Recognizing and Preventing Abuse of Homeschooled Children

This free, self-paced course equips child welfare practitioners, educators, and other professionals working with children to address child maltreatment in homeschool settings.

While many families homeschool responsibly, abuse and neglect do occur in homeschooling environments. Since 2013, the Coalition for Responsible Home Education has maintained Homeschooling’s Invisible Children (HIC): a database of severe, often fatal incidents of child abuse and neglect that occur in homeschool settings. To date, we have examined over 500 cases of abuse and neglect, which have resulted in over 200 child fatalities. The data we have collected illuminate how abusive caregivers are able to use homeschooling to conceal and escalate their abuse.

In this five-part course, we present our findings and what they teach us about the unique risks that abused homeschooled children face. We provide an overview of homeschooling policy and research. We share our findings related to unique red flags, risk factors, and patterns of abuse associated with abusive homeschool environments, with a special focus on potential risks surrounding child sexual abuse. We conclude by discussing how policy and procedural gaps can lead to devastating outcomes for abused homeschooled children and potential interventions.

Target audiences

Case Managers
Family Advocates
Social Workers
CASA
CPS

Curriculum

5 Sections
5 Lessons
Lifetime

Expand all sectionsCollapse all sections

Introduction to Homeschooling and Homeschool Oversight
In this introductory module, we survey the state of homeschooling. We discuss how homeschooling is changing in terms of demographics and motivations, examine why families are now choosing to homeschool. We conclude by examining the regulatory landscape surrounding United States and how gaps in homeschool oversight can enable abuse and neglect to persist undetected.
2
- 1.1
  Introduction to Homeschooling and Homeschool Oversight
  60 Minutes
- 1.2
  Unit 1 Assessment
  9 Questions
What We Know About Abuse, Neglect, and Homeschooling
This module surveys our state of knowledge surrounding abuse, neglect, and homeschooling. We discuss what peer-reviewed research and state-level data teach us about unique trends in child maltreatment that occurs in homeschool settings. We introduce the Homeschooling's Invisible Children database and general findings from case data.
2
- 2.1
  Unit 2 Lecture
- 2.2
  Unit 2 Assessment
  6 Questions
Risk Factors and Patterns in Abuse: Social Isolation
In this module, we discuss how social isolation is a core risk factor for abuse and neglect in homeschooling environments. In particular, we focus on how abusive caregivers use the cover of homeschooling to deliberately isolate children from professionals trained to recognize and report on child abuse. Abuse that persists in isolation can take on extreme forms, including abuse consistent with torture.
2
- 3.1
  Unit 3 Lecture
- 3.2
  Unit 3 Assessment
  8 Questions
Risk Factors and Patterns in Abuse: Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation
This module focuses on one of the most prominent themes in our database: child sexual abuse and exploitation. We discuss what research tells us about CSAE risk on the whole, and how school status can affect both risk and protective factors for school-aged children. We pick up our discussion of deliberate social isolation, and how "homeschooling" can be exploited to facilitate child marriage and human trafficking. We then zoom out and discuss the wider risk for CSAE created by educational neglect and sexual miseducation.
2
- 4.1
  Unit 4 Lecture
- 4.2
  Unit 4 Assessment
  0 Questions
Strategies and Resources for Intervention
In this final module, we share strategies and resources for intervening in situations involving vulnerable homeschooled children.
2
- 5.1
  Unit 5 Lecture
- 5.2
  Unit 5 Assessment
  0 Questions

Instructor

admin

2 Students

1 Course

Free

Student:

2 Students

Lesson:

5 Lessons

Duration: Lifetime

Quiz:

5 Quizzes

Level: Beginner

This free, self-paced course equips child welfare practitioners, educators, and other professionals working with children to address child maltreatment in homeschool settings.

Target audiences

Curriculum

Instructor

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Recognizing and Preventing Abuse of Homeschooled Children

This free, self-paced course equips child welfare practitioners, educators, and other professionals working with children to address child maltreatment in homeschool settings.

Target audiences

Curriculum

Instructor

Stay informed

Reach Us

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