When CPS gets an allegation about abuse of a homeschooled child, statistically it is more likely to be true than an allegation about an outside-schooled child, for the simple reason that a child who is being seen by a variety of other adults and children outside the home every day, is more likely to have already come to the attention of police and/or CPS if there is real abuse going on. And out of all the confirmed cases of severe child abuse, a much higher percentage are in children whose parents claim to be homeschooling them, than in children who have been attending outside schools. This is due both to the phenomenon of deliberate use of phony homeschooling to conceal abuse, and the fact that severe abuse or neglect of a child who is attending an outside school, is usually detected before it reaches the national headlines level. One has to think that the Yates children would still be alive if they had been attending even the lousiest public schools, because their appearance and the things they said about their home life would certainly have tipped off authorities that intervention was urgently needed.
The bias against homeschoolers is very real, though, and ought to be formally addressed. Homeschooled children rarely grow up to be low paid government workers, so CPS workers have virtually never been homeschooled themselves, nor do they usually have any colleagues who were homeschooled. As a result, their experience with homeschooled families is seriously skewed toward those who have been the target of abuse reports, and while plenty of perfectly innocent homeschool families have been the targets of such reports, I'm sure the percentage of truly abusive homeschool families who've been reported to CPS is far higher than the percentage of all homeschool families who are trulyabusive. HSLDA would do well to start a program in which sane and healthy homeschool families invite CPS workers and social work students planning to go into CPS-type work, into their homes to see how it works.
"HSLDA would do well to start a program in which sane and healthy homeschool families invite CPS workers and social work students planning to go into CPS-type work, into their homes to see how it works."
There is a truly original idea.
The fact of the matter is that there are a few well-publicized cases, like the Yates, and the Jacksons in NJ, and the family in NC, who are indeed using home schooling as a cover for other problems. But, statistically, it is insignificant. The vast majority of families reported to CPS are families with children not yet of school age. See this link for a start:
http://nccanch.acf.hhs.gov/pubs/factsheets/fatality.cfm
It points out that from national statistics, only 12% of fatally abused children are kids 8 and older. As far as non-fatal abuse of older children is concerned, most is sexual abuse and most often occurs when a child lives with a single parent. Do you know how many single parents homeschool ? I can tell you that I am one, and after 4 years I have yet to meet any other single parent who homeschools.
So, substantiate your post, please.
Actually, such a thing would lend itself well to homeschool studies. The main problem being the introduction of a subject to your kids like "some parents abuse their kids."
By the time your kids are mature enough for that sort of subject, chances are low that CPS is going to pay you a visit.