For Immediate Release: Better data collection would help protect vulnerable children
02/04/2020—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, is urging Indiana lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 428, which would require the Department of Child Services to include information on children who receive home instruction in its annual child fatality review report.
“We founded CRHE due in part to concerns about the increasing number of stories we heard about severe and fatal abuse of homeschooled children,” says Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “We have always emphasized the importance of collecting data on fatalities in homeschool settings.” Coleman says efforts to better protect and support homeschooled children are often stymied by a lack of quality data on homeschooled children and their wellbeing. In Indiana, parents who homeschool their children are not required to notify either local or state education officials. No state currently reports information on educational method in its statistics on child abuse. This bill would make Indiana a leader in this regard.
CRHE maintains Homeschooling’s Invisible Children, a database of severe and fatal cases of abuse or neglect in homeschool settings, including multiple cases in Indiana. One case that drew attention was that of Christian Choate, who was starved to death in 2009 at age thirteen, after spending years living in a dog cage. Two fatal cases occurred in the past year: 9-year-old Edward Posso died in Bloomington last May, and 10-year-old Skylea Carmack died in Gas City in August. Both children were homeschooled, and both were tortured by their parents.
A growing body of research suggests that homeschooling offers abusive and negligent parents a way to isolate, neglect, and mistreat children without detection. In 2014, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin found that 47% of the school-age child torture victims she studied were removed from school to be homeschooled. (Another 29% were never enrolled in school). In 2018, the Office of the Child Advocate of Connecticut found that 36% of children removed from school to be homeschooled lived in families that were subject to at least one prior child abuse or neglect report. 90% of these cases involved founded or multiple reports.
“Better data collection is crucial to preventing abusive parents from exploiting the homeschooling law to isolate children and hide abuse,” says Coleman. “We urge Indiana lawmakers to take a stand for vulnerable children by passing Senate Bill 428.”
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education empowers homeschooled children by educating the public and advocating for child-centered, evidence-based policy and practices for families and professionals.
For Immediate Release: Raylee’s Law would protect vulnerable children from falling through the cracks
02/03/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, is urging lawmakers to support “Raylee’s Law,” also known as House Bill 4440. “Raylee’s Law creates critical protections for vulnerable children,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE, which was founded by homeschool alumni in 2013. “Abusive parents should not be able to exploit the homeschooling law by using it to conceal child abuse.”
House Bill 4440 would prevent parents from withdrawing a child from school to homeschool them when there is a pending child abuse or neglect investigation, and when a parent has been convicted of domestic violence or child abuse or neglect. “We are working with lawmakers and speaking with homeschooling parents in West Virginia to ensure that the state’s homeschool statute supports West Virginia’s homeschooling families and vulnerable children alike,” said Coleman. “We are grateful to Del. Fluharty for taking bold action to protect vulnerable children in West Virginia.”
Raylee’s Law is named after Raylee Browning of Oak Hill, West Virginia, who died of severe abuse and neglect in 2018. She was 8 years old. Raylee’s father exploited the homeschool statute to isolate her from contact with mandatory reporters. Raylee was brutally tortured and died of sepsis. According to CRHE, which maintains a database of severe and fatal child abuse cases in homeschool settings, cases like Raylee’s are far too common. “When abusive parents realize they can avoid reports from teachers and other school personnel by withdrawing their children from school under the homeschooling statute, children like Raylee pay the ultimate price,” said Coleman.
A study published by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate in 2018 found 31% of children withdrawn from school to be homeschooled lived in families with founded or multiple child abuse or neglect reports. 47% of school-age victims examined in a 2014 study of child torture were removed from school to be homeschooled. (Another 29% were never enrolled in school.) Researchers noted how in these cases, the homeschooling statutes were being deliberately abused “to further isolate the child.”
CRHE has long recommended preventing parents who have been convicted of violent crimes or crimes against children from taking advantage of homeschooling laws. Only one state, Pennsylvania, currently has such a provision on the books, and Coleman says lawmakers in a growing number of states are becoming aware of this problem. “By passing Raylee’s Law, lawmakers in West Virginia have the opportunity to provide leadership in this area,” she said.
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.
When I was growing up, I was badly abused by my parents, to the extent that it meets the current definition of intrafamilial child torture. Solitary confinement (being locked in my room for days or weeks at a time) was a significant part of my torture, and when I was locked in my room I had inconsistent access to food, water, and bathroom. I also endured beatings that were planned and systematic, and sometimes had religious components (father telling me I was possessed with a demon, and screaming “OUT Satan!” while beating me). I was also sexually abused.
During a few times of solitary confinement, or when I had bruises or marks on me, I would be kept home from school, and my father would tell the school I was “out sick” indefinitely. When the school would not accept this and demanded a letter from a doctor, my father would then say he was homeschooling me. The school would give him instructions for proving that he was homeschooling me, but he never complied with any of the instructions and the school never did anything to enforce their regulations. No one ever came to check on my safety or well-bring, and no one ever came to see if I was being taught at home. My father actually never taught me anything when I was home, I was simply denied an education.
When I was 16, my father became enraged and jealous when he thought I had become sexually active for the first time. He kept me home for the entire semester, and I had to be in the same room with him, with eyes on me at all times, and was told I could not leave the house or be unsupervised until I turned 18. I faced severe psychological abuse during this time, including spurning, isolating, denying emotional responsiveness, making threats of physical and sexual harm to me, and of course educational neglect. He told my high school that he was homeschooling me for the rest of 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. He was again told to turn in forms to demonstrate his homeschooling plan. Months passed and the school did nothing to enforce this, no one ever came to check on me or help me, and I was never taught a thing while at home. With two weeks left in the semester, the school threatened to call Child Protective Services (CPS) if he did not either turn in homeschooling forms or send me back to school. So he sent me back to school for the last week of the semester, and I was issued an “F” for every single class since I had turned in no assignments for the last 5 months.
I felt so betrayed by my school—they were the ones who never enforced the homeschooling regs, they are the ones who never called CPS when I disappeared for 5 months, and they punished me with six “F”s for having survived and endured unbearable child abuse. How would I ever get into college with six “F”s?! How would I ever graduate on time with no credits for the whole semester?! From my dad, I expected evil, but from my school, who had known me all my life growing up in a small town, how could they do this to me? They let my dad use fake homeschooling to cover up abuse.
