HOMESCHOOLERS: YOUR LEGISLATORS NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!
February 20th, 2006 by Peter
Connecticut has some of the most homeschool-friendly laws in the nation, but the state’s educational establishment is working to change that. In a recent e-mail, Attorney Deborah Stevenson, executive director of National Home Education Legal Defense (HNELD), provides information on the latest attack on parents’ rights to educate their children in our state and what we can do about it. An excerpt:
Although parents always have had the right to withdraw their children from school at any time, for any reason, the state Department of Education has informed school districts that the school districts have the authority to keep children officially as “enrolled” even after parents have sent in letters withdrawing their child. If the child remains enrolled and does not attend school, the school district and the courts can claim the child is truant. If a child is adjudicated as truant and the child and family fail to do as ordered by the school and the courts, then the family can be considered either a “family with service needs” or as “neglectful”. If the family still does not comply with whatever is being demanded, a petition could be filed seeking state custody of the child…
Right now, there are many families across this state who have experienced this rampant abuse of authority on the part of school districts. These are families who wanted to withdraw their children from school in order to homeschool them. They were told, even though they filed a formal letter of withdrawal, that unless they signed a notice of intent form, or unless they “registered” their children with the school district as homeschoolers, or unless they agreed to have the district review their children’s curriculum and progress, or unless they signed an official document for DCF swearing that they will homeschool their children “properly”, they would be considered truant or educationally neglectful…
This is an effort to stop parents from homeschooling. This is an effort to stop them from homeschooling unless the parents do as the school districts command. This is abuse of authority…
We are taking one small step to stop this abuse. We are asking the legislature to tell the school districts in no uncertain terms that once a parent notifies the school district that they are withdrawing their children from school, the school district must accept that withdrawal unconditionally.
Representative Arthur O’Neill has written to the legislature’s Education Committee and asked the committee to raise a proposed bill requiring the school districts to accept the withdrawal of a student from school upon notification by a parent…
Please help us explain this to the members of the Education Committee and to the Senator and Representative in your district. Ask them to urge the Education Committee to raise this bill for a vote on the floor of the house and senate. Ask them to support its passage…
For further information, contact Attorney Deborah Stevenson, (860) 354-3590 or Judy Aron, (860) 523-7257, or email us at info@nheld.com.
Click here to contact the members of the Education Committee. Atty. Stevenson notes in her e-mail that “To date, the Republicans have been supportive of this bill. We need to explain the need for passage of this bill to the Democrats.”
