CWS Called on Hawaii Home-School Mom Due to Religious Beliefs and Appearance of Kids

by Emma Schultz, Focus on the Family Daily Citizen, Jul 23, 2024

The Washington Post estimates the number of home-schooled children in the United States is between 1.9 million and 2.7 million students.

The notable increase of home schooling in the past few years has led to critics against this educational approach sounding alarms against how parents are teaching their children at home.

One family recently experienced this criticism firsthand.

Joy Amini, home schooling mom of two from Hawaii, recently got questioned for the care of her children by local authorities, or lack thereof, because of her doctor’s ideological intolerance.

As she retells the story to the Daily Citizen, she took her kids in for their annual wellness checkup at a local pediatric military clinic. The appointment for both her two-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter were scheduled at the same time, during the younger child’s nap time.

Joy recalled her son “was fussy,” so the nurse had given him chocolate candy that inevitably melted in his hands and was transferred everywhere on his body. When the doctor walked in, Amini’s two-year-old was tired, fussy and a mess from the chocolate.

“During the appointment the doctor asked me question about the kids’ schooling and I told him that we home-schooled,” Amini explained. She added, “The doctor expressed concern about this decision and [said] kids need socialization.”

“Also, my son was still nursing at the time, which he did not like,” Joy continued. “We chose to do a delayed vaccination schedule, only select vaccines spaced out over time.”

She concluded, “We left the appointment feeling a bit taken aback by the coldness of this physician.”

“About a week later, I received a letter in the mail stating that we had been reported for ‘neglect and medical neglect’ of our children.”

Amini was shocked and frightened at the accusation.

The resident doctor at a Pediatric Military Clinic in Hawaii was the individual who called Child Welfare Services (CWS) on the Amini family.

Joy told the Daily Citizen she had never met the doctor before that day. “It seemed like he targeted us for our decision to home-school, our faith and our decision to delay some vaccines.”

The family was first contacted by CWS by letter on a Monday, stating that they were coming to visit on the Thursday.

The day after Joy received the paperwork from CWS, she contacted Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), a non-profit organization seeking to defend religious freedoms, parental rights, and other civil liberties or people who cannot defend themselves.

With the help of PJI, their President Brad Dacus and the resource on their website about protecting one’s family against CWS, the Amini family found sounds advice. Dacus advised them to see a private practice doctor, which they did the next day, who confirmed the kids were healthy and saw nothing wrong with how they were cared for.

The helpful resource on the PJI website is called “12 Steps to Protect Your Child from Child Protective Services,” and can be found here.

Amini was ready for the CWS visit.

“A woman from CWS looked around out home, assessed the children and even commented, as my son cuddles up to me on the couch, ‘Wow, your kids are not even afraid of you.’”

The CWS worker had read the false accusations on the report which said kids were unkept and unclean. After assessing the Amini home, the worker told the family “she would write up a report which reflected that these accusations were not true.”

Within a week, paperwork was sent to the home stating that the original accusations were unfounded.

If you are ever in a situation where your parental rights and care for your children are being questioned, Joy suggests calling someone with legal experience and a willingness to protect parental freedom.

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