Senate Bill 972 was introduced on February 17th and is scheduled to be taken up in the Senate Health and Human Resource Committee tomorrow, Thursday, February 26, at 1:00 PM. The bill seeks to prohibit a parent from withdrawing their child from public or private school if an investigation of abuse or neglect is ongoing, or if a complaint alleging abuse or neglect has been made against the parent. Wording in the bill also seems to prohibit a current homeschool parent – not just those withdrawing from public school – from continuing to homeschool their child if an abuse accusation is made.
Contacts need made this evening and tomorrow morning. Contact information follows.
CHEWV opposes this bill because of the following objections:
Existing laws already address the issue and provide a fair avenue for addressing it:
- Our current law enables the county superintendent to seek an order from the county circuit court denying home instruction of a child.
- Our current law encourages any person to make a report to authorities if that person “has reasonable cause to suspect that a child has been abused or neglected…”
This bill reverses the burden of proof:
- Current law puts the burden of proof on the state to provide evidence that the child should not be educated at home by their parent. This law flips that and says an accused parent is prohibited from homeschooling until the complaint is resolved unless they convince a circuit judge that they should be allowed.
The proposed law seems to restrict constitutional guarantees.
- The proposed law would place a restriction on homeschooling without probable cause or due process. This restriction is based only on an accusation – no investigation, no substantiation, no hearing.
- Any bad actor who wanted to stop a parent from homeschooling could do so simply by making an anonymous abuse complaint.
- A complaint as simple as a neighbor seeing a child ride a bike without a helmet could keep the parent from starting to homeschool their child. That is true even if the allegation is a complete fabrication.
There is no requirement for a timely investigation and no cap for how long home instruction is prohibited.
- DHHR is overworked and understaffed. They run a backlog of cases, with some complaints taking 6 months to investigate.
- There is no time limit to the restriction on homeschooling – the ban continues for as long as the investigation is pending.
- This bill would restrict a parent’s fundamental right to educate their child at home because of a complaint that is unlikely to be substantiated.
DHHR acknowledges that less than 10 percent of the more than 100,000 reports made to that agency since the middle of 2023 were ultimately deemed to be substantiated.
Wording in the bill seems to prohibit a current homeschool parent – not just those withdrawing from public school – from continuing to homeschool their child:
- The law states that “When a child is the subject of a pending investigation of abuse or neglect pursuant to this article, and the alleged perpetrator is a custodial parent, guardian, or other person responsible for the child’s care… the alleged perpetrator may not assume or resume responsibility as the primary provider of home instruction for the child.” [ From the proposed (b) and (b)(2).] This is unclear, at best, and could potentially cause extreme and unnecessary upheaval in the lives of good families wrongfully accused.
When contacting committee members, remember that many of them have been strong supporters of homeschooling for many years. Just politely ask them to vote no and share your reasons why.
Health and Human Resources Committee
*Denotes bill sponsor
Senator Helton – Chair
Senator Deeds – Vice-Chair
Senator Azinger
*Senator Bartlett
*Senator Fuller
*Senator Garcia
*Senator Grady
Senator Martin
Senator Maynard, M.
*Senator Queen
Senator Roberts
Senator Rose
Senator Rucker
*Senator Takubo
Senator Taylor
Senator Willis
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