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CT parents have been working in conjunction
with Representative Arthur O’Neill for the past three years to get legislation
passed which enforces the rights of parents to withdraw their children from
public school. There are notices and
articles listed here in chronological order which document this issue as
well as other issues which have been facing parents.
Withdrawal Issue: See Status here:
SB162 – CT General Assembly Bill
Page
NEW ! 05/08/08 SB162 Legislative Summary for 2008 Session
05/02/08
CT House of Representatives Email Addresses
04/16/08
LCO 4143 has also been added – same amendment but
with more co-sponsors. Contact Your Senator; ask them to support this
amendment.
04/15/08
Amendment to SB162 proposed to re-instate O’Neill language of the bill – LCO 4055 - Contact Your Senator; ask them to support
this amendment.
04/14/08
– Updated Map
of Towns In CT Which Have Harassed
Homeschooling Parents – Watertown
has just been added
04/10/08
Parent Account of
Meeting With Sen. Gaffey
04/08/08
SB162 Update – Meeting With
Sen. Gaffey
04/08/08
Attempts To Pass
Withdrawal Language Since 2005
04/08/08
SB162 Bill Analysis by Office of Legislative Research – This analysis
demonstrates that this bill now codifies the mandatory filing of the Notice
of Intent and has nothing whatsoever to do with withdrawal or schools
accepting withdrawal. The bill in
this form must be killed!
04/08/08 SB162 language as it will be presented in the Senate
04/07/08
SB162 Update – Meetings
being held
04/07/08 The
Education Committee (current) version of the bill – AKA The Gaffey
Version
04/04/08
O’Neill Memo To All Legislators Clarifying His
Position
04/03/08
Hartford Advocate article –
Backdoor Dealings
03/30/08
Ridgefield Press
article – Ridgefield homeschoolers tell of trials
03/26/08
Email Statements – Gaffey, Fleischmann and
O’Neill
03/26/08
Explanation - Why The
Gaffey Version of SB162 is Detrimental
03/24/08
Statement from Rep. Arthur O’Neill
about SB162
03/21/08
Updated
Interpretation of the Gaffey version of SB162
This
bill has nothing to do with Withdrawal and actually Codifies Notice of
Intent
03/21/08
CT-N
Video of the Education Committee meeting (1 hr 26 min)
WMV file - Fast forward to
01:01:50 for SB162
FYI - If you see the end of the
meeting, listen to who Gaffey thanks for help in "screening" the
bills before the Committee... he thanks Katherine Nicoletti, who is an attorney who works for the State
Department of Education (Attorney Katherine T.
Nicoletti of the Division of Legal and Governmental Affairs at (860)
713-6520 or at katherine.nicoletti@ct.gov. She works directly with Education Commissioner Mark
McQuillan)
03/19/08
State Senators Email
Addresses
03/18/08
Urgent Update!
Ed Committee Chair Changes Bill
03/18/08
Gaffey Version of SB162 –
Substitute Language
03/17/08
Urgent Update!
Ed Committee Chair Plans To Change Bill
03/16/08 Children’s Committee Bill Language
– O’Neill language
03/16/08
Joint Favorable Report from
Children’s Committee
03/16/08
- Lawmaker
proposes bill to simplify process of removing child from district Published
in: The News-Times (newspaper, of Danbury, Connecticut)
- This article features an interview with a family from the town of
Newtown, Connecticut, who was reported to DCF on charges of abuse after
disenrolling their child from public school.
03/15/08
– Update – SB162 Educ.
Committee Meeting Agenda 03/16/08
03/13/08
– Update – SB162 Withdrawal
Bill Education Committee Meeting
03/13/08
- SB162 List of Supporters in the CT legislature
03/06/08
– Update – SB162 Withdrawal
Bill Status.
03/06/08
– Ed. Commissioner McQuillan
Withdrawal Bill Proposed Changes
02/29/08
– Update - Withdrawal Bill is Raised Out of Children’s Comm.
02/29/08
– Education Committee and
Contact Information
02/20/08
- Update on the
Withdrawal Bill Hearing
02/19/08
– Channel 61 Video Report
02/19/08
– Channel 8 Video Report
02/19/08
– Read the Select Committee on Children Public Hearing transcript
02/19/08
– View the Select Committee on Children Public Hearing via CT-N
02/18/08
- Notice to CT Homeschoolers Regarding SB162 Hearing
02/15/08
- Withdrawal Bill
Hearing
02/06/08
– Press Conference – Homeschool Pride and Lobby Day via
CT-N
NOTICE TO CONNECTICUT HOMESCHOOLERS
Typically, at the beginning of the new public
school year, parents begin to inquire about their legal rights to withdraw
from the public school and to begin homeschooling.
Typically, also, school officials disseminate
inaccurate information about those rights. Having accurate
information is always important, but this year, it is especially so.
The CT State
Department of Education in the past year or two has adopted an unofficial,
unwritten policy leading public school officials to believe that only the
public school officials have the authority to determine when a child is no
longer enrolled. Parents always have had the right to withdraw a
child from enrollment unconditionally, and they still do. Efforts have
been made to codify a parent’s right to withdraw their child from public
school. There has also been much controversy surrounding school
administrators reporting homeschool families to DCF. Steps have been initiated by NHELD to
put an end to harassment of homeschooling families as well as the abuse of
authority by state agencies such as DCF and the CT Dept. of Education.
Department
of Children and Family: Following our
request last year, for DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton to amend the DCF
policy manual to accurately reflect existing law concerning homeschooling
in order to eliminate any confusion and to prevent future episodes of
school officials falsely reporting parents who homeschool as educationally
neglectful or their children as truant, Commissioner Hamilton finally
provided her proposals for a redrafted policy manual.
NHELD first proposed changes to the DCF policy manual in March of 2006, and
presented Commissioner Hamilton with a copy of those changes again on June
11, 2007, at a meeting in the Governor’s office. Commissioner Hamilton
adopted some of our recommended changes, but we remained concerned that she
made other changes and/or did not adopt other of our recommendations.
Commissioner Hamilton also alluded to the fact that she was considering
proposing legislation regarding other issues still under consideration. She
did not elaborate as to what that legislation would be. NHELD submitted
another letter with recommendations to further clarify the policies and
they responded in kind.
You can read the documents here:
· Our
March 2006 recommendations to the Commissioner as proposed again on June 11
at the meeting in the Governor’s office!
·
Commissioner
Hamilton’s response on 08/27/07 and her proposed DCF policy changes.
·
Our
response on 08/28/07 to Commissioner Hamilton.
·
DCF responded
with a few more changes but still failed to address a few significant
problems on 9/13/07. This draft of their policies is indicated as being
"their final version".
· NHELD's 09/24/07 response
regarding the outstanding significant issues which still should be
addressed.
Important ...NHELD, LLC
meets with Commissioner Sternberg
(View a 2006
briefing from Attorney Deborah Stevenson here)
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