I was eventually rescued and removed by CPS over the summer and placed in foster care. But I could have been rescued months earlier, had the school done their job to oversee claims of homeschooling. I believe my father should have been given no more than 30 days to turn in proof of homeschooling- not 5 months, and then in the end never required to prove what happened during those 5 months at all. The school district should have followed their own policies, and there should have been oversight from the state department of education to make sure school districts are following the law. There should also have been regular welfare checks where a professional social worker came to my home to see what was going on and interviewed me about whether I was safe at home, and if I was actually being homeschooled.
It was too easy for my father to use homeschooling to cover up child abuse. Oversight should be dramatically increased, to make it very hard for abusive parents to hide behind claims of homeschooling.
Sarah was “homeschooled” in Ohio in the 1990s. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
For Immediate Release: Children’s right to an education must be carefully safeguarded
01/22/2020–The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, has raised concerns that a parental rights bill in Florida, House Bill 1059, could have a negative impact on homeschooled children. HB 1059, which is sponsored by representatives Erin Gall (R) and Daniel Perez, will come before the House Education Committee on Thursday. A duplicate of this bill, sponsored by State Senator Kelli Stargel (R), is scheduled to be introduced in the Florida Senate later this week as well (SB 1634).
Florida’s homeschool law, which was first passed in 1985, includes an annual academic assessment and authorizes school districts to review a portfolio of students’ work. CRHE is concerned that HB 1059 could overturn these safeguards, perhaps inadvertently. HB 1059 states that “the right to direct the education and care of his or her minor child” is “reserved to the parent … without obstruction or interference from the state … or any other government entity.”
“Parents’ right to choose how to educate their children must be balanced with children’s right to receive an education,” says Samantha Field, CRHE’s government relations director. “HB 1059 eliminates that balance.” Field warns that under HB 1059, requirements designed to protect children may be overturned as unlawful “interference” by a government entity.
While many homeschooled children receive a good education in a safe home environment, this is not always the case. Field herself was homeschooled in Florida, but her parents and others in her local community used an “umbrella” school to skirt the requirements of the state’s homeschool law. “I know first hand how important the requirements in the homeschool laws are because I experienced what life was like without them,” she said. “Of the children I grew up with, my sister and I are the only ones who have managed to scrape our way toward an education that allows us to pursue personal fulfillment and happiness. Everyone else is unemployed, dependent on government assistance, in jail, or dealing with the huge gaps in their ‘education.’”
CRHE warns that HB 1059 would create a heavy legal imbalance between the rights of children and the rights of parents in the state of Florida, leaving significant unchecked power in the hands of abusive parents that would prevent minor children from accessing help in a crisis. The impact on homeschooled children, they warn, will be especially significant.
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education empowers homeschooled children by educating the public and advocating for child-centered, evidence-based policy and practices for families and professionals.
Representative Erin Grall in the Florida House of Representatives (R, District 54) has introduced a piece of legislation she is calling the “Parent’s Bill of Rights” (HB 1059). If enacted, this legislation would give parents “fundamental” and “inalienable” rights over their children regarding every area of their life– as just one example, it makes it a crime if a teacher does not out their trans student to their non-affirming parents if they attempt to socially transition at school. Rep. Grall’s “Parent’s Bill of Rights” would make what happened to Leelah Alcorn an inevitability in Florida.
When Leelah died, she begged us to “fix society, please.” Today is our chance to live up to her challenge because tomorrow, January 23, the “Parent’s Bill of Rights” is scheduled for a committee hearing at noon.
What you can do:
If you are a resident of Florida, please call the sponsor, Rep. Grall, your state representatives, and Education Committee members (their contact information is below). If a phone call is not your preferred method of contact, you can email the committee representatives.
If you are not a current resident of Florida but have experiences relevant to home education, being LGBT+, or child abuse and neglect that occured in Florida, please feel free to contact the Education Committee members and tell them your story and your concerns with this bill.
When contacting legislators:
Always remember to be polite. Please remember to refer to representatives with their title and surname (ie, “Representative Smith”).
Listen, and be curious. Ask the representative for their perspective on the bill first– you might be surprised by what you learn! If they support HB 1059, see if you can persuade them or give them something to think about. If they oppose the bill, telling them your story can give them a helpful boost during the committee hearing tomorrow.
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education’s Concerns with HB 1059:
The language of giving parents “fundamental,” “inalienable,” and “unobstructed” rights in HB 1059 gives parents the authority to supersede the rights of their children, essentially eliminating children’s rights in Florida.
Parent’s rights should never be discussed in isolation from parent’s responsibilities, and children’s rights must always be balanced with parental responsibilities.
This bill enshrines parent’s authority and control into law without ever mentioning the rights of children to liberty, the pursuit of happiness, dignity, and their own conscience.
Children are not chattel: they are not “owned” by their parents. Children are no one’s property, to be treated or mistreated on the whim of another person.
If parents can direct their child’s education without “obstruction or interference,” what happens to children who aren’t educated? Who can’t even read?
Sponsor Rep. Erin Grall’s Contact Information:
Capitol Phone: 850-717-5054 District Office: 772-778-5005 Email: erin.grall@myfloridahouse.gov
Contact Information for Florida House Education Committee:
For Immediate Release: Ohio’s homeschool requirements saved one child but failed another
Canton, Ma., 01/09/2020—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE) supports a letter-writing campaign by teachers in Dayton Public Schools urging state lawmakers to act in the wake of the tragic death of 10-year-old Takoda Collins. Takoda was removed from school to be homeschooled after a school employee reported abuse concerns in May 2018. Authorities discovered evidence that Takoda had been horrifically tortured when they found him unresponsive in the family’s home in December 2019. “It is well-established that abusive parents can and do take advantage of lax homeschooling laws to isolate their children and hide abuse,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE, a national nonprofit organization that was founded in 2013 to advocate for homeschooled children.
Joni Watson, a teacher at the school Takoda attended prior to being withdrawn to be homeschooled, told lawmakers that, when a child is removed from school following reports to children’s services, “there needs to be something additional put in place to ensure that child is checked on.” In the past decade, bills that would flag cases where parents begin to homeschool after a concerning history of child abuse and neglect allegations or other risk factors have been introduced in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, as well as in Ohio in 2013.
According to CRHE, which maintains a database of severe and fatal child abuse cases in homeschool settings, cases like Takoda’s are far too common. A study published by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate in 2018 found that 31% of children withdrawn from school to be homeschooled lived in families with founded or multiple past child welfare reports. In a 2014 study of child torture conducted by a team of pediatricans, 47% of school-age victims studied were removed from school to be homeschooled, typically after the closure of a past child welfare report (another 29% were never enrolled in school).
