Some folks in Florida adopted a little girl. They mistreated her and her siblings for years. People turned them in to the social workers OFTEN. Nothing was done. Not really. There were so many cases, so few workers, blah, blah, blah.
Then the family withdrew the children from the public schools. Then the girl died from the abuse.
Suddenly, although these people had a long history of abusing the children in their home and no one knows if they were homeschooling or not, the court recommends penalizing ALL HOME SCHOOLERS, the implication being that all homeschoolers are child abusers, the state did not do its job because its hands were tied, blah, blah, blah.
Of course, maybe the judicial recommendations will not become official policy.
In this case.
There always is that hope.
Though becoming more and more bleak.
However:
- Did the child die because the state failed to act on already-existing laws? (Probably.)
- Will all the abused children in public schools still suffer because of lack of personnel? Or if the policy is enacted, will they suffer even more because of it? (Probably.)
- Will the state somehow provide funding for even more caseworkers? (Probably not.)
- Will the caseworkers somehow suddenly develop a higher level of caring or a deeper level of investigation? Or whatever? (Probably not.)
- If the recommendations do become policy, will the policy be unenforceable except on a whim-basis? (Probably.)
- Is it true that all caseworkers and all judges are totally unconcerned about the actual children? (Oops. Didn’t mean to say that.)
- Didn’t we ordain and establish our government to circumvent this precise problem? (Yes. Yes. A thousand times: Yes.)
Will we fight this as the U.S. citizens that we are, who are provided with innocence until proven guilty? (Your answer goes here.)
In case anyone is confused, let me say it again:
HOME SCHOOLING IS A LEGAL, PROTECTED ACTIVITY IN THIS COUNTRY.
THE PROBLEM IS FAILURE TO ATTEND TO ACTUAL CHILD ABUSE.
GET THAT AND DO NOT FORGET IT.
Home's Cool! 
I’m not sure I’m understanding what Home Schooling has to do with the fact that the state didn’t do it’s job and follow up every time someone turned these folks in on abusing her. In all actuality she probably would’ve died even if she was in public school.
Hello, Bats! That is exactly the point I was hoping to convey. It has nothing to do with homeschooling, but home schoolers are a convenient whipping boy for several state problems. Incidence of child abuse is soaring and funds to deal with it are not. Case worker energy flags, too. It is so sad, but not our fault at all. That these parents would withdraw a child from school does not make us bad. Just convenient. Thanks for your true observations.