The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
While politicians and some homeschool advocates continue to ask for West Virginia’s laws (and enforcement) regarding homeschooling to remain unchanged, the West Virginia Department of Education has produced data that should change their minds.
According to a report by WCHS, the data show only one-third of Mountain State homeschool families turn in the required assessments
As WCHS points out, state law gives county school districts the authority to take nonreporting families to court. But it does not require them to do so.
After the death of Kyneddi Miller in Boone County, it was discovered Kyneddi’s mother, Julie, filed a notice of intent to homeschool her daughter in 2021, but never finished the required assessments. And Boone County Schools never asked about them.
“I think we were a little surprised at the small amount of families that have turned in those assessments,” state superintendent Michele Blatt told WCHS.
Surely that surprise will boost lawmakers’ sense of urgency in strengthening both the reporting requirements and enforcement of those requirements. After all, WCHS says the data shows 32,873 students have been actively homeschooled here in the last four years. That’s tens of thousands of West Virginia kids we should be protecting.
