Officials Cite Internal Data, Suggest Stricter Homeschool Laws

Once again, West Virginia’s top education official is using non-public statistics on homeschool assessment compliance to suggest that the state’s laws aren’t strict enough.

A few months ago, Michele Blatt, the state superintendent of education, asserted that only 37% of homeschool parents are complying with the assessment law. Then, as recently as last week, Blatt told the media that for the 2023-34 school year nearly 58% of students complied with the assessment law.

This law mandates that parents of homeschooled children in grades, 3, 5, 8, and 11 submit the annual assessments to county officials.

We have concerns about the data provided by Blatt and the conclusions being drawn from it.

Doubts about Numbers

To begin with, the state Department of Education has not released the underlying data to the public. As such, we are not able to verify the actual numbers being put out.

Even so, Blatt admitted the data are based on assumptions about students’ “presumed and projected grade levels.”

As I mentioned in my Q&A a few days ago, West Virginia saw a massive increase in homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of whom have returned to public schools. For those families who filed under the homeschooling statute, then returned to brick-and-mortar schools the very next year, it would make sense if many of them simply decided not to submit year-end assessments. We don’t know if these kinds of cases have been included in the reported numbers.

More transparency of the data is needed in order to determine if Blatt’s claims are valid, particularly since Blatt has been using this data to argue for increasing state authority over homeschooling.

The county school system could be the one to just revoke the homeschool privilege. Michele Blatt, State Superintendent of Education

For example, Blatt suggested that “the county school system could be the one to just revoke the homeschool privilege and that child would be required to return [to public school] in the fall.”

Blatt’s proposal would give a county school district the ability to revoke the fundamental right of parents to homeschool, with no judicial due process, a suggestion which is frankly shocking and should be concerning to every parent, not just home educators.

Her suggestion displays a fundamental difference of philosophy. Blatt, and many others around the country like her, appear to believe that parents are not the primary caretakers of their children, and that children are (or perhaps, should be) under the care of the state. As such, Blatt thinks it is quite important that “…we have some type of checkpoint or touchpoint … on these students so that as a collective as a state, we’re taking care of all of our children.”

Clash of Ideals

This philosophy stands in stark opposition to the Supreme Court’s assertion that parents “have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare [a child] for additional obligations.”

The Supreme Court has long held that parents are primarily responsible to raise their children, not the state. Blatt and others who believe as she appears to tend to conflate matters of education and child welfare into one issue, rather than dealing with each separately. Because of this, they often use education as a means to extend government influence into the home. Such appears to be the case here.

For example, in response to a question last week about why it’s worth pursuing legal action against families, Blatt noted: “Because we want to make sure that all of our students are not only being educated properly, but that are being taken care of regardless of where they are learning.”

In her statement, Blatt assumes that the welfare of the child in the home is the responsibility of the Department of Education, rather than social services, and she uses this assumption to justify attempts to exert further control over homeschool families in West Virginia.

The timing of the release of this (as yet unsubstantiated) data, coupled with Blatt’s numerous recent assertions, lead us to suspect that the aims of the WVDOE are about more than just education of children.

We continue to encourage all homeschool families across the state to comply with the current law and submit the required assessments. But we are opposed to the state increasing regulation and scrutiny of all families because of the actions of a minority.