from being involved with any kind of homeschool program. He’d never be allowed to teach. But being given unlimited control over his own children and isolating them from outside help? Totally LEGAL!
My mom chose to stay with my dad even after the conviction. The sexual assault and battery of my mother was a regular occurrence in our home. Most people don’t understand just how brutal and violent and disgusting it was. He would call her a whore, fat, a pig, scream about her sexual history—and scream Bible verses about submission all while she screamed and begged for help. All in front of me when I was as young as six years old.
My father also abused me, although my mom denied it when I told her, insisting that he only ever harmed her. My father was openly into “sexy little girls” and I’ll leave this at that.
The short end of it is, after my public school tried to get involved to protect me and get me counseling when I was in fifth grade, my parents’ response was to move to a new suburb where I didn’t know anybody and to put me into an extremely isolationist homeschool program. Homeschool is an abusive parent’s dream. Total isolation, with no outside influence save a church with invested interest not to stir the pot? Oh goody.
Needless to say, with free range my dad’s abuse intensified.
After running away from home as a young adult and living in extreme poverty (I got down to 86 lbs), I reached out to my homeschool program’s director. Without prompting, she said to me, “I knew your father was abusive, but I never reported anything because they’re always trying to shut down homeschool.”
At first, I was elated that she said that because I finally had acknowledgement that I’d been abused. I even joked to my friends about being part of a church cover up, but years later the hurt is very real.
It hurts insanely bad to know I was so low on her totem pole that knowing what was happening to me, she couldn’t be bothered to take the risk that her program might be scrutinized. She wouldn’t risk losing her comfy job as a “director” of a church homeschool program where she got paid for planning BBQs and arranging dances. God forbid she stick her neck out for a kid.
The truth is, in the homeschool program and the church I was a pariah. I was treated like a bad kid. Nobody ever admitted to me then that they knew I was abused. Instead they justified their inaction and protection of my dad by dehumanizing me. I was told I was sinful; I was picked out for private sessions by the youth minister who would tell me I was godless. I was told the way my dad treated my mother was his right as a husband and I needed to stop fighting God’s plan or whatever.
So while I was dealing with my abusive and openly pedophilic father at home, I was being labeled a sinner and shamed into silence at church. When I tried to talk about abuse they turned the blame around on me and told me I needed to accept God in my life. The message I got was that the abuse was my fault for not being a good Christian, that I was “less-than” and shit. It’s taken me years to come to the conclusion that those were lies. I now am convinced that they were relieved when I ran away because I was a thorn in their side. I was the sacrificial lamb who wouldn’t die.
I support homeschool oversight because most child abuse is committed by parents against their own children. I believe people oppose homeschool oversight because most people only worry about their own kids. They won’t admit it, but as long as their own kids aren’t at risk, even “good” homeschoolers just don’t care. They’d rather sit by and watch someone else abuse their own children than have to deal with a little bit of regulation.
My answer to that is: “Most elementary school teachers/administers are good. So we should eliminate background checks?” Of course not, because then YOUR kid might be in danger. Try not to think of kids as property and instead as individuals who can experience suffering and who deserve a fair shot at life even if their parents are shit bags. Don’t lump kids in with their parents and then discount their suffering because you don’t like the people who birthed them. Odds are, they don’t either.
Jessica A. was homeschooled in California from 1997 to 2004. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by CRHE
CRHE Internships, Summer 2016!
Last summer, we inaugurated our summer internship program. The project was a success, resulting in new infographics, innovative social media content, additional published state histories, progress on various research topics, and, ultimately, a new staff member! We are happy to announce that we will be accepting internship applications for a second summer.
We are looking for individuals willing to serve as interns for CRHE on a part-time as-available basis. While we cannot fund these positions (i.e. you will not be paid), these internships will provide you with valuable experience. At the end of the summer, we will send you closeout information with a quote for your LinkedIn page and lines for your resume. All internships will take place remotely, via computer, so a strong internet connection is required.
We are offering the following internships:
Social media intern
Graphic design intern
Junior research intern
Senior research intern
Policy intern
Web development intern
To apply, please fill out our CRHE Internship Application. We will be accepting applications through Friday, May 13th. You can read a description of each of these internships below.
Social media intern
As social media intern, you will work closely with our social media director to create innovative social media content and shape awareness-raising social media campaigns. You will use both Facebook and Twitter accounts and may gain some experience creating memes. You will gain social media experience that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Familiarity with Facebook and/or Twitter is required.
