by Donald Eng CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT (Updated Tuesday, 12:15 a.m.) — The Senate passed a bill that opponents said unfairly targeted homeschooling parents late Monday night after a lengthy debate. Republicans had filed 39 amendments to the bill and saw nine of them defeated by majority Democrats before withdrawing the rest.
The bill passed on a 22-14 vote and now heads to the governor’s desk.
House Bill 5468, An Act Concerning the Provision of Parent-Managed Learning, requires parents to annually complete or cause to be completed an intent-to-educate form indicating whether their child will be educated in a public or private school or be instructed through parent-managed learning such as homeschooling.
It also requires a parent withdrawing their child from school to go in person to the school district office and sign a withdrawal form and prohibits parents from withdrawing their child for parent-managed learning if any adult living with the child is on the state’s child abuse and neglect registry or currently under investigation for child abuse or neglect. The bill passed the House 96-53 on April 23.
Republicans in the Senate criticized the bill, pointing out that it had drawn strong opposition from homeschooling parents, who submitted thousands of written statements and testified against it for the better part of a day during a March public hearing on a previous version of the bill.
“One of the key responsibilities of the legislature is that we are supposed to listen to what the public is telling us about the legislation that’s before us,” said Sen. Eric Bethel, R-Watertown, the ranking Republican senator on the Education Committee. “But here we are with this incredible amount of opposition to this bill, from families from all four corners all across the state of Connecticut, telling us to leave them alone.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, agreed with Republican leadership that most homeschooling parents were dedicated to their children’s wellbeing, but said the state had a responsibility to look out for children, especially those who were not enrolled in school, where staff are mandatory reporters of suspected abuse or neglect.
And nothing in the bill interferes with a parent’s right to educate their child, he added.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, said most homeschooling families in Connecticut are doing right by their kids.
“This bill is not about them,” he said. “It is about the children who are withdrawn from school and disappear, cut off from every adult outside the home who might recognize the signs of abuse and be required by law to report it. Those children deserve better, and this bill is a step toward making sure they get it.”
The bill was one of a few this session in response to several cases where children in homeschool environments had suffered mistreatment, including a man from Waterbury who had been pulled out of public school and kept captive in a closet for about 20 years, and a 17-year-old boy who died in 2017 from abuse, starvation, and dehydration, among others.
Another bill, House Bill 5004, adds additional oversight to the Department of Children and Families. That bill passed the state House and Senate on unanimous votes.