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A legislative interim meeting Monday discussing child-welfare safeguards and school-transfer oversight dropped a bombshell statistic: In Kanawha County, 48 of 123 recent homeschool notices involved students with histories of chronic absenteeism.
That should stop a train of oxen in its tracks.
What becomes of those chronically absent students once you remove the accountability of taking a daily roll? Does anyone really believe these students will suddenly be better off, more focused on learning and more likely to reach their potential in a new homeschool environment?
Some may. And homeschooling may indeed prove better for some of them.
But believing that all 48 will suddenly become the antithesis of chronically absent — rescued from the consequences that so often accompany absenteeism — seems naïve.
Consider this finding: Among students who missed 10 or more days, only 64% graduated from high school, compared with 86% of students overall. Their dropout rate was more than twice the overall rate — 23% versus 10%. The disparity continued after high school: 53% of students with 10 or more absences enrolled in postsecondary education, compared with 73% overall.
The conclusion isn’t complicated: Frequent absence is an important warning sign that a student is at greater risk of not graduating or continuing his or her education.
There’s little need to explain the economic and social consequences associated with failing to graduate from high school. Surely we can also acknowledge that society frequently bears some portion of those costs through the social safety net placing a burden that could be avoided on taxpayers.
With that groundwork laid, can we agree that taking a closer look at what is happening here is worthwhile, not suspect?
Not to deny parents their educational liberties. Not to presume homeschooling is inferior. And certainly not to place unnecessary government barriers in front of parents who are responsibly educating their children at home.
But we should make certain homeschooling does not become a convenient safety valve — either paving the way for the kind of tragedy we saw in Sissonville or simply allowing a bad parent to escape the public-school system’s basic expectation that children actually attend school.
Homeschooling isn’t evil. Homeschool advocates are not bad people, they are wonderful people. The overwhelming majority are parents trying to do what they believe is best for their children. I know because I call homeschool parents family and friends. A few come to mind that are able to provide their children opportunities a public school could never match.
But in any system, some people will abuse freedom to evil ends. It is as certain as death, taxes and original sin. Sadly, some will likely use homeschooling — and the legal status of being a homeschool parent — as cover for intentions having little to do with educating a child.
We cannot allow legitimate educational freedom to become a shield for neglect.
We live in a broken world where children are abused every day. Children quietly fall through the cracks, leaving them less able to escape generational failure and generational poverty. Those who would abuse children – those capable of such evil – will use any avenue they can find to let them do what they do.
Those children, those parents no doubt represent a tiny minority of homeschoolers. But they exist. Search for yourself.
Looking out for all children’s best interests is laudable. It is reasonable. And it is not an attack on educational freedom.
We would have a much better chance of finding common ground on issues such as Raylee’s Law if we began with a simple principle: Protect the freedom of responsible parents while refusing to turn a blind eye to vulnerable children when common sense — and the warning signs in front of us — tell us something may be wrong.