No rules for California home schools, where 13 found captive

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

LOS ANGELES — The Southern California home where authorities say two parents tortured their 13 children had doubled as a private school for the siblings but faced no government oversight and was never inspected by education officials.

David Turpin had been home schooling his children at the residence, which he called the Sandcastle Day School. In the 2016-17 school year, it had an enrollment of six, with one student each in the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth, 10th and 12th grades.

There was no indication anyone other than his children were enrolled, authorities said.

Authorities said they uncovered the abuse when a 17-year-old girl jumped out of a window, called 911 and led police to 12 siblings from 2 to 29 years old, all malnourished and some chained some to furniture.

Turpin and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, were being held on $9 million bail and could face torture and child endangerment charges.

Susan von Zabern, director of the county's social service department, said it was "the first opportunity to intervene."

Private schools in California are not licensed by the state education department and no agency regulates or oversees them. The schools are only required to file an affidavit with the state each year that lists the number of students, staff members and information about administrators.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/no-rules-for-california-home-schools-where-13-found-captive/ar-AAuNnNj?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=edgsp

[Proud Liberal Dem]

1. It's crazy

what all goes on right under people's noses. I hope that somebody can figure out a solution(s) to keep stuff like this from continuing to happen. It's probably asking for too much but there has got to be a better way to regulate home schooling so that somebody other than parents/family members can lay eyes on the kids being homeschooled once in a while. Or even just some increased scrutiny of things like running a "school" out of a home and who's in the home and if the children are actually learning.

[Igel]

2. Combine the title and the OP text and you get a better idea of what's going on.

https://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/ps/psfaq.asp#a11 (and the entire page, for that matter) makes little sense. The regs for a "private school" are so lax and so general that they're almost useless.

On the other hand, I can't image "St. Luke Catholic School" or the "Bingo! Excellent STEM Academy of Excellent Excellence" with an enrollment of 1200 high-schoolers falling into this particular crack. Most parents will want some of the perks that go with being in a program that is regulated.

At the same time, though, this strikes me as a kludge for homeschooling, and that's one way homeschoolers see this status. Judging from the websites like this one: http://www.pheofca.org/legalfactsheet.html

There are charter schools, public schools in public schools, nonpublic schools, and private schools.

A number of states allow home schooling. I remember some dust-up maybe a decade ago in California, and maybe this is how the dust settled.