This past Wednesday, a press conference was held in Hartford, CT to address recent abuses by the Department of Children and Families (DCF) per several homeschooling families. According to NHELD Attorney Deborah Stevenson, an attendee at the event, over the past three months her office has received 25 parental contacts reporting difficulties with school districts and/or the DCF when these individuals either withdrew, or attempted to withdraw, their children from public school for the purpose of homeschooling. Because of these conflicts, NHELD and Representative Arthur O’Neill have introduced legislation to strengthen the right of parents to withdraw their children from school. Unfortunately, the bill has never been given a public hearing in the Education Committee and, hence, has never been voted on by the Connecticut General Assembly, leaving homeschool families at the mercy of DCF.
I must admit, I wasn’t concerned about these conflicts in years past because the number of cases was small and limited to families who failed/refused to file a Notice of Intent, the accepted (albeit suggested) document under the C-14 Guidelines that parents can give to the school district when withdrawing their children from public school. These new cases, on the other hand, concern me greatly because, in each case, the families have duly-filed Notices of Intent and, still, DCF persists in their investigations of neglect.
To hear the press conference for yourself, click here.
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