A severe case of child abuse and torture is bringing renewed attention to the mostly hands-off approach states take with home schooling. Parents in Perris, Calif., have been charged with multiple counts of abuse and torture of their 13 children, who were reportedly being home-schooled. Although there is no evidence that abuse is widespread among the nation鈥檚 home-schooling community of 1.7 million students, advocates from the Center for Responsible Home Education say lack of regulation makes home schooling attractive to neglectful and abusive parents. Rachel Coleman, the director of the center, talked with 澳门跑狗论坛鈥榮 Arianna Prothero about the issue.
Are California鈥檚 homeschooling laws loose compared with other states鈥�?
Fifteen states require a parent to turn in some sort of notice saying they鈥檙e home schooling but that鈥檚 all. No assessment, no one is checking up on those kids, no contact. Eleven states don鈥檛 even require that鈥攜ou don鈥檛 have to tell anyone if you鈥檙e home schooling. Texas is one of those states, where the family previously lived. In the remaining 24 states, there is some form of assessment requirement, but this is really variable because a number of states require an assessment but don鈥檛 require parents to turn it in or even show proof that they did the assessment.
How common is abuse among home-schooling families?
We can鈥檛 know that abuse is more common for home schoolers overall; it may not be. But we do know when abuse occurs in a home-school situation, there are fewer safeguards to catch it. It鈥檚 less likely to be identified and less likely to be stopped.
Is there evidence that a large share of home-schooling parents homeschool their children to hide abuse?
There are no records kept on this. Child-protective services don鈥檛 keep a record of whether a child attends school, is home-schooled, or attends private schools. It鈥檚 extremely difficult to quantify. We have 381 cases in our database鈥攎ost are from 2000 to present. And these are severe and fatal abuse cases. Home schooling is clearly overrepresented in severe and fatal cases of abuse.
