The homeschool community reaching out to lawmakers across the state about possible regulation. It comes after lawmakers in California proposed new regulations in light of the Turpin child abuse case.
“The concern that we have based on this Turpin abuse case in California is a number of legislators and media outlets are beginning to call for not just academic regulation but visits from Children Protective Services and mandatory reports for all home schools homes,” President of Texas Home School Coalition Tim Lambert said. “Our concerns for these efforts to re-brand home schooling as a haven for abusers really is unfounded.”
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As the Turpin case continues to unfold, lawmakers are working to increase regulation to provide some form of safety for other children who are being homeschooled. However, Lambert said the Turpin case has been used to wrongly accuse the home school community.
“Our child abuse statutes set up on the basis of not even probable cause but there has to be someone who makes an allegation of potential abuse before there’s an investigation,” Lambert said. “If we move to a situation where some are advocating that we should check on all these families on a regular basis, of all that would overwhelm CPS or whoever is looking at that.”
After home schooling his own children several years ago, Lambert said new regulation would be a “nightmare” for these families.
“Home school students are 40% less likely to be abused than students in a public school,” Lambert said. “So our argument is the evidence to take freedom from families to make decisions for their children is just not there.”
THSC reported approximately 150,000 families home school their children currently, with 1,000 of those families in Lubbock. He argued the regulation would not only cause a unnecessary burden on those families but continued costs to CPS.
Texas laws view homeschooling the same as private schools in terms of current regulation. At this time, no state lawmakers have proposed new changes.