“Many of the cases in our database involve children withdrawn from school after a history of child abuse,” said Coleman. “Abusive parents too often realize they can avoid reports from school personnel by withdrawing their children from school to homeschool them. As a result, the lax homeschooling law becomes a tool abusive parents use to isolate their children from those who might have been able to help them.” Coleman adds that Takoda is not the only homeschooled child in Ohio whose horrific abuse came to light this fall. In September, an 11-year-old Georgetown girl was found locked in a trailer, monitored by security cameras, and so underweight from long-term starvation that she developed a severe protein deficiency.
“In the past few years, we have seen an increase in awareness about the problem and attempts to protect children like Takoda,” Coleman says. She notes that in some cases, Ohio’s homeschool requirements have been able to protect children from abuse; the Georgetown girl was rescued by authorities after a teacher administering a required annual test reported concerns about the girl’s welfare. Another check or layer of oversight when children are withdrawn from school after a history of child abuse or neglect reports, Coleman says, would protect additional children—and might have saved Takoda.
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.
This summer, our board of directors met in-person and spent three days building a vision for our organization’s future. The ideas we shared were invigorating.
In the future, we envision having a social work department to help connect homeschooling parents and homeschool alumni with resources and information; a network of pro-bono lawyers willing to help those with specific needs; trainings and resources for homeschooling parents; a lobbying arm that works directly with lawmakers to center homeschool policy on the needs of homeschooled children; a research department that publishes studies, writes policy briefs, and collaborates with outside researchers; and more.
But we did more than dream. We also accomplished a lot this year. First and most importantly, this year saw the passage of a bill designed to protect homeschooled children in Georgia, the first time this century that a state passed new homeschool protections—and we helped make it happen. Also this year, we gained access to new data sources which pointed to a need for more support for students being homeschooled during the high school years. And finally, we brought a social worker onto our team as our Advocacy and Support Coordinator.
I am extremely excited and positive about our future—as well as about everything we have accomplished thus far. We have a lot to look back on, as this year ends—and a lot to look forward to. Thank you for coming along on this journey with us.
Here’s to the past year—and to the next year.
.
Dr. Rachel Coleman Executive Director
Coalition for Responsible Home Education
One of the things that I often see in the homeschool homicide cases I write about is starvation. Starvation is a common tool of child torture. In just about every case on this blog, the children were starved. Erica Parsons was malnourished, underweight and fed dog food. Hana Alemu was underweight, forced to eat outside in the backyard in bad weather, and was given purposely disgusting food which had been altered to make it distasteful. Mary Crocker was starved and also given distasteful food that would be hard to eat, such as food covered in vinegar. When children are starved, they often are also fluid restricted. Denying children water is another torture tactic. The 13 Turpin children were all starved for many years, resulting in growth stunting that was so severe, law enforcement thought a 27-year-old was ten, as well as thinking the other adult children found in the home were minors. Children isolated in homeschools and kept away from other people undergo the worst of starvation cases. Often, no one knows about it until after the child is dead.
Mercer County, Pennsylvania
A recent homeschool homicide case comes out of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, as law enforcement arrested 33-year-old Antonio Juan Gonzalez and 29-year-old Paul Bacorn, a “family friend” who lived on the property, in the death of Antonio’s 14-year-old son. The child, Antonio Juan Gonzalez, Jr., weighed just 70 pounds. The child was found dead on October 24th, 2019, in the family home on the 500 block of District Road in rural Delaware Township, after his father called 911. The child was not breathing and was unresponsive. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene. The boy was homeschooled, and was taking online classes.
Police reported that the conditions of the home were “squalid” and unsuitable for children. Photographs from the outside of the crime scene show broken windows, debris, and a small, hazardous looking porch with a padlocked refrigerator on it. The refrigerator was padlocked to restrict food access to the children. A four-year-old girl was also living at the house, but was reportedly in good health. She has since been placed in custody of child protective services. The children’s mother has been deceased for many years.
The squalid home where the body was found. [image of small brown modular home, crooked, not sitting on a solid foundation, with broken window and cheaply constructed wood board porch with junk stacked on it.]
Antonio Jr. died from hypovolemic shock, which occurs when a person loses more than one-fifth of their body fluid and the heart can no longer pump blood throughout the body. He had a skull fracture and a severe injury under his chin. Hypovolemic shock occurred as a result of blunt force trauma, although it is believed that starvation also contributed to his death. Mercer County Coroner John A. Libonati reported that Antonio Jr. was significantly malnourished and his condition exacerbated the affects of the injury he received to his skull. Police observed that the child was noticeably underweight, with protruding cheekbones and visible joints, and had “significant bruising”. The Coroner said it is the worst case he has seen in 36 years.
Mercer County Coroner John Libonati
Antonio Gonzalez Sr. and Paul Bacorn have both been charged with criminal homicide, child abuse, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, concealing the death of a child, assault, reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit the crimes. They are both being held without bail in the Mercer County jail.
From WKBN27 News: “He appeared to be of normal height. He was about 70 pounds. He was emaciated,” said Mercer County District Attorney Pete Acker. “Looked like a concentration camp victim. You could count every one of his ribs. They were protruding and his legs were like pencils.”
When initially asked about what happened, Antonio Sr. gave police a few different stories, first saying the boy had fallen and hit his head that day, after going outside on a break from online classes. He later changed his story to say that the boy had hit his head the night before. Antonio said he tried to revive his son by pouring a bucket of water on him, but his son was unresponsive. Two hours after pouring the water on him, Antonio said that his son was breathing, but still unresponsive. He delayed calling 911 for hours after his son was rendered unconscious. By the time EMS arrived, the child was dead. Bacorn and Gonzalez were arrested at the scene.
Juan Gonzalez, left, and Paul Bacorn, right; mugshot, in orange prison outfits
Once in custody, Gonzalez and Bacorn admitted to police that they abused Antonio Jr. quite frequently, including making him stand with his arms in the air for hours, denying him food for days in a row, spraying him with cold water from the garden hose (cold water baths are a common child torture method), and physically abusing him. A preliminary arraignment in Common Pleas Court will occur on February 11th, 2020, in which both men will appear. I will keep readers updated on this case by adding to this blog.
