Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) attorney Ralph Rodriguez says House Bill 5468—formally titled An Act Concerning the Provision of Parent-Managed Learning—would introduce state regulation of homeschooling in a system that has had virtually no oversight for the past 40 years.
"Unfortunately, there have been some high-profile instances of child abuse and, in a couple instances, tragic deaths of children that certain actors in the state and nationally are trying to pin as homeschool cases," Rodriguez notes.
The stated intention of the policy is to try to differentiate between folks who are lawfully homeschooling and wanting to do so in the right way from folks who are trying to use the lax laws in the state of Connecticut as a means to cover for their criminal intentions towards their children.
In March, a 19-hour hearing was held, and 4,000 people provided written testimony on why they opposed the bill.
"The two most controversial parts of the bill are annual notice to the school district of residence when you intend to homeschool for that school year, and the most egregious being upon withdrawing one's child from a public-school setting, that triggers a mandatory review by the Department of Children and Families," Rodriguez relays.
He says the state is looking for two things: whether any adult in the family is on the state's child abuse registry and if the family is currently being investigated by the agency for child abuse or neglect.
The HSLDA opposes those provisions because the legal standards for either of those two things to occur are very low. According to Rodriguez, the standard of evidence is nowhere near what a civil trial would require, which is a preponderance of evidence, meaning more likely than not.
It also does not require any conflicting evidence to be presented, which means a nameless, faceless bureaucrat can potentially get somebody on that child abuse registry or trigger an investigation for abuse or neglect, and the individual or the family cannot really do anything about it.
"If either of those two things is found, the family would be prevented from homeschooling, and obviously, we see that as a major problem," the attorney adds.
So as homeschooling is on the rise and public-school participation is dropping, he believes parents everywhere should be absolutely concerned about this "trend to try to regulate homeschoolers for various reasons."
House Bill 5468 has been approved in both chambers of the Connecticut Legislature and now awaits Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont's signature.
