Will More Homeschooling Regulations Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect?

by Valorie Delp | More from this Blogger

03 Sep 2007 04:04 AM

My short answer to this is no, more homeschooling regulations will not prevent child abuse and neglect. In fact, I would suggest that regulating the homeschooler is a useless means of telling whether or not a child has been abused. I'll explain why in a minute.

But first, let's talk about how prevalent abuse is among homeschoolers. The short answer to that is 'not very.' It is sad when we hear about a case of child abuse and we hear that the children were home schooled and someone says, "If only they had been in school--we may have recognized it sooner." I certainly admit that that's a possibility, but child abuse is often missed by school officials and social workers too. Not only that but I feel safe in saying the overwhelming majority of home schooling families, have very active social lives. As a group of people, we're not talking about a bunch of recluses, but people who are actively engaged in learning as much as possible about life.

Do Regulations Deter Abuse?

I mentioned in my previous article that New York State is the most highly regulated state that I am aware of when it comes to paper work. With that said, no one ever checks on my children. My paperwork looks great--I'm pretty meticulous about keeping records. But really, there's no one that knows for sure that I actually did what I said I did. For someone who would purposely set out to keep their children at home to abuse them, paperwork would not be a deterrent. Theoretically, it could actually make a would be abusive parent look good if their paperwork were complete and done well.

I could really talk for quite awhile about how having more regulations will not protect children, how there aren't that many cases of children being beaten in the name of home school, and how regulations often hurt rather than help children's educations. But the bottom line is this: states would do much better worrying about the children who are put in their care educationally speaking rather than going after a population of parents who are vastly by in large, highly involved and responsible in educating their children.

Related Articles:

Does Homeschooling Need More Regulating?

Teaching Socialization in a Structured Environment

Do Homeschoolers Brainwash Their Kids?

Discipline in the Homeschool Classroom

Learn more about Valorie Delp

Hello everybody! My name is Valorie and I am one busy lady! When I'm not writing or editing for families, I am busy trying to get my brood of 5 in line.

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