Good morning WS.
I was wondering about the claim of 'homeschooling'. In Australia there are strict guidelines on removing a child from the school system and providing a home based education. Parents who are serious and dedicated home educators often have education degrees or a dip. ed. (diploma of education).
I'm not buying their claims of home schooling Zahra ... the SM just doesn't fit the mould to me.
Are there regulations or strict guidelines on this in the US?
1) Keep in mind that the only information about Zahra being "homeschooled" comes from a school administrator who called Zahra's home after she failed to show up for the new school year, and was told (not sure if by EB or AB, but I think EB) that they had moved and were "probably going to homeschool" her this year.
Translation: phone rings, EB picks it up and it's the lady from the school -- EB thinks to herself "Oh, cr**! School started already? Obviously I can't send Zahra since she's lying in bed bloodied and bruised. What'll I say?" -- EB says to school lady "We moved out of that district" -- school lady says "Oh, okay, what school is she in now? We'll send her records over -- EB thinks to herself "Oh, cr**! I have no idea what the name of the school here is. What'll I say?" -- EB, thinking quickly, says to school lady "We're probably going to homeschool her this year" -- School lady says "Oh, okay, well have a nice day" and never follows up on the matter.:furious:
Yeah, I'm not sure which one of them I want to strangle first either. But Zahra Baker has nothing whatsoever to do with the matter of homeschooling in the US. The state of North Carolina requires prior notification and various other steps, but none of these requirements were fulfilled and nobody ever checked until police investigating her disappearance looked into it.
2) Homeschooling laws in the US are entirely a state matter (as long as state laws aren't found to violate provisions of the US Constitution), and vary widely from state to state. Some states require absolutely nothing but a simple notification, and IMO that's how it should be, because school authorities and teachers' unions have a million reasons having nothing to do with children's education or welfare for wanting to herd them all into government schools. I haven't seen any indication that there's a correlation between a state's requirements re homeschooling and its average academic achievement or child abuse rate. Most of the children who are murdered or neglected to death at home were either enrolled in public school and attending sporadically until some point when they just stopped showing up, and were never the subject of any parent or guardian's claim (much less formal notice per state requirements) that they were being homeschooled, or were below school age when they died.
