Emotions were high at the Education and Children Committees Joint Informational Forum on Homeschooling on Monday, May 5, where a series of state officials and subject experts gave testimonies on the state of homeschooling in Connecticut. Behind them, homeschooled students and their families held signs, protesting perceived future regulation. However, because this was an informational forum and not a public hearing, they were not allowed to testify. 

“What we are looking for is balance between the parents‘ right to homeschool, the state’s rights to ensure that all children are educated, and children’s rights to an education and to be free from abuse and neglect,” Acting State Child Advocate Christina Ghio said.

This forum comes almost three months after a man was rescued in Waterbury from his stepmother’s house after allegedly being held captive there for 20 years. 

The man said he was removed from the public school system to be homeschooled. A report that was filed with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) after he was removed from public school stated that he was homeschooled, however, there were no other records to corroborate that. It is unclear if the man’s stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, filed homeschooling paperwork. 

Before he was pulled out of school, DCF officials visited the home he was allegedly held captive in, twice. After he stopped attending school, a report was sent to DCF, and in it, someone—the name was redacted when the report was released—said he was homeschooled. In that last visit, police said the boy was “healthy and happy.”

The principal of the elementary school the man went to said he and other staff members made more than 20 reports to DCF.

“Homeschooling itself is not a risk factor, there is no evidence of that, but what there is evidence of is that there is a relationship between the withdrawal from school and non-purposeful homeschooling,” Ghio testified. Non-purposeful homeschool happens when a student is withdrawn from public school so a parent can avoid legal obligations. “Those are the kids that we are worried about, and what we’re mostly concerned about is that we have no current way of ensuring the children who are withdrawn from school… are receiving instruction.”

State statute allows students to be removed from public school for multiple reasons. If a child is taken out of the public school system, their parent needs to provide an equivalent education for them. However, the state has no way of guaranteeing that happens, according to Ghio. Once a student is withdrawn, no one checks on them.

Connecticut is the only state in New England that does not require an annual evaluation of home-schooled children or two pre-approvals of the parents’ homeschooling plans before the child is permitted to be homeschooled, according to a report from the Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) that was released on May 5.

OCA found that in the last three years, 5,102 children under the age of 18 were withdrawn from school for homeschooling, according to the report. Of these, 1,547 were between the ages of 7 to 11.

In the 7 to 11 age group, 31% of the children were chronically absent before they were withdrawn from public school. 

OCA randomly chose half of those children—774 kids—to cross-reference with DCF records. 

The OCA report states that, out of the children they reviewed for the report, 23% lived in families that had at least one DCF report, and almost 10% of those families had at least one substantiated DCF complaint. Eight percent of the 774 families had four or more reports, and at least one of those families had 23 reports. 

“We know that there are children who have been abused and neglected under the false pretense of homeschooling, and we know that there are children who have been removed days after DCF finishes their investigation,” Ghio said. “The concern is that when children are removed under those circumstances, there is a unique ability to hide that child, and that is where the danger is.”

Ghio said that OCA started looking at data after Matthew Tirado, an autistic 17-year-old, was killed by abuse from his mother, Katiria Tirado, in 2017. Matthew was not homeschooled, but three months before he was killed by abuse, dehydration and starvation, his third-grade sister was withdrawn from public school. 

Before she was withdrawn from school, there were DCF reports for abuse and emotional neglect filed about Matthew’s sister, according to the OCA’s investigation into Matthew’s death. Katiria also refused to comply with multiple Juvenile Court proceedings in an open neglect case, the investigation found.

According to Ghio, the notice of intent to homeschool that Katiria sent to withdraw her daughter did not raise any flags. 

“The homeschool system is abused. There are so many good home educators and a little bit of oversight will not hurt,” Ivelisse Correa told Inside Investigator. Correa is considering homeschooling her son, who has special needs. She said that her son was moved to ninth grade, even though he does not meet the grade-level standards. 

She went on to say, “Not only could this have prevented the case over in Waterbury, we don’t know what children are being abused right now.”

According to DCF Commissioner Jodi Hill-Lily, her department’s ability to act is very limited. While a mandated reporter takes action when there is “reasonable cause to suspect child abuse,” DCF officials can only remove a child if they can prove the child is at risk of “imminent” harm. 

The department also does not have a means of independently enforcing its decisions. It relies on the police and court system for that, according to Hill-Lily.   

Deborah Stevenson, an attorney with the National Home Education Legal Defense and the legal counsel for the Connecticut Homeschool Network, was highly critical of DCF. 

“I have an objection to this hearing being called at all, because, if the Waterbury incident was an impetus for this, that incident occurred in February,” Stevenson said. “This is not about homeschooling… This is about: why didn’t the police and DCF follow up when they had witnesses, eyes on the child for five years in the public school system, watching this child starve?”

Stevenson said a legislator should have introduced a bill earlier in the session and had a public hearing about homeschooling. 

Public hearings, which allow for members of the public to submit testimony, can only happen when there is a bill being discussed. Only experts who are approved by committees can speak at informational forums.  

It is unclear if any legislation will be proposed on homeschooling this session. When Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, R-Prospect, asked Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, who is the chair of the Education Committee, if she would propose legislation, Leeper responded, “We’re not asking each other questions on this panel, we’re here to listen to the subject matter experts.”

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