By Dr. Brian Ray
Is there any correlation between the amount of state regulation on homeschooling and child abuse? Below is the research findings of Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute.
The modern homeschool movement is about 40 years old in the United States. Numerous debates have surrounded the issue regarding to what extent the civil government should control or regulate parents and children who are involved in private home-based homeschool education.
The deliberations have addressed various topics such as whether
(a) parents should have to be state-certified teachers in order to home educate their children
(b) parents should have to have achieved a particular level of formal education in order to homeschool their children
(c) parents should have to pass teacher qualification examinations that states use for public school teachers
(d) homeschool students should be subjected to mandatory standardized achievement tests
(e) state officials should oversee the social activities of home-educated students (or homeschool socialization)
(f) parents should have to get approval from the state government in order to engage in home-based education with their children (see, e.g., Farris 2013; Yuracko, 2008).
Often these issues arise because people want to know whether there are any problems with homeschooling. From time to time, other topics related to regulation arise. One is whether more state control of private homeschooling would have any impact on the rate of child abuse or neglect of homeschool students.
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