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.
For Immediate Release: Disability rights law currently exempts homeschooled children. This is a problem.
Canton, Ma., 10/30/2019—A group founded by homeschool graduates in order to advocate for homeschooled children is drawing attention to cases where homeschooling has helped hide the abuse of children with disabilities. “Children who attend school are seen daily by teachers and other school staff,” notes Dr. Rachel Coleman, the executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE). “This is not the case for children who are homeschooled, and children with disabilities can be particularly vulnerable.”
Coleman is not opposed to homeschooling for disabled children. “Many families homeschool because they believe they can provide a more individualized education for children with disabilities, or because their children have health problems that make school attendance challenging,” Coleman says. “The challenge is that when families homeschool a disabled child, there are often no accountability structures in place to ensure that the child receives the services, therapies, and accommodations they need.” This leaves the child’s needs entirely in the hands of their parents, for better or—in some cases—for worse.
CRHE maintains a database of severe and fatal cases of abuse and neglect in homeschool settings, in order to draw attention to the need for legal reforms. Coleman notes that many of these cases involve children with disabilities. Coleman points to the case of Joey Bishop, who died in 2017. “Joey was mobile and used in a wheelchair when he attended school prior to being homeschooled,” Coleman notes. “After he began to be homeschooled, his parents stopped him from using his wheelchair. At the time of his death from sepsis due to infected bed sores, Joey had not been moved from his bed for six months.”
Coleman believes that some of these cases could have been prevented by better protections for homeschooled children with disabilities. “When people ask me what could have been done better, I point them to Oregon’s homeschool statute,” Coleman said. Oregon law protects disabled students’ rights in three areas: access to disability services provided in local public schools; alternative assessments tailored to specific goals for the child’s progress; and annual plans developed by the child’s parents and service providers.
“Homeschooled children with disabilities should not be an afterthought,” says Coleman, who argues that homeschool policy needs to be developed with disabled children in mind. Pollack agrees. “Disabled children who are homeschooled should have the same rights as disabled children who attend public school,” she says. “Disability rights law does not currently apply to homeschooled children, to these children’s detriment.”
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.
“In my profession, I understand that teaching is a skill. Parents may love their kids, and even be educated themselves, but that doesn’t make them teachers.”
I was homeschooled from kindergarten through 12th grade. I am the oldest of five children. We were a very traditional, religious family. My mother and father both hold bachelor’s degrees. My father worked and my mother stayed home.
I am in favor of responsible home education, and feel additional oversight is necessary.
My educational and social opportunities were very limited. My mother was overwhelmed with young children, and isn’t a professional educator. She wasn’t able to teach (and didn’t prioritize teaching), leaving me with books and answer keys to teach myself. While she enrolled me in some activities and co-ops, I didn’t have daily interaction with other children. She was very absentee in her approach.
As the oldest, I was the caretaker for the younger children for a good portion of the time, which limited my academic success. As I grew older, I came to realize that the home environment was toxic. Because we had little exposure to the outside world, we didn’t have a baseline to understand how other people acted or felt. We were sucked into a mentality that the “world was against us.” When people don’t have enough interaction with the community, they forget what is normal, appropriate, and acceptable.
My parents failed to properly educate us. They bullied me, and often twisted reality. Because we didn’t have other supportive adults in our lives, no one was able to step in and prevent this behavior, which ultimately escalated to abuse.
I no longer have any contact with my parents.
I grew up and now have a husband, a son, a great job, and a master’s degree in an education-related field. In my profession, I understand that teaching is a skill. Parents may love their kids, and even be educated themselves, but that doesn’t make them teachers. Teachers are trained to communicate complicated concepts; they are trained to recognize signs of abuse, learning disabilities, and illness.
I’ve had friends diagnosed with autism, hearing loss, ADHD, depression, and anxiety as adults. This could have been caught as children had they ever been exposed to trained professionals, but they were homeschooled. We agree it would have been better to be in the public school system.
Some people are fortunate to have a good experience with homeschooling. That’s great! However, not everyone does. Ultimately, homeschooling gives parents complete, unchecked power over children. Unchecked power is perilous. Responsible home education will provide the checks and balances necessary to ensure children are safe and have access to educational opportunities.
Bea M. was homeschooled in Minnesota from 1992-2007. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
For Immediate Release: Data on homeschool transfers during high school raises concern in multiple states
Canton, Ma., 10/23/2019—Officials in a growing number of states have become concerned that some public school administrators have been using homeschooling as a loophole to pad their graduation rates by listing dropouts as homeschool transfers. There is also concern that high school who are not legally old enough to drop out may be using homeschooling as a way to legally drop out of school. Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a group founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, takes these concerns seriously. “We are concerned that some school districts are using homeschooling as a way to offload challenging students, leaving these children without the resources they need to complete their education,” she said.
