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Child Fatality Task Force Committee Wants Reports on Home Schools

Special Report - January 13, 2003
The Intentional Death Committee of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force considered recommendations Monday, January 13, on what action should be taken to detect abuse that may happen in home school families. The recommendations are part of the committee’s work to determine what to recommend to the full task force as part of its legislative agenda for the upcoming session of the General Assembly.

Of the five recommendations concerning home schools that were discussed, four involved the collection of data about the potential abuse that may occur in home schools. Members say this research is a way for the committee to determine whether home schools are harboring abused children, and to decide whether future legislative action is necessary. These recommendations include: 1) In any case of abuse, including fatalities, the Department of Social Services (DSS) should record what type of school (public, private or home) the child under investigation attends and this information should be placed in the Central Registry for future analysis; 2) Medical examiners should include the type of school a child attended in their report of a child’s death; 3) When Child Protective Services (CPS) is conducting an investigation of a home school family, they should ensure that all state requirements for home schools are being met, including whether the school is registered and has attendance records, end of year tests and immunization records. If these requirements are not met, the home school should be reported to the home schooling office and noted as a risk factor for children; 4) Staff at the state home schooling office should receive training in recognizing and responding to neglect and abuse. The task force unanimously agreed to pursue these recommendations.

The fifth recommendation, one that would require legislative action, was not approved but was set aside for further research. It would require all home schooled children to receive the same number and type of physical examinations as other school children. The mandated examinations were characterized as a way for an “objective observer” to examine children who, if being abused, may not be seen by anyone outside the family. After deliberating, the committee decided that this idea requires further study before being recommended to the General Assembly.

The Intentional Death Committee will also be recommending that the full task force ask the legislature for adequate funding to pay for education and outreach efforts to raise awareness of the new state law that allows birth mothers to abandon their newborn babies without fear of prosecution. Finally, the committee will encourage a safe storage of firearms bill that would require all homes in North Carolina to be placed under the same gun storage regulation that are currently required of a home with children.