The chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee said officials have to closely examine whether school systems are measuring up in checking on homeschooled students.
“They are overwhelmed with things they have to take care of. I completely agree with that. But it doesn’t mean this is something we ignore because we’re overwhelmed. In my classroom, I’m overwhelmed with a lot of things, but I also know there are things that have to get done and have to figure out a way to do them,” said Senate Education Chairwoman Amy Nichole Grady, R-Mason, a fourth grade teacher.
“So that’s where we are now. We may be overwhelmed with things. We have a lot of things on our plate, but we still have responsibilities that we have to figure out how we can take care of it. Coming together and coming up with a plan is the best thing we can do. We can’t just sit back and say ‘Well, they’re homeschooled and so we shouldn’t have to worry about them.’ That’s not the case.”
State figures show that more often than not families do not submit mandatory academic assessments for homeschool students. From there, it’s not clear that school systems follow up.
The issue of checking on homeschool students has been at the center of public policy debate following the death of Kyneddi Miller, a 14-year-old girl found on the bathroom floor, “emaciated to a skeletal state.”
Investigators say Kyneddi had not attended school since late 2019 or 2020 and hadn’t been outside the house more than a couple of times in the last four years. The girl’s family submitted homeschooling documentation in February 2021, with her mother writing “We think homeschooling is the best now with the COVID-19 in order to keep our family safe.”
Any school system contact after that is in doubt. In response to recent requests for homeschooling assessments, the Boone County school system has told reporters “no public records exist.” The chairwoman of the health committee in the House of Delegates asked in a memo if any academic assessments were submitted for Kyneddi Miller. County officials responded, “The answer to your inquiry is ‘No.’”
Over the past couple of months, questions have focused on whether state agencies could have provided stronger oversight to intervene for the girl’s wellbeing. A significant aspect of that concern is whether West Virginia’s guidelines surrounding homeschooling provide enough impetus for school systems to check in on homeschooling students or for families to respond.
The question is whether the requirement for some contact with the school system through the assessment could have been an entry point to know about the condition of a vulnerable student like Kyneddi. The public policy issue is also whether the law should be changed to mandate that school attendance officers follow up on with possible truancy charges if families don’t comply with assessment obligations.
The state Department of Education has compiled data on how many families of students as required. The department indicates the figures it has compiled are the best data available, but for a range of reasons might not be perfect.
That said, only a quarter to a third of homeschooled students have the assessments submitted on their behalf, according to the state education department.
From the 2020 to current academic year, West Virginia had 32,873 students actively homeschooling. Of those, 7,774 students had academic assessments submitted. That shows almost 24% of homeschool students had assessments submitted
Broken down further, students are supposed to have the required assessments submitted on their behalf in grades 3,5, 8 and 11. There were 17,111 students in those grade levels who were actively homeschooling during the most recent four years. Of those, 6,341 students had the assessments submitted. That’s a 37% compliance rate.
“Ultimately, we the ones in charge of education, and if they’re supposed to turn in assessments to the board of education then we do need some sort of insight over what we need to do about it,” Grady said on MetroNews’ “Talkline.”
Grady said the regular academic assessments are important “because it holds everybody accountable. It also allows teachers and allows the school system to see what homeschool families are doing.”
Gov. Jim Justice and his administration have suggested that officials should tighten the requirement for school systems to check in on homeschooled students to ensure participation in the assessment requirements. Other leading legislators have echoed that, but others say current law is adequate.
Delegate Kathie Hess Crouse, R-Putnam, distributed an opinion piece saying the state’s academic assessment numbers raise more questions than answers “and puts the homeschooling community in a defensive position based on potentially flawed data.”
Crouse said the years that were the basis for the statistics notably included a period when schools were shut down for the covid-19 pandemic, and many families turned to homeschooling temporarily. She questioned other aspects of the data, including the fact that assessments for the most recent academic year would not yet be processed.
“Consequently, incomplete data presented out of context paints an inaccurate picture, shocking the public and legislators with claims of a lack of accountability. It is vital to bring all the facts to light and engage with legislators to counter misinformation with logical and factual arguments,” Crouse wrote.
She pushed back against the possibility of a mandate for school systems to follow up on students whose assessments aren’t submitted, saying school systems already have the power to do so.
“Public school systems have opted not to utilize the law already in place and follow up, even though state homeschool organizations have long noted that county superintendents can choose to do so,” Crouse wrote.
Roy Ramey, leader of the West Virginia Home Educators Association, called Kyneddi Miller’s death tragic but he said her death was not because of homeschooling.
“Policies have not been followed, and despite that if the policies were followed I want to make very clear to everyone out there it would not have changed this one bit,” Ramey said. “Turning in the assessment or even if the school had followed up on the assessment not being turned in none of that would have been related directly to the child neglect that rightfully caused this death.”