Education officials never checked on Erica Parsons home-schooling

By Kathryn Burcham

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. —Federal investigators continue to question the adoptive parents of a missing Rowan County teenager.

Family members told Channel 9 that FBI agents questioned Casey and Sandy Parsons at their attorney's office on Monday morning.

Relatives claimed Sandy was also interviewed by the FBI last Thursday, following the Parsons' appearance on Dr. Phil's nationally syndicated talk show.

Meanwhile, records obtained by Eyewitness News show state education officials never checked to see if Erica was living in the home while her parents claim she was being home-schooled.

Officials at the North Carolina Department of Non-Public Education said Casey Parsons last submitted attendance records and standardized test results in September 2012, but could not confirm if Erica's documents were included in the submission.

Erica Parsons was reportedly last seen in December 2011, when her parents said she went to Asheville to visit her biological grandmother, Irene "Nan" Goodman, but never returned home.

Casey Parsons told Dr. Phil that Erica continued to receive instruction at home after her move to Asheville, under the tutelage of Goodman's neighbor.

"Nan said that she was getting her tutored with her neighbor...she said that she was a teacher, that she’s known her for years," Parsons said in the interview.

State officials told Channel 9 it is permissible under state law for home-schooled students to travel and stay with other relatives as long as their instruction continues.

"The law doesn’t state that they have to be at a certain place every day, it just states that they have to maintain school on a regular schedule," said David Mills with NCDNPE.

Documents obtained by Channel 9 show Casey Parsons first registered the "Parson's Christian School" at their home on Miller Chapel Road in November 2005, when Erica would have been 7 years old.