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A private school did the evaluation, but it is unclear whether it was done in person.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published February 10, 2005
The five Citrus County children suspected of being tortured by their adoptive parents were evaluated at a private Hillsborough County school at least once in 2004, a Citrus sheriff's spokeswoman said Wednesday.
As authorities try to determine why no one would have noticed the abuse, the school is the first indication that outside authorities had contact with the children.
It remains unclear, however, whether the evaluation was done in person, or whether any problems with the children were observed.
The Dollar case, notable in how a family managed for years to avoid scrutiny, also has revealed potential gaps in the oversight of students homeschooled through private schools.
"What we may need to do is put something in the law that says they have to meet with an administrator (in the private school) at least once a month," said Brenda Dickinson, a lobbyist who represents homeschools and private schools. "There has to be a way to prevent it without destroying the whole system."
While authorities think the Dollar children may have been abused for years, their adoptive parents, 58-year-old John Dollar and his wife, Linda, 51, were not arrested and charged until last week.
Now in a Utah jail on Citrus County charges of aggravated child abuse and torture, the parents are expected to be returned here within two weeks to face charges of abusing five of their eight children.
Investigators say a private school official may have had contact with seven of the children long before Jan. 21, when the Dollars' adopted 16-year-old son was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He weighed only 59 pounds and had several other signs of physical abuse, authorities say.
Citrus County Sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney would not release the name of the private school but said officials are trying to obtain any school records on the students.
While children legally can be homeschooled under the auspices of a private school, the arrangement is considered private schooling, not homeschooling.
Under Florida law, homeschoolers must register their children with the local public school district and submit to an annual review, either a certified teacher or licensed psychologist, or through a test administered by a certified teacher.
The Dollars, who lived in Citrus and Hillsborough counties in recent years, did none of those, according to public school officials.
Instead, the Dollars registered with a private umbrella school, commonly known as a "600 school," Tierney said. Such schools serve families who want to maintain the homeschool structure without adhering to state reporting requirements.
Like all schools, such private schools are required by Florida statute to keep attendance records and health records on the children they enroll each year. Tierney said she wasn't prepared to say whether the private school the Dollar children homeschooled under had submitted the children's health records to the local health department.
And though the Dollar children told investigators they were evaluated on a school campus last year, state law does not require face-to-face contact between a private school administrator and the student.
It's a situation that frustrates strict homeschoolers such as Joanne Bartell, a Citrus County woman who has been homeschooling her children since 1987. Bartell supports more accountability requirements for the "600" schools, a name derived from the corporate status of all private schools under state definitions.
"If you're going to take people's money, do your job and monitor the educational progress of those kids," Bartell said.
Although many private schools that enroll homeschoolers require frequent contact with the family, that contact cannot be guaranteed.
And the state Department of Education can offer few assurances.
The department has a page on its Web site describing how people can open their own private school (http://www.firn.edu/doe/choice/onps.htm) The last paragraph reads:
" "How you establish and handle your business is none of our business' is how we clarify the relationship of all private schools to the Board of Education."
State Department of Education spokesman MacKay Jimeson said the Dollar case "is obviously a tragic event."
However, he said, the state educational agency is charged with overseeing only public schools and the private schools that take publicly funded vouchers.
Before homeschooling became legal in 1985, Florida parents depended on the "600" schools to make sure they stayed within the law.
Now, some homeschoolers worry that the case of the Dollars, who registered through a private school, might unfairly malign the entire homeschool network.
Brenda Dickinson, whose husband was instrumental in writing the law that legalized homeschooling, said she's struggled to differentiate between traditional brick-and-mortar private schools and the numerous private schools that act as umbrellas for homeschool families.
State law doesn't distinguish between the two.
It's not a simple matter, Dickinson said.
"You can't close every loophole," she said. "I just think you can't pass enough laws to prevent crime."
[Last modified February 10, 2005, 00:33:33]
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