Connecticut’s education commissioner said Tuesday that a proposed state law requiring school districts to alert the child welfare agency when families withdraw children to homeschool them would violate federal privacy law and put millions of dollars in federal education funding at risk.

Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker, in written testimony to a legislative committee, said the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prevents her department from disclosing student information without parental consent except for narrow research purposes. The measure is part of Senate Bill 6, an omnibus child welfare package drafted in part after two Connecticut cases in which parents allegedly used homeschooling to conceal prolonged abuse.

The dispute pits federal education privacy law against Connecticut’s child safety concerns, with the committee’s Democratic co-chair disputing the commissioner’s legal reading and homeschooling advocates calling the notification requirement unconstitutional.

How the proposal would work

Under the S.B. 6 provision, local school districts would alert the state Department of Education when a child is withdrawn from public school. The department would then notify the Department of Children and Families, which would check whether the family has any open cases with the agency. If so, the withdrawal would be noted in the existing record.

“Any violation of federal law places millions of federal educational dollars in jeopardy,” Russell-Tucker wrote. “As such, the Department will be unable to comply with this proposal should it become law.”

Russell-Tucker said FERPA permits disclosure of student information without parental consent only for “evaluation and research purposes, not for individual case management” — the function she said the bill would require.

The cases behind the bill

S.B. 6 responds in part to two high-profile child welfare cases in Connecticut. In one, Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García, 11, was found dead inside a plastic container in New Britain; her family had told authorities she was being homeschooled. In another, a Waterbury man was allegedly locked away for decades starting in childhood, with his family making a similar homeschooling claim.

Committee co-Chair Sen. Ceci Maher, D-Wilton, said in an interview that she disagrees with Russell-Tucker’s reading of the statute. She said there is a section of the federal law that “allows for the welfare of the child,” which she said would permit the bill’s notification requirement to be legally enforced.

Interim DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton said the notification provision was not a proposal from her agency and described its intended scope as limited. “It’s not a report of alleged mental abuse,” Hamilton said. “It’s a notification. What the bill would call for is for us to look to see whether or not we have an open case, and if we do, it would just get noted in the record that the child is withdrawn from school.”

Opposition and support

Dozens of homeschoolers attended the public hearing Tuesday only to be sent home when wintry weather forced most of the meeting online. Those who stayed to testify broadly opposed the notification section, saying it would violate their rights.

Committee member Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, said the provision would result in a “witch hunt” against homeschoolers. Attorney Deborah Stevenson, representing the National Home Education Legal Defense, said in written testimony that the notification “is an unconstitutional outrage, removing the presumption of innocence of every parent in this State.”

The Office of the Child Advocate supported the measure. Last year, the office issued a report showing that Connecticut has some of the laxest homeschool regulations in the country. Child Advocate Christina Ghio said in written testimony that the provision “would serve as a check and ensure that DCF is made aware of the withdrawals of children whose families have an open case with the Department.”

Maher said she hopes that after DCF checks for open cases, the agency would not maintain a separate file or database of names of homeschooling families. “This is a case of just trying to make sure that what happened in the Mimi case, where there was an intent to harm and homeschooling was used as a smokescreen, that that does not happen again,” she said.

Broader bill provisions

Beyond the homeschool-notification section, S.B. 6 would also increase oversight and transparency of DCF, provide free school breakfasts and lunches, and implement a child tax credit, among other measures.