A misguided impulse to add homeschooling regs

THE bizarre “house of horrors” case, in which a California couple are accused of abusing and starving their 13 children, has understandably prompted officials to ask how such events could be prevented in the future.

Because the parents claimed to be homeschooling their children, some argue greater regulation of homeschooling will reduce child abuse. That impulse is misguided and counterproductive. Empirical evidence shows homeschooled children are less likely to suffer abuse. And denying homeschool opportunities to many children would reduce academic outcomes.

In 2017, researcher Rodger Williams calculated and compared child fatality rates due to abuse or neglect in the general population and the homeschool population. Among other things, Williams drew his data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education.

Williams calculated the “expected” fatality rate among homeschoolers if the rate within homeschooling was the same as in the general population. He found the expected number of fatalities among legally homeschooled students was 55, but the actual number was far lower — 32. Put another way, legally homeschooled students were 40 percent less likely to die by child abuse or neglect than the average student nationally.

This makes sense given that parents who choose to homeschool their children are normally people who put their children’s needs first. Abusers masquerading as homeschoolers are the exception, not the rule.

Some may object that greater homeschooling regulation, or forcing more students to attend traditional schools, may still be necessary to ensure the small minority of abusers are not able to evade scrutiny. But this ignores the problem of abuse committed by school employees operating in heavily regulated environments.

Writing at The Federalist, G. Shane Morris notes a Google search for “teacher student sexual relationship” yields 197 million hits. In 2014, almost 800 school employees were prosecuted for sexual assault, according to Reuters.

In many instances, school employees suspected of abusing children are allowed to quietly resign and obtain jobs at other schools. This problem has cropped up in Oklahoma and prompted legislation to end the cycle.

“If state and local governments can’t protect the children in their own schools, the ones over whom they have been given custody for eight or more hours a day, what makes anyone think they can protect children in home schools or private schools that they are only going to inspect once a year?” writes Cheryl Magness, managing editor of the official web magazine of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

This is why increasing regulation of homeschooling, including government inspections, would do little to prevent child abuse. But it would do much to deter homeschooling by raising the costs and regulatory burden. And that in turn could reduce educational outcomes.

Much research has been done on the academic performance of homeschooled students. While the results vary, most research shows homeschool students on average outperform their traditional-school peers, and often by significant margins.

Forcing those students into the traditional school system could reduce their level of academic achievement, but wouldn’t cut down on child abuse.