Safety Of Students Transferring Out Of School Discussed At Capitol

Proposed legislation to ensure the safety of children who withdraw from public school was the subject of a hearing before the Joint Legislative Committee on Children and Families Monday. 

The legislation would require a school principal to notify Child Protective Services (CPS) if a child who’s being transferred or withdrawn from school has been the subject of a substantiated recent abuse or neglect report. 

A panelist from the Home School Legal Defense Association said schools don’t need to interact with social services in such a case. 

“There’s no reason in our opinion that there would be any involvement with social services or any other agency other than the education officials on where that child is going to be educated,” Kevin Boden, director of Legal and Legislative Advocacy, said. 

Kanawha County Schools lead social worker Kim Legg said many home school families are wonderful to work with and enjoy showcasing their children’s work.  

“But we do have a lot of families who are not compliant and that does concern us,” Legg said.  

He said that often when a school contacts CPS to report potential abuse, neglect or truancy, the child is moved to homeschool and the system loses its ability to track that child’s welfare. 

“Just currently this year in Kanawha County Schools, we processed 123 new notices of intent, only for homeschool. And out of those, 48 of those have had a history of chronic absenteeism,” Legg said. “We’ve just had way too many children, just in my short time being in this position at the board office for the last three years, horrific things that have come across my desk, children who have been harmed and handcuffed in barns, not educated at all. So if we can save one child with this legislation, it is definitely worth it.” 

Legg said it’s also a concern that the progress of homeschool students is only assessed every few years.  

The pending legislation has not been assigned a bill number yet.