A 2018 report on homeschooling released by the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) revealed that a full half of public school students who transfer to homeschooling are high school students, and that two-thirds of homeschool transfers were chronically truant prior to withdrawing to homeschool. The report also found that the number of public school students who transferred to homeschool in their junior or senior year of high school increased dramatically after the compulsory attendance age was raised from 16 to 18. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Indiana have been struggling to make sense of high schools that appear to be fraudulently listing dropouts as homeschool transfers in order to raise their graduation rates. In a recent article, Dylan Peers McCoy, a reporter at Chalkbeat, pointed to Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis as an example: the school’s class of 2018 consisted of 83 graduates, 6 dropouts, and 60 homeschool transfers.
“Not every family is prepared to homeschool,” says Coleman. “Homeschooling should not function as school districts’ dumping ground.” While many officials are focusing on the point where these students leave their schools, Coleman points to data from Kentucky and Virginia that suggests homeschool graduates may attend college at as little as half the rate of other students. “What happens when students who are already at risk of not graduating are pushed out of public school?” Coleman asks, noting that most states offer little or no support or guidance for families that homeschool. “These students are being left in limbo.”
Proposed solutions vary. In the last legislative session, Indiana lawmakers briefly considered counting homeschool transfers as dropouts for the purposes of calculating high schools’ graduation rates. In Kentucky, lawmakers have suggested tightening laws to address students who transfer to homeschooling after high rates of truancy. Coleman urges lawmakers to consider the needs of the whole child. “Many of these students are not receiving the support and guidance they need to ensure that they will finish high school with a diploma and a path to college or the workforce,” she says. “Solutions should focus on providing students with the help and support they need, whether within or outside of school.”
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: 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.
Last Updated: 15 February, 2022 by CRHE
Homeschooled Children with Disabilities Need More Attention
For Immediate Release: Disability rights law currently exempts homeschooled children. This is a problem.
Canton, Ma., 10/30/2019—A group founded by homeschool graduates in order to advocate for homeschooled children is drawing attention to cases where homeschooling has helped hide the abuse of children with disabilities. “Children who attend school are seen daily by teachers and other school staff,” notes Dr. Rachel Coleman, the executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE). “This is not the case for children who are homeschooled, and children with disabilities can be particularly vulnerable.”
Coleman is not opposed to homeschooling for disabled children. “Many families homeschool because they believe they can provide a more individualized education for children with disabilities, or because their children have health problems that make school attendance challenging,” Coleman says. “The challenge is that when families homeschool a disabled child, there are often no accountability structures in place to ensure that the child receives the services, therapies, and accommodations they need.” This leaves the child’s needs entirely in the hands of their parents, for better or—in some cases—for worse.
CRHE maintains a database of severe and fatal cases of abuse and neglect in homeschool settings, in order to draw attention to the need for legal reforms. Coleman notes that many of these cases involve children with disabilities. Coleman points to the case of Joey Bishop, who died in 2017. “Joey was mobile and used in a wheelchair when he attended school prior to being homeschooled,” Coleman notes. “After he began to be homeschooled, his parents stopped him from using his wheelchair. At the time of his death from sepsis due to infected bed sores, Joey had not been moved from his bed for six months.”
Joey’s case is not an isolated one. CRHE’s disability and accessibility advisor, Kate Corbett Pollack, has written about the role the lack of protections for disabled homeschooled children has played in numerous tragic child torture cases, including those of Mary and Elwyn Crocker, the Hart children, the Turpin Children, Matthew Tirado, Hana and Immanuel Williams, Erica Parsons, and Savannah Leckie. In each case, Pollack draws connections to the need for a disability rights lens in homeschooling law.
Coleman believes that some of these cases could have been prevented by better protections for homeschooled children with disabilities. “When people ask me what could have been done better, I point them to Oregon’s homeschool statute,” Coleman said. Oregon law protects disabled students’ rights in three areas: access to disability services provided in local public schools; alternative assessments tailored to specific goals for the child’s progress; and annual plans developed by the child’s parents and service providers.
“Homeschooled children with disabilities should not be an afterthought,” says Coleman, who argues that homeschool policy needs to be developed with disabled children in mind. Pollack agrees. “Disabled children who are homeschooled should have the same rights as disabled children who attend public school,” she says. “Disability rights law does not currently apply to homeschooled children, to these children’s detriment.”