Duties:
Time commitment: 5-10 hours a week, 1-2 hours per weekday
Graphic design intern
This internship is for those interested in working on infographics, memes, and other graphic design projects! You will gain experience with infographic software and develop graphic design skills that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Must be familiar with Pixelmator, Photoshop, or equivalent software.
Duties:
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Junior research intern
Our junior research interns provide support on a variety of projects. We are interested in taking on several junior research interns, so you may have some camaraderie in working with other interns. You will gain experience with research, data entry, and working both independently and as part of a team that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Some familiarity with using Google Drive is recommended but not required.
Duties:
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Senior research intern
We are interested in taking on several senior research interns, so you will be able to choose the projects that most interest you. We hope to see our senior research interns help us complete a variety of policy briefs and white papers. You will gain experience with research, writing, and working both independently and as part of a team that may be attractive to a future or current employer. Familiarity with Google Drive is recommended but not required. Some college required.
Duties:
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Policy intern
We would like an intern to help us develop a more efficient and streamlined system for tracking legislation. This intern would also conduct research on recent homeschool legislation and create state-by-state briefs of homeschool-related legislation. This internship may involve related projects as interest directs and would be ideal for someone with long-term interests in policy or law. Some familiarity with Google Drive is recommended but not required.
Duties:
Time commitment: 5-15 hours a week, flexible schedule
Web Development Intern
We would like an intern to help keep up the day-to-day of website management with the opportunity to work on a couple programming projects (in their language of choice) if they are interested. Must be familiar with WordPress. Basic HTML5/CSS3 knowledge is ideal but not required.
Duties:
Time commitment: 2-5 hours a week, flexible schedule
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by CRHE
Statement Regarding Colt Clark
For Immediate Release: Lax Homeschool Laws Implicated in Boy’s Disappearance
Canton, Ma., 4/21/16—Ten years ago, nine-year-old Colt Clark was reported missing by his aunt and uncle, who alleged that he had run away. After a decade of unanswered questions, police have filed murder charges against the Seminole County couple based on allegations of severe beatings, whippings, and torture leveled against them by Colt’s now-adult brother, Homer. Critically, both brothers were homeschooled, which prevented them from having the same daily contact with mandatory reporters as other children. “This case mirrors many of the patterns we’ve seen in other homeschool abuse cases,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit founded by homeschool graduates. “We need to critically examine the ways homeschooling can be used to hide or cover up child abuse.”
Colt’s aunt and uncle were also his foster parents, and the child had a social worker assigned to his case. In the month leading up to his disappearance, Colt’s social worker tried several times to see the child, but was prevented from doing so by his aunt and uncle, who made excuses for his absence. “When a child attends school, a social worker can go to the school and interview them there,” Coleman noted. “When a child is homeschooled, the social worker has to gain access to their home, which gives the parents or guardians added opportunity to stonewall an investigation.” A couple in Ohio used similar excuses to prevent social workers from gaining access to fourteen-year-old Teddy Foltz-Tedesco; the homeschooled child died at his stepfather’s hands a year later. In Colt’s case, it was after the social worker made it clear to his aunt and uncle that she would no longer accept excuses that the couple reported him missing, claiming he had run away.
Homeschooling has played a role in a number of high-profile child abuse fatalities in the last few years. In the fall of 2014, a Florida public school official attempting to follow up regarding a homeschooled student’s annual academic assessment was told the child had moved to another state; young Janiya Thomas was found dead in her mother’s freezer a year later. In March 2015, Stoni Blair and Stephen Berry’s bodies were also found in their mother’s freezer; the two children’s deaths had gone unreported for almost two years. In fall 2015, Adrian Jones’ Kansas parents attempted to cover up his death at their hands by feeding his body to their pigs; that he was missing did not come to light until two months later. In a 2014 study of child torture, nearly 50% of the children studied were homeschooled.
Oklahoma has some of the most lax oversight of homeschooling in the country; parents are not required to notify education officials that they are homeschooling, and there are no educational requirements or assessments of any kind. Colt is the third known homeschooled child to die of child abuse in Oklahoma in past decade. This number is higher than expected given the number of child fatalities in the state and the percentage of school-age children homeschooled. In 2008, eleven-year-old Cheyenne Wolf, a disabled girl in Bokchito, was beaten to death by her parents; her body was concealed in storage bags and her death did not come to light for over a year. In 2011, ten-year-old Marcus Holloway was locked in a room and starved to death by his parents in Fort Sill. The state has a long list of additional severe child abuse or neglect cases that involve homeschooling as well. “We need to acknowledge the role homeschooling can play in hiding child abuse and take steps to prevent these sorts of cases from happening,” said Coleman. “These children should not be forgotten.”
