A Short Explanation Of Why The Gaffey Version of SB162 Is Not Acceptable

The Gaffey/Fleischmann version of SB162 is not acceptable for the following reasons:

1. The original O’Neill version, approved by the Select Committee on Children Committee, amends CGS 10-220, the Duties of Boards of Education. It states that when parents send a “letter of withdrawal” to the superintendent (the Board’s agent), the superintendent is required to accept the “letter of withdrawal” and is required to immediately consider the child “withdrawn” from enrollment.

2. The Gaffey/Fleischmann version, approved by the Education Committee, amends CGS 10-184, the Duties of Parents. It does not refer to a letter of withdrawal at all. It does not require the superintendent to accept a “letter of withdrawal” or to consider a child “withdrawn” from enrollment.

3. The Gaffey/Fleischmann version refers only to a “notice” of intent “to provide equivalent instruction”. It requires the superintendent only to accept this “notice” as “evidence” of “equivalent instruction. There is no mention of withdrawal at all.

4. The problem parents seek to end is the practice of school districts refusing to accept letters of withdrawal that were sent to school districts by parents by certified mail return receipt requested, and/or the practice of school districts refusing to acknowledge the child as withdrawn from enrollment after the school districts received the letters of withdrawal.

5. The original O’Neill version, approved by the Children’s Committee, solves the problem by mandating the boards of education to accept the parents’ letters and to consider the child withdrawn.

6. The Gaffey/Fleischmann version does absolutely nothing to solve the problem. Instead, it places additional burdens on parents and grants statutory authority to the school districts the statutory authority to continue their current practices.

7. Making changes to the language in the Gaffey/Fleischmann version, affecting the duty of parents, does nothing to change the duty of boards of education. The boards of education must be mandated to respect the parents’ right to withdraw their children from enrollment to choose to educate them elsewhere.