Patterns
Starvation that is so severe it results in death, where the victim looked like “a concentration camp victim” can only occur if the victim has been kept away from others and isolated for a significant amount of time. While there are certainly cases of hungry children going to public school and not being noticed, the most severe starvation cases occur in homeschools. If the child in the above case had been allowed to be around other people at all, someone would have noticed that he was severally emaciated. According to Gonzalez Sr., he could not stand on his own. He was also visibly bruised. Since he was homeschooled and isolated in a rural area with no one around, there was no one to notice he was abused and starving, and no one to make a report to police or child protective services.
Pennsylvania does have more stringent requirements for homeschool than many other states, but this child was still able to go unnoticed for some time, and it is hard to believe that he was passing standardized tests or anything else that the state required. Antonio Sr. would log his son into school so it would appear he was online. There was no oversight by the state to make sure Antonio was in good health and actually being educated.
It is also unclear how long Antonio Jr. was homeschooled for, if he had ever been in public school, and how long he was starved for. Since he was of a typical height for his age, he did not undergo growth stunting. It is likely that the starvation occurred in more recent years. Adolescent children often become victims of escalating abuse, which is so severe it results in homicide. In this blog, all of the homicide victims I have written about were adolescents.
As for the role of disability, when children are subjected to starvation, neglect, and abuse, it can cause disabilities. This type of severe treatment can lead to lifelong physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities and also psychiatric disabilities, if a child survives the situation and is able to grow up. Starvation and neglect have different affects on children of different ages. If very young children are subjected to starvation, their development is severally delayed. If growth stunting occurs, it can never be reversed. Starving and abusing a child will also seriously interfere with their capacity to be educated. If a very young child is starving, they will not be ready for school at all. When someone like the child in the above case is starved later in life, they will not be able to focus on school, either.
There are many cases of homeschool related starvation that come across my desk every month. It is a common tool of torture. This is just one of many. It is another reason for better regulation and requirements around homeschool, and also for understanding homeschool as a disability issue in more ways than one. Children who are born with a disability are victimized, and victimization creates disability. In many cases, a child is disabled, and the torture exacerbates existing disability and also creates more disability, none of which are being treated in these homeschool cases, which leads to a heightened level of suffering. If the child is rescued from the home, they are going to need disability supports and services. For the child in the above case, he never got to grow up. This case needs to cause a spotlight to be turned on Pennsylvania homeschool law, and to advance understanding of the types of abuse that occur in a homeschool torture situation.
For Immediate Release: Group warns that vaccine exemptions for homeschooled children lead to troubling results
Canton, Ma., 11/12/2019—After lawmakers in New York passed a bill requiring all children who attend school to be vaccinated unless they have a valid medical exemption, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a group founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, saw a steep uptick in queries about homeschooling. “Parents began contacting us to ask whether the new law applied to homeschooled children,” says Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “Some of these parents said they did not want to homeschool, but felt it was their only option,” said Coleman. “In some cases it was clear to us that these parents did not have the educational background needed to homeschool effectively.”
“Homeschooling is an educational choice. It was never intended to serve as a means of avoiding school health requirements,” Coleman cautions. “Homeschooled children should have access to the same level of healthcare as other children.” This is not currently the case in many states, Coleman says. She points to cases of medical neglect where health conditions that wouldhavebeen recognized by a school nurse or a medical doctor have instead gone unnoticed in homeschool settings. “While requirements vary from state to state, children who attend school are required to have a physical exam or wellness visit in certain grades,” said Coleman. “Homeschooled children should have this same access.”
Coleman voiced concerns that parents who homeschool to avoid school health requirements may not be taking their children’s educational best interests into account. “Homeschooling is a lot of work,” Coleman notes. She says parents should homeschool only if they have a genuine interest in providing their children with an education at home. “Parents who have not freely chosen to homeschool their children, and are only doing so to avoid school health requirements, are probably not best suited to homeschool their children,” she says. “Everyone loses.”
Coleman points to an article in The Daily Gazette, published in Schenectady, New York, to illustrate her concerns. In that article, reporter Zachary Matson speaks with a woman who withdrew her three children from school to homeschool them in order to avoid the state’s medical requirements, even though both she and her husband work full time. The couple’s 13-year-old daughter is providing childcare for her 10-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister and supervising their schoolwork while their parents work. “We do not recommend homeschooling unless parents can arrange for full-time supervision and guidance of their children’s education,” said Coleman. “Children deserve to have their education prioritized.”
CRHE does not take a position on specific medical requirements. Instead, the organization recommends applying school health requirements mandated by the state to all children of school age, rather than only those who attend school. “Our goal is to ensure that families who homeschool do so because they have a genuine interest in educating their children at home,” says Coleman. “Our priority is to support children and families.”
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.
“The horror film that was my life growing up in an isolated homeschool household is what will keep me a forever supporter of this organization.”
I was educated using a curriculum that was self teaching — read and follow directions — and later, my education was outsourced to homeschool coop groups for college prep high school classes. I was often left alone to figure out answers on my own and use deductive reasoning. This forced me to think critically, but it was often challenging without educated feedback from an adult to confirm my findings verbally.
I might have looked like a homeschool success story, but this was only on the surface.
We (my sisters and I) definitely were homeschooled as a result of and to hide chronic covert abuse on every level. It was done under the guise of evangelical, conservative, baptist Christian faith, but the truth was that my older sister had spoken with one of her public school teachers at the time, telling them what was going on in our home and my parents had to contain the situation by homeschooling us and scare us into silence to protect themselves.
The state had practically zero oversight over our living conditions or educational progress aside from annual standardized IOWA testing as a measurement of our successful retainment of information. State oversight would have shined a light on some of the social and developmental handicaps that we were developing as a result of constant chronic abuse.
If mandatory counselors visits or therapist sessions were required by state law without the presence of a parent, either one or all of us could have been saved from the situation.
I understand covert narcissism due to my parents. I understand how blindly people can stand in defense of homeschooling, only because they never see, experience, or hear about the diabolical things that are happening in toxic homeschool homes. I know from experience the reality of what we are talking about — helpless children that may never see the light of day outside of their parents’ immediate reach, day in and day out, for 18 years.
Everyone needs a checks and balance system for moral, ethical purposes. I hope that the Coalition for Responsible Home Education can not only bring awareness, but help create a healthier checks and balance system for homeschool families all across the U.S.
The horror film that was my life growing up in an isolated homeschool household is what will keep me a forever supporter of this organization.
Catherine was homeschooled in Georgia in the 1990s to 2000s. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Posted: 6 February, 2020 by CRHE
Homeschool Advocates Urge Indiana Lawmakers to Pass SB 428
For Immediate Release: Better data collection would help protect vulnerable children
02/04/2020—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, is urging Indiana lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 428, which would require the Department of Child Services to include information on children who receive home instruction in its annual child fatality review report.
