Homeschooling Protest Today
June 28th, 2007 by Peter
There will be a protest by Connecticut homeschoolers at the legislative office building at 9 a.m. today. From the press release posted at Judy Aron’s blog:
CONNECTICUT PARENTS SCHEDULE A PROTEST ON 06-28-07 AT THE STATE CAPITOL TO URGE GOVERNOR RELL TO HELP END ABUSIVE PRACTICES BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (SDOE) AND DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES (DCF)
Connecticut parents from across the state are outraged that children and families continue to be harassed and coerced by schools who knowingly file false claims against parents who have withdrawn, or attempt to withdraw their children from public schools in order to homeschool them.
More than 25 families have already been threatened this year alone. Schools, with the apparent blessing by the State Department of Education (SDOE), are using the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to threaten parents, causing fear and trauma to families, as well as costly financial consequences. Schools are filing false complaints knowingly, and DCF spends time and money to investigate, ending up with unsubstantiated claims. DCF refuses to prosecute schools filing false complaints, and they refuse to change intake policies that involve obtaining some proof of a claim before investigating a family. Parents are seeking justice, and want the law to be upheld…
Parents want to know why the Governor has taken no action to direct the state Education Department to have the language in the “Suggested Procedure for Home Instruction”, otherwise known as the C-14 Guidelines, accurately reflect existing state law. (Even though they are only a suggested procedure, the Guidelines state that parents “must” file a Notice of Intent and attend a portfolio review, even though no state statute requires any such thing,) or the children “may be considered truant”, (even though truancy does not apply to children who are no longer enrolled in a public or private school). All we are asking is for the Governor to direct her Education Commissioner to make the C-14 Guidelines accurately reflect existing law, since the SDOE has refused to that on their own.
NHELD hopes that this protest will send a strong message that we no longer will tolerate parents being falsely reported to DCF for whatever fabricated charges school administrators wish to make. NHELD is only asking that our current CT laws be upheld by the Governor and her state agencies.
This event’s been the talk of homeschooling circles quite a bit lately. We look forward to seeing many of you there today.
