Has anyone else run into this problem?

I know of this family in rural central Texas (not in my district) with five kids at home and one more about to be born. The mother has become convinced that modern medicine is evil and so has been using "homeopathic" remedies for years now. She won't go to the hospital for her repeated childbirths, in spite of the near-stillborn experiences with the last two that she had at home. Their income is virtually unable to support them. Their house is constantly in a total shambles. And now she has pulled the kids out of school and claims that she is "home-schooling" them.

The problem is, it's been over four years and the kids aren't being taught. The ones who were old enough to be enrolled four years ago have actually regressed; the younger ones are unable to spell or write or add or perform any other common tasks that they should easily be able to do at their ages. But the mother & father insist their kids are just scared to show off their abilities, or are slow, or whatever.

I have since learned of the existence of an anti-establishment association that seeks to defend all homeschooling parents from any government intervention. They are filled with extreme distrust for all prosecutors and CPS employees and anyone else who would trample on parents' rights to homeschool. They have apparently lobbied very successfully to the point that our statutes and case law pretty much allow these parents to do whatever they want once they pull these kids out of school. Of course, the family I'm referring to is aware of this organization as well.

This is a really bad situation. CPS is often scared to get involved, school districts can't do much of anything, and the kids can't be tested or otherwise evaluated.

So what is to become of these kids? They don't have much of a future at this rate, and yet apparently there is little the State can do to help. Does anyone else have any experience dealing with this kind of situation? Is there any effective way to force some education back into these kids' lives?

Let me point out that I have no problem with the 95% of homeschooling parents who do things right. But I find it hard to stomach the idea that in the name of recognizing parents' rights to educate their own kids, we are willing to turn our backs on the kids trapped in obviously phony homeschool programs.

[This message was edited by David Higginson on 05-16-05 at .]

[This message was edited by David Higginson on 05-17-05 at .]

"I have since learned of the existence of the "Home School Legal Defense Association" and its militant website. They are filled with hatred for all prosecutors and CPS employees and anyone else who would trample on parents' rights to homeschool."

Alarmed by your post, I went to the website to see what the uprising was all about, and found no signs of revolution. There is nothing "militant" about the HSLDA website. It appears they have a healthy distrust of government interference in family matters, however.

We have had some similar issues. If a child ends up in the juvie system (which many unsupervised children manage to do) we require that home schooled children at least meet the standards of regularly schooled ones as part of probation. Failure to meet those standards puts the child in public school by order of the court.

I have edited my earlier message slightly. What I should have said was that the agency I referred to is so committed to their own agenda that they refused to help me find a solution to this specific problem last year. I spent a few hours and multiple e-mails and phone calls trying to get someone from their organization on the phone, and the lawyer I finally did get was unwilling to suggest anything at all other than "try to change the parents' minds." Their goal as I see it is not to promote better homeschooling.

And again, I say all this as someone who is seriously considering homeschooling my kids - at least partially - when they are old enough. I would just like to think that if my plan were a sham and my kids couldn't read or write after a few years, the State would have the ability to protect the rights of the true victims - the children.