Calls for increased oversight of homeschooling

Calls for increased oversight of homeschooling

Three of the four children found living in a West Virginia home where an 8-year-old girl escaped, wearing handcuffs, to a neighbor’s house for help were being homeschooled.

Charleston police investigators confirmed that the 8-year-old girl and two teenage boys were homeschooled with Kanawha County Schools. The teenagers are 14 and 16 years old, according to police.

Another child, a 3-year-old girl, was also living in the home. Police said the two young girls are Laura Southworth’s grandchildren, while the teenage boys are her biological children. She had custody of the four children.

Southworth, 54, of Charleston, is charged with child abuse and unlawful restraint. She was booked at the South Central Regional Jail on a $10,000 cash or surety bond.

Around 9 a.m. Sept. 23, 911 received a call from a neighbor that a child wearing handcuffs had shown up at their home and was making allegations that she was abused and neglected.

“Upon further investigation, evidence of abuse and neglect was discovered to have taken place inside the juvenile’s home,” Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a news release.

Multiple officers responded to the home and later took Southworth into custody. Charleston police described the house as “extremely messy” with multiple items covering the floor throughout.

Southworth told investigators that she handcuffed the child the previous night between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. due to the child making a mess, “stealing food” and placing it in hidden areas, and trying to leave the house without permission, the complaint said.

A Kanawha County Schools spokesperson said Southworth filed a notice of intent for the three older children to be homeschooled in November 2022.

Homeschooling was thrust into the state’s spotlight following the death in Boone County of 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller, who was found dead in a “skeletal state” after being pulled out of public school in 2021 to be homeschooled by her mother.

The girl’s mother, Julie Miller, who is charged with murder and child neglect causing death, never submitted the homeschooling assessment for her daughter in her eighth grade year, which is required under state law, and there was no follow-up by the school system.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice said he believes some level of oversight is needed for homeschooling families in the state but has admitted he doesn’t know whether there will be enough Republican support in the legislature to enact any change to the existing law.

A group of school administrators is pushing for yearly checks to ensure the safety of homeschooled students and gather an accurate measure of their academic progress.

Leaders of the West Virginia Association of School Administrators, a group of superintendents, contend there needs to be more accountability for what happens when students are homeschooled.

They plan to ask lawmakers for yearly academic assessments and testing instead of the current system, in which assessments are only given four times in a K-12 education — sometimes not at all. They also say that annual assessments will provide a chance to check the child’s well-being.

“We would like for everyone to take the same assessment and be put on the same playing field,” William Hosaflook, Jackson County superintendent and WVASA vice president said. “Not only does that provide an equal assessment for all students no matter of school choice, but it does also allow the school districts to place eyes on students. ”

Homeschool assessments now come at the end of the third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades. If the county system doesn’t receive them, it may act.

“This case is disturbing and distressing to everyone in our county. However, it is an ongoing investigation,” Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Debra Rusnak said. “When the investigation by law enforcement and Child Protective Services is complete, I assure you it will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Police said all four children were now in the custody of Child Protective Services.

Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.

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