The American family has taken many blows over the decades but who would have guessed government would be the biggest player in its disintegration? Courts an bureaucracy are working to undermine parental rights and relationships and its all happening right under your nose. In this case, in Missouri, the afore mentioned entities, including the schools, are colluding to break up a family and your tax dollars are subsidizing it.

Deanna Sporleder’s 17 year old son wanted to move in with his girlfriend. On his own, he left home, declared himself homeless and the rest … snowballed into the government helping him separate from his parents. And the kicker? His parents were still financially responsible for him, even though they had no authority over his decisions.

LakeExpo.com reports:Deanna says her 17 year-old son decided he was going to move in with his 15-year-old girlfriend, without his parent’s consent. Deanna and her husband called the local police and sheriff’s department and were informed that there was nothing law enforcement could do about it, because the boy was 17. In Missouri a child can be given “right to contract” at age 16, even though parents are financially liable for his/her actions until the age of 18. Deanna says that, adding insult to injury, her son’s decision was subsidized by a federal grant program at his local high school.

While Deanna was enrolling her other children for school in the Marshall Public School District (Marshall, Mo.), she asked the school secretary what could be done about her 17 year-old son’s enrollment. She claims she was not informed by the school that he was actually down the hall enrolling himself, at the exact same time. He had been labeled as “homeless” and the district categorized him as being “doubled-up,” because he was living with friends due to being homeless.

“But he had a loving home he could go to,” Deanna argued, to no avail.

“They didn’t even try to help reunite our family with our son,” she lamented. “We tried to regain ‘physical custody’ by having police involvement. We asked for counseling through the school. We were not even informed of this decision.”

According to Deanna, the district also erased the family off her son’s school electronic records without their permission; she says the school removed her and her husband as guardians, deleted his grandparents and siblings as relatives, deleted her son from his sisters’ school file, and then added his girlfriend’s parents as his emergency contact.

“Then they started to subsidize his choice.” Deanna said. The school counselor took him shopping for new clothes and new shoes and he received free school lunches, and more. This was all paid for through the “McKinney-Vento Act”, a grant which gives money to schools for homeless students.

“The question is; is my tax money going to subsidize Missouri runaways to ‘couch surf’ with their boyfriends or girlfriends?” Deanna asked. “I’m paying my school to pay my son to run away,” she concluded.

Marshall Public School District Superintendent Dr. Carol Maher did not return telephone calls requesting an interview. In a letter, Marshall Public School District Director of Special Services Terri Porter replied to Deanna, “The District was obligated to enroll your son (name purposely omitted) immediately, and to remove barriers that may prevent him from obtaining a free appropriate public education in the District…The law does not permit—or require—the school to make a determination regarding the validity of the reasons that an unaccompanied youth has left home… We understand that this can be frustrating to parents who have not removed their child from home, nor want their child to be living away from home. Nevertheless, the law is designed so that, even in those circumstances, the student is able to continue his or her education regardless of family situation.”

Turns out the McKinney-Vento Act also requires that schools are mandated to encourage its propagation by advertising. Yep, actually encouraging students to run away from home, and become wards of the state, so that schools and states can get federal funding for breaking up homes. Great, huh?

The McKinney-Vento Act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1987 to help with homelessness in America. It initially provided federal money for homeless shelter programs. The Act was expanded to deal with homeless children and their education under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), signed into law by President George W. Bush.

According to Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, DESE, Local Educational Agencies with twenty or more homeless students can receive federal money to assist with their education. Schools are also mandated to supply posters, brochures, and information to advertise this opportunity and every school has to have a liaison. It is only after a school district has 20 students that it can apply for additional money in the discretional grant. “The more homeless students they get, the more money they are eligible to receive,” Deanna said.

According to Deanna, the Marshall School District has a much higher percentage of homeless students compared to schools with the same student population, for example West Plains and Columbia school districts. “I suspect that the McKinney-Vento act is being used to subsidize runaways instead of funding the educational needs of real homeless children. And students are learning the secret of earning money to run away.”