Homeschool

Child abuse and neglect

Homeschool advocacy groups indicate that homeschooled children suffer roughly the same rate of child abuse and neglect as those in public or private schools. However, high-profile child abuse cases have led to greater awareness of the lack of regulation and oversight of homeschooled children. A 2018 Connecticut study found that 38% of children withdrawn from school to be homeschooled lived in families with one or more reports of abuse or neglect to the Department of Children and Families. A 2025 data review found that over one in ten homeschooling families in Connecticut had at least one substantiated claim of physical abuse, physical neglect, or educational neglect. A 2014 study of child torture victims found that 47% had been withdrawn for homeschooling, and an additional 29% had never been enrolled in school. A 2022 study found that the passing of laws permitting homeschool in US states did not have a statistically significant effect on rates of child abuse or deaths, although some specifications indicated an increase in the rate of child homicide; however, this research suffers from limitations typical of the subject due to lack of documentation of homeschool families. In 2024, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education (CRHE), a homeschool reform advocacy group, released a report on its efforts to document abuse and neglect done under the auspice of homeschooling, which found nearly 500 cases of child abuse and over 200 fatalities of homeschooled children in the United States since 2000. Data was limited to publicly accessible reporting, again due to lack of documentation.