“We founded CRHE due in part to concerns about the increasing number of stories we heard about severe and fatal abuse of homeschooled children,” says Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “We have always emphasized the importance of collecting data on fatalities in homeschool settings.” Coleman says efforts to better protect and support homeschooled children are often stymied by a lack of quality data on homeschooled children and their wellbeing. In Indiana, parents who homeschool their children are not required to notify either local or state education officials. No state currently reports information on educational method in its statistics on child abuse. This bill would make Indiana a leader in this regard.
CRHE maintains Homeschooling’s Invisible Children, a database of severe and fatal cases of abuse or neglect in homeschool settings, including multiple cases in Indiana. One case that drew attention was that of Christian Choate, who was starved to death in 2009 at age thirteen, after spending years living in a dog cage. Two fatal cases occurred in the past year: 9-year-old Edward Posso died in Bloomington last May, and 10-year-old Skylea Carmack died in Gas City in August. Both children were homeschooled, and both were tortured by their parents.
A growing body of research suggests that homeschooling offers abusive and negligent parents a way to isolate, neglect, and mistreat children without detection. In 2014, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin found that 47% of the school-age child torture victims she studied were removed from school to be homeschooled. (Another 29% were never enrolled in school). In 2018, the Office of the Child Advocate of Connecticut found that 36% of children removed from school to be homeschooled lived in families that were subject to at least one prior child abuse or neglect report. 90% of these cases involved founded or multiple reports.
“Better data collection is crucial to preventing abusive parents from exploiting the homeschooling law to isolate children and hide abuse,” says Coleman. “We urge Indiana lawmakers to take a stand for vulnerable children by passing Senate Bill 428.”
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education empowers homeschooled children by educating the public and advocating for child-centered, evidence-based policy and practices for families and professionals.
Last Updated: 2 November, 2023 by CRHE
Homeschool Advocates Urge WV Lawmakers to Pass Raylee’s Law
For Immediate Release: Raylee’s Law would protect vulnerable children from falling through the cracks
02/03/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, is urging lawmakers to support “Raylee’s Law,” also known as House Bill 4440. “Raylee’s Law creates critical protections for vulnerable children,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE, which was founded by homeschool alumni in 2013. “Abusive parents should not be able to exploit the homeschooling law by using it to conceal child abuse.”
House Bill 4440 would prevent parents from withdrawing a child from school to homeschool them when there is a pending child abuse or neglect investigation, and when a parent has been convicted of domestic violence or child abuse or neglect. “We are working with lawmakers and speaking with homeschooling parents in West Virginia to ensure that the state’s homeschool statute supports West Virginia’s homeschooling families and vulnerable children alike,” said Coleman. “We are grateful to Del. Fluharty for taking bold action to protect vulnerable children in West Virginia.”
Raylee’s Law is named after Raylee Browning of Oak Hill, West Virginia, who died of severe abuse and neglect in 2018. She was 8 years old. Raylee’s father exploited the homeschool statute to isolate her from contact with mandatory reporters. Raylee was brutally tortured and died of sepsis. According to CRHE, which maintains a database of severe and fatal child abuse cases in homeschool settings, cases like Raylee’s are far too common. “When abusive parents realize they can avoid reports from teachers and other school personnel by withdrawing their children from school under the homeschooling statute, children like Raylee pay the ultimate price,” said Coleman.
A study published by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate in 2018 found 31% of children withdrawn from school to be homeschooled lived in families with founded or multiple child abuse or neglect reports. 47% of school-age victims examined in a 2014 study of child torture were removed from school to be homeschooled. (Another 29% were never enrolled in school.) Researchers noted how in these cases, the homeschooling statutes were being deliberately abused “to further isolate the child.”
CRHE has long recommended preventing parents who have been convicted of violent crimes or crimes against children from taking advantage of homeschooling laws. Only one state, Pennsylvania, currently has such a provision on the books, and Coleman says lawmakers in a growing number of states are becoming aware of this problem. “By passing Raylee’s Law, lawmakers in West Virginia have the opportunity to provide leadership in this area,” she said.
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.
info@responsiblehomeschooling.org
(617)765-7096
PO Box 190174 Roxbury, MA 02119
https://responsiblehomeschooling.org
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by CRHE
Sarah: “The school never did anything to enforce their regulations”
When I was growing up, I was badly abused by my parents, to the extent that it meets the current definition of intrafamilial child torture. Solitary confinement (being locked in my room for days or weeks at a time) was a significant part of my torture, and when I was locked in my room I had inconsistent access to food, water, and bathroom. I also endured beatings that were planned and systematic, and sometimes had religious components (father telling me I was possessed with a demon, and screaming “OUT Satan!” while beating me). I was also sexually abused.
During a few times of solitary confinement, or when I had bruises or marks on me, I would be kept home from school, and my father would tell the school I was “out sick” indefinitely. When the school would not accept this and demanded a letter from a doctor, my father would then say he was homeschooling me. The school would give him instructions for proving that he was homeschooling me, but he never complied with any of the instructions and the school never did anything to enforce their regulations. No one ever came to check on my safety or well-bring, and no one ever came to see if I was being taught at home. My father actually never taught me anything when I was home, I was simply denied an education.
When I was 16, my father became enraged and jealous when he thought I had become sexually active for the first time. He kept me home for the entire semester, and I had to be in the same room with him, with eyes on me at all times, and was told I could not leave the house or be unsupervised until I turned 18. I faced severe psychological abuse during this time, including spurning, isolating, denying emotional responsiveness, making threats of physical and sexual harm to me, and of course educational neglect. He told my high school that he was homeschooling me for the rest of 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. He was again told to turn in forms to demonstrate his homeschooling plan. Months passed and the school did nothing to enforce this, no one ever came to check on me or help me, and I was never taught a thing while at home. With two weeks left in the semester, the school threatened to call Child Protective Services (CPS) if he did not either turn in homeschooling forms or send me back to school. So he sent me back to school for the last week of the semester, and I was issued an “F” for every single class since I had turned in no assignments for the last 5 months.
I felt so betrayed by my school—they were the ones who never enforced the homeschooling regs, they are the ones who never called CPS when I disappeared for 5 months, and they punished me with six “F”s for having survived and endured unbearable child abuse. How would I ever get into college with six “F”s?! How would I ever graduate on time with no credits for the whole semester?! From my dad, I expected evil, but from my school, who had known me all my life growing up in a small town, how could they do this to me? They let my dad use fake homeschooling to cover up abuse.
