Home-Shooled Tragedies Rarely Lead to New Rules

The case of a missing 7-year-old Kansas boy who is believed to be dead has renewed calls for better oversight of home-schooled children, but state lawmakers say there’s no reason to make any changes to home-schooling laws.

Earlier this year two home-school children were found in a freezer in Detroit two years after they vanished, while an 11-year-old Florida girl also turned up in a family freezer after being missing more than a year.

Home-schooling researcher Rob Kunzman says such horrific events often create a short-term effort to increase regulations in states where they happen, but rarely lead to new restrictions.

Kansas House Education Committee Chairman Ron Highland, a Wamego Republican, says no matter how many regulations are in place, people are going to do some bad things.