Protecting Homeschoolers - A Proposal to Protect Homeschooled Children in North Carolina from Educational Neglect

Abstract

This report proposes a change to the law in North Carolina to add the concept of "educational neglect" to the definition of child neglect. Such a law would provide an avenue to allow the state to receive a complaint that a home-schooled child was not receiving an adequate education from his or her parents. It would also create a mechanism for investigation of such a complaint and a resolution that would require that an educationally neglected child either attend school or be more appropriately educated at home. The report describes the history of the regulation of homeschooling in North Carolina, describes the current law in detail, identifies the risks to home-schooled children in the current law, compares the North Carolina law to the laws in other states, and makes a recommendation to the General Assembly for change.

Keywords: homeschooling regulation, educational neglect, law of home-schools