I was eventually rescued and removed by CPS over the summer and placed in foster care. But I could have been rescued months earlier, had the school done their job to oversee claims of homeschooling. I believe my father should have been given no more than 30 days to turn in proof of homeschooling- not 5 months, and then in the end never required to prove what happened during those 5 months at all. The school district should have followed their own policies, and there should have been oversight from the state department of education to make sure school districts are following the law. There should also have been regular welfare checks where a professional social worker came to my home to see what was going on and interviewed me about whether I was safe at home, and if I was actually being homeschooled.
It was too easy for my father to use homeschooling to cover up child abuse. Oversight should be dramatically increased, to make it very hard for abusive parents to hide behind claims of homeschooling.
Sarah was “homeschooled” in Ohio in the 1990s. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 19 February, 2020 by CRHE
Alumni Group: Florida HB 1059 Could Harm Homeschooled Students
For Immediate Release: Children’s right to an education must be carefully safeguarded
01/22/2020–The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, has raised concerns that a parental rights bill in Florida, House Bill 1059, could have a negative impact on homeschooled children. HB 1059, which is sponsored by representatives Erin Gall (R) and Daniel Perez, will come before the House Education Committee on Thursday. A duplicate of this bill, sponsored by State Senator Kelli Stargel (R), is scheduled to be introduced in the Florida Senate later this week as well (SB 1634).
Florida’s homeschool law, which was first passed in 1985, includes an annual academic assessment and authorizes school districts to review a portfolio of students’ work. CRHE is concerned that HB 1059 could overturn these safeguards, perhaps inadvertently. HB 1059 states that “the right to direct the education and care of his or her minor child” is “reserved to the parent … without obstruction or interference from the state … or any other government entity.”
“Parents’ right to choose how to educate their children must be balanced with children’s right to receive an education,” says Samantha Field, CRHE’s government relations director. “HB 1059 eliminates that balance.” Field warns that under HB 1059, requirements designed to protect children may be overturned as unlawful “interference” by a government entity.
While many homeschooled children receive a good education in a safe home environment, this is not always the case. Field herself was homeschooled in Florida, but her parents and others in her local community used an “umbrella” school to skirt the requirements of the state’s homeschool law. “I know first hand how important the requirements in the homeschool laws are because I experienced what life was like without them,” she said. “Of the children I grew up with, my sister and I are the only ones who have managed to scrape our way toward an education that allows us to pursue personal fulfillment and happiness. Everyone else is unemployed, dependent on government assistance, in jail, or dealing with the huge gaps in their ‘education.’”
CRHE warns that HB 1059 would create a heavy legal imbalance between the rights of children and the rights of parents in the state of Florida, leaving significant unchecked power in the hands of abusive parents that would prevent minor children from accessing help in a crisis. The impact on homeschooled children, they warn, will be especially significant.
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education empowers homeschooled children by educating the public and advocating for child-centered, evidence-based policy and practices for families and professionals.
info@responsiblehomeschooling.org
(617)765-7096
PO Box 190174 Roxbury, MA 02119
https://responsiblehomeschooling.org
Last Updated: 2 November, 2023 by Kieryn Darkwater
Action Needed: FL House Bill 1059
Representative Erin Grall in the Florida House of Representatives (R, District 54) has introduced a piece of legislation she is calling the “Parent’s Bill of Rights” (HB 1059). If enacted, this legislation would give parents “fundamental” and “inalienable” rights over their children regarding every area of their life– as just one example, it makes it a crime if a teacher does not out their trans student to their non-affirming parents if they attempt to socially transition at school. Rep. Grall’s “Parent’s Bill of Rights” would make what happened to Leelah Alcorn an inevitability in Florida.
When Leelah died, she begged us to “fix society, please.” Today is our chance to live up to her challenge because tomorrow, January 23, the “Parent’s Bill of Rights” is scheduled for a committee hearing at noon.
What you can do:
When contacting legislators:
The Coalition for Responsible Home Education’s Concerns with HB 1059:
Sponsor Rep. Erin Grall’s Contact Information:
Capitol Phone: 850-717-5054
District Office: 772-778-5005
Email: erin.grall@myfloridahouse.gov
Contact Information for Florida House Education Committee:
Posted: 9 January, 2020 by CRHE
Ohio Cases Highlight Need to Protect Homeschooled Children
For Immediate Release: Ohio’s homeschool requirements saved one child but failed another
Canton, Ma., 01/09/2020—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE) supports a letter-writing campaign by teachers in Dayton Public Schools urging state lawmakers to act in the wake of the tragic death of 10-year-old Takoda Collins. Takoda was removed from school to be homeschooled after a school employee reported abuse concerns in May 2018. Authorities discovered evidence that Takoda had been horrifically tortured when they found him unresponsive in the family’s home in December 2019. “It is well-established that abusive parents can and do take advantage of lax homeschooling laws to isolate their children and hide abuse,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE, a national nonprofit organization that was founded in 2013 to advocate for homeschooled children.
Joni Watson, a teacher at the school Takoda attended prior to being withdrawn to be homeschooled, told lawmakers that, when a child is removed from school following reports to children’s services, “there needs to be something additional put in place to ensure that child is checked on.” In the past decade, bills that would flag cases where parents begin to homeschool after a concerning history of child abuse and neglect allegations or other risk factors have been introduced in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia, as well as in Ohio in 2013.
According to CRHE, which maintains a database of severe and fatal child abuse cases in homeschool settings, cases like Takoda’s are far too common. A study published by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate in 2018 found that 31% of children withdrawn from school to be homeschooled lived in families with founded or multiple past child welfare reports. In a 2014 study of child torture conducted by a team of pediatricans, 47% of school-age victims studied were removed from school to be homeschooled, typically after the closure of a past child welfare report (another 29% were never enrolled in school).
“Many of the cases in our database involve children withdrawn from school after a history of child abuse,” said Coleman. “Abusive parents too often realize they can avoid reports from school personnel by withdrawing their children from school to homeschool them. As a result, the lax homeschooling law becomes a tool abusive parents use to isolate their children from those who might have been able to help them.” Coleman adds that Takoda is not the only homeschooled child in Ohio whose horrific abuse came to light this fall. In September, an 11-year-old Georgetown girl was found locked in a trailer, monitored by security cameras, and so underweight from long-term starvation that she developed a severe protein deficiency.
