{"id":2272157,"date":"2024-06-20T03:30:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T07:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-reporters-use-tragic-child-abuse-case-to-dishonestly-smear-homeschool-families\/"},"modified":"2024-06-20T03:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-20T07:35:12","slug":"illinois-reporters-use-tragic-child-abuse-case-to-dishonestly-smear-homeschool-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/illinois-reporters-use-tragic-child-abuse-case-to-dishonestly-smear-homeschool-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Reporters Exploit Child Abuse Tragedy to Unfairly Target Homeschool Families"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fillinois-reporters-use-tragic-child-abuse-case-to-dishonestly-smear-homeschool-families%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2272157&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Homeschooling has \u2063grown rapidly across the US, cutting across various demographics\u200c and political backgrounds. However, the practice is under scrutiny,\u2062 particularly\u2063 in Illinois, where investigative reports by ProPublica and Capitol News \u2063Illinois suggest \u2064that lax regulations \u2062on homeschooling endanger children. The reports highlight the\u2063 tragic case of a boy named \u200cL.J.\u200c who was abused and neglected under the guise of being homeschooled. Despite \u200bnumerous \u200creports to the Illinois Department of Children\u2062 and Family Services (DCFS)\u200c and evident signs of abuse, L.J. was not removed from his\u200b harmful \u200denvironment until nearly a year after the initial \u200calerts. The reports criticize the lenient homeschooling laws\u200d in\u2063 Illinois,\u200b which do\u200c not compel parents to \u200cdemonstrate educational quality or adherence to a \u2063specific curriculum, potentially leaving children like L.J. vulnerable. Moreover, L.J.&#8217;s parents falsely \u2062claimed to be homeschooling him when in fact he received\u2063 no education. This case has sparked \u2063debates about the responsibility of homeschooling regulations versus the effectiveness\u2063 of child protection services \u2063in preventing such tragedies.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Homeschooling is having a moment. By a wide margin, homeschooling is now the <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/F77Gx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/microsoft-to-buy-activision-blizzard-for-68-7-billion-in-all-cash-deal\/\" title=\"Microsoft To Buy Activision Blizzard For .7 Billion In All-Cash Deal\">fastest-growing form<\/a> of education<\/a> in America. It spans all <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/03\/01\/us\/black-families-home-school-reaj\/index.html#:~:text=According%20to%20census%20data%2C%20the,largest%20of%20any%20racial%20group.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">demographics<\/a>, geographies, and political stripes, but what the left cannot destroy, it seeks to discredit.<\/p>\n<p>The latest example of this comes from Illinois, where leftist-funded ProPublica and a state-based news service, Capitol News Illinois, recently published an \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">investigation<\/a>\u201d into the way parents\u2019 right to educate their own offspring allegedly endangers kids.  <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2006611001\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-125bb37bff4fc680dcf2e5bbc7c2606e fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-125bb37bff4fc680dcf2e5bbc7c2606e\"><\/div>\n<p>The story, headlined \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How Illinois\u2019 Hands-Off Approach to Homeschooling Leaves Children At Risk<\/a>,\u201d tells the sad story of a boy named L.J., whose parents abused and neglected him. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">story<\/a>, L.J.\u2019s parents stopped sending him to school. They beat him. They refused to feed him. He was subjected to emotional abuse. It\u2019s a horrific tale and something no child should ever experience.<\/p>\n<p>But rather than hold accountable L.J.\u2019s obviously crummy parents or the myriad of government workers who knew about L.J.\u2019s suffering yet did nothing about it, reporters Molly Parker and Beth Hundsdorfer instead point fingers elsewhere: at homeschoolers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to the reporters<\/a>, L.J. was abused because Illinois allows parents to homeschool their children without obtrusive government involvement, noting that the state doesn\u2019t require parents to register their homeschooling with any government agency. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder Illinois law, they must provide an education equivalent to what is offered in public schools, covering core subjects like math, language arts, science and health. But parents don\u2019t have to have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-releases-list-of-president-trumps-accomplishments-and-it-is-historic\/\" title=\"White House Releases List of President Trump\u2019s Accomplishments \u2013  And It Is Historic!