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. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by Rachel Coleman
Why We Have to Talk About Homeschooling and Child Abuse
In early March, HSLDA’s Scott Woodruff accused the media of “hurting the cause of child abuse reduction” by drawing attention to cases where parents have used homeschooling to hide abuse. In his piece, Woodruff writes that “experts in the field have worked to identify common risk factors in child abuse and neglect” and links to an article from the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect which he says does not include homeschooling as a risk factor. What Woodruff fails to mention is this article does list “social isolation” as a risk factor. While many homeschooled children have large social networks, homeschooling gives malicious or negligent parents the ability to isolate their children in a way they could not if their children attended school.
That homeschooling can be used to isolate children is something we can’t risk not discussing.
Woodruff quotes the director of the Jackson County, Kansas, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) stating that: “We have no evidence that children who are homeschooled are more likely to be abused or neglected.” Woodruff’s use of this quote is problematic on several levels. First, we have “no evidence” because little attempt has yet been made to conduct statistical research on this question—in other words, we do not know either way. Second, the question of primary importance is not whether homeschooled children are more or less likely to be abused or neglected but rather what happens when homeschooled children are neglected or abused.
Homeschooled children do not have the same daily contact with mandatory reporters as children who attend school. Because of this, homeschooling offers abusive parents a way to isolate their children and thereby conceal and intensify their maltreatment. We have spoken with numerous homeschool alumni who also had experience attending school; they have told us the abuse was worse when they were homeschooled, because their parents knew they didn’t have to hide their bruises. Additionally, Barbara Knox of the University of Wisconsin found that nearly 50% of the cases in her 2014 study of child torture involved homeschooling. “This ‘homeschooling’ appears to have been designed to further isolate the child,” she wrote of these cases. The ability for abusive parents to use homeschooling to isolate their victims should not be taken lightly.
When the mother of young Janiya Thomas of Florida began homeschooling, the girl’s caseworker suggested that the change might be good for her, giving her more one-on-one time with her mother. If that caseworker had been aware that unscrupulous parents sometimes use homeschooling to isolate their children and thereby conceal abuse, Janiya’s move to homeschooling amidst the household’s long history of child abuse and neglect reports might have sent up a red flag. The same is true for Emani Moss, whose parents began homeschooling her after teachers reported bruising on the girl’s back. Imani had spent several months in foster care two years prior, and her removal to homeschooling, like Janiya’s, should have sent up red flags. Dozens of children have died over the last four years alone because politicians and local government officials have not taken seriously the potential for abusive parents to use homeschooling to isolate their victims.
The real problem here is not media coverage but rather homeschool advocates’ insistence that “homeschooling” and “child abuse” should never be used in the same sentence. This is a problem we have grappled with since our inception as an organization. Many homeschool advocates, understandably concerned that an educational method they love may get a bad name, have argued that this is an abuse problem, not a homeschooling problem. But what kind of problem does it become when homeschooling is used to isolate a child and in this way plays a very real role in concealing or intensifying abuse?
We have to be able to talk about this. It is in homeschool advocates’ best interests to stop denying this problem and start addressing it. We don’t want their educational method associated with child abuse any more than they do, but the real solution is to fix the problem, not to ignore it and pretend it’s not there.
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by Kieryn Darkwater
Adult Basic Education for the Educationally Neglected Homeschool Graduate
By Kierstyn Darkwater
I have always wanted to go to college. I’ve always been a motivated learner, and the pseudo-classroom environments I occasionally had with other homeschoolers and parents armed with teacher’s guides were places I really enjoyed being and learning in.
Growing up, my parents’ plan for me initially included sending me to a vo-tech school to learn things I had no interest in. Over time, as my parents gradually became more conservative and more entrenched in stay-at-home daughters ideology, they looked at me and only saw a uterus. They determined that college was not God’s plan for my life and would only get in the way of my highest calling of being a wife and mother.
However, they did occasionally let me entertain the idea of going to a super conservative school after being done with homeschooling. When I was seventeen and a half, they even encouraged me to apply—I gathered my “transcript”, I wrote an essay, I had letters of recommendation, and all I needed was for my parents to sign the form. They refused, again telling me, for the final time, that I had no right or reason to pursue education, that going to college was contrary to God, and that I needed to continue my decade-long training of being a helpmeet. I was devastated.
