When Gina Stewart began homeschooling her oldest child 30 years ago, there were no regulations requiring her to notify the state if, how, or what she was teaching her son in their house.
Stewart, in the years that followed, informed her local district annually, as a courtesy, that her boys wouldn’t be enrolled in public schools.
One son later became a plumber, one enrolled in community college before he was even old enough to drive, and one will attend a police academy after he turns 21.
The youngest, 15, is still completing his high school curriculum, including pre-calculus.
Stewart recently began homeschooling her grandchild, but she said she fears that the educational freedom her family enjoyed for decades is under threat.
A proposed Connecticut state law would require homeschooling parents to provide their local school districts with proof of “equivalent” instruction annually.
It also requires school districts to notify the Department of Children and Families if a child is removed from public schools.
“I don’t want their curriculum,” Stewart, who attended Connecticut public schools and previously taught at a Catholic school, told The Epoch Times.
“I never originally intended to homeschool my kids. But I don’t think the schools are preparing kids to become productive citizens.”
Stewart was among hundreds of concerned parents who attended a legislative committee hearing last week on the proposed legislation.
The hearing went for about 19 hours, during which more than 300 people testified and 3,000-plus provided written opinions, a vast majority against the bill.
“I’d say it’s about 99-to-one against the bill,” Ralph Rodriguez, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, who also attended the hearing, told The Epoch Times.
“No regulation is acceptable. Today’s check-in can very easily encroach on other freedoms.”
The check-in and notification to the Department of Children and Families regulations are in response to the recent murder of an 11-year-old girl whose mother attempted to cover up the death by telling the local district that she was homeschooling her daughter.
Hellbound and Down 