In this post, CRHE’s Dr. Rachel Coleman reviews Homeschooling in Kentucky, a report published by the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) in September, 2018.
In November 2017, the Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee, a legislative committee that advises the Kentucky Board of Education and oversees the Office of Education Accountability (OEA), asked the OEA to conduct a study of homeschooling in Kentucky. The OEA published a 73-page report, titled Homeschooling In Kentucky, in September 2018. While their report focuses on homeschooling in Kentucky, their findings raise a number of interesting questions for homeschooling nationwide.
The OEA gathered data using a survey and interviews. The survey was distributed in 2018 to every school district’s director of pupil personnel (DPP), the individual responsible for investigating student non-attendance and enforcing the state’s compulsory attendance law. Out of 173 total DPPs in the state, 171 responded to the survey. These surveys provided the OEA with feedback from DPPs as well as data on homeschool enrollment and withdrawals. In addition, the OEA interviewed DPPs and superintendents from eight geographically varied school districts. The OEA also obtained data on homeschool college enrollment, GPAs, and ACT scores from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
This data allowed the OEA to report on diverse topics, including homeschool transfers’ absentee rate prior to their withdrawal from school; the rate at which homeschool graduates attend Kentucky post-secondary institutions; and DPPs’ feelings about the laws they enforce. The report raised concerns about high truancy rates among homeschool transfers and marshaled data that raises equally important questions about how well the state is meeting the needs of high school students at risk of dropping out.
The report’s key findings are as follows:
Nearly two-thirds of students removed from school to be homeschooled were chronically truant prior to being withdrawn from school.
The number of high school students transferring to homeschooling increased dramatically after the compulsory attendance age was raised from 16 to 18.
Despite consisting of only 4 out of 12 grades, high school students who transfer to homeschooling comprise over half of all homeschool transfers.
Kentucky homeschool graduates attend in-state colleges and universities at less than half the rate of other Kentucky high school graduates.
This review will begin with an overview of Kentucky’s homeschool law before covering the demographics of Kentucky homeschooled children; truancy rates and what is known about homeschool transfers; DPPs’ concerns about homeschooling being used as a dropout loophole; and homeschool graduates’ rates of college attendance.
SECTION 1: Kentucky’s Homeschool Law
In Kentucky, homeschooling takes place under the state’s private school law. Parents are required to annually notify the superintendent of the names, ages, and residence of the children being homeschooled, and to make attendance and scholarship information open for inspection by DPPs. However, the OEA noted that DPPs rarely inspect homeschools unless they receive a complaint about a family. In addition, some DPPs told the OEA that they were contacted by the Home School Legal Defense Association when making routine document requests, and told that their actions were in violation of the “Best Practices Document” created in 1997 by a task force of individuals from the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky and members of the Kentucky Directors of Pupil Personnel Association.
The “Best Practices Document” states that when a question arises about the education being provided a DPP may ask a homeschooling family to provide documentation that they are educating their children in accordance with the law. However, the OEA points out with some concern that “DPPs alone do not have the legal authority to enforce compulsory attendance laws” and that “the ‘Best Practices Document’ does not address the role of CHFS [Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services] or the courts.” This, the OEA said, creates confusion.
According to the OEA, when a DPP investigates a complaint about a homeschooling family and finds reason for concern, their next step should be to report their concern to CHFS. However, the OEA found that what happens when a DPP makes a report of educational neglect depends largely on the CHFS caseworker and the judge: according to some DPPs, judges may refuse to hear cases involving educational neglect unless other forms of neglect or abuse are also present, making it difficult to resolve some cases.
The most consistent request the OEA received from DPPs was a need for more clarity about the state’s compulsory attendance law and their role in enforcing it.
SECTION 2: Homeschool Demographics
The OEA found that 26,536 students, or approximately 3.6% of school-aged children in Kentucky, were homeschooled in 2017. This number is slightly higher than the national average of 3.3% estimated by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2016.
URBAN VS. RURAL
The Kentucky homeschooling rate varied dramatically by school district, from less than 1% to greater than 10%. The OEA identified no correlation between district poverty and homeschooling rate, but it did find a somewhat higher homeschooling rate in county districts (4.5%) than in independent districts (2.3%) (county districts are drawn along county lines while independent districts are drawn along city lines). This suggests that homeschooling in Kentucky is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban ones. This finding aligns with the 2016 NCES finding that homeschooling was more common in rural areas (4.4%) than in urban areas (3.0%).
RACE & INCOME
While demographic data was not available for all homeschooled students, it was available for homeschool transfers who were previously enrolled in public school. The OEA found that these students were “more likely … to be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, less likely to be eligible for special education services, and less likely to be black or Hispanic.”
This data does not include homeschooled students who had never attended public school, so we cannot know whether these findings hold true for all homeschooled children in Kentucky. However, these numbers are in line with the 2016 NCES finding that children who were poor or white were disproportionately likely to be homeschooled (3.9% and 3.8% of these students, respectively, were homeschooled, compared with the overall homeschooling rate of 3.3%).
HOMESCHOOL-PUBLIC SCHOOL MOVEMENT
The OEA identified substantial movement between homeschools and public schools. Of the 4,463 students who transferred from public school to homeschool in 2012, nearly half (43%) re-enrolled in public school the following year. Of those who re-enrolled in public school, 15% had transferred back to homeschool again by 2017. In 2017, school districts reported 6,874 homeschool transfers and 26,538 homeschooled students total. This means that at any given time as many as one in four homeschooled students is a new homeschool transfer. The majority of homeschool transfers in 2017 were high school students.
The OEA reported that students who transfer to homeschools are “likely to be, on average, lower performing on reading and math tests than their peers who do not transfer.” Where testing data was available, the OEA found that students who transferred into public schools from homeschools “achieve, on average, similarly to their public school peers in reading and below them in math.” This is consistent with a finding in nearly all extant research that homeschooled students experience a math gap relative to their performance in reading.
STUDENT AGE
The OEA noted that high school students were more likely than other students to be homeschooled. This finding is in line with the NCES estimate that 3.8% of high school students were homeschooled in 2016, a homeschooling rate higher than that of students in middle school (3.3%) or elementary school (2.9%).
SECTION 3: Homeschool Transfers & Truancy
The OEA found that public school students who transferred to homeschooling had a large number of absences prior to being withdrawn from public school. Nearly one-third (30%) of students who transferred to homeschools in 2017 were previously absent for 20% or more of enrolled days, a rate 11 times higher than that of public school students not transferring to homeschools. Nearly two-thirds (62%) were previously absent for at least 10% of enrolled days, a rate 4 times higher than that of non-transfers.
The OEA remarks that, in many cases, parents may have similar motivations for keeping their children home from school and withdrawing them to homeschool.
DPPs noted an increasing number of students who withdraw from public school for reasons that might also explain prolonged absences from school prior to withdrawal. These include mood disorders (such as anxiety), negative peer relationships, bullying, or families’ safety concerns after media reports of school shootings (p. 19).
However, according to the OEA, DPPs were also “concerned that truancy often represents a lack of commitment to education by a child or parent” (p. 35).
“Forty-six percent of DPPs reported that they often observe families that withdraw their children from public school to be homeschooled because they are trying to avoid consequences of truancy; an additional 36 percent report that they sometimes observe this. DPPs report an uptick, for example, in parental requests to transfer students to home school in the week after the district has sent truancy notices to students’ homes.” (p. 35)
Some DPPs who visited the homes of truant students who were later withdrawn to be homeschooled reported that homes lacked educational materials and parents lacked educational skills. Other DPPs expressed concern about homeschool families “based on documents submitted by home school families who appear to have difficulty with basic written communication” or based on the families’ home situations (p. 34).
DROPOUT LOOPHOLE?
In 2013, the Kentucky legislature passed a bill that would gradually raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18. At first the change was voluntary, implemented by individual school districts, but once enough districts signed on the change became mandatory. The majority of school districts raised their compulsory attendance age during the 2015-2016 school year. This meant that 16- and 17-year-old students who might previously have dropped out of high school could no longer do so without facing legal consequences for truancy.
The OEA report identifies a possible link between this increase in the compulsory attendance age and the higher rate of chronic truancy among homeschool transfers:
“It is possible that the alleged misuse of home school laws to avoid public school truancy is associated with the increase, beginning in 2015, in the number of public school students in grades 9 to 12 who transferred to home school. Several DPPs and superintendents noted that the increase in the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 put pressure on schools to accommodate students who were no longer interested in attending school and would have dropped out had the dropout age not been raised to 18.” (p. 36)
The increase in the number of public high school students transferring to homeschool, beginning in 2015, is shown below.
The spike in high school students transferring to homeschool was driven by students in grades 11 and 12. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of homeschool transfers among students in grades K to 8 increased by 34% percent; and the number of transfers among students in grades 9 and 10 increased by 31%. Meanwhile, the number of transfers among students in grades 11 and 12 increased by 63%. This is what we would expect to see if students aged 16 and 17 who would previously have dropped out instead began transferring to homeschooling after the compulsory attendance age increased.
New homeschool transfers make up a far larger percentage of children being homeschooled during the high school years than they do in earlier grades. In any given year, as many as one-third of high school students being homeschooled are recent transfers.
As the graph below shows, public high school students who transfer to homeschool are chronically truant at a slightly higher rate than homeschool transfers overall:
While truancy rates were high for all homeschool transfers — over 40% of those transferring to homeschooling in any grade were previously chronically truant — the rate was highest among high school transfers: nearly 70% of high school transfers were chronically truant prior to withdrawing to homeschool.
SECTION 4: Homeschool Graduates & College
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education maintains data on college classes taken by students homeschooled in Kentucky, including dual-enrollment courses taken during high school. The OEA analyzed this data and found that homeschool graduates make up a smaller portion of Kentucky high school graduates attending Kentucky postsecondary institutions than would be expected based on the proportion of K-12 students in Kentucky who are homeschooled:
Home school students were 1.5 percent of Kentucky high school 2016 graduates enrolled in Kentucky PSIs [postsecondary institutions] in school year 2017 and were thus a lower percentage of the Kentucky PSI population than they were of the school-aged (5 to 17) population (3.6 percent). This suggests that Kentucky home school students may be enrolling in college at lower rates than their public school peers (p. 21).
According to the OEA report, approximately 18% of 2016 Kentucky homeschool graduates enrolled in Kentucky postsecondary institutions in 2017. In comparison, 53.5% of Kentucky public school graduates enrolled in Kentucky postsecondary institutions that same year.
“Caution should be used in interpreting these data,” the OEA notes, “because they are from Kentucky PSIs only and the proportion of public versus home school students who attend college out of state is not known.” It is possible, in other words, that Kentucky homeschool graduates are substantially more likely than other Kentucky high school graduates to attend postsecondary institutions out of state, which could explain their lower rate of in-state enrollment. However, there is no compelling reason to think that this is the case, and college attendance data from at least one other state — Virginia — is in line with the data the OEA analysed: in Virginia, 1.8% of college students are homeschool graduates.