This was just one more in a long series of unrelated blows to what I hoped was my future. But this essay isn’t about how my parents thwarted my education over and over again and left me to pick up the pieces. This is about something I discovered recently—that I’m not alone, that attending college in my mid-twenties isn’t that weird, and that community colleges have programs for people like me, people like us.
For something unrelated I was looking up how to obtain a diploma in Washington State, it was there that I found out the state community colleges have a HighSchool 21+ program in addition to the GED program. I got distracted looking at the Continuing Education/personal enrichment classes that they have, with the thought of taking an art class, but they all seemed pretty expensive. Then, I saw it, under pre-college “Adult Basic Ed. & GED”. Since I have an HSLDA printed diploma I don’t feel the need to get my GED, but, for $25 a quarter, I could totally take a math class.
Math, that subject that had been abandoned because I couldn’t teach it to myself, because I wasn’t deemed worthy enough to learn it, because I have a uterus. Suddenly, there was a way I could be in a classroom with someone who knows how to teach math, and learn enough algebra to be able to get past the blocks I was having trying to learn various programming languages.
I signed up to take the Adult Basic Ed. (ABE) class for the winter quarter (Jan – Mar) without really knowing what I was doing. I just knew that at this point, because I was in a good mental and emotional place and could afford the $25 tuition, I had no excuse not to at least try.
So I walked into class and my teacher had us write goals for the quarter. I wrote that if I improve and learn things, if I keep coming to class consistently and don’t talk myself out of it, then I will have succeeded. I surpassed my goals. For the last three months I’ve been going to school 4 nights a week, making a lot of progress in math. I learned algebra and I’m actually good at it, and being enrolled in a college—even as sort of an outsider as an ABE student—has opened up a world of opportunities, just by being a night student.
My teacher believes in me and my abilities—is impressed with how well I’ve been improving in math and encouraged me to take the placement test for english (the math gap is real). I aced it and placed in Eng 101 which I am starting in April. I’m taking my first ever actual college-level class at age 25. The other adults in my class are varying ages, some have grown children, some have babies, but we’re all in ABE because we want to improve—whether that means continuing on to college classes (like me) or getting their GED or High School Diploma to improve their job opportunities.
Personally, as an educationally neglected ex-homeschooler, taking the ABE has been so liberating—not just because I’m learning the things I was told I’d never be able to, but also because having a teacher who believes in her students and encourages questions is empowering. She encourages everyone in their progress, even if it’s small progress, because progress is progress.
If you’re an educationally neglected former homeschooler and you feel like you’re ready to attempt college but feel so lost (it’s so daunting!), see if your community college has ABE classes. Adult Basic Education helped me get my foot in the door, get used to being on campus, set me up with an advisor, and gave me the ability to see if college is right for me, and a place to ask questions about continuing my college education if that was something I wanted to do. You won’t be the only person over the age of 18, supporting yourself, and having gone through some shit.
I encourage everyone who’s curious and thinking about taking classes, but also anxious about it, to at least look into it. It’s a less expensive way to get your feet wet, and it might be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made. And if not, it was still less expensive than tuition for a full college or reparative course!
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by CRHE
Statement: West Virginia and South Dakota Measures Make Homeschooled Children More Vulnerable
For Immediate Release: Limiting Assessments Hurts Homeschooled Children
Canton, Ma., 3/30/16—Yesterday, Earl Ray Tomblin, Governor of West Virginia, signed House Bill 4178, deregulating homeschooling in the Mountain State. This follows the signing of a similar measure, House Bill 1013, last month by South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard. “Homeschooled children are a forgotten constituency,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an organization founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for greater safeguards for homeschooled children. “Deregulation measures generally focus not on the needs of homeschooled children but on homeschool advocates’ desire for lack of accountability.”
This year’s measures in the Mountain State and the Mount Rushmore State severely limited the number of years in which homeschooling parents must submit academic assessments to their local school district. “For some children, assessments may be the only contact they have with adults outside of their family or church communities,” said Coleman. “Removing assessments—and removing accountability from assessments—makes it harder for educational neglect to be identified and more difficult for child abuse to be recognized and reported.” The West Virginia measure allows parents to administer their children’s tests and thus making it possible for abusive or neglectful homeschooling parents to prevent their children from having any access to mandatory reporters at all. The bill also no longer requires teachers conducting portfolio evaluations (an alternative to testing) to provide their certification number, making it harder to ensure that evaluations are carried out properly.
