Government to Decide if Homeschooling is in the Best Interest of Your Child

We can't recall an absurdity or punch to the solar plexus of trampling liberties greater than this one. Here's a state, Ohio, which has a monopoly on education which it shares with the federal government determining if a competitor, homeschooling, is good for the child. Can you believe this? And then if the educrats' efforts to ensnare they can appeal to CPS to find some other reason to punish a family. One certainty: there will be no campus shooting rampages -- unless the state sets up false flags, of course. This is not unlike the government telling the people they can't be armed, but they the monopoly government, can be. We're sure you can come up with analogies of your own. But...none will permit the parents to decide who shall educate their children. Might be time for Christian families to find a less predatory state which has a greater appreciation of liberty and the American family...CV...Ed Lily Dane The Daily Sheeple December 18th, 2013

If you live in Ohio and homeschool your children, you may soon be subjected to intrusive background checks and investigations, courtesy of social services.

On December 3, 2013, Senate Bill 248 was introduced by Senator Capri Cafaro. The bill would require all parents who homeschool to undergo a social services investigation to determine if homeschooling is “in the best interest of the child.”

Parents and children would have to be interviewed separately as part of the investigation.  The information gathered during the interviews and though background checks would be used to determine whether or not homeschooling is recommended for a family.

If it is not recommended, parents would have to submit to an “intervention” before further consideration of their request to homeschool.

An automatic recommendation against homeschooling would have to be issued if a family has any record of a child welfare investigation, regardless of the result of that investigation. If there is a recommendation against homeschooling, the superintendent would be ordered to delay excusing the children for homeschooling until the family participates in a CPS parenting “intervention.”

Why was this bill introduced?  The story behind it is tragic, as the Home School Legal Defense Association explains:

SB 248 was offered by sponsors as a way to respond to the death of 14-year-old Teddy Foltz-Tedesco in January 2013. News reports indicate that Teddy had been abused for years by his mother’s boyfriend, Zaryl Bush. After teachers reported abuse to authorities, Teddy’s mother withdrew him from public school, allegedly to homeschool him. Reports tell a sad story of a broken home where neighbors, friends, family, police, teachers and others knew Teddy was suffering ongoing abuse. 

Finally, Bush beat Teddy so severely that he later died of his injuries. Both Bush and Teddy’s mother are now in prison. A news report can be found online.

But if passed, will the bill protect children from child abuse?

The Home School Legal Defense Association explains why the bill wouldn’t have saved Teddy:

Teddy Foltz-Tedesco was killed because those responsible for protecting him did not step in as the law or common sense would have dictated. Why? Although news reports indicate that abuse had been reported for years prior to Teddy’s death, it does not appear that any serious intervention was made by government authorities charged with investigating such allegations. Why was not enough done to protect Teddy from known abuse?

What if the SB 248 had been in place when Teddy’s mother decided to homeschool?  What if she didn’t get approved?  Would that have prevented his abuse and death?  Proponents of the bill may believe that attending school every day exposes children to others, and abuse is therefore more likely to be noticed and reported.  But in Teddy’s case, reports indicate that family members, neighbors, police, and child services workers knew he was being abused for years and did nothing about it… Finish reading -- >