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The “Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Reauthorization Act of 2021,” S. 1927, is a bill pending in the U.S. Senate. Among its many positive provisions for children, it would require the Department of Health and Human Services to create a nationwide data exchange system, allowing states to share information with each other about child abuse and neglect.
This bill is absolutely critical for protecting homeschooled children. In case after case, abusive parents move across state lines to escape CPS investigations, often with tragic results. When an abusive parent is also using homeschooling statutes as legal cover, it can be especially dangerous. Unlike children in a school environment, homeschooled children do not have records that follow them to each school, and any accompanying knowledge or awareness of what’s happening to them disappears.
S. 1927 would change that. It could save lives similar to those of the Hart children, whose parents dodged multiple CPS investigations by moving from state to state, eventually murdering all six of their children. The torture of the eight children of Alonzo Maxin and Andrea Arthur and Jerald Hall’s sexual assaults of his preteen daughter, among many other cases of child abuse in homeschooling settings, might also have been prevented by this law.
S. 1927 has bipartisan support; it was reported out of committee by voice vote, and a similar bill has already passed the House by a vote of 345-73. But HSLDA and other powerful forces are fighting to keep it from becoming law.
We ask that you contact your US senators and ask them to support the bill.
Potential script:
“Hello, I’m [your name] and I live in [your state]. Please vote for S. 1927, which would create a nationwide data exchange system for child abuse and neglect, allowing states to share information with each other. This bill would save the lives of numerous children whose abusive parents move them across state lines to escape active CPS investigations. Please vote yes. Thank you for your time.”
Click here to find your two US senators.
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