While data from additional states is needed to determine national trends, the OEA report’s findings suggest that Kentucky homeschool graduates are attending college at a far lower rate than other Kentucky high school graduates, as illustrated in this graph:
In addition, homeschool graduates who do attend postsecondary institutions are more likely to attend two-year public institutions and less-likely to attend 4-year public institutions. (While 2.1% of Kentucky high school graduates enrolled in 2-year public institutions are homeschool graduates, at 4-year public institutions only 1.1% are homeschool graduates.) This finding is consistent with data from Virginia.
FIRST YEAR GPA
Kentucky homeschool graduates who attend Kentucky postsecondary institutions maintain a higher GPA than other Kentucky high school graduates: 61% of homeschool graduates have a GPA of 3.5 or above, compared with 41% of public school graduates.
Given that fewer than 20% of Kentucky homeschool graduates attend these institutions (compared with over 50% of Kentucky graduates overall) it is likely that those homeschool graduates who do attend these institutions are those who are best prepared for college — the best of the best, among homeschool graduates. This makes any comparison of the GPAs of homeschool and those public school graduates attending Kentucky postsecondary institutions — who represent a broader swath public school graduates — essentially meaningless.
ACT SCORES
Kentucky homeschool graduates who attend Kentucky postsecondary institutions also have higher overall ACT scores than other Kentucky graduates attending these institutions (the OAE does not appear to have performed significance testing). Homeschool graduates attending these institutions had an ACT score of 23.9, compared with 22.5 for public school graduates attending these institutions.
There are two things worth noting in the chart above. First, while homeschool graduates attending 4-year public institutions had higher English and reading ACT scores than public school graduates attending these institutions, their ACT scores were virtually identical. This finding is in line with research suggesting that homeschooled students experience a “math gap” relative to their attainment in other subjects.
Second, the gap between public school and homeschool graduates’ ACT scores is nearly twice as large for students attending 2-year public institutions than for those attending 4-year public institutions: homeschool graduates attending 2-year public institutions have substantially better ACT scores relative to their peers than do homeschool graduates attending 4-year public institutions. The explanation for this finding is currently unknown.
In a similar pattern to college attendance, homeschooled high school students maintained a higher GPA in in dual-credit courses relative to other students, but enrolled in these courses at a far lower rate than other students.
As shown in the table above, 73% of homeschooled high school students who enrolled in dual-credit courses earned a GPA of 3.5 or above, compared with 57% of public high school students. However, the table below shows that while homeschooled students made up 3.6% of all K-12 students in Kentucky, they made up only 1.6% of all high school students enrolled in dual enrollment courses.
In 2017, 400 homeschooled high school students enrolled in dual-credit courses; that same year, there were roughly 8,000 homeschooled high school students in Kentucky. Based on these numbers, roughly 5% of homeschooled high school students were enrolled in a dual-credit course in 2017. In contrast, over 10% of students enrolled in a public high school in Kentucky took at least one dual-credit course that same year.
Homeschooled students who are college-bound frequently use dual-credit courses taken during high school to provide external verification of their education, in lieu of access to a state-issued diploma. The outsized importance that dual-credit courses can have for homeschooled students makes the low rate of enrollment among these students concerning.
The Dual Enrollment Scholarship Program, created by the Kentucky legislature and enacted in April 2017, allows juniors and seniors enrolled in a Kentucky high school to take up to two dual-credit courses at no cost. It is unclear whether homeschooled students have access to this program. Efforts should be made to increase homeschooled students’ access to and enrollment in dual-credit courses.
Concluding Thoughts
In 2011, Stephen L. Endress completed a dissertation on what he termed “non-purposeful homeschooling.” These were cases where parents “pull their children out of public school for non-academic reasons, thereby by-passing compulsory education laws.” Drawing on his own experience as a public school administrator, Endress wrote that families engaged in non-purposeful homeschooling were “often single-parent households, have inadequate incomes, are less able to be actively involved in their child’s education, and do not have access to the same resources for networking and support.” Endress sent surveys to hundreds of principals in Illinois and Iowa and found that his respondents reported that, in their view, approximately 26% of parents who withdrew their children to homeschool them were motivated by a desire to avoid negative consequences related to truancy.
While the OEA report does not use Endress’ term, “non-purposeful homeschooling” is their focus as well. In their own survey, they found that 46% of DPPs reported that they “often” see families withdraw children due to truancy, and another 36% of DPPs reported that they “sometimes” see families do this. These families, as Endress noted, are often unprepared to educate their children. “Nearly half of DPPs (48 percent) reported that they often encounter home school parents who do not understand that they are responsible for identifying and obtaining curriculum and instructional materials,” the OEA noted.
In 2018, the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate released a study finding that 36% of students removed from school to be homeschooled lived in families subject to a past child welfare report; 90% of these cases involved either founded reports or multiple reports. CRHE has been in communication with a county attorney in Kentucky who carried out an unpublished study in an independent school district, with findings similar to those in the Connecticut report. While the OEA did consider the role Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services played in prosecuting educational neglect, it did not look at the overall role this agency may have played in homeschooling families’ lives. This area of inquiry should be included in future reports.
Over the years, CRHE has collected a number of anecdotal reports that support a narrative of “non-purposeful homeschooling.” One woman contacted CRHE concerned about her nephew. The child’s mother had a history of domestic violence and drug use; due to this instability, the child was frequently tardy or absent from school. The mother later withdrew this child from school to homeschool him. In another case, a relative contacted CRHE concerned about a girl whose mother withdrew her from school in order to prevent anyone from learning about her (i.e. the mother’s) drug habit. One woman told CRHE that she was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled after her sister reported their father’s sexual abuse to a teacher. In another case, a single mother was encouraged by her son’s high school to homeschool her son — who dealt with anxiety and other mental health programs — using an online program. The mother worked full time; her son, lacking the support he needed, failed all of his online classes.
In a growing number of states, homeschooling has served as a loophole for public school administrators seeking to pad their schools’ graduation rates and families looking for ways for a student to dropout. Cases in Florida, Indiana, and Texas reveal just how easy misuse can be. In a recently published article, a reporter spoke with a mother who had unknowingly signed a homeschool transfer form, filled out by school officials, when she went to her son’s Indiana charter school to sign paperwork for him to drop out. In its class of 2018, the school reported 83 graduates, 6 dropouts, and 60 students who left to homeschool at some point during high school. (Because they count as transfers, students who leave school to be homeschooled are removed from a school’s cohort when calculating its graduation rate.) Last year, the Indiana legislature passed a law creating an additional review for high schools that reported a suspiciously high number of homeschool transfers.
In 2017 alone, 3,632 Kentucky students in grades 9 through 12 were withdrawn from public high schools to be homeschooled. At any given time, as many as one-third of homeschooled high school students in that state are new homeschool transfers. Some of these families may be motivated by student anxiety or bullying, and others by a desire to avoid prosecution for chronic truancy, whatever its underlying cause. Some parents may have been encouraged to transfer to homeschooling by district officials looking to unload “problem” students. Many of these students will differ from what one might think of as a “traditional” homeschooling student. The low rate of homeschool enrollment in both dual-credit courses and in-state postsecondary institutions in Kentucky suggests that 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. Instead, they are being left in limbo.
“The idea that I have the ‘right’ to do anything I want with my child, without respect to his/her or society’s well-being, strikes me as utterly barbaric.”
I am a former attorney homeschooling my child because I love learning and want to share it with them rather than outsourcing it to institutions that are distracted by many concerns other than education. Homeschooling has been a wonderful thing for our family and my academically advanced child. I think homeschooling should be legal–and heavily regulated.
I am troubled by the prevalence of stories about abuse and neglect of homeschooled children. I am also saddened to see that many in the homeschool community have taken a “rights” approach to the problem of how homeschooing should be regulated. The idea that I have the “right” to do anything I want with my child, without respect to his/her or society’s well-being, strikes me as utterly barbaric.
Unfortunately, this idea is embraced too readily by people in the homeschooling community, some of whom have been whipped into an “us vs them” frenzy with respect to government oversight by conservative organizations and online echo chambers.
Homeschooling in America is full of contradictions and extremes. Homeschooling parents include both those who want to give their children more love and support than average and those who want to give them less, those who want a more rigorous education than public school provides and those who want virtually no education at all. Unfortunately, mentally ill, abusive “child hoarders” seem to have also discovered homeschooling as a means to prevent the outside world from interfering with the dark worlds they create.
Both lawmakers and the homeschooling community need to reckon with these contradictions in order to find a regulatory solution that preserves the opportunities of homeschooling while eliminating its terrible dangers.
Faye Marcinko homeschools her children in California. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
“If you are a parent reading this: Ask yourself, why am I homeschooling? Can I give my child a proper education? You owe your child a proper education.”
I was homeschooled from kindergarten to eighth grade and also tenth grade. I went to private school in the 9th grade and public school my last two years. My early homeschooling experiences were pleasant. We were involved in a homeschool group, and we were able to go on many outings, and my mother put a lot of effort into our education.
In middle school I began struggling with math. Our homeschooling group also dissolved around that time. Despite my mom’s best efforts she could just not teach that subject. During my tenth grade year she got me a tutor. However I was already so far behind it didn’t make a difference. During my eventual private and public school years I failed math multiple times. I simply lacked the building blocks to continue learning.
I don’t remember much oversight. For my tenth grade year my mother was supposed to write a letter to the town and explain that I was being homeschooled. That never happened, so when I went to public school they didn’t accept my credits. I basically had to squeeze 3 years of high school into 2.
Oversight would have helped me stay on track in math and science. It could also have ensured that I was being properly socialized. Years later I still have social deficits and I believe I could have gone farther academically if I received proper teaching. I am ashamed to say that was academically dishonest in college in math. I literally could not do it on my own, and I couldn’t finish my degree without it. What was I supposed to do? Fail out of college and be more of a victim of homeschooling?
If you are a parent reading this: Ask yourself, why am I homeschooling? Can I give my child a proper education? You owe your child a proper education. It is lazy and irresponsible to simply pull your child out of public school because you are afraid of them learning evolution or about sex. You are handicapping them for the future.
Jackie H. was homeschooled in Massachusetts from 1995-2009. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
“There was a direct correlation between the minimum legal requirements for homeschooling in the state where I was home-educated, Ohio, and the content of the education that I received.”
I went to a private school from grades 1-4. During fourth grade I was pulled out of school during an unexpected move and homeschooled through high school.
I like to imagine that eventually there will be a form of homeschooling oversight where kids will also have a voice in their educations. If someone had asked me, I would have told them what I told my parents – that I wanted to go to a good school.
However, in the meantime, reasonable oversight at the state level is also very important. There was a direct correlation between the minimum legal requirements for homeschooling in the state where I was home-educated, Ohio, and the content of the education that I received.
In Ohio, parents needed to notify the superintendent of their intention to homeschool every year, and to document progress in one of three ways. They could either verify student progress through yearly standardized tests, submit a portfolio of student work, or arrange an alternative assessment with the superintendent.
However, parents could also opt out of the social studies and science sections of the standardized test, or at least my parents did this and didn’t get in trouble. The mandatory portions of the standardized tests covered only reading comprehension and math. So basically, they were only required to demonstrate that I got reasonable scores on reading comprehension and math.
Theoretically in Ohio, all students should receive 900 hours of instruction in reading, math and the following other required subjects: writing, geography, history of the United States and Ohio, civics, science, health, physical education, fine arts including music, and first aid, safety, and fire prevention.
