{"id":1404170,"date":"2026-02-05T10:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/?p=1404170&preview=true&preview_id=1404170"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:10:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T15:10:36","slug":"these-kids-are-invisible-child-abuse-deaths-spur-clash-over-homeschool-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thenewsherald.com\/2026\/02\/05\/these-kids-are-invisible-child-abuse-deaths-spur-clash-over-homeschool-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018These kids are invisible\u2019: Child abuse deaths spur clash over homeschool regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anna Claire Vollers, Stateline.org<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Rachel Marshall was growing up in Virginia, her parents kept a magnet on the refrigerator from a national homeschooling advocacy group, with a phone number to call if local school officials tried to interfere with their decision to educate their children at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou tell [the organization] the state\u2019s after you, and they will come in with their lawyers and defend your right to homeschool and do what you want with your kids,\u201d said Marshall, now a licensed counselor in Utah. \u201cThe state should be hands-off, that was their goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall wishes the state had been more hands-on. When she was a child, she said, her education and her safety were at the mercy of her parents, who struggled with mental illness and addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an ugly situation,\u201d Marshall told Stateline. \u201cBut I think had there been some sort of regulation, some expectations from the state, I would not have been exposed to that as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

As homeschool enrollment has risen in recent years, so have concerns about oversight.<\/p>\n

Recent high-profile child abuse deaths in several states have led to renewed calls from lawmakers for stronger regulations. They warn that some abusers claim they are homeschooling their kids when they pull them out of school, but really want to hide their crimes from teachers and other so-called mandatory reporters in public schools. Mandatory reporters are legally obligated to speak up about abuse if they suspect it.<\/p>\n

But the push has inflamed a broader debate over parental rights and galvanized hundreds of homeschool groups to rally at statehouses around the country.<\/p>\n

In every state, parents or guardians can withdraw their children from public or private school to be homeschooled. States allow this even if the caregiver has been the subject of a substantiated child welfare investigation<\/a>, according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, an advocacy group. Nearly every state allows parents to withdraw children in the middle of an active investigation, and most states don\u2019t prevent people convicted of crimes against children<\/a> from homeschooling their kids.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers in states such as Connecticut<\/a>, Illinois<\/a> and West Virginia<\/a> have attempted to pass additional reporting requirements to guard against child abuse in homeschool settings.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re running up against parents\u2019 rights groups and homeschooling advocates who argue that such regulations treat all homeschooling parents as potential criminals and aren\u2019t necessary because many children in such situations are already on the radar of social service agencies. They say the additional requirements don\u2019t address problems inside child protection agencies that allow such abuse to go unaddressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen bad things happen, people feel compelled to do something, whether it makes a difference or not,\u201d said Connecticut state Rep. Anne Dauphinais, a Republican who opposes homeschool regulation. \u201cIt\u2019s often overreach of government, just because [lawmakers] want to feel good about doing something.\u201d<\/p>\n

In West Virginia, Democratic state Del. Shawn Fluharty said in an interview that he\u2019d lost track of how many times he\u2019s tried to get a bill passed that would prevent a parent from pulling a child out of public school to homeschool if social services is investigating the parent for possible child abuse or neglect. According to Stateline\u2019s sister publication, West Virginia Watch, this year will mark the seventh year he\u2019s tried<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fluharty calls his bill \u201cRaylee\u2019s Law,\u201d after an 8-year-old girl who died from severe abuse and neglect in 2018. Before her death, her abusers had pulled her out of public school after teachers and school administrators began noticing signs of abuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, I\u2019m just pissed off,\u201d Fluharty told Stateline. \u201cWe\u2019ve had at least two other circumstances very similar to Raylee\u2019s situation since I\u2019ve been pushing this legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fluharty said he\u2019s considering revising the law\u2019s name to also memorialize Kyneddi Miller, a West Virginia 14-year-old who starved to death in 2024<\/a>. Her mother had pulled her from public school in 2021 to homeschool her.<\/p>\n

The bill passed the House twice in recent years, with bipartisan support, but died in a Senate committee each time. It faces opposition from homeschooling advocates in the legislature, he said, as well as lobbying efforts from national homeschool groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a complex situation,\u201d said Fluharty. \u201cIt\u2019s a glaring loophole that needs to be closed. The longer it stays open, the more vulnerable children are in West Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Homeschool explosion<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, homeschool participation hovered around 2-3% of K-12 students. It exploded during the pandemic to a high of 11% of families, as learning outside of traditional schools became normalized. Now about 6% of school-age children<\/a> in the United States are homeschooled, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.<\/p>\n

But interest is on the rise<\/a>. In recent years, the 30 states that publicly report homeschool participation have seen those numbers grow. More than a third of those states recorded their highest homeschool enrollment ever<\/a> in the 2024-2025 school year, even exceeding pandemic-era peaks, according to a study published in November.<\/p>\n

Homeschooling has increasingly been framed as a political and cultural choice, particularly in conservative circles where it\u2019s promoted as a way to exercise control over children\u2019s education amid anger over how schools address racial equity, gender identity and sexuality, school violence and vaccine requirements. Homeschool supporters praise its flexibility and safety. Others warn that minimal regulation can leave some children isolated from the visibility and protections built into public school systems.<\/p>\n

The issue doesn\u2019t always fall neatly along party lines. In Georgia, the 2018 deaths of two siblings<\/a> prompted a Republican-sponsored bill<\/a> that prohibits caregivers from withdrawing a child from school for the purpose of evading detection of child abuse and neglect. It became law in 2019.<\/p>\n

In Hawaii, Republican state Sen. Kurt Fevella filed a resolution in 2024 calling for the state to conduct a wellness visit for any child removed from school to be homeschooled. He was motivated by the deaths of two unrelated children<\/a> in Hawaii who had been taken out of school for homeschooling. It died in committee.<\/p>\n

Last year, Rachel Marshall gave testimony before Utah legislators who were considering a controversial bill that would remove part of a 2023 law requiring parents to attest they\u2019ve never been convicted of child abuse before they\u2019re allowed to homeschool their children.<\/p>\n

Marshall opposed the bill, worried the state was erasing one more safeguard protecting the small subset of homeschooled children who are at risk of abuse or neglect. But as she sat listening to the homeschooling parents speaking in favor of it, their words sounded familiar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could hear the fear and rage that someone would take away your rights,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think if you are being investigated by [child protective services], you should not be allowed to withdraw your children from daily mandated reporters like schoolteachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s chief sponsor, Republican state Rep. Nicholeen Peck, said her goal was to remove a portion of state homeschooling law that was ineffective, had created confusion for school districts, and unfairly stigmatized homeschooling families.<\/p>\n

The Utah legislature passed the bill and it was signed into law last spring.<\/p>\n

Statehouse rallies<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Studies are mixed on whether children who are homeschooled are more likely to be victims of abuse.<\/p>\n

A 2022 survey<\/a> of homeschooled and conventionally schooled adults found homeschooled children aren\u2019t necessarily more likely to report experiencing abuse or neglect.<\/p>\n