\">high school diploma<\/a> or GED, and state authorities cannot compel them to demonstrate their teaching methods or prove attendance, curriculum or testing outcomes,\u201d the article states. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ca3433175766b803b4fd8183c80e2d6e fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ca3433175766b803b4fd8183c80e2d6e\"><\/div>\n<p>The article piles on, claiming that children who do not attend public school \u201close the protections schools provide, including teachers, counselors, coaches and bus drivers \u2014 school personnel legally bound to report suspected child abuse and neglect.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>But here\u2019s the thing. None of that actually applies in L.J.\u2019s case for two important reasons. First, child protection workers in Illinois knew about L.J.\u2019s conditions. They simply chose not to do anything about it \u2014 <em>for a year.<\/em> And secondly, L.J. wasn\u2019t actually homeschooled.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ProPublica story<\/a>, child protection workers in Illinois were first alerted to L.J.\u2019s situation in January 2022. They were repeatedly called back throughout the year. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) made multiple visits to the boy\u2019s home. Yet, over and over, they left him there.<\/p>\n<p>From the ProPublica <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\">story<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f6f0cd41407e9dc0b4bfa251fa956921 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f6f0cd41407e9dc0b4bfa251fa956921\"><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cFollowing a call to its hotline in January 2022, DCFS found [L.J.\u2019s parents] neglectful.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cDCFS received more calls to its hotline in June 2022 and again that September, alleging that [L.J.\u2019s parents] had mistreated L.J. \u2026 DCFS investigators \u2026 closed the cases.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThe caller in September told DCFS the boy appeared malnourished.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cL.J. had begged for food from neighbors \u2026 doctors were concerned about his weight \u2026<\/li>\n<li>\u201cIn November, a grocery store manager found L.J. in the parking lot begging for quarters and called police \u2026\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cA few days later, police and child welfare services again visited the home and found welts and bruises on L.J.\u2019s back. L.J. said [his father] had beaten him with a belt as punishment for eating leftover Salisbury steak and potatoes without permission. The boy also told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-tori-hope-petersen-wants-you-to-know-about-being-fostered\/\" title=\"What Tori Hope Petersen Wants You To Know About Being \u2018Fostered\u2019\">child welfare workers<\/a> he had not showered for two weeks.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t until that December, almost a full year later, that L.J., his baby brother, and his sister were finally taken away from their abusive parents.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, Illinois natives are not surprised by this. DCFS is universally accepted to be \u201cbeleaguered\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagobusiness.com\/equity\/illinois-dcfs-child-welfare-racial-disparities#\/:~:text=state%20cut%20funding.-,Gov.,billion%20for%20fiscal%20year%202025.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">troubled<\/a>.\u201d Earlier this month, in a different case, a DCFS employee was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/news\/local\/judge-sentences-former-illinois-dcfs-worker-to-jail-in-aj-freunds-death\/3457222\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sentenced to six months in prison<\/a> after he ignored warning signs of child abuse in a case involving a child who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcchicago.com\/news\/local\/judge-sentences-former-illinois-dcfs-worker-to-jail-in-aj-freunds-death\/3457222\/#:~:text=The%20boy%20died%20in%20April,boy's%20body%20in%20a%20field.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">beaten to death by his mother<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So a dysfunctional DCFS spends a year dilly-dallying before removing L.J. from an abusive home. But who is to blame for L.J.\u2019s situation? According to the ProPublica reporters, homeschoolers.<\/p>\n<p>The story says L.J.\u2019s parents stopped sending him to school. When questioned, L.J.\u2019s parents lied and claimed he would be homeschooled. But L.J. received no education at home, and his parents did no teaching.<\/p>\n<p>So L.J. wasn\u2019t actually homeschooled.<\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, bad people usually aren\u2019t honest people. L.J.