The year my mom had my twin brothers, I turned 13 and I didn’t finish any of my assigned schoolwork. Instead, I read novels. Hundreds of novels. I changed diapers, I cooked dinner, I cleaned the house, I watched my siblings, and I fell behind in school by a full year in every subject.

That lost year was not an isolated incident. As the eldest daughter of a religious, conservative family with eight younger siblings, I was encouraged to focus my attention on preparing to be a wife and mother. Schoolwork was a formality, not a priority. It was something to get done so I could get to the real work of living: helping my mom raise my younger siblings.

I’m far from alone. Other students in my community experienced more malevolent academic neglect than I did: one couldn’t read until she was 14, another’s education stopped at 12 because her parents gave up on working with her learning disabilities. Others were taught no science or math, and their history textbooks argued that slavery was beneficial because it introduced Christianity to more people. Our science textbooks taught that the earth is 6,000 years old and that global warming is a hoax.

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In Virginia, this kind of educational neglect is legal, and is often the reality for homeschooled children if their parents choose to enroll them as religiously exempt from compulsory attendance to school, like mine did. This means that, currently, if homeschooling parents declare that they have a religious objection to their child participating in the education system as we know it, they are legally permitted to refuse their child an education.

State Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, realized that the religious exemption statute created essentially a loophole for state-permitted educational neglect, and has proposed a bill this session ( Senate Bill 1031 ) that would require all homeschooling families to comply with the same requirements for annual notice and progress documentation, regardless of religious belief. But the religious homeschool community members among whom I was raised in the greater Richmond area find this highly objectionable, arguing that this would be burdensome and infringing on their religious freedom .

At present, there are two ways to homeschool in Virginia, and the first option — the homeschool statute — is what probably comes to mind when you consider the prospect of homeschooling. You must meet some basic baseline requirements to be able to homeschool your child (such as, you have a high school diploma). You provide notice to your school district of your intent to homeschool and a list of subjects you intend to teach. At the end of the year, you provide evidence of progress (there’s a few options on how to document this). These standards are pretty comparable to what most other states require of homeschooling families.

But the second option, religious exemption, merely requires parents to send a letter of notice to the school board a single time for each child, indicating their religious conviction that they should not comply with compulsory education standards, and that’s it. No annual evaluation, no testing, not even annual notice updating the district each school year.

Nothing about SB 1031 would infringe on religious freedoms — it merely brings Virginia homeschool law in alignment with other laws about homeschooling in all 50 states. Refusing a child an education is a violation of human rights, as the purpose of an education is to prepare a child to be an independent adult.

Failing to teach a child adequately, and arguing that being asked to document academic progress is “burdensome,” is nothing any parent should be proud to admit in public. But testimony after testimony last week in the Senate Education subcommittee hearing about SB 1031 demonstrated that these homeschooling parents are proud to defend educational neglect. And, perhaps even worse, they are also indifferent toward the homeschooled adults who testified about the devastating challenges we have experienced stemming from religious exemption-enabled educational neglect.

I got lucky — I was able to skate by enough to pass an SAT. Others who testified on Monday were not as fortunate. Some have faced homelessness, illiteracy, and life-altering trauma because they were denied educational resources. None of this had to happen. It’s time for Virginia to put this pain in the past by passing SB 1031.

From the Archives: The Capitol Hotel

10-06-1988: The Capitol Hotel.

02-14-1958: Fire at Capitol Hotel.

02-15-1958 (cutline): Firemen spray water into burning hotel room at Eighth and Grace streets.

01-10-1991 (cutline): It's Almost Gone. Rubble is all that remains of the Capitol Hotel at 720 E. Grace St. as demolition, which began in mid-December, nears completion. The nearly 90-year-old structure was owned by Dr. Fred T. Shaia, who plans to convert the site into a parking lot. The 120-unit hotel, which has rented rooms to low-income people in recent years, became a symbol of the decline in affordable housing in the city and rallying point for advocates who sought assist the homeless and poor. The effort to save the structure failed.

01-18-1991 (cutline): The dilapidated Capitol Hotel was razed to make way for a parking lot and the first vehicle on the uncompleted lot has license number SHAIA 1. The property at Eighth and Grace streets is owned by Dr. Fred T. Shaia. It is managed by his son Lawrence, who has said they do not have detailed plans for the site but would entertain proposals from developers.

12-17-1990 (cutline): The Capitol Hotel played host to the wrecker's ball yesterday. The rundown hotel at Eighth and Grace streets had become a symbol of the decline in affordable housing in the city and a rallying point for advocates who pressed the housing needs of the homeless and poor. They failed however, to save the hotel from destruction. A parking lot will be built on the site.