My parents chose an ambitious reading curriculum and were careful to meet the minimum reporting requirements, but only taught me subjects other than reading and math when they felt like it. There was no system to check whether I was being taught about history, science, or, geography, so many of these subjects were addressed by my parents only in an ad hoc way. Some years I had science, most years I didn’t. I had organized opportunities to participate in physical activity some years and not others. I also was not receiving 900 hours a year of instruction time. 150 hours a year is a generous estimate of the hours of direct instruction I received per year during high school.
I was often left to teach myself, unsupervised, or my only instruction was in internet classes, where my parents did not supervise my engagement or progress. I was motivated to participate and luckily already an avid reader, but another student in the same situation could easily have completely disengaged because there was no social interaction, competition or accountability. It would be easy in that situation to imagine that you are unable to learn, and for that to change your relationship with education for life.
A required annual portfolio and a sit-down with a professional educator would have motivated my parents to give at least some attention to each of the “required” subjects. It would have also revealed that I was producing very little homework – four short papers a year, and a lot of math worksheets. This would have hinted at the fact that they were not meeting the required number of hours of instruction and provided an opportunity for intervention.
An experienced educator could also have helped my parents better judge the reading curriculum that was sold to them – an English teacher would have been in a position to suggest that perhaps, in spite of my large vocabulary and high scores on reading comprehension exams, I was unprepared for and clearly uncomprehending of the complicated philosophy texts that they were on my high school syllabus. An experienced teacher could have suggested appropriately challenging reading material. Talking with an educator might have also been helpful to my parents when they were feeling overwhelmed or disengaged. An educator might have also been able to suggest enrichment opportunities to help cover subjects that my parents didn’t feel prepared to teach.
Without that oversight, I went to college deeply unprepared for classes that involved writing, STEM subjects, public speaking, or required general cultural knowledge to contextualize current events. I quickly realized there were only a few majors in which I could be successful, and played to my strengths while beginning a long personal journey of remedial education. I felt a great deal of shame about my educational and skill gaps and that is one reason that I have waited so long to speak publicly about my experience.
I support oversight for home education because education is an opportunity to share the richness of the world with kids and help them engage that world. Parents who choose to home educate should have support and accountability in teaching all the required subjects at a level that is appropriate to each student.
Elle S. was homeschooled in Ohio from 1993-2002. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
“My ‘education’ was in spite of my homeschool education.”
My experience homeschooling was a fight to survive and every day a focus to cultivate skills for after I left. I went to public school through 6th grade and my mother decided to give homeschooling a trial period through the summer. I insisted on daily work and was obsessive with “not getting behind”.
I set 6am alarms and read through text books until I couldn’t retain any more. My mom yelled so much when teaching that I eventually gave up in favor of independent study. (Reading through text books with both the text and master key in order to try to teach myself.)
I had no classes past 6th grade and two co-op classes. With some subjects, such as science, I remained permanently at a 6th grade level. Instead of school subjects, the focus of interest from my parents became sports and later forensics speech and debate which they referred to as their “ministry”.
At fourteen, I was sexually abused by my father and told my mother. She immediately silenced me and the next day I went to co-op as usual and she scolded me in the bathroom for crying. Verbal and physical abuse was a norm. Even at 17 years old I was drug across the floor for “acts of disobedience” including taking a college final instead of going to a debate tournament.
My independent study gave me vacations from the abuse. I tested into college at sixteen and took dual credit classes and tested out of several subjects. I even got a job working as a student tutor at the college. When I graduated in 2010, I had 90 college credits and was all but one year away from graduating with a bachelor’s degree.
My “education” was in spite of my homeschool education. I received a zero in my college precalculus class due to my parents refusing to let me miss the regional debate tournament. Even with the zero, I made a B in the class. I made sure to schedule a 7-10pm class as often as possible just to stay away from home.
I finally left home after being told I needed to judge a debate tournament when I had other plans. I filed a police report for the sexual abuse, but due to the amount of time delayed and my parents investing a fortune in an attorney, nothing was done. I was denied contact with my siblings after I left.
Looking back as a homeschool alumni, I feel that the educational neglect reflected by my experience is routine. I believe that the abuse of children in homeschooling is rampant and unchecked. I wholeheartedly support homeschooling regulations and believe that required curriculum should include regular access to counseling from a professional.
Erika S. was homeschooled in Texas from 2002-2010. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
A horrific murder case has come out of Georgia in recent weeks which is changing homeschool law in that state. Finally, law-makers are attempting to create more regulations to protect children who are pulled from public school under suspicious circumstances. From WSAV 3 News:
‘Representatives Bill Hitchens, Jon Burns, and Ron Stephens of Rincon introduced House Bill 530 which would prohibit parents from removing kids from public school to avoid complying with attendance and disciplinary laws.
The Department of Children and Family Services (DFCS) would also be notified if a child is withdrawn from school without notification or stops attending school for an extended period or cannot be located. Currently, parents are only required to give notice once a year with the student’s information.
Stephens says the bill was amended Wednesday to protect homeschoolers. He says the purpose is “If there is any indication of a child in the school that has had a past history of abuse then it ought to be notified through the school system that the Department of Children and Family Services ought to go investigate it. And these two kids in Guyton fell through the cracks clearly and all we’re trying to do is remedy that.”‘
However, in many of the most horrific child abuse and homicide cases, DCFS was already aware of the abuse before the homicide occurred.
Elwyn Crocker
Elwyn Crocker mugshot
Elwyn Crocker fathered three children with two different women. The children are Mary, Elwyn Jr., and James. Elwyn was investigated in South Carolina in 2008 for assaulting the mother of one of his children, Rebecca Grantham Self. Rebecca and Elwyn are the parents of James, born in 2007. In 2008, Rebecca told police that Elwyn grabbed her by the throat, slammed her into a wall, and also hurt baby James, after Elwyn flew into a rage. James has cerebral palsy. At the time, children Mary and Elwyn Jr. were living with the couple. Mary and Elwyn share the same mother, who so far has been unable to be reached for comment in this case, and is reportedly homeless. Self was later convicted of assaulting Crocker. Crocker was never charged, and the Department of Social Services gave him James to take care of after the couple split up.
Later, Elwyn married a woman named Candice, and moved to Georgia with the three children, settling in a trailer park in Rincon. Police and the Department of Children and Family Services were called many times in the years after Elwyn was investigated for assaulting Rebecca Self, this time about his new family with Candice.
In 2012 and 2013, records show that DCFS investigated Elwyn and Candice for child abuse, and the couple were required to take parenting classes due to their abusing Elwyn Jr. Candice’s mother Kim Wright and uncle Mark Wright began to hang around the trailer, and neighbors report that family life noticeably deteriorated as a result.
Things evidently got even worse when Elwyn and Candice moved, along with the children, into a trailer in Guyton that Kim Wright shared with her son, Tony Wright, and her boyfriend, Roy Anthony Prater.
James, Mary and Elwyn Crocker, Jr.
Mary and Elwyn, Jr. school phtos
On March 16th, 2017, a neighbor of Elwyn Jr.’s reported to a counselor that she had seen him being beaten by his grandmother, Kim Wright, with a belt for more than an hour, about a year prior, in 2016. She came forward to talk about it after seeing a presentation at school about child abuse. DCFS were notified but declined to investigate the case, saying that it had happened a year ago, even though they were aware of the 2012 and 2013 incidents involving Elwyn Jr. It is quite possible that Elwyn was already dead by the time his classmate reported the abuse and DCFS was again notified. He had not been seen since November, 2016.
Police had also been called multiple times to the Guyton trailer due to constant fighting between the adults who lived in the home. Child welfare agencies looked into the situation during these times.
At some point, the Crocker and Wright families began to keep Mary, age 14, in a dog kennel in the kitchen, zip tied and naked. She was starved and given purposely distasteful food with vinegar in it. She became so stiff from being kept in the cage that the family would take her out and strap her to a ladder in order for her body to stretch. They also tased and physically abused her.
The abuse of Elwyn Jr. and Mary escalated to homicide, although how exactly they were killed is still not known.
Crocker/Wright trailer on Rosebud Place.
A concerned citizen called police after Mary had been missing for some time. Police arrived at the home for a welfare check and questioned the adults present about the whereabouts of Mary. It was quickly determined that everyone was lying. The next morning, December 20th, deputies were led to the backyard by Elwyn senior, where he confessed that both Elwyn Jr. and Mary were buried there. A neighbor has since come forward to tell reporters that he witnessed Elwyn Crocker carrying out some kind of activity on the grounds of the home with a shovel in recent months.
James, age 11, was found alive in the trailer, laying on the floor of a bedroom with a blanket over him. James has been described as “not having been abused” in the media, but it is hard to say at this time what exactly happened in the house, and the fact that he was laying on the floor with a blanket over him does not necessarily sound good. James’ biological mother, Rebecca Self, told reporters that he was likely not abused, or as abused, as the other children, because the adults were dependent on his social security check. James has been placed in the care of social services.
‘Elwyn Jr. and Mary were enrolled in Effingham County public schools for most of their lives. Several reports were made about the family to child services. In January 2014, Elwyn Jr. was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled. He was last seen in November 2016 at age 14. Mary continued to attend school until May 2018. She was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled in August 2018. She was last seen in October 2018 at age 14.’
Reports indicate it is possible that the parents did not sign an official withdrawal form to withdraw the children from school.
I am unsure as to the educational status of James, who has not been as widely reported on as the other children. I have not found anything indicating that James was enrolled in public school. It is very likely that he was also “homeschooled”, although it is clear that the children were not being educated in this situation, but abused and neglected.
From top left: Elwyn Crocker, Candice Crocker, Roy Prater, Mark Wright, Kim Wright. Mugshots.
Elwyn Crocker has been charged with felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, and concealing the death of another. The rest of the adults in the home were also arrested and charged. Mark Anthony Wright was charged with cruelty to children in the first degree. Roy Anthony Prater was charged with concealing the death of another, cruelty to children in the first degree, and possession of a scheduled or controlled substance. Candice Crocker and Kim Wright were charged with concealing the death of another and cruelty to children in the first degree. All are currently being held in jail and it is likely there will be more charges.
Patterns
Followers of this blog know how easy it is to withdraw a child from school in almost all U.S. states, and enroll them in a “homeschool”. In many cases, it is a legitimate homeschool and nothing is wrong. However, this lack of regulation has repeatedly been used to cover the most heinous child torture and homicide cases. The Crocker children, like homeschool homicide victim Erica Parsons, were missing for quite some time before their bodies were discovered, but had never been reported missing. Thankfully a neighbor noticed that Mary Crocker was suspiciously absent from the neighborhood and alerted police. But it still took months until law enforcement discovered her body. In the case of Elwyn Jr., it took years. The fear and pain Mary must have lived with, knowing her brother had been murdered by the adults in the home is hard to imagine. Like many homeschool homicide cases, Mary was tortured up until her death. Torture of a child is hard to conceal unless the child does not leave the home, and it is less likely that people will realize a child is missing if they have been homeschooled.
