The risk of new restrictions this summer is absolutely, positively real . . . Things change on the floor of the House and the Senate in a heartbeat. Homeschoolers need to make sure their voices are being heard—and heard loudly—so delegates and senators will protect our homeschool rights.— Kathie Hess Crouse
West Virginia House of Delegates, District 019
Some West Virginia officials are rushing to create new homeschooling restrictions in response to the death of a 14-year-old girl. Officials have falsely blamed a homeschooling "loophole" for the tragedy.
Issue: Homeschool freedom
Risk: New regulations for homeschooling in West Virginia
Status: Possibility of new regulations
Action: Reach out to your elected officials
Fourteen-year-old Kyneddi Miller had reportedly been homeschooled since February 2021. In April of this year, she was found dead in her home of apparent starvation. In seeking to identify how to prevent such a horrifying death from happening again, lawmakers are following a false narrative that homeschooling is to blame.
The heart of homeschooling is loving parents providing their children with a nurturing education that prioritizes each child’s value and uniqueness. Children deserve only the best from their parents. When parents reject this responsibility, it is a betrayal of homeschooling and parenting itself.
While some see restricting homeschool freedom as an option that will keep children safe, HSLDA believes this is not a solution. We have personally seen how homeschool freedom gives loving parents the widest latitude to educate their children in a way that helps them flourish.
What's at stake?
Based on press conferences and public comments from officials, suggested restrictions could range from increasing the frequency of student assessments, to requiring monitoring or even in-home assessments by state officials. We will closely follow this situation as it progresses and update this page regularly as we know more.
The homeschool law in West Virginia is more restrictive than over half the states in the country. Adding more homeschool regulations will burden law-abiding families and will not solve failures in the child welfare system.
Based on the facts currently available to the public, Kyneddi's maltreatment was not the result of being homeschooled. Kyneddi's caregivers failed to protect her—but we cannot right that wrong by unjustly regulating all homeschool families.