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
Bea M.: “Unchecked power is perilous”
“In my profession, I understand that teaching is a skill. Parents may love their kids, and even be educated themselves, but that doesn’t make them teachers.”
I was homeschooled from kindergarten through 12th grade. I am the oldest of five children. We were a very traditional, religious family. My mother and father both hold bachelor’s degrees. My father worked and my mother stayed home.
I am in favor of responsible home education, and feel additional oversight is necessary.
My educational and social opportunities were very limited. My mother was overwhelmed with young children, and isn’t a professional educator. She wasn’t able to teach (and didn’t prioritize teaching), leaving me with books and answer keys to teach myself. While she enrolled me in some activities and co-ops, I didn’t have daily interaction with other children. She was very absentee in her approach.
As the oldest, I was the caretaker for the younger children for a good portion of the time, which limited my academic success. As I grew older, I came to realize that the home environment was toxic. Because we had little exposure to the outside world, we didn’t have a baseline to understand how other people acted or felt. We were sucked into a mentality that the “world was against us.” When people don’t have enough interaction with the community, they forget what is normal, appropriate, and acceptable.
My parents failed to properly educate us. They bullied me, and often twisted reality. Because we didn’t have other supportive adults in our lives, no one was able to step in and prevent this behavior, which ultimately escalated to abuse.
I no longer have any contact with my parents.
I grew up and now have a husband, a son, a great job, and a master’s degree in an education-related field. In my profession, I understand that teaching is a skill. Parents may love their kids, and even be educated themselves, but that doesn’t make them teachers. Teachers are trained to communicate complicated concepts; they are trained to recognize signs of abuse, learning disabilities, and illness.
I’ve had friends diagnosed with autism, hearing loss, ADHD, depression, and anxiety as adults. This could have been caught as children had they ever been exposed to trained professionals, but they were homeschooled. We agree it would have been better to be in the public school system.
Some people are fortunate to have a good experience with homeschooling. That’s great! However, not everyone does. Ultimately, homeschooling gives parents complete, unchecked power over children. Unchecked power is perilous. Responsible home education will provide the checks and balances necessary to ensure children are safe and have access to educational opportunities.
Bea M. was homeschooled in Minnesota from 1992-2007. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 24 March, 2021 by Rachel Coleman
Homeschool Group Raises Concerns about Dropouts
For Immediate Release: Data on homeschool transfers during high school raises concern in multiple states
Canton, Ma., 10/23/2019—Officials in a growing number of states have become concerned that some public school administrators have been using homeschooling as a loophole to pad their graduation rates by listing dropouts as homeschool transfers. There is also concern that high school who are not legally old enough to drop out may be using homeschooling as a way to legally drop out of school. Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a group founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, takes these concerns seriously. “We are concerned that some school districts are using homeschooling as a way to offload challenging students, leaving these children without the resources they need to complete their education,” she said.
A 2018 report on homeschooling released by the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) revealed that a full half of public school students who transfer to homeschooling are high school students, and that two-thirds of homeschool transfers were chronically truant prior to withdrawing to homeschool. The report also found that the number of public school students who transferred to homeschool in their junior or senior year of high school increased dramatically after the compulsory attendance age was raised from 16 to 18. Meanwhile, lawmakers in Indiana have been struggling to make sense of high schools that appear to be fraudulently listing dropouts as homeschool transfers in order to raise their graduation rates. In a recent article, Dylan Peers McCoy, a reporter at Chalkbeat, pointed to Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis as an example: the school’s class of 2018 consisted of 83 graduates, 6 dropouts, and 60 homeschool transfers.
“Not every family is prepared to homeschool,” says Coleman. “Homeschooling should not function as school districts’ dumping ground.” While many officials are focusing on the point where these students leave their schools, Coleman points to data from Kentucky and Virginia that suggests homeschool graduates may attend college at as little as half the rate of other students. “What happens when students who are already at risk of not graduating are pushed out of public school?” Coleman asks, noting that most states offer little or no support or guidance for families that homeschool. “These students are being left in limbo.”
Proposed solutions vary. In the last legislative session, Indiana lawmakers briefly considered counting homeschool transfers as dropouts for the purposes of calculating high schools’ graduation rates. In Kentucky, lawmakers have suggested tightening laws to address students who transfer to homeschooling after high rates of truancy. Coleman urges lawmakers to consider the needs of the whole child. “Many of these students are not receiving the support and guidance they need to ensure that they will finish high school with a diploma and a path to college or the workforce,” she says. “Solutions should focus on providing students with the help and support they need, whether within or outside of school.”
For further reading:
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.