It is good that Georgia is attempting to enact legislation that would make these types of crimes harder to get away with. However, my concern is that DCFS had been called multiple times already in this case. The new legislation requires schools to contact DCFS if a child has been withdrawn from school under suspicious circumstances. That is one more call to DCFS where they may not do anything. While it is better than nothing, it is not enough.
There needs to be more laws around homeschooling than just something which requires yet another call to DCFS. DCFS had been called over the course of these children’s entire lives and nothing happened. While sometimes DCFS does a great job, in other cases they do not, and this is one of them. More regulations need to be in place around homeschool. If there were educational standards that children were required to reach, more reporting on the homeschool to the state, mandatory doctor visits, and mandatory disability services, there would be more opportunities for child abuse to be found out. Mary was reportedly malnourished, which is something a doctor would hopefully notice. Many tortured children are also starved.
There would also be less incentive for neglectful, abusive parents to withdraw children from school to start a “homeschool” if there were real requirements in place for proving the child is being educated. It might be a deterrent to abusers looking for an easy way to cover abuse if there were regulations around homeschool education. Abusive parents like the ones in this case are not pulling their kids out of school due to a genuine desire to give them a better education. They are pulling them out of school so they won’t be caught for abusing the children.
Starting a homeschool by providing an email address to the state and then doing nothing for years should not be something people should ever get away with, especially with disabled children. As I have written about before, the Americans with Disabilities Act is not optional. It covers everyone in the U.S. who has a disability. So why aren’t homeschooled disabled children required to receive disability services? One issue is that the ADA is a complaint-driven act. It is not enforced. However, if there were more laws around details like homeschooling, it would lead to the rights of disabled children being honored.
While James Crocker may “not have been abused” the situation he was living in was horrific. Subjecting a child to witnessing their sibling tied up in a dog cage and tasered is abuse. People think that children with cerebral palsy are not intelligent and do not know what is going on, a common bias about disabled people in general. All of the children in this case were abused. All of the children needed better monitoring. States need to have more than one reporting system in place for homeschooled children, and less incentive to pull your children out of school in the first place.
For Immediate Release: District-run policies in Alaska and Iowa serve as better models for publicly funded homeschool support
Canton, Ma., 4/11/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, is urging Tennessee lawmakers to use caution when considering vouchers or other forms of public funding for homeschooled children. Legislation to create publicly funded Education Savings Accounts for private school and homeschooled students has created controversy in Tennessee throughout the most recent legislative season.
“There are better ways to support homeschooled students than Education Savings Accounts, which amount to simple cash transfers and rarely involve either sufficient accountability or the holistic support homeschooled students need,” said Coleman. “The best programs bring resources to both homeschooled students and school districts.”
Coleman pointed to Alaska’s district-run homeschool programs and Iowa’s Home School Assistance Programs as examples to be emulated.
School districts across Alaska run programs that enroll homeschooled children. Districts receive state funding for these programs, and provide parents with reimbursements for education expenses. Families are assigned a teacher who answers questions and supports the student’s progress. Many programs offer homeschool resource centers where students can take enrichment classes. Iowa’s district-run Home School Assistance Programs operate similarly: school districts that run these programs receive state funding, offer homeschooling parents access to homeschool resource centers, and grant homeschooled children access to public school programs, classes, and support services.
“When states provide public funding directly to homeschooling families, it is imperative to ensure that the expenditures are accounted for,” Coleman said. In Alaska, there are strict guidelines surrounding what expenses can and cannot be reimbursed. Lawmakers in some states have voiced concern about the abuse of other forms of direct-aid, such as adoption subsidies which incentivize parents to adopt older children or children with disabilities.
“While many homeschooling parents provide their children with a rich, child-centered educational environment, some parents homeschool to hide drug problems, cover up parental neglect, or avoid mandatory reporters,” said Coleman. “Providing funding without accountability could encourage such parents to choose homeschooling for a financial payout, without considering their children’s best interests.”
“We are pleased to see Tennessee lawmakers thinking about the needs of homeschooled students,” Coleman said. “Rather than tacking homeschoolers onto a program designed to help families pay private school tuition, however, we would urge lawmakers to consider implementing policies like those in Alaska and Iowa, which center homeschooled children’s needs in a more holistic way.”
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.
For Immediate Release: Both record keeping requirements and subject requirements provide critical support to homeschooled children
Canton, Ma., 04/10/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, is urging Missouri lawmakers to amend a provision in House Bill 1139 that would allow homeschooling parents in the state to choose to either keep records of their children’s education or provide instruction in a list of required subjects.
“HB 1139 would be detrimental to the education of children homeschooled in Missouri,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE.
Parents who homeschool their children in Missouri are required to maintain records such as a plan book, samples of the child’s work, or evaluations of the child’s progress; and are required to provide at least a thousand hours of instruction, six hundred of which must be in “reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science.”
HB 1139 would change the “and” between these two requirements to an “or,” allowing parents to either keep records or meet the state’s subject requirements. If HB 1139 becomes law as written, a parent could choose not to teach a child mathematics, or science, or reading, and still be in compliance with state law.
“These requirements should absolutely not be either/or,” said Coleman. “Homeschool statutes need both record keeping requirements and subject requirements.” When a homeschooling parent fails to keep good records of a child’s education, Coleman explained, it can be extremely difficult for that parent to create a high school transcript. “Good record keeping is paramount,” said Coleman. “When a homeschooling parent does not keep records of their child’s education, no one does.”
Coleman also pointed out that state law requires parents to show their records if there is any question about whether they are homeschooling in accordance with the law.
“If parents can opt out of the record keeping requirement, what happens if questions arise about their homeschool?” Coleman asked. “Requiring homeschooling parents to both keep records and provide instruction in core subjects only makes sense.”
Coleman did not express concern about other provisions in the HB 1139, which would clarify that any individually identifiable information about homeschoolers held by the school district is confidential and make a voluntary process for parents notifying their local school districts of their intent to homeschool more straightforward.
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.
For Immediate Release: Lawmakers supported homeschooled students last week by passing bill to catch parents who abuse the law
Canton, Ma., 04/03/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, is commending Georgia lawmakers for passing House Bill 530. HB 530, which creates greater protections for homeschooled students, is a legislative reform motivated by the deaths of Elwyn and Mary Crocker, two Georgia children whose bodies were found last December. The siblings were withdrawn from school to be homeschooled, and subsequently murdered.
“We would like to thank Georgia lawmakers for taking the time to listen to all of the voices in the homeschool community, including those of homeschool alumni,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “We deeply appreciate Georgia lawmakers’ willingness to center the needs of homeschooled children, and their commitment to finding a workable solution.” Georgia is the first state to add protections for at-risk homeschooled children since 2009, when the District of Columbia added an assessment process following a quadruple murder.
Efforts to create protections for homeschooled children sometimes face pushback from groups that oppose accountability measures for homeschooling. Coleman attributes the success of HB 530 in part to its design, which clearly and forcefully targeted fraudulent homeschooling. HB 530 would flag cases where parents remove children from school to begin homeschooling but fail to fill out a required online declaration of intent form within 45 days, forwarding such cases to the Division of Family and Children Services for an assessment.
In mid-February, Samantha Field, a policy advocate and board member for CRHE, went on air with Georgia Public Broadcasting to discuss the Crocker case, alongside Georgia Rep. Bill Hitchens. CRHE also submitted written testimony in support of HB 530. Coleman is thrilled to see the bill pass. “This is a momentous step toward better protecting Georgia’s homeschooled children,” said Coleman. “We urge Governor Brian Kemp to sign HB 530.”
A growing body of research suggests that the Crocker children’s deaths are not an isolated case. 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; in 2018, a state official in 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. CRHE maintains a database of severe and fatal abuse cases in homeschool settings; this database has twenty-two Georgia cases, including the 2013 death of Emani Moss.
HB 530 is designed to prevent future cases like those of the Crocker children, or like that of Emani Moss. Rep. Bill Hitchens, who sponsored HB 530, wrote in an editorial that “[t]he heart of this bill is the protection of children from parents who use homeschooling to shield themselves from the law,” adding that “[w]e have poured countless hours into this legislation because we never want there to be another Crocker family tragedy.”
Coleman cautions that the work is not over yet, and says that HB 530 should be seen as only the first step toward better protecting Georgia’s homeschooled children. “It is our hope that future legislation will create a flagging system for cases where parents begin homeschooling following a concerning history of child abuse or neglect reports,” said Coleman.
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.
For Immediate Release: Everyone benefits when public schools are funded to provide services to homeschooled students
Canton, Ma., 03/04/2019—Last week, the Arkansas House passed House Bill 1419, which would expand homeschooled students’ access to individual public school classes. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, is urging state senators to support the bill, which has now moved to the Senate Education Committee.
“Access to curricular programs allows homeschooled students to enroll in individual public school classes in areas parents don’t feel comfortable teaching,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “Not all homeschooling parents have the resources needed to hire private tutors for difficult subjects, making bills like HB 1419 important.”
In 2017, Arkansas lawmakers passed a statute that was intended to open curricular classes to homeschooled students, but a report from the University of Arkansas’ Office of Education Policy found that this policy was not being effectively implemented. SB 1419 would amend the language of the statute from “may” to “shall,” preventing school districts from choosing not to enroll homeschooled students. School districts would be still permitted to limit enrollment if such enrollment created a financial loss for the school district.
Coleman points to the existence of a “homeschool math gap. “There is a large body of research that suggests homeschooled students underperform in math,” said Coleman. “Allowing homeschooling parents to enroll their children in individual math classes could help close that gap for individual students.” Coleman also points to the benefits of allowing homeschooled students to enroll in art classes, or in extracurriculars such as band.
“Homeschooling often includes a significant financial outlay in terms of curriculum, classes, and the sacrifice of one parent’s income,” said Coleman. “Not all homeschooling parents have the means to pay for tutors or other enrichments.” Data from the National Center for Education Statistics suggests that homeschooled students are no less likely to be low income than other students. In fact, the most recent numbers suggest that homeschooled students may actually be more likely to be below the poverty level than their peers, with over 20% of homeschooled students living below the poverty level.
“The interests of school districts and homeschooled students need not run counter to each other,” adds Coleman. “Some states have created innovative programs that encourage school districts and homeschoolers to work together. Alaska’s district-run homeschool programs and Iowa’s Home School Assistance Programs are excellent examples.” CRHE recommends providing school districts with partial funding allotments for homeschooled students they enroll. “Providing school districts with funding for the services they offer homeschoolers gives districts an incentive to publicize these programs while bringing resources to school districts.”
“Homeschooled students and families benefit from positive relationships between homeschool communities and local public schools,” said Coleman. “We applaud the Arkansas House for passing HB 1419 and urge the Arkansas Senate to do the same.”
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: 23 March, 2021 by Rachel Coleman
Left in Limbo: Examining Kentucky’s 2018 Report on Homeschooling
In this post, CRHE’s Dr. Rachel Coleman reviews Homeschooling in Kentucky, a report published by the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability (OEA) in September, 2018.
In November 2017, the Education Assessment and Accountability Review Subcommittee, a legislative committee that advises the Kentucky Board of Education and oversees the Office of Education Accountability (OEA), asked the OEA to conduct a study of homeschooling in Kentucky. The OEA published a 73-page report, titled Homeschooling In Kentucky, in September 2018. While their report focuses on homeschooling in Kentucky, their findings raise a number of interesting questions for homeschooling nationwide.