There is some evidence to suggest that homeschooled children are at a greater risk of severe child abuse or neglect than other school-aged children. This is because homeschool parents have complete control over who their children come in contact with, and some abusive parents use homeschooling to isolate their children and hide their abuse. “I know of cases where children have been locked in a bedroom for years, starved and sexually abused,” said Coleman. “If these children had had contact with a mandatory reporter each year as part of an academic assessment, they might have had an opportunity to be rescued.” In a 2014 study of child torture, researcher Barbara Knox of the University of Wisconsin found that nearly half of the cases she examined involved homeschooling, and the Homeschooling’s Invisible Children lists dozens of cases where homeschooling children have been killed by their caretakers.
“There are ways lawmakers can act to make homeschooled children safer and improve the homeschool experience,” said Coleman. In 2005, Iowa’s homeschool oversight triggered an investigation that led to the removal of Sarah Neely from her abusive father’s home. In 2014, three children homeschooled through an online program reported the abuse they received at the hands of their step-father to their online teacher; after the teacher called 911, the children were removed from the home and the case was prosecuted. “We have a social duty to ensure that homeschooled children receive a good education in a safe home environment,” said Coleman. “Unfortunately, reducing the number of assessments only puts children in danger.”
Read CRHE’s original press release on West Virginia House Bill 4178.
Read CRHE’s original press release on South Dakota House Bill 1013.
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. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org
Last Updated: 26 October, 2023 by CRHE
Statement Opposing New York Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788
For Immediate Release: Removing Protections Undermines Homeschooled Children’s Interests
Canton, Ma., 2/24/2016—New York Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would weaken the state’s oversight of homeschooling by allowing homeschool parents to administer their children’s standardized tests themselves, removing quarterly reports, and making it more difficult for underperforming students to find help. “New York does more than any other state to protect homeschooled children’s interests and should be commended for their dedication to these children and their education,” said Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an organization founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children’s interests. “This legislation would remove a layer of that protection and leave New York’s children at greater risk of educational neglect.”
In New York state, homeschooling takes place under Education Law sections 3204(1) and (2), which allow children to be educated “elsewhere” than a public school if they receive instruction that is “substantially equivalent” to that provided in the public schools. Using this statute as its authority, the New York State Board of Regents created Section 100.10 of the Regulations of the Commissioner, which has governed homeschooling since 1988, with updates and adjustments over time. Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 are intended to take oversight of homeschooling out of the hands of the Board of Regents by turning Section 100.10 into settled law, making requirements harder to change and removing several key provisions. “Section 100.10 has served the children of New York state well for eighteen years,” said Coleman. “There’s no reason to change what isn’t broken.”
Most significantly, Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would allow homeschool parents to administer their child’s standardized assessments. While Section 100.10 requires that the individual administering students’ yearly norm-referenced achievement tests be approved by the superintendent, this new legislation would allow anyone who meets the test publisher’s criteria to administer the test, including the child’s parents. There are numerous testing services that cater to homeschooling parents and consider the parent qualified to administer their students’ tests. “Allowing parents to administer their child’s standardized assessments themselves, in their own homes, creates conditions ripe for cheating,” said Coleman. “We know that abuses occur in states that allow parents to administer their child’s standardized assessments; I have spoken personally with homeschool alumni whose parents gave them help during the test, gave them extra time, or changed their answers.”
Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would also remove the quarterly report requirement. Under Section 100.10, parents must submit a report each quarter outlining the material covered and providing letter grades or a written evaluation of the child’s progress. Under the proposed legislation, this requirement would disappear. “The quarterly report ensures that parents take time to regularly reflect on their child’s progress,” said Coleman. “I have spoken with numerous alumni in states with lower levels of oversight who feel that they would have received a better education if their parents had been subject to more accountability.”
Assembly Bill 9091 and Senate Bill 4788 would lower the threshold for adequate academic performance from the 33rd percentile to the 23rd percentile, making it harder for underperforming children to receive the remediation they need. At the same time, it would eliminate a provision allowing the superintendent to conduct home visits when a homeschool family is on probation and there is reason to believe the family is “in substantial noncompliance.” When a child’s annual assessment shows inadequate progress, the home education program is put on probation and the parent must create a remediation plan to be approved by the school district. After that the school district has only the parent’s word that the provisions of the remediation plan are being carried out. “We have spoken with numerous individuals concerned about a younger sibling, nephew, or grandchild who is receiving an inadequate and neglectful homeschool education,” said Coleman. “It is important to ensure that the superintendent has a way to ascertain whether a child’s remediation plan is being implemented should there be reason to believe otherwise.”
“New York state has long had some of the most comprehensive protections for homeschooled children in the country,” said Coleman. “I urge the legislature to maintain this record.”
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. https://responsiblehomeschooling.org