Idaho - How Social Workers Will Investigate You Now

This is from the HSLDA website

  June 10, 2010
*How Social Workers Will Investigate You Now *

The Idaho Department Of Health and Welfare (DHW) has issued a new checklist
that tells social workers how they should investigate homeschool families
accused of educational neglect.

After discovering early this year that DHW had used the opportunity of the
passage of a good homeschool bill, Senate Bill 1017, as an excuse to change
its guidelines for investigating homeschoolers, Idaho Coalition of Home
Educators’ board of legal advisors, CHOIS’ Linda Patchin, and HSLDA Senior
Counsel Scott Woodruff spent several months working to make changes.

DHW listened carefully to their concerns. As a result, the new checklist
provides meaningful protection against frivolous accusations. Here are a few
highlights.

If a caller reports that a family is homeschooling, the DHW representative
will tell him that homeschooling is legal and does not constitute
educational neglect. If the caller gives detailed, credible evidence that
the child is not receiving instruction as required under law, a social
worker will open an investigation. But if the caller does not provide such
evidence, no investigation will be opened.

If an investigation is opened, the family will be given the opportunity to
show that the report is not credible, or show evidence that refutes the
report (such as their curriculum, or test scores, or lesson plans, or a
description of educational efforts, etc.). This will result in the case
being closed.

The checklist also provides social workers a list of examples of what is *
not* evidence of educational neglect, including:

    - A child who is learning at a slower rate than others of the same age
  - Use of an unconventional curriculum, schedule, or teaching methods.

The “Guidelines for the Assessment of Claims of Educational Neglect,” the
document’s formal name, changes the landscape in Idaho. Any guidance you
previously received may therefore no longer be helpful. If a report against
your family gets through the initial screening process and a social worker
shows up at your door, an excellent strategy would be to seek individualized
guidance promptly before responding.

*HSLDA Social Services Contact Policy*

We desire to advise our members in every contact with a social worker and/or
police officer in investigations resulting from allegations of abuse or
neglect. If homeschooling is an issue, we will represent our member families
until the issue is resolved. On Fourth Amendment unreasonable search and
seizure issues, HSLDA will advise our members whenever the privacy of their
home is violated by forced or coerced entry for the purpose of an
unsubstantiated investigation. HSLDA membership benefits do not extend to
court actions resulting from non-homeschooling matters. However, in
circumstances where there is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment,
HSLDA may, as we have done in the past, choose to take the case in an effort
to establish legal precedent.