The OEA gathered data using a survey and interviews. The survey was distributed in 2018 to every school district’s director of pupil personnel (DPP), the individual responsible for investigating student non-attendance and enforcing the state’s compulsory attendance law. Out of 173 total DPPs in the state, 171 responded to the survey. These surveys provided the OEA with feedback from DPPs as well as data on homeschool enrollment and withdrawals. In addition, the OEA interviewed DPPs and superintendents from eight geographically varied school districts. The OEA also obtained data on homeschool college enrollment, GPAs, and ACT scores from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
This data allowed the OEA to report on diverse topics, including homeschool transfers’ absentee rate prior to their withdrawal from school; the rate at which homeschool graduates attend Kentucky post-secondary institutions; and DPPs’ feelings about the laws they enforce. The report raised concerns about high truancy rates among homeschool transfers and marshaled data that raises equally important questions about how well the state is meeting the needs of high school students at risk of dropping out.
The report’s key findings are as follows:
This review will begin with an overview of Kentucky’s homeschool law before covering the demographics of Kentucky homeschooled children; truancy rates and what is known about homeschool transfers; DPPs’ concerns about homeschooling being used as a dropout loophole; and homeschool graduates’ rates of college attendance.
SECTION 1: Kentucky’s Homeschool Law
In Kentucky, homeschooling takes place under the state’s private school law. Parents are required to annually notify the superintendent of the names, ages, and residence of the children being homeschooled, and to make attendance and scholarship information open for inspection by DPPs. However, the OEA noted that DPPs rarely inspect homeschools unless they receive a complaint about a family. In addition, some DPPs told the OEA that they were contacted by the Home School Legal Defense Association when making routine document requests, and told that their actions were in violation of the “Best Practices Document” created in 1997 by a task force of individuals from the Christian Home Educators of Kentucky and members of the Kentucky Directors of Pupil Personnel Association.
The “Best Practices Document” states that when a question arises about the education being provided a DPP may ask a homeschooling family to provide documentation that they are educating their children in accordance with the law. However, the OEA points out with some concern that “DPPs alone do not have the legal authority to enforce compulsory attendance laws” and that “the ‘Best Practices Document’ does not address the role of CHFS [Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services] or the courts.” This, the OEA said, creates confusion.
According to the OEA, when a DPP investigates a complaint about a homeschooling family and finds reason for concern, their next step should be to report their concern to CHFS. However, the OEA found that what happens when a DPP makes a report of educational neglect depends largely on the CHFS caseworker and the judge: according to some DPPs, judges may refuse to hear cases involving educational neglect unless other forms of neglect or abuse are also present, making it difficult to resolve some cases.
The most consistent request the OEA received from DPPs was a need for more clarity about the state’s compulsory attendance law and their role in enforcing it.
SECTION 2: Homeschool Demographics
The OEA found that 26,536 students, or approximately 3.6% of school-aged children in Kentucky, were homeschooled in 2017. This number is slightly higher than the national average of 3.3% estimated by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 2016.
URBAN VS. RURAL
The Kentucky homeschooling rate varied dramatically by school district, from less than 1% to greater than 10%. The OEA identified no correlation between district poverty and homeschooling rate, but it did find a somewhat higher homeschooling rate in county districts (4.5%) than in independent districts (2.3%) (county districts are drawn along county lines while independent districts are drawn along city lines). This suggests that homeschooling in Kentucky is more prevalent in rural areas than in urban ones. This finding aligns with the 2016 NCES finding that homeschooling was more common in rural areas (4.4%) than in urban areas (3.0%).
RACE & INCOME
While demographic data was not available for all homeschooled students, it was available for homeschool transfers who were previously enrolled in public school. The OEA found that these students were “more likely … to be eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, less likely to be eligible for special education services, and less likely to be black or Hispanic.”
This data does not include homeschooled students who had never attended public school, so we cannot know whether these findings hold true for all homeschooled children in Kentucky. However, these numbers are in line with the 2016 NCES finding that children who were poor or white were disproportionately likely to be homeschooled (3.9% and 3.8% of these students, respectively, were homeschooled, compared with the overall homeschooling rate of 3.3%).
HOMESCHOOL-PUBLIC SCHOOL MOVEMENT
The OEA identified substantial movement between homeschools and public schools. Of the 4,463 students who transferred from public school to homeschool in 2012, nearly half (43%) re-enrolled in public school the following year. Of those who re-enrolled in public school, 15% had transferred back to homeschool again by 2017. In 2017, school districts reported 6,874 homeschool transfers and 26,538 homeschooled students total. This means that at any given time as many as one in four homeschooled students is a new homeschool transfer. The majority of homeschool transfers in 2017 were high school students.
The OEA reported that students who transfer to homeschools are “likely to be, on average, lower performing on reading and math tests than their peers who do not transfer.” Where testing data was available, the OEA found that students who transferred into public schools from homeschools “achieve, on average, similarly to their public school peers in reading and below them in math.” This is consistent with a finding in nearly all extant research that homeschooled students experience a math gap relative to their performance in reading.
STUDENT AGE
The OEA noted that high school students were more likely than other students to be homeschooled. This finding is in line with the NCES estimate that 3.8% of high school students were homeschooled in 2016, a homeschooling rate higher than that of students in middle school (3.3%) or elementary school (2.9%).
SECTION 3: Homeschool Transfers & Truancy
The OEA found that public school students who transferred to homeschooling had a large number of absences prior to being withdrawn from public school. Nearly one-third (30%) of students who transferred to homeschools in 2017 were previously absent for 20% or more of enrolled days, a rate 11 times higher than that of public school students not transferring to homeschools. Nearly two-thirds (62%) were previously absent for at least 10% of enrolled days, a rate 4 times higher than that of non-transfers.
The OEA remarks that, in many cases, parents may have similar motivations for keeping their children home from school and withdrawing them to homeschool.
DPPs noted an increasing number of students who withdraw from public school for reasons that might also explain prolonged absences from school prior to withdrawal. These include mood disorders (such as anxiety), negative peer relationships, bullying, or families’ safety concerns after media reports of school shootings (p. 19).
However, according to the OEA, DPPs were also “concerned that truancy often represents a lack of commitment to education by a child or parent” (p. 35).
“Forty-six percent of DPPs reported that they often observe families that withdraw their children from public school to be homeschooled because they are trying to avoid consequences of truancy; an additional 36 percent report that they sometimes observe this. DPPs report an uptick, for example, in parental requests to transfer students to home school in the week after the district has sent truancy notices to students’ homes.” (p. 35)
Some DPPs who visited the homes of truant students who were later withdrawn to be homeschooled reported that homes lacked educational materials and parents lacked educational skills. Other DPPs expressed concern about homeschool families “based on documents submitted by home school families who appear to have difficulty with basic written communication” or based on the families’ home situations (p. 34).
DROPOUT LOOPHOLE?
In 2013, the Kentucky legislature passed a bill that would gradually raise the compulsory attendance age from 16 to 18. At first the change was voluntary, implemented by individual school districts, but once enough districts signed on the change became mandatory. The majority of school districts raised their compulsory attendance age during the 2015-2016 school year. This meant that 16- and 17-year-old students who might previously have dropped out of high school could no longer do so without facing legal consequences for truancy.
The OEA report identifies a possible link between this increase in the compulsory attendance age and the higher rate of chronic truancy among homeschool transfers:
“It is possible that the alleged misuse of home school laws to avoid public school truancy is associated with the increase, beginning in 2015, in the number of public school students in grades 9 to 12 who transferred to home school. Several DPPs and superintendents noted that the increase in the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 put pressure on schools to accommodate students who were no longer interested in attending school and would have dropped out had the dropout age not been raised to 18.” (p. 36)
The increase in the number of public high school students transferring to homeschool, beginning in 2015, is shown below.
The spike in high school students transferring to homeschool was driven by students in grades 11 and 12. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of homeschool transfers among students in grades K to 8 increased by 34% percent; and the number of transfers among students in grades 9 and 10 increased by 31%. Meanwhile, the number of transfers among students in grades 11 and 12 increased by 63%. This is what we would expect to see if students aged 16 and 17 who would previously have dropped out instead began transferring to homeschooling after the compulsory attendance age increased.
New homeschool transfers make up a far larger percentage of children being homeschooled during the high school years than they do in earlier grades. In any given year, as many as one-third of high school students being homeschooled are recent transfers.
As the graph below shows, public high school students who transfer to homeschool are chronically truant at a slightly higher rate than homeschool transfers overall:
While truancy rates were high for all homeschool transfers — over 40% of those transferring to homeschooling in any grade were previously chronically truant — the rate was highest among high school transfers: nearly 70% of high school transfers were chronically truant prior to withdrawing to homeschool.
SECTION 4: Homeschool Graduates & College
The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education maintains data on college classes taken by students homeschooled in Kentucky, including dual-enrollment courses taken during high school. The OEA analyzed this data and found that homeschool graduates make up a smaller portion of Kentucky high school graduates attending Kentucky postsecondary institutions than would be expected based on the proportion of K-12 students in Kentucky who are homeschooled:
Home school students were 1.5 percent of Kentucky high school 2016 graduates enrolled in Kentucky PSIs [postsecondary institutions] in school year 2017 and were thus a lower percentage of the Kentucky PSI population than they were of the school-aged (5 to 17) population (3.6 percent). This suggests that Kentucky home school students may be enrolling in college at lower rates than their public school peers (p. 21).
According to the OEA report, approximately 18% of 2016 Kentucky homeschool graduates enrolled in Kentucky postsecondary institutions in 2017. In comparison, 53.5% of Kentucky public school graduates enrolled in Kentucky postsecondary institutions that same year.
“Caution should be used in interpreting these data,” the OEA notes, “because they are from Kentucky PSIs only and the proportion of public versus home school students who attend college out of state is not known.” It is possible, in other words, that Kentucky homeschool graduates are substantially more likely than other Kentucky high school graduates to attend postsecondary institutions out of state, which could explain their lower rate of in-state enrollment. However, there is no compelling reason to think that this is the case, and college attendance data from at least one other state — Virginia — is in line with the data the OEA analysed: in Virginia, 1.8% of college students are homeschool graduates.
While data from additional states is needed to determine national trends, the OEA report’s findings suggest that Kentucky homeschool graduates are attending college at a far lower rate than other Kentucky high school graduates, as illustrated in this graph:
In addition, homeschool graduates who do attend postsecondary institutions are more likely to attend two-year public institutions and less-likely to attend 4-year public institutions. (While 2.1% of Kentucky high school graduates enrolled in 2-year public institutions are homeschool graduates, at 4-year public institutions only 1.1% are homeschool graduates.) This finding is consistent with data from Virginia.
FIRST YEAR GPA
Kentucky homeschool graduates who attend Kentucky postsecondary institutions maintain a higher GPA than other Kentucky high school graduates: 61% of homeschool graduates have a GPA of 3.5 or above, compared with 41% of public school graduates.