\u2019s parents may have claimed they were homeschooling, but they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>But instead of highlighting the severe suffering that children undergo when child protection workers fail to do their job, reporters Parker and Hunsdorfer jumped at the opportunity to publish a faux expos\u00e9 about Illinois\u2019 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/illinois-homeschool-education-regulations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">strong homeschooling lobby<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview on WGN radio about their story, reporters Parker and Hunsdorfer said this powerful \u201clobby\u201d keeps homeschool laws off the books and, by extension, is responsible for L.J.\u2019s suffering.<\/p>\n<p>In the ProPublica article as well as on <a href=\"https:\/\/wgnradio.com\/outside-the-loop-radio\/otl-922-illinois-hands-off-approach-to-homeschooling-the-legacy-of-gwendolyn-brooks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WGN Radio<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/will.illinois.edu\/player\/audio\/21stshow\/a-report-looks-at-how-illinois-limited-regulations-on-homeschooling-leave-children-at-risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Illinois Public Radio<\/a>, the reporters even bemoaned families that brought <a href=\"https:\/\/wgnradio.com\/outside-the-loop-radio\/otl-922-illinois-hands-off-approach-to-homeschooling-the-legacy-of-gwendolyn-brooks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cherry pies<\/a> to the state capitol when they met with lawmakers to voice their opposition to homeschool regulation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHomeschool families have flooded the capitol to protest. Or they have also engaged in letter-writing campaigns to the point of almost shutting lawmakers\u2019 emails down,\u201d Parker said in <a href=\"https:\/\/will.illinois.edu\/player\/audio\/21stshow\/a-report-looks-at-how-illinois-limited-regulations-on-homeschooling-leave-children-at-risk\">another interview on Illinois Public Radio<\/a>. \u201cI think that shows you how strong the homeschool contingency is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As much as even I, an Illinois resident, would like to say that homeschooling is sweeping our deep-blue state, the reality is that public schoolers (and their politically powerful public school teachers unions) far outweigh any political influence of homeschoolers. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/education.jhu.edu\/edpolicy\/policy-research-initiatives\/homeschool-hub\/states\/illinois\/#:~:text=These%20numbers%20fall%20below%20the,K%2D12%20students%20were%20homeschooled.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Hopkins University<\/a>, less than 3.5 percent of kids in grades K-12 in Illinois are homeschooled. An even smaller percentage trek to the state capitol with cherry pies.<\/p>\n<p>But let\u2019s just play this out. Suppose the state actually did impose any of the regulations that reporters Parker and Hundsdorfer mentioned, such as registration, testing, a review of teaching methods, etc. Do you think L.J.\u2019s parents would have complied? No. Because they weren\u2019t homeschooling, and apparently they couldn\u2019t even feed him a bowl of cereal. And then what? The same child welfare workers who left him with neglectful parents for a year would be called?<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a reason homeschooling is becoming so popular. Whether you personally homeschool or not, this is something to celebrate. Every kid deserves exactly the education he or she needs, and who better to deliver this education than the parents who know their child best?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s dishonest and unacceptable to link child abusers who <em>lie about homeschooling <\/em>with committed parents who have chosen the very special and unique vocation of actually homeschooling.<\/p>\n<p>More importantly, we cannot concede that more government oversight, involvement, or intrusion into our families\u2019 lives will improve anything or protect anyone. More often than not, government is the entity that fails our children in the worst ways.<\/p>\n<p>Just look at L.J.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7cab8c80e3947a8e48191838e61a2876 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-7cab8c80e3947a8e48191838e61a2876\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Homeschooling is currently the fastest-growing educational form in America, cutting across all demographics and regions. Despite its growth, it faces criticism, notably in Illinois where leftist-funded ProPublica and Capitol News Illinois have targeted it. This trend reflects broader political conflicts over educational control<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3239,"featured_media":2272158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pexels-mikhail-nilov-8923040.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2272157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/pexels-mikhail-nilov-8923040.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}