West Virginia’s abused children need a champion. Maybe the next governor will be that person

The gold dome of the West Virginia state Capitol building in Charleston, W.Va. (Lexi Browning | West Virginia Watch)

A couple weeks ago in Charleston, a handcuffed 8-year-old girl was found walking around a neighborhood asking neighbors for help.

Leslie Rubin of WCHS-TV found that the girl, along with two of the other three children living in the same home, were being

I'm going to state this very early in this column because I know not everyone always reads to the end — I don't think that all homeschool parents are abusive. But more needs to be done to make sure abusive parents and guardians can't homeschool their children in order to hide them away from those who can help them.

Sadly, this is not the first time we've heard about homeschooled children in West Virginia being abused. Just earlier this year a homeschooled Boone County teen, Kyneddi Miller , was found "emaciated to a skeletal state" when she died.

Although Child Protective Services had some missteps in Kyneddi's case — the agency it never received any referrals about her, although a state trooper said he was going to tell CPS himself — Gov. Jim Justice's administration on weaknesses in the state's homeschooling laws.

Kyneddi's mother began homeschooling her in 2021, and she never turned in homeschool assessments that are required under state education law. Local truancy officers can use those assessments — which are to be turned in when the child is in third, fifth, eighth and 11th grades — to raise concerns about a child's homeschooling status. However school districts are not required under state law to follow up if those assessments are not turned in.

During a briefing in June, Justice said he might call a special session to address the issue. Since then, the Sept. 30 special session is the only one he's called, and his focus has been on cutting the personal income tax and a child care tax credit.

Meanwhile, other children have been abused during the months of inaction.

"At this point, the blood is on our hands because we're watching our kids die and nothing is happening," Del. Anitra Hamilton, D-Monongalia, who serves on the House Education Committee.

Homeschooling's Invisible Children, a project of the Massachusetts based Coalition for Responsible Home Education, keeps a national of severe incidents of abuse and neglect of homeschooled children. The organization says the data it has collected "illuminate how abusive caregivers are able to use homeschooling to conceal and escalate their abuse."

Since 2000, the organization has found through public records 423 cases of abuse, and in 191 of them a child died. Schooling status is not always mentioned in reports, so the number could be much higher.

Homeschooling's Invisible Children's research has also found that homeschool oversight laws are "rarely effective at identifying that abuse is taking place — much less at stopping it."

And in all 50 states, families that were recently the subject of a Child Protective Services investigation can withdraw their children from school to homeschool them.

West Virginia lawmakers tried to pass a bill that would prevent that — Raylee's Law, which would pause or potentially deny a parent's request to homeschool if a teacher has reported suspected child abuse. (Raylee was another child who died of abuse in 2018 after her parents withdrew her from school.) House lawmakers approved the measure in February but the Senate did not take it up. They still could. If passed, Raylee's Law would be the first of its kind in the nation.

West Virginia , and 46 other states, caregivers who have been convicted of crimes against children aren't not prevented from homeschooling.

Every time we or other media outlets report on abuses of homeschooled children, people accuse the writers of being anti-homeschooling and they complain about how they don't want more regulations.

The people who are already following the rules shouldn't have to worry — they're doing the right thing. Lawmakers only want to make sure that all homeschool parents are doing the right thing.

In fact, lawmakers aren't asking for more requirements for homeschool parents — they're wanting to make sure that schools are checking that those requirements are met.

During Friday's administrative briefing, Justice said there is a draft of a homeschooling bill, but acknowledged that it's a "complex issue."

"We realize the tragedies that have happened," Justice said. "It's tough to pound a round peg in a square hole as far as a bill. ... There's no question we need to do better."

Justice went on to say that it may be better to tackle homeschooling in the general session than in a special session. The general session will begin in January, after Justice will no longer be in office.

We won't see anything during this special session addressing homeschooling. On Saturday, at 5:30 p.m., Justice issued a for the special session with 27 bills — none related to homeschooling.

There is, however, a completely new that would appropriate $300,000 to build statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and West Virginia's first governor, Arthur Boreman, in the state Capitol.

We don't know who the governor will be in January or what the West Virginia Legislature is going to look like during the regular session in January, but hopefully they all will want to prioritize the safety of children.