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Homeschool Legal Defense??
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Question:
Homeschool Legal Defense??
Answer:
Home School Legal Defense Association receives an average of one call per
day from a home school parent who is facing a social worker at his or her
door. Over 90 percent of the "tips" social workers receive are anonymous.
Nonetheless, the social workers still try to enter the house and
interrogate the children privately.
The federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), enacted 20
years ago, has wreaked havoc on the 50 states' child welfare codes. CAPTA
forces states that want to receive federal funding for their child welfare
programs to report, investigate, and pursue all "suspected" child abuse
tips. States have responded by aggressively pursuing all "anonymous
tips"-which also happens to be the main source of tips against innocent
home school families.
CAPTA is up for reauthorization in 2001-02. HSLDA has successfully attached
three key amendments to the House version, which we also expect to pass in
the Senate. These amendments will help to increase protections for any
parents facing a child abuse investigation.
House Subcommittee Hearing
On October 16, 2001, Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel
Christopher Klicka, had the opportunity to present testimony before the
House Education and the Workforce Committee's Subcommittee on Select
Education to demonstrate the real abuses by overzealous child welfare
workers against home school families throughout the country. After
describing and documenting many examples of social workers exceeding the
Fourth Amendment in harassing innocent home schoolers faced with fabricated
allegations, Klicka offered five amendments to CAPTA to help solve the
problem. (Read Klicka's testimony at
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/hslda/200110192.asp.)
After many hours of negotiations, the following two amendments were
included in the bill.
Revealing Allegations
One of the amendments requires that every state adopt "provisions and
procedures to require that a representative of the child protective
services agency shall, at the initial time of contact with the individual
subject of the child abuse and neglect investigation, advise the individual
of the complaints or allegations made against the individual . . ."
Unfortunately, social workers throughout the country often refuse to reveal
the allegations against the home schooling family.
The House Committee on Education and the Workforce issued "report language"
stating Congress's intent:
The Committee also heard concerns how most of these families were never
informed of the specific allegations made against them in the first place.
The Committee firmly believes that individuals being investigated for
alleged child maltreatment should be informed of the specific allegations
against them.
Training Social Workers to Protect Rights
The second and most significant amendment requires that all 50 states adopt
provisions addressing the training of representatives of the child
protective service system regarding their legal duties, which may consist
of procedures to inform such representatives of such duties, in order to
protect the legal rights of children and families from the initial time of
contact during the investigations through treatment.
In short, this means that social workers will have to be trained and follow
Fourth Amendment limitations and protections. Many times social workers
have asked HSLDA attorneys, "Now what is the Fourth Amendment again?"
Social workers often violate the Fourth Amendment when they use
intimidation to enter the homes of innocent families.
The full committee's report language states:
Mr. Christopher Klicka of the Home School Legal Defense Association
described numerous cases of innocent families being aggressively
investigated on allegations of child abuse and neglect, only to have such
cases later determined to be unsubstantiated or false. In his testimony
describing a conversation with a former social worker, Mr. Klicka stated,
"In the old days social workers tried to prove a reported family was
innocent and considered the family innocent until proven guilty. Now the
system operates on the principle that the family is guilty…."
The report language clarifies the statutory language even further.
The Committee looked carefully for ways to ensure that the individual
rights of parents being investigated on allegations of child abuse or
neglect were protected…to that end the Committee wants to enhance the
training of child protective services personnel to ensure that they are
knowledgeable in best practices for promoting collaboration with families
and that they are fully aware of the extent and limits of their legal
authority and the legal rights of parents in carrying out such
investigations. H.R. 3839 requires that states have provisions in place
that address the training of child protective services personnel and their
legal duties, which may consist of procedures to inform such personnel of
such duties, in order to protect the Constitutional and statutory rights of
children and families." [emphasis added]
The committee concludes:
For instance, the Committee believes that child protective services
personnel should understand that they do not have the authority to demand
entry into the family home when investigating the allegation…. It is the
hope of the Committee that by requiring states to improve the training of
social workers in proper and appropriate investigating techniques and
providing more education on appropriate reporting of child abuse and
neglect by the public that the incidents of aggressive investigating
behavior and incidences of false reports of child maltreatment cases will
be significantly decreased.
Establishing Citizen Review Panels
In addition the HSLDA recommended amendments, HSLDA also worked with
congressional staff to add requirements to each state to create Citizen
Review Panels, which "shall provide for public outreach and comment in
order to assess the impact of current procedures and practices upon
children and families in community." The committee's report language
states:
The Committee wants to ensure that individual's rights are protected by
giving individuals who have been subject to a child abuse and neglect
investigation an opportunity to be heard when they feel they have been
wrongfully accused or been the subject of an overly aggressive child
maltreatment investigation. H.R. 3839 requires citizen review panels to
provide for public outreach and comment in order to help states to assess
the impact of the procedures and practices of their child protective
services system upon the children, families, and individuals in the
community.
CAPTA moves to Senate
HSLDA is working closely with Senate Education Committee staff to ensure
that these amendments are retained. We are thankful to God that these
amendments have been added in the House version and look forward to using
these additional protections to better protect HSLDA members when they are
faced with social services investigations.
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