Given that fewer than 20% of Kentucky homeschool graduates attend these institutions (compared with over 50% of Kentucky graduates overall) it is likely that those homeschool graduates who do attend these institutions are those who are best prepared for college — the best of the best, among homeschool graduates. This makes any comparison of the GPAs of homeschool and those public school graduates attending Kentucky postsecondary institutions — who represent a broader swath public school graduates — essentially meaningless.
ACT SCORES
Kentucky homeschool graduates who attend Kentucky postsecondary institutions also have higher overall ACT scores than other Kentucky graduates attending these institutions (the OAE does not appear to have performed significance testing). Homeschool graduates attending these institutions had an ACT score of 23.9, compared with 22.5 for public school graduates attending these institutions.
There are two things worth noting in the chart above. First, while homeschool graduates attending 4-year public institutions had higher English and reading ACT scores than public school graduates attending these institutions, their ACT scores were virtually identical. This finding is in line with research suggesting that homeschooled students experience a “math gap” relative to their attainment in other subjects.
Second, the gap between public school and homeschool graduates’ ACT scores is nearly twice as large for students attending 2-year public institutions than for those attending 4-year public institutions: homeschool graduates attending 2-year public institutions have substantially better ACT scores relative to their peers than do homeschool graduates attending 4-year public institutions. The explanation for this finding is currently unknown.
While every public school student in Kentucky is required to take the ACT, homeschooled students are exempted from this requirement.
DUAL ENROLLMENT
In a similar pattern to college attendance, homeschooled high school students maintained a higher GPA in in dual-credit courses relative to other students, but enrolled in these courses at a far lower rate than other students.
As shown in the table above, 73% of homeschooled high school students who enrolled in dual-credit courses earned a GPA of 3.5 or above, compared with 57% of public high school students. However, the table below shows that while homeschooled students made up 3.6% of all K-12 students in Kentucky, they made up only 1.6% of all high school students enrolled in dual enrollment courses.
In 2017, 400 homeschooled high school students enrolled in dual-credit courses; that same year, there were roughly 8,000 homeschooled high school students in Kentucky. Based on these numbers, roughly 5% of homeschooled high school students were enrolled in a dual-credit course in 2017. In contrast, over 10% of students enrolled in a public high school in Kentucky took at least one dual-credit course that same year.
Homeschooled students who are college-bound frequently use dual-credit courses taken during high school to provide external verification of their education, in lieu of access to a state-issued diploma. The outsized importance that dual-credit courses can have for homeschooled students makes the low rate of enrollment among these students concerning.
The Dual Enrollment Scholarship Program, created by the Kentucky legislature and enacted in April 2017, allows juniors and seniors enrolled in a Kentucky high school to take up to two dual-credit courses at no cost. It is unclear whether homeschooled students have access to this program. Efforts should be made to increase homeschooled students’ access to and enrollment in dual-credit courses.
Concluding Thoughts
In 2011, Stephen L. Endress completed a dissertation on what he termed “non-purposeful homeschooling.” These were cases where parents “pull their children out of public school for non-academic reasons, thereby by-passing compulsory education laws.” Drawing on his own experience as a public school administrator, Endress wrote that families engaged in non-purposeful homeschooling were “often single-parent households, have inadequate incomes, are less able to be actively involved in their child’s education, and do not have access to the same resources for networking and support.” Endress sent surveys to hundreds of principals in Illinois and Iowa and found that his respondents reported that, in their view, approximately 26% of parents who withdrew their children to homeschool them were motivated by a desire to avoid negative consequences related to truancy.
While the OEA report does not use Endress’ term, “non-purposeful homeschooling” is their focus as well. In their own survey, they found that 46% of DPPs reported that they “often” see families withdraw children due to truancy, and another 36% of DPPs reported that they “sometimes” see families do this. These families, as Endress noted, are often unprepared to educate their children. “Nearly half of DPPs (48 percent) reported that they often encounter home school parents who do not understand that they are responsible for identifying and obtaining curriculum and instructional materials,” the OEA noted.
In 2018, the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate released a study finding that 36% of students removed from school to be homeschooled lived in families subject to a past child welfare report; 90% of these cases involved either founded reports or multiple reports. CRHE has been in communication with a county attorney in Kentucky who carried out an unpublished study in an independent school district, with findings similar to those in the Connecticut report. While the OEA did consider the role Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services played in prosecuting educational neglect, it did not look at the overall role this agency may have played in homeschooling families’ lives. This area of inquiry should be included in future reports.
Over the years, CRHE has collected a number of anecdotal reports that support a narrative of “non-purposeful homeschooling.” One woman contacted CRHE concerned about her nephew. The child’s mother had a history of domestic violence and drug use; due to this instability, the child was frequently tardy or absent from school. The mother later withdrew this child from school to homeschool him. In another case, a relative contacted CRHE concerned about a girl whose mother withdrew her from school in order to prevent anyone from learning about her (i.e. the mother’s) drug habit. One woman told CRHE that she was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled after her sister reported their father’s sexual abuse to a teacher. In another case, a single mother was encouraged by her son’s high school to homeschool her son — who dealt with anxiety and other mental health programs — using an online program. The mother worked full time; her son, lacking the support he needed, failed all of his online classes.
In a growing number of states, homeschooling has served as a loophole for public school administrators seeking to pad their schools’ graduation rates and families looking for ways for a student to dropout. Cases in Florida, Indiana, and Texas reveal just how easy misuse can be. In a recently published article, a reporter spoke with a mother who had unknowingly signed a homeschool transfer form, filled out by school officials, when she went to her son’s Indiana charter school to sign paperwork for him to drop out. In its class of 2018, the school reported 83 graduates, 6 dropouts, and 60 students who left to homeschool at some point during high school. (Because they count as transfers, students who leave school to be homeschooled are removed from a school’s cohort when calculating its graduation rate.) Last year, the Indiana legislature passed a law creating an additional review for high schools that reported a suspiciously high number of homeschool transfers.
In 2017 alone, 3,632 Kentucky students in grades 9 through 12 were withdrawn from public high schools to be homeschooled. At any given time, as many as one-third of homeschooled high school students in that state are new homeschool transfers. Some of these families may be motivated by student anxiety or bullying, and others by a desire to avoid prosecution for chronic truancy, whatever its underlying cause. Some parents may have been encouraged to transfer to homeschooling by district officials looking to unload “problem” students. Many of these students will differ from what one might think of as a “traditional” homeschooling student. The low rate of homeschool enrollment in both dual-credit courses and in-state postsecondary institutions in Kentucky suggests that 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. Instead, they are being left in limbo.
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by admin
Faye Marcinko: “Homeschooling in America is full of contradictions and extremes”
“The idea that I have the ‘right’ to do anything I want with my child, without respect to his/her or society’s well-being, strikes me as utterly barbaric.”
I am a former attorney homeschooling my child because I love learning and want to share it with them rather than outsourcing it to institutions that are distracted by many concerns other than education. Homeschooling has been a wonderful thing for our family and my academically advanced child. I think homeschooling should be legal–and heavily regulated.
I am troubled by the prevalence of stories about abuse and neglect of homeschooled children. I am also saddened to see that many in the homeschool community have taken a “rights” approach to the problem of how homeschooing should be regulated. The idea that I have the “right” to do anything I want with my child, without respect to his/her or society’s well-being, strikes me as utterly barbaric.
Unfortunately, this idea is embraced too readily by people in the homeschooling community, some of whom have been whipped into an “us vs them” frenzy with respect to government oversight by conservative organizations and online echo chambers.
Homeschooling in America is full of contradictions and extremes. Homeschooling parents include both those who want to give their children more love and support than average and those who want to give them less, those who want a more rigorous education than public school provides and those who want virtually no education at all. Unfortunately, mentally ill, abusive “child hoarders” seem to have also discovered homeschooling as a means to prevent the outside world from interfering with the dark worlds they create.
Both lawmakers and the homeschooling community need to reckon with these contradictions in order to find a regulatory solution that preserves the opportunities of homeschooling while eliminating its terrible dangers.
Faye Marcinko homeschools her children in California. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by admin
Jackie H.: “You owe your child a proper education”
“If you are a parent reading this: Ask yourself, why am I homeschooling? Can I give my child a proper education? You owe your child a proper education.”
I was homeschooled from kindergarten to eighth grade and also tenth grade. I went to private school in the 9th grade and public school my last two years. My early homeschooling experiences were pleasant. We were involved in a homeschool group, and we were able to go on many outings, and my mother put a lot of effort into our education.
In middle school I began struggling with math. Our homeschooling group also dissolved around that time. Despite my mom’s best efforts she could just not teach that subject. During my tenth grade year she got me a tutor. However I was already so far behind it didn’t make a difference. During my eventual private and public school years I failed math multiple times. I simply lacked the building blocks to continue learning.
I don’t remember much oversight. For my tenth grade year my mother was supposed to write a letter to the town and explain that I was being homeschooled. That never happened, so when I went to public school they didn’t accept my credits. I basically had to squeeze 3 years of high school into 2.
Oversight would have helped me stay on track in math and science. It could also have ensured that I was being properly socialized. Years later I still have social deficits and I believe I could have gone farther academically if I received proper teaching. I am ashamed to say that was academically dishonest in college in math. I literally could not do it on my own, and I couldn’t finish my degree without it. What was I supposed to do? Fail out of college and be more of a victim of homeschooling?
If you are a parent reading this: Ask yourself, why am I homeschooling? Can I give my child a proper education? You owe your child a proper education. It is lazy and irresponsible to simply pull your child out of public school because you are afraid of them learning evolution or about sex. You are handicapping them for the future.
Jackie H. was homeschooled in Massachusetts from 1995-2009. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by CRHE
Elle S.: “Some years I had science, most years I didn’t”
“There was a direct correlation between the minimum legal requirements for homeschooling in the state where I was home-educated, Ohio, and the content of the education that I received.”
I went to a private school from grades 1-4. During fourth grade I was pulled out of school during an unexpected move and homeschooled through high school.
I like to imagine that eventually there will be a form of homeschooling oversight where kids will also have a voice in their educations. If someone had asked me, I would have told them what I told my parents – that I wanted to go to a good school.
However, in the meantime, reasonable oversight at the state level is also very important. There was a direct correlation between the minimum legal requirements for homeschooling in the state where I was home-educated, Ohio, and the content of the education that I received.
In Ohio, parents needed to notify the superintendent of their intention to homeschool every year, and to document progress in one of three ways. They could either verify student progress through yearly standardized tests, submit a portfolio of student work, or arrange an alternative assessment with the superintendent.
However, parents could also opt out of the social studies and science sections of the standardized test, or at least my parents did this and didn’t get in trouble. The mandatory portions of the standardized tests covered only reading comprehension and math. So basically, they were only required to demonstrate that I got reasonable scores on reading comprehension and math.
Theoretically in Ohio, all students should receive 900 hours of instruction in reading, math and the following other required subjects: writing, geography, history of the United States and Ohio, civics, science, health, physical education, fine arts including music, and first aid, safety, and fire prevention.
My parents chose an ambitious reading curriculum and were careful to meet the minimum reporting requirements, but only taught me subjects other than reading and math when they felt like it. There was no system to check whether I was being taught about history, science, or, geography, so many of these subjects were addressed by my parents only in an ad hoc way. Some years I had science, most years I didn’t. I had organized opportunities to participate in physical activity some years and not others. I also was not receiving 900 hours a year of instruction time. 150 hours a year is a generous estimate of the hours of direct instruction I received per year during high school.
