Homeschool Advocates Propose Strategy to Reform Child Welfare System

Home School Legal Defense Association offers strategy to reform the Child Welfare System.

In recent years it has become frighteningly common for homeschoolers to be wrongfully accused of abuse and neglect on hotlines to state child welfare departments. Individuals who do not like home schoolers can simply make an anonymous phone call and fabricate abuse stories about their neighbors. Social workers then have a legal obligation to investigate.

Some statistics show that up to 60 percent of children removed from their homes by social workers were taken away from their parents without probable cause of abuse. Over 70 percent of investigations are not substantiated.¹ Under this system, which ignores due process of law, many innocent families are subjected to harassment.

Each state has different policies regarding social workers. However, social workers usually want to enter the family's home and interrogate the children separately. To allow either exposes the family to great risk. Every week, Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorneys counsel member families and intervene to protect them from social worker "fishing expeditions."

Unfortunately, the child welfare system sometimes ends up abusing the very families it is supposed to help.
To address this problem, HSLDA is working to reform state child welfare laws. We support legislation which would protect families by forcing social workers to abide by the same laws regular law enforcement officials must obey.

The five areas most in need of reform are:

1. Anonymous Tips: Child welfare laws should be amended to require all reporters of child abuse to give their names, addresses and phone numbers. This will curtail false reporting and end harassment stemming from anonymous tips.
   
   
2. False Reporting: Child welfare laws should be amended to make false reporting at least a class C misdemeanor.
   
   
3. Probable Cause/Warrant: Social workers must be held accountable to the same Fourth Amendment standards as the police. A warrant must be obtained before a social worker can enter the home without consent of the parents.
   
   
4. Access to Records: Many times home schoolers who are investigated by social workers are denied access to the records of their investigation. Child welfare laws should be amended to allow victims of the system to inspect their records in order to seek recourse.
   
   
5. Prohibition of the Violation of Parent's Constitutional Rights: The recognition of parental rights is important to create an even playing field during child welfare investigations.
   

Source: http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000000/00000058.asp