“In the past few years, we have seen an increase in awareness about the problem and attempts to protect children like Takoda,” Coleman says. She notes that in some cases, Ohio’s homeschool requirements have been able to protect children from abuse; the Georgetown girl was rescued by authorities after a teacher administering a required annual test reported concerns about the girl’s welfare. Another check or layer of oversight when children are withdrawn from school after a history of child abuse or neglect reports, Coleman says, would protect additional children—and might have saved Takoda.
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: 6 January, 2020 by Rachel Coleman
Letter from our Executive Director
This summer, our board of directors met in-person and spent three days building a vision for our organization’s future. The ideas we shared were invigorating.
In the future, we envision having a social work department to help connect homeschooling parents and homeschool alumni with resources and information; a network of pro-bono lawyers willing to help those with specific needs; trainings and resources for homeschooling parents; a lobbying arm that works directly with lawmakers to center homeschool policy on the needs of homeschooled children; a research department that publishes studies, writes policy briefs, and collaborates with outside researchers; and more.
But we did more than dream. We also accomplished a lot this year. First and most importantly, this year saw the passage of a bill designed to protect homeschooled children in Georgia, the first time this century that a state passed new homeschool protections—and we helped make it happen. Also this year, we gained access to new data sources which pointed to a need for more support for students being homeschooled during the high school years. And finally, we brought a social worker onto our team as our Advocacy and Support Coordinator.
I am extremely excited and positive about our future—as well as about everything we have accomplished thus far. We have a lot to look back on, as this year ends—and a lot to look forward to. Thank you for coming along on this journey with us.
Here’s to the past year—and to the next year.
.
Dr. Rachel Coleman
Executive Director
Coalition for Responsible Home Education
Last Updated: 22 March, 2021 by Kate Corbett Pollack
Mercer County Child Homeschool Homicide Case Involved Starvation
One of the things that I often see in the homeschool homicide cases I write about is starvation. Starvation is a common tool of child torture. In just about every case on this blog, the children were starved. Erica Parsons was malnourished, underweight and fed dog food. Hana Alemu was underweight, forced to eat outside in the backyard in bad weather, and was given purposely disgusting food which had been altered to make it distasteful. Mary Crocker was starved and also given distasteful food that would be hard to eat, such as food covered in vinegar. When children are starved, they often are also fluid restricted. Denying children water is another torture tactic. The 13 Turpin children were all starved for many years, resulting in growth stunting that was so severe, law enforcement thought a 27-year-old was ten, as well as thinking the other adult children found in the home were minors. Children isolated in homeschools and kept away from other people undergo the worst of starvation cases. Often, no one knows about it until after the child is dead.
Mercer County, Pennsylvania
A recent homeschool homicide case comes out of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, as law enforcement arrested 33-year-old Antonio Juan Gonzalez and 29-year-old Paul Bacorn, a “family friend” who lived on the property, in the death of Antonio’s 14-year-old son. The child, Antonio Juan Gonzalez, Jr., weighed just 70 pounds. The child was found dead on October 24th, 2019, in the family home on the 500 block of District Road in rural Delaware Township, after his father called 911. The child was not breathing and was unresponsive. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene. The boy was homeschooled, and was taking online classes.
Police reported that the conditions of the home were “squalid” and unsuitable for children. Photographs from the outside of the crime scene show broken windows, debris, and a small, hazardous looking porch with a padlocked refrigerator on it. The refrigerator was padlocked to restrict food access to the children. A four-year-old girl was also living at the house, but was reportedly in good health. She has since been placed in custody of child protective services. The children’s mother has been deceased for many years.
The squalid home where the body was found. [image of small brown modular home, crooked, not sitting on a solid foundation, with broken window and cheaply constructed wood board porch with junk stacked on it.]
Antonio Jr. died from hypovolemic shock, which occurs when a person loses more than one-fifth of their body fluid and the heart can no longer pump blood throughout the body. He had a skull fracture and a severe injury under his chin. Hypovolemic shock occurred as a result of blunt force trauma, although it is believed that starvation also contributed to his death. Mercer County Coroner John A. Libonati reported that Antonio Jr. was significantly malnourished and his condition exacerbated the affects of the injury he received to his skull. Police observed that the child was noticeably underweight, with protruding cheekbones and visible joints, and had “significant bruising”. The Coroner said it is the worst case he has seen in 36 years.
Antonio Gonzalez Sr. and Paul Bacorn have both been charged with criminal homicide, child abuse, aggravated assault, endangering the welfare of a child, concealing the death of a child, assault, reckless endangerment, tampering with evidence and conspiracy to commit the crimes. They are both being held without bail in the Mercer County jail.
From WKBN27 News: “He appeared to be of normal height. He was about 70 pounds. He was emaciated,” said Mercer County District Attorney Pete Acker. “Looked like a concentration camp victim. You could count every one of his ribs. They were protruding and his legs were like pencils.”
When initially asked about what happened, Antonio Sr. gave police a few different stories, first saying the boy had fallen and hit his head that day, after going outside on a break from online classes. He later changed his story to say that the boy had hit his head the night before. Antonio said he tried to revive his son by pouring a bucket of water on him, but his son was unresponsive. Two hours after pouring the water on him, Antonio said that his son was breathing, but still unresponsive. He delayed calling 911 for hours after his son was rendered unconscious. By the time EMS arrived, the child was dead. Bacorn and Gonzalez were arrested at the scene.
Juan Gonzalez, left, and Paul Bacorn, right; mugshot, in orange prison outfits
Once in custody, Gonzalez and Bacorn admitted to police that they abused Antonio Jr. quite frequently, including making him stand with his arms in the air for hours, denying him food for days in a row, spraying him with cold water from the garden hose (cold water baths are a common child torture method), and physically abusing him. A preliminary arraignment in Common Pleas Court will occur on February 11th, 2020, in which both men will appear. I will keep readers updated on this case by adding to this blog.
Patterns
Starvation that is so severe it results in death, where the victim looked like “a concentration camp victim” can only occur if the victim has been kept away from others and isolated for a significant amount of time. While there are certainly cases of hungry children going to public school and not being noticed, the most severe starvation cases occur in homeschools. If the child in the above case had been allowed to be around other people at all, someone would have noticed that he was severally emaciated. According to Gonzalez Sr., he could not stand on his own. He was also visibly bruised. Since he was homeschooled and isolated in a rural area with no one around, there was no one to notice he was abused and starving, and no one to make a report to police or child protective services.