I was often left to teach myself, unsupervised, or my only instruction was in internet classes, where my parents did not supervise my engagement or progress. I was motivated to participate and luckily already an avid reader, but another student in the same situation could easily have completely disengaged because there was no social interaction, competition or accountability. It would be easy in that situation to imagine that you are unable to learn, and for that to change your relationship with education for life.
A required annual portfolio and a sit-down with a professional educator would have motivated my parents to give at least some attention to each of the “required” subjects. It would have also revealed that I was producing very little homework – four short papers a year, and a lot of math worksheets. This would have hinted at the fact that they were not meeting the required number of hours of instruction and provided an opportunity for intervention.
An experienced educator could also have helped my parents better judge the reading curriculum that was sold to them – an English teacher would have been in a position to suggest that perhaps, in spite of my large vocabulary and high scores on reading comprehension exams, I was unprepared for and clearly uncomprehending of the complicated philosophy texts that they were on my high school syllabus. An experienced teacher could have suggested appropriately challenging reading material. Talking with an educator might have also been helpful to my parents when they were feeling overwhelmed or disengaged. An educator might have also been able to suggest enrichment opportunities to help cover subjects that my parents didn’t feel prepared to teach.
Without that oversight, I went to college deeply unprepared for classes that involved writing, STEM subjects, public speaking, or required general cultural knowledge to contextualize current events. I quickly realized there were only a few majors in which I could be successful, and played to my strengths while beginning a long personal journey of remedial education. I felt a great deal of shame about my educational and skill gaps and that is one reason that I have waited so long to speak publicly about my experience.
I support oversight for home education because education is an opportunity to share the richness of the world with kids and help them engage that world. Parents who choose to home educate should have support and accountability in teaching all the required subjects at a level that is appropriate to each student.
Elle S. was homeschooled in Ohio from 1993-2002. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 6 February, 2020 by admin
Erika S.: “Verbal and physical abuse was a norm”
“My ‘education’ was in spite of my homeschool education.”
My experience homeschooling was a fight to survive and every day a focus to cultivate skills for after I left. I went to public school through 6th grade and my mother decided to give homeschooling a trial period through the summer. I insisted on daily work and was obsessive with “not getting behind”.
I set 6am alarms and read through text books until I couldn’t retain any more. My mom yelled so much when teaching that I eventually gave up in favor of independent study. (Reading through text books with both the text and master key in order to try to teach myself.)
I had no classes past 6th grade and two co-op classes. With some subjects, such as science, I remained permanently at a 6th grade level. Instead of school subjects, the focus of interest from my parents became sports and later forensics speech and debate which they referred to as their “ministry”.
At fourteen, I was sexually abused by my father and told my mother. She immediately silenced me and the next day I went to co-op as usual and she scolded me in the bathroom for crying. Verbal and physical abuse was a norm. Even at 17 years old I was drug across the floor for “acts of disobedience” including taking a college final instead of going to a debate tournament.
My independent study gave me vacations from the abuse. I tested into college at sixteen and took dual credit classes and tested out of several subjects. I even got a job working as a student tutor at the college. When I graduated in 2010, I had 90 college credits and was all but one year away from graduating with a bachelor’s degree.
My “education” was in spite of my homeschool education. I received a zero in my college precalculus class due to my parents refusing to let me miss the regional debate tournament. Even with the zero, I made a B in the class. I made sure to schedule a 7-10pm class as often as possible just to stay away from home.
I finally left home after being told I needed to judge a debate tournament when I had other plans. I filed a police report for the sexual abuse, but due to the amount of time delayed and my parents investing a fortune in an attorney, nothing was done. I was denied contact with my siblings after I left.
Looking back as a homeschool alumni, I feel that the educational neglect reflected by my experience is routine. I believe that the abuse of children in homeschooling is rampant and unchecked. I wholeheartedly support homeschooling regulations and believe that required curriculum should include regular access to counseling from a professional.
Erika S. was homeschooled in Texas from 2002-2010. For additional thoughts and experiences from other homeschool alumni, see our Testimonials page.
Last Updated: 23 March, 2021 by Kate Corbett Pollack
Horrific Homeschool Homicide Case Changes Laws, But It Is Not Enough
A horrific murder case has come out of Georgia in recent weeks which is changing homeschool law in that state. Finally, law-makers are attempting to create more regulations to protect children who are pulled from public school under suspicious circumstances. From WSAV 3 News:
‘Representatives Bill Hitchens, Jon Burns, and Ron Stephens of Rincon introduced House Bill 530 which would prohibit parents from removing kids from public school to avoid complying with attendance and disciplinary laws.
The Department of Children and Family Services (DFCS) would also be notified if a child is withdrawn from school without notification or stops attending school for an extended period or cannot be located. Currently, parents are only required to give notice once a year with the student’s information.
Stephens says the bill was amended Wednesday to protect homeschoolers. He says the purpose is “If there is any indication of a child in the school that has had a past history of abuse then it ought to be notified through the school system that the Department of Children and Family Services ought to go investigate it. And these two kids in Guyton fell through the cracks clearly and all we’re trying to do is remedy that.”‘
In many of the homeschool homicide cases in this blog, children were pulled from public school to be homeschooled, which was easy for parents to do, because of little to no regulation around homeschooling. Even parents with Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) or Child Protective Services (CPS) cases have been able to pull their children from school in order to continue and escalate abuse at home without being found out.
However, in many of the most horrific child abuse and homicide cases, DCFS was already aware of the abuse before the homicide occurred.
Elwyn Crocker
Elwyn Crocker fathered three children with two different women. The children are Mary, Elwyn Jr., and James. Elwyn was investigated in South Carolina in 2008 for assaulting the mother of one of his children, Rebecca Grantham Self. Rebecca and Elwyn are the parents of James, born in 2007. In 2008, Rebecca told police that Elwyn grabbed her by the throat, slammed her into a wall, and also hurt baby James, after Elwyn flew into a rage. James has cerebral palsy. At the time, children Mary and Elwyn Jr. were living with the couple. Mary and Elwyn share the same mother, who so far has been unable to be reached for comment in this case, and is reportedly homeless. Self was later convicted of assaulting Crocker. Crocker was never charged, and the Department of Social Services gave him James to take care of after the couple split up.
Later, Elwyn married a woman named Candice, and moved to Georgia with the three children, settling in a trailer park in Rincon. Police and the Department of Children and Family Services were called many times in the years after Elwyn was investigated for assaulting Rebecca Self, this time about his new family with Candice.
In 2012 and 2013, records show that DCFS investigated Elwyn and Candice for child abuse, and the couple were required to take parenting classes due to their abusing Elwyn Jr. Candice’s mother Kim Wright and uncle Mark Wright began to hang around the trailer, and neighbors report that family life noticeably deteriorated as a result.
Things evidently got even worse when Elwyn and Candice moved, along with the children, into a trailer in Guyton that Kim Wright shared with her son, Tony Wright, and her boyfriend, Roy Anthony Prater.
James, Mary and Elwyn Crocker, Jr.
On March 16th, 2017, a neighbor of Elwyn Jr.’s reported to a counselor that she had seen him being beaten by his grandmother, Kim Wright, with a belt for more than an hour, about a year prior, in 2016. She came forward to talk about it after seeing a presentation at school about child abuse. DCFS were notified but declined to investigate the case, saying that it had happened a year ago, even though they were aware of the 2012 and 2013 incidents involving Elwyn Jr. It is quite possible that Elwyn was already dead by the time his classmate reported the abuse and DCFS was again notified. He had not been seen since November, 2016.
Police had also been called multiple times to the Guyton trailer due to constant fighting between the adults who lived in the home. Child welfare agencies looked into the situation during these times.
At some point, the Crocker and Wright families began to keep Mary, age 14, in a dog kennel in the kitchen, zip tied and naked. She was starved and given purposely distasteful food with vinegar in it. She became so stiff from being kept in the cage that the family would take her out and strap her to a ladder in order for her body to stretch. They also tased and physically abused her.
The abuse of Elwyn Jr. and Mary escalated to homicide, although how exactly they were killed is still not known.
A concerned citizen called police after Mary had been missing for some time. Police arrived at the home for a welfare check and questioned the adults present about the whereabouts of Mary. It was quickly determined that everyone was lying. The next morning, December 20th, deputies were led to the backyard by Elwyn senior, where he confessed that both Elwyn Jr. and Mary were buried there. A neighbor has since come forward to tell reporters that he witnessed Elwyn Crocker carrying out some kind of activity on the grounds of the home with a shovel in recent months.
James, age 11, was found alive in the trailer, laying on the floor of a bedroom with a blanket over him. James has been described as “not having been abused” in the media, but it is hard to say at this time what exactly happened in the house, and the fact that he was laying on the floor with a blanket over him does not necessarily sound good. James’ biological mother, Rebecca Self, told reporters that he was likely not abused, or as abused, as the other children, because the adults were dependent on his social security check. James has been placed in the care of social services.
According to Homeschooling’s Invisible Children:
‘Elwyn Jr. and Mary were enrolled in Effingham County public schools for most of their lives. Several reports were made about the family to child services. In January 2014, Elwyn Jr. was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled. He was last seen in November 2016 at age 14. Mary continued to attend school until May 2018. She was withdrawn from school to be homeschooled in August 2018. She was last seen in October 2018 at age 14.’
Reports indicate it is possible that the parents did not sign an official withdrawal form to withdraw the children from school.
I am unsure as to the educational status of James, who has not been as widely reported on as the other children. I have not found anything indicating that James was enrolled in public school. It is very likely that he was also “homeschooled”, although it is clear that the children were not being educated in this situation, but abused and neglected.
Elwyn Crocker has been charged with felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, and concealing the death of another. The rest of the adults in the home were also arrested and charged. Mark Anthony Wright was charged with cruelty to children in the first degree. Roy Anthony Prater was charged with concealing the death of another, cruelty to children in the first degree, and possession of a scheduled or controlled substance. Candice Crocker and Kim Wright were charged with concealing the death of another and cruelty to children in the first degree. All are currently being held in jail and it is likely there will be more charges.
Patterns
Followers of this blog know how easy it is to withdraw a child from school in almost all U.S. states, and enroll them in a “homeschool”. In many cases, it is a legitimate homeschool and nothing is wrong. However, this lack of regulation has repeatedly been used to cover the most heinous child torture and homicide cases. The Crocker children, like homeschool homicide victim Erica Parsons, were missing for quite some time before their bodies were discovered, but had never been reported missing. Thankfully a neighbor noticed that Mary Crocker was suspiciously absent from the neighborhood and alerted police. But it still took months until law enforcement discovered her body. In the case of Elwyn Jr., it took years. The fear and pain Mary must have lived with, knowing her brother had been murdered by the adults in the home is hard to imagine. Like many homeschool homicide cases, Mary was tortured up until her death. Torture of a child is hard to conceal unless the child does not leave the home, and it is less likely that people will realize a child is missing if they have been homeschooled.
