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A Home School Safety Net?
We chatted briefly with our guests after today's Reporting Abuse show, and I mentioned this comment from Crystal in a recent Oregonian thread:
Little Maples was on her 2nd year of being home schooled, I am wondering why there are no checks and balances in the home school system. I am thinking something so simple as a 6 month medical check up for every home schooled child either by their Dr. or a public health nurse.
I asked David Paul, the attorney on our show who has successfully sued agencies in Oregon and Washington on behalf of mistreated youth, if he'd support some kind of check-up system for homeschooled children. He said it was legally dubious, noting it would amount to more intrusion than public school students are subject to.
But he also noted that, by law, students in Oregon public schools are screened for vision and hearing problems every few years. And he says he's talked to screeners who, sadly, are very adept at seeing signs of abuse. He's heard stories of audiologists explaining to kids that they should raise their hands when they hear a tone. When they raise their hands to demonstrate, some children cower in fear, and a test for hearing suddenly becomes a test for much more.
His suggestion: why not require that homeschooled children be given regular vision and hearing tests, just like their public school counterparts?