Pennsylvania does have more stringent requirements for homeschool than many other states, but this child was still able to go unnoticed for some time, and it is hard to believe that he was passing standardized tests or anything else that the state required. Antonio Sr. would log his son into school so it would appear he was online. There was no oversight by the state to make sure Antonio was in good health and actually being educated.
It is also unclear how long Antonio Jr. was homeschooled for, if he had ever been in public school, and how long he was starved for. Since he was of a typical height for his age, he did not undergo growth stunting. It is likely that the starvation occurred in more recent years. Adolescent children often become victims of escalating abuse, which is so severe it results in homicide. In this blog, all of the homicide victims I have written about were adolescents.
As for the role of disability, when children are subjected to starvation, neglect, and abuse, it can cause disabilities. This type of severe treatment can lead to lifelong physical, emotional, and intellectual disabilities and also psychiatric disabilities, if a child survives the situation and is able to grow up. Starvation and neglect have different affects on children of different ages. If very young children are subjected to starvation, their development is severally delayed. If growth stunting occurs, it can never be reversed. Starving and abusing a child will also seriously interfere with their capacity to be educated. If a very young child is starving, they will not be ready for school at all. When someone like the child in the above case is starved later in life, they will not be able to focus on school, either.
There are many cases of homeschool related starvation that come across my desk every month. It is a common tool of torture. This is just one of many. It is another reason for better regulation and requirements around homeschool, and also for understanding homeschool as a disability issue in more ways than one. Children who are born with a disability are victimized, and victimization creates disability. In many cases, a child is disabled, and the torture exacerbates existing disability and also creates more disability, none of which are being treated in these homeschool cases, which leads to a heightened level of suffering. If the child is rescued from the home, they are going to need disability supports and services. For the child in the above case, he never got to grow up. This case needs to cause a spotlight to be turned on Pennsylvania homeschool law, and to advance understanding of the types of abuse that occur in a homeschool torture situation.
Last Updated: 15 February, 2022 by CRHE
School Health Requirements’ Homeschooling Loophole
For Immediate Release: Group warns that vaccine exemptions for homeschooled children lead to troubling results
Canton, Ma., 11/12/2019—After lawmakers in New York passed a bill requiring all children who attend school to be vaccinated unless they have a valid medical exemption, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a group founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, saw a steep uptick in queries about homeschooling. “Parents began contacting us to ask whether the new law applied to homeschooled children,” says Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “Some of these parents said they did not want to homeschool, but felt it was their only option,” said Coleman. “In some cases it was clear to us that these parents did not have the educational background needed to homeschool effectively.”
New York state’s new immunization requirements, Coleman says, do indeed exempt homeschooled children, making homeschooling an effective loophole for vaccine–hesitant parents. This puts New York out of step with the roughly half of all states that require homeschooled children to meet the same immunization requirements as other children.
“Homeschooling is an educational choice. It was never intended to serve as a means of avoiding school health requirements,” Coleman cautions. “Homeschooled children should have access to the same level of healthcare as other children.” This is not currently the case in many states, Coleman says. She points to cases of medical neglect where health conditions that would have been recognized by a school nurse or a medical doctor have instead gone unnoticed in homeschool settings. “While requirements vary from state to state, children who attend school are required to have a physical exam or wellness visit in certain grades,” said Coleman. “Homeschooled children should have this same access.”
Coleman voiced concerns that parents who homeschool to avoid school health requirements may not be taking their children’s educational best interests into account. “Homeschooling is a lot of work,” Coleman notes. She says parents should homeschool only if they have a genuine interest in providing their children with an education at home. “Parents who have not freely chosen to homeschool their children, and are only doing so to avoid school health requirements, are probably not best suited to homeschool their children,” she says. “Everyone loses.”
Coleman points to an article in The Daily Gazette, published in Schenectady, New York, to illustrate her concerns. In that article, reporter Zachary Matson speaks with a woman who withdrew her three children from school to homeschool them in order to avoid the state’s medical requirements, even though both she and her husband work full time. The couple’s 13-year-old daughter is providing childcare for her 10-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister and supervising their schoolwork while their parents work. “We do not recommend homeschooling unless parents can arrange for full-time supervision and guidance of their children’s education,” said Coleman. “Children deserve to have their education prioritized.”
CRHE does not take a position on specific medical requirements. Instead, the organization recommends applying school health requirements mandated by the state to all children of school age, rather than only those who attend school. “Our goal is to ensure that families who homeschool do so because they have a genuine interest in educating their children at home,” says Coleman. “Our priority is to support children and families.”
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: 6 February, 2020 by CRHE
Catherine S.: “Everyone needs a checks and balance system”
“The horror film that was my life growing up in an isolated homeschool household is what will keep me a forever supporter of this organization.”
I was educated using a curriculum that was self teaching — read and follow directions — and later, my education was outsourced to homeschool coop groups for college prep high school classes. I was often left alone to figure out answers on my own and use deductive reasoning. This forced me to think critically, but it was often challenging without educated feedback from an adult to confirm my findings verbally.
I might have looked like a homeschool success story, but this was only on the surface.
We (my sisters and I) definitely were homeschooled as a result of and to hide chronic covert abuse on every level. It was done under the guise of evangelical, conservative, baptist Christian faith, but the truth was that my older sister had spoken with one of her public school teachers at the time, telling them what was going on in our home and my parents had to contain the situation by homeschooling us and scare us into silence to protect themselves.
The state had practically zero oversight over our living conditions or educational progress aside from annual standardized IOWA testing as a measurement of our successful retainment of information. State oversight would have shined a light on some of the social and developmental handicaps that we were developing as a result of constant chronic abuse.
If mandatory counselors visits or therapist sessions were required by state law without the presence of a parent, either one or all of us could have been saved from the situation.
I understand covert narcissism due to my parents. I understand how blindly people can stand in defense of homeschooling, only because they never see, experience, or hear about the diabolical things that are happening in toxic homeschool homes. I know from experience the reality of what we are talking about — helpless children that may never see the light of day outside of their parents’ immediate reach, day in and day out, for 18 years.
Everyone needs a checks and balance system for moral, ethical purposes. I hope that the Coalition for Responsible Home Education can not only bring awareness, but help create a healthier checks and balance system for homeschool families all across the U.S.
The horror film that was my life growing up in an isolated homeschool household is what will keep me a forever supporter of this organization.
Catherine was homeschooled in Georgia in the 1990s to 2000s. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.