It is good that Georgia is attempting to enact legislation that would make these types of crimes harder to get away with. However, my concern is that DCFS had been called multiple times already in this case. The new legislation requires schools to contact DCFS if a child has been withdrawn from school under suspicious circumstances. That is one more call to DCFS where they may not do anything. While it is better than nothing, it is not enough.
There needs to be more laws around homeschooling than just something which requires yet another call to DCFS. DCFS had been called over the course of these children’s entire lives and nothing happened. While sometimes DCFS does a great job, in other cases they do not, and this is one of them. More regulations need to be in place around homeschool. If there were educational standards that children were required to reach, more reporting on the homeschool to the state, mandatory doctor visits, and mandatory disability services, there would be more opportunities for child abuse to be found out. Mary was reportedly malnourished, which is something a doctor would hopefully notice. Many tortured children are also starved.
There would also be less incentive for neglectful, abusive parents to withdraw children from school to start a “homeschool” if there were real requirements in place for proving the child is being educated. It might be a deterrent to abusers looking for an easy way to cover abuse if there were regulations around homeschool education. Abusive parents like the ones in this case are not pulling their kids out of school due to a genuine desire to give them a better education. They are pulling them out of school so they won’t be caught for abusing the children.
Starting a homeschool by providing an email address to the state and then doing nothing for years should not be something people should ever get away with, especially with disabled children. As I have written about before, the Americans with Disabilities Act is not optional. It covers everyone in the U.S. who has a disability. So why aren’t homeschooled disabled children required to receive disability services? One issue is that the ADA is a complaint-driven act. It is not enforced. However, if there were more laws around details like homeschooling, it would lead to the rights of disabled children being honored.
While James Crocker may “not have been abused” the situation he was living in was horrific. Subjecting a child to witnessing their sibling tied up in a dog cage and tasered is abuse. People think that children with cerebral palsy are not intelligent and do not know what is going on, a common bias about disabled people in general. All of the children in this case were abused. All of the children needed better monitoring. States need to have more than one reporting system in place for homeschooled children, and less incentive to pull your children out of school in the first place.
Last Updated: 7 June, 2019 by CRHE
Homeschool Alumni Group Questions TN Voucher Proposal
For Immediate Release: District-run policies in Alaska and Iowa serve as better models for publicly funded homeschool support
Canton, Ma., 4/11/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit organization that advocates for homeschooled children, is urging Tennessee lawmakers to use caution when considering vouchers or other forms of public funding for homeschooled children. Legislation to create publicly funded Education Savings Accounts for private school and homeschooled students has created controversy in Tennessee throughout the most recent legislative season.
“There are better ways to support homeschooled students than Education Savings Accounts, which amount to simple cash transfers and rarely involve either sufficient accountability or the holistic support homeschooled students need,” said Coleman. “The best programs bring resources to both homeschooled students and school districts.”
Coleman pointed to Alaska’s district-run homeschool programs and Iowa’s Home School Assistance Programs as examples to be emulated.
School districts across Alaska run programs that enroll homeschooled children. Districts receive state funding for these programs, and provide parents with reimbursements for education expenses. Families are assigned a teacher who answers questions and supports the student’s progress. Many programs offer homeschool resource centers where students can take enrichment classes. Iowa’s district-run Home School Assistance Programs operate similarly: school districts that run these programs receive state funding, offer homeschooling parents access to homeschool resource centers, and grant homeschooled children access to public school programs, classes, and support services.
“When states provide public funding directly to homeschooling families, it is imperative to ensure that the expenditures are accounted for,” Coleman said. In Alaska, there are strict guidelines surrounding what expenses can and cannot be reimbursed. Lawmakers in some states have voiced concern about the abuse of other forms of direct-aid, such as adoption subsidies which incentivize parents to adopt older children or children with disabilities.
“While many homeschooling parents provide their children with a rich, child-centered educational environment, some parents homeschool to hide drug problems, cover up parental neglect, or avoid mandatory reporters,” said Coleman. “Providing funding without accountability could encourage such parents to choose homeschooling for a financial payout, without considering their children’s best interests.”
“We are pleased to see Tennessee lawmakers thinking about the needs of homeschooled students,” Coleman said. “Rather than tacking homeschoolers onto a program designed to help families pay private school tuition, however, we would urge lawmakers to consider implementing policies like those in Alaska and Iowa, which center homeschooled children’s needs in a more holistic way.”
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: 7 June, 2019 by CRHE
Homeschool Alumni Urge MO to Keep Record Keeping Requirement
For Immediate Release: Both record keeping requirements and subject requirements provide critical support to homeschooled children
Canton, Ma., 04/10/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, is urging Missouri lawmakers to amend a provision in House Bill 1139 that would allow homeschooling parents in the state to choose to either keep records of their children’s education or provide instruction in a list of required subjects.
“HB 1139 would be detrimental to the education of children homeschooled in Missouri,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE.
Parents who homeschool their children in Missouri are required to maintain records such as a plan book, samples of the child’s work, or evaluations of the child’s progress; and are required to provide at least a thousand hours of instruction, six hundred of which must be in “reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies and science.”
HB 1139 would change the “and” between these two requirements to an “or,” allowing parents to either keep records or meet the state’s subject requirements. If HB 1139 becomes law as written, a parent could choose not to teach a child mathematics, or science, or reading, and still be in compliance with state law.
“These requirements should absolutely not be either/or,” said Coleman. “Homeschool statutes need both record keeping requirements and subject requirements.” When a homeschooling parent fails to keep good records of a child’s education, Coleman explained, it can be extremely difficult for that parent to create a high school transcript. “Good record keeping is paramount,” said Coleman. “When a homeschooling parent does not keep records of their child’s education, no one does.”
Coleman also pointed out that state law requires parents to show their records if there is any question about whether they are homeschooling in accordance with the law.
“If parents can opt out of the record keeping requirement, what happens if questions arise about their homeschool?” Coleman asked. “Requiring homeschooling parents to both keep records and provide instruction in core subjects only makes sense.”
Coleman did not express concern about other provisions in the HB 1139, which would clarify that any individually identifiable information about homeschoolers held by the school district is confidential and make a voluntary process for parents notifying their local school districts of their intent to homeschool more straightforward.
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: 25 April, 2022 by Rachel Coleman
Victory for Homeschooled Students in Georgia!
For Immediate Release: Lawmakers supported homeschooled students last week by passing bill to catch parents who abuse the law
Canton, Ma., 04/03/2019—The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, is commending Georgia lawmakers for passing House Bill 530. HB 530, which creates greater protections for homeschooled students, is a legislative reform motivated by the deaths of Elwyn and Mary Crocker, two Georgia children whose bodies were found last December. The siblings were withdrawn from school to be homeschooled, and subsequently murdered.
“We would like to thank Georgia lawmakers for taking the time to listen to all of the voices in the homeschool community, including those of homeschool alumni,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “We deeply appreciate Georgia lawmakers’ willingness to center the needs of homeschooled children, and their commitment to finding a workable solution.” Georgia is the first state to add protections for at-risk homeschooled children since 2009, when the District of Columbia added an assessment process following a quadruple murder.
Efforts to create protections for homeschooled children sometimes face pushback from groups that oppose accountability measures for homeschooling. Coleman attributes the success of HB 530 in part to its design, which clearly and forcefully targeted fraudulent homeschooling. HB 530 would flag cases where parents remove children from school to begin homeschooling but fail to fill out a required online declaration of intent form within 45 days, forwarding such cases to the Division of Family and Children Services for an assessment.
In mid-February, Samantha Field, a policy advocate and board member for CRHE, went on air with Georgia Public Broadcasting to discuss the Crocker case, alongside Georgia Rep. Bill Hitchens. CRHE also submitted written testimony in support of HB 530. Coleman is thrilled to see the bill pass. “This is a momentous step toward better protecting Georgia’s homeschooled children,” said Coleman. “We urge Governor Brian Kemp to sign HB 530.”
A growing body of research suggests that the Crocker children’s deaths are not an isolated case. 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; in 2018, a state official in 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. CRHE maintains a database of severe and fatal abuse cases in homeschool settings; this database has twenty-two Georgia cases, including the 2013 death of Emani Moss.
HB 530 is designed to prevent future cases like those of the Crocker children, or like that of Emani Moss. Rep. Bill Hitchens, who sponsored HB 530, wrote in an editorial that “[t]he heart of this bill is the protection of children from parents who use homeschooling to shield themselves from the law,” adding that “[w]e have poured countless hours into this legislation because we never want there to be another Crocker family tragedy.”
Coleman cautions that the work is not over yet, and says that HB 530 should be seen as only the first step toward better protecting Georgia’s homeschooled children. “It is our hope that future legislation will create a flagging system for cases where parents begin homeschooling following a concerning history of child abuse or neglect reports,” said Coleman.
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: 2 November, 2023 by CRHE
Homeschool Alumni Support Arkansas Dual Enrollment Bill
For Immediate Release: Everyone benefits when public schools are funded to provide services to homeschooled students
Canton, Ma., 03/04/2019—Last week, the Arkansas House passed House Bill 1419, which would expand homeschooled students’ access to individual public school classes. The Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a national nonprofit founded by homeschool alumni to advocate for homeschooled children, is urging state senators to support the bill, which has now moved to the Senate Education Committee.
“Access to curricular programs allows homeschooled students to enroll in individual public school classes in areas parents don’t feel comfortable teaching,” said Dr. Rachel Coleman, executive director of CRHE. “Not all homeschooling parents have the resources needed to hire private tutors for difficult subjects, making bills like HB 1419 important.”
In 2017, Arkansas lawmakers passed a statute that was intended to open curricular classes to homeschooled students, but a report from the University of Arkansas’ Office of Education Policy found that this policy was not being effectively implemented. SB 1419 would amend the language of the statute from “may” to “shall,” preventing school districts from choosing not to enroll homeschooled students. School districts would be still permitted to limit enrollment if such enrollment created a financial loss for the school district.
Coleman points to the existence of a “homeschool math gap. “There is a large body of research that suggests homeschooled students underperform in math,” said Coleman. “Allowing homeschooling parents to enroll their children in individual math classes could help close that gap for individual students.” Coleman also points to the benefits of allowing homeschooled students to enroll in art classes, or in extracurriculars such as band.
“Homeschooling often includes a significant financial outlay in terms of curriculum, classes, and the sacrifice of one parent’s income,” said Coleman. “Not all homeschooling parents have the means to pay for tutors or other enrichments.” Data from the National Center for Education Statistics suggests that homeschooled students are no less likely to be low income than other students. In fact, the most recent numbers suggest that homeschooled students may actually be more likely to be below the poverty level than their peers, with over 20% of homeschooled students living below the poverty level.
“The interests of school districts and homeschooled students need not run counter to each other,” adds Coleman. “Some states have created innovative programs that encourage school districts and homeschoolers to work together. Alaska’s district-run homeschool programs and Iowa’s Home School Assistance Programs are excellent examples.” CRHE recommends providing school districts with partial funding allotments for homeschooled students they enroll. “Providing school districts with funding for the services they offer homeschoolers gives districts an incentive to publicize these programs while bringing resources to school districts.”
“Homeschooled students and families benefit from positive relationships between homeschool communities and local public schools,” said Coleman. “We applaud the Arkansas House for passing HB 1419 and urge the Arkansas Senate to do the same.”
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.