The tragic death of 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller earlier this year has raised several issues about the state’s level of responsibility in looking out for abused and neglected children. Miller was found dead on the bathroom floor of her Boone County home “emaciated to a skeletal state.” Her mother and grandparents face charges of felony child neglect causing death.
Miller was homeschooled and state law requires parents or guardians to submit to the county school system an academic assessment after grades three, five, eight and eleven. An investigation by Governor Justice’s office found that Miller’s 8th grade assessment was never submitted and there was no follow up by Boone County schools.
The lack of follow-up by county schools in assessing homeschool student progress is all too common. School administrators and attendance officers are already overwhelmed with truancy cases of children enrolled in the public schools, leaving little time to devote to homeschool students.
State law says that when a homeschool student fails to meet the assessment requirements, the county superintendent “may, after showing probable cause, seek from the circuit court of the county an order denying home instruction of the child.” The word “may” means superintendents don’t have to, and trying to get a truancy case on a crowded circuit court docket is time consuming.
Mickey Blackwell, executive director of the West Virginia Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals, explained the predicament at last week’s state Board of Education meeting.
“Our schools are overwhelmed,” Blackwell said. “A school principal, a school counselor, an assistant principal has plenty to do all day, and it should not be their responsibility to check on everybody that is in a homeschool or a charter school. There should be positions made within the school, within the county, and one or two people should be responsible for this.”
Nearly 27,000 West Virginia students are homeschooled, and many of these students are excelling in the home environment. However, 71 percent of homeschool students were chronically absent before their transition.
No doubt some have valid reasons for not going to school—bullying is often mentioned—but that high percentage also suggests many students and their parents or guardians are using homeschooling as a convenient excuse to not go to school.
A better system of checks and balances is needed. Dedicated homeschoolers may feel like they are under attack, but they have nothing to fear. In fact, they should be leading advocates for ensuring that education outside the traditional public schools maintains a high standard and that the system is not being abused.
Governor Jim Justice is open to legislation improving accountability. “We probably need to find a better way to tighten it,” he said. “That’s an area I’m sure we can make things a little better.”
To be clear, of course Kyneddi Miller did not die because she was homeschooled. Something went terribly wrong in the child’s home and we will learn more as the cases of her mother and grandparents work their way through the justice system.
However, the tragedy has brought to light loopholes in the state’s homeschool law that need to be fixed.