Weinberg to study whether monitoring home-schooled children is worth fighting for
Christiana Glenn, the Irvington girl who authorities said died of complications from an untreated broken leg, in a 2008 family photo.TRENTON — When Collingswood police found four brothers literally starving in their own home eight years ago, then-Assemblywoman Loretta Weinberg proposed a law requiring other home-schooled children to get an annual physical and pass standardized tests.
Irate home-schooling parents flooded her office with calls, and a group of some 30 people followed her around the Statehouse one day urging her to withdraw the bill, recalled Weinberg, (D-Bergen), now a senator. Without support from her colleagues, she complied.
“You would have thought I had suggested the end of the world as we know it,’’ Weinberg said.
But Weinberg said she’s thinking about reviving the issue after the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office last week charged an Irvington woman with aggravated manslaughter in the death of her 8-year-old daughter, who authorities said died of complications from an untreated broken leg. Irvington school Superintendent Ethel Hasty has said Venette Ovilde, the child’s mother, never enrolled any of her three children in school.
New Jersey is one of 11 states that are regulation-free zones for home-schooling families because they do not require parents to file any paperwork with the school district. Consequently, home-schooled children get no public monitoring from the school system.
Weinberg, who chairs the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee, said she will explore whether some form of tracking home-schooled children is worth fighting for.
Sen. Loretta Weinberg, (D-Bergen) in a 2010 file photoThe Collingswood case drew outrage across the nation when it came to light. The oldest of two adopted brothers was found emaciated and eating from a neighbor’s garbage can. The brothers and two other adopted children were being home-schooled.
Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), who chairs the Assembly Human Services Committee, also said she is considering legislation on home schooling.
“We just want to know your child exists,’’ Weinberg said. “How do children disappear from view?’’
The legislators would have the support of Judith Meltzer, a national child welfare expert and monitor for New Jersey’s court-ordered overhaul of the child welfare system.
“I think it’s a big issue. I absolutely support the state not only requiring children to register, but to track the curriculum and track that the kids are there,’’ Meltzer said. “I understand why parents would choose to home school but not why they object to registering and certifying they have a curriculum that has standards for their children.’’
Those who support a parent’s prerogative to stay out of the traditional educational system say it would be unfortunate if home-schooling families were held accountable for a tragic case that does not represent their community, said Carolee Adams, president of Eagle Forum of New Jersey, a national organization affiliated with traditional family values and conservative politics.
“This is not a home-education issue; this is a problem that is squarely with DYFS,” said Adams, of Montvale, referring to the state Division of Youth and Family Services. Adams home-schooled her son, now 24, and daughter, 28. “The loss of life is a tragedy, but I point the finger at DYFS. Shame on them.”
The problem is also with poor and underserved areas where public schools are not up to par, Adams said.
“My kids had a privilege to be home-educated, and I only hope that others in the state would have that advantage,” she said.
“For many people, home schooling is slightly misunderstood and possibly poorly accepted,’’ said Scott Woodruff, senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association, a national nonprofit advocacy group in Virginia. “It’s simply the human condition that when there is something different and something bad happens within a group, the knee-jerk reaction is to say it happened because of the people who were in that group.’’
Concerns raised
In addition to New Jersey, Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington are regulation-free zones for home schooling.
The Garden State’s closest neighbors, New York and Pennsylvania, both have strict rules for home-school families, said Keyport resident Rich Millward, president of Education Network Of Christian Homeschoolers of New Jersey.
“I am concerned, and I don’t think home-school families here would want to see more regulations,” he said.
The law giving New Jersey parents the right to home school says every parent or guardian must ensure their children “regularly attends the public schools of the district, or a day (home) school in which there is given instruction equivalent to that provided in the public schools for children of similar grades.’’
Even though state law doesn’t require it, the New Jersey Homeschool Association suggests parents notify the school district anyway when withdrawing their children from school or if school officials ask whether their child is truant, according to the association’s website.
Home-school supporters could compromise a little more and not lose the autonomy they cherish, said professor Robert Kunzman of the Indiana University School of Education, who has conducted research and written a book on the home-schooling movement.
Kunzman supports requiring home-schooled children to be registered with the state and to undergo periodic “basic skills” testing to measure literacy and simple math proficiency.
Those requirements strike a balance between a parent’s desire for autonomy and society’s right to know children are protected in the rare cases of abuse and neglect.
“If families are doing these horrific things to their kids, we are going to catch them in basic-skills testing,’’ he said.
Kunzman said he was not familiar with the Irvington case, but in general said religious home-schooling parents are the most sensitive to concerns about government interference. “They see educating their children as a fundamental right given to them by God,’’ he said. “There’s a lot of good ways to get educated, and the state should not be prescribing the minute details for what that means for every kid. There is a role the state ought to play in very minimal ways that are not terribly intrusive.’’
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