HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Senate gave final legislative approval early Tuesday to a bill that will impose the state’s first regulations on homeschooling, overcoming sustained Republican opposition and the organized resistance of homeschool advocacy groups.
The 22-14 vote, largely along party lines, came just before midnight Monday after hours of debate and the defeat of nine Republican amendments. House Bill 5468 now heads to Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, for his signature.
The legislation introduces two new requirements. The first mandates that all Connecticut families — not only those who homeschool — file a yearly form with the state identifying their children’s educational arrangement, whether public school, private school, or home instruction. The second provision bars any parent or guardian who is under investigation by the state Department of Children and Families, or who is listed on the state’s child abuse and neglect registry, from removing a child from school to provide education at home. Families already homeschooling are exempted from the background-check requirement under a grandfather clause.
Proponents framed the measures as closing gaps in a state system that currently has some of the country’s least restrictive oversight of homeschooling. Connecticut is among a small number of states that impose virtually no requirements on families who choose to educate children at home.
“It was very important to know that the adults who are responsible for educating these children do not have a history of harming children,” said Senator Douglas McCrory, a Hartford Democrat and co-chair of the Education Committee. McCrory noted that Connecticut teachers in public schools are already required to pass a comparable DCF background check, and argued the same standard should apply when a child’s teacher is their parent.
Representative Jennifer Leeper, a Fairfield Democrat who co-chairs the committee in the House, said public awareness of the regulatory gap is thin beyond the homeschooling community. “My experience with this legislation, outside this building and outside this community, is people are shocked to learn this is not already the law in Connecticut,” Leeper said.
Republican opposition
Republican lawmakers characterized the bill as an unconstitutional overreach into parental authority. Senator Eric Berthel of Watertown, the ranking Republican on the Education Committee, said the legislation threatened not just homeschooling but “the meaning of liberty itself.”
Berthel invoked the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1925 decision in Pierce v. Society of Sisters, quoting the Court’s statement that “the child is not the mere creature of the state.” He said the ruling “marks a boundary” and argued that “parents do not exercise their role at the pleasure of a regulatory scheme like the one before us tonight.”
Berthel and other Republicans questioned the use of the child abuse and neglect registry as a gatekeeping mechanism. Placement on the registry is an administrative determination made by DCF, not a judicial finding. While individuals can appeal — first to the agency and then to a court — critics argued the standard of evidence is too low and the process lacks sufficient due process protections for parents.
The bill’s language requires that school districts provide parents with information on how to challenge a DCF finding if a homeschooling withdrawal is denied on the basis of the background check.
Republican amendments, including proposals to reform DCF rather than regulate homeschoolers, were defeated in sequence. Several senators pointed to recent high-profile failures at the department. Acting Child Advocate Christina Ghio had recently sent a public letter drawing attention to the death of a child who had interacted with DCF — a case in which the children were not enrolled in school, though Ghio’s letter did not specify they were being homeschooled. On the same day the homeschool bill passed, the Senate separately gave final passage to legislation creating new oversight for DCF and additional support for the agency’s workers and the families it serves.
At a press conference last Thursday, Senate Republicans had signaled the bill would advance, joining religious leaders from the Education Association of Christian Homeschoolers in Connecticut and the Family Institute of Connecticut, as well as an attorney from the national Home School Legal Defense Association. Berthel told the gathered families the legislation was an attempt to “destroy your way of life” and urged them to vote lawmakers out in November.
Democratic response
Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney of New Haven, in closing remarks, rejected the Republican characterization. “It seems that opponents of this bill are engaging in an ideological debate over issues and concerns that are not reflected in this bill at all,” Looney said. He described the two new rules as “a very minimal degree of regulation” and noted that Connecticut “lags behind most other states in protection of children and making sure that children who are removed from the public school setting are protected.”
Looney likened the regulatory framework to traffic laws. “Because we have laws against drunk driving and laws against reckless driving does not mean that we are looking to infringe upon the rights of reasonable and responsible drivers,” he said.
The bill previously cleared the Education Committee on a narrow vote and underwent substantial revisions on the House floor to secure support from wavering Democrats. Its passage was uncertain until the Senate took it up on the final day before the legislature’s deadline. With the Senate vote complete, the measure now awaits the governor’s action.