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CT parents have been working
in conjunction with various legislators to affirm parental rights. There are notices and articles listed
here in chronological order which document this issue as well as other
issues which have been facing CT parents.
NEW ! Public Hearing on proposed legislation to
reform DCF
02/10/2009
- Length: 4 hr 58
min – Includes
Deborah Stevenson testimony. Public Hearing Agenda is here.
Deborah Stevenson testimony (as well as others) –
02/10/2009
NHELD Notice to Parents
about these DCF reform bills
02/09/2009.
01/27/09: Notice
To Parents about the introduction of HB5761 and
Withdrawal Bill Status on State General Assembly
website
NEW ! CT-N videos from Department of Children
and Families Hearings
12/18/2008 - Includes the testimony of parents
whose children have been removed from their care by the Department of
Children and Families, family members cut off from children who have been
adopted or placed into foster care & child advocates on ways to improve
DCF
11/13/2008 - DCF
Commissioner Susan Hamilton, responding to questions from two legislative
committees, voices support for giving the agency's 14 field offices more
local autonomy
10/20/2008
- Examination of
whether DCF needs to be restructured or dismantled into smaller agencies.
Testimony by DCF Commissioner Susan Hamilton, Attorney General Richard
Blumenthal, Child Advocate Jeanne Milstein and OPM Secretary Robert
Genuario.
2008
archive : List of Withdrawal bill
information from 2008
NOTICE TO CONNECTICUT
HOMESCHOOLERS
Department of Children and Family: In 2009, NHELD responded to legislators
to help draft legislation that would help protect ALL parents when parents
are reported to DCF or when investigations are initiated. The result has
been the proposal of many pieces of legislation (see above: NHELD Notice to Parents about these DCF
reform bills 02/09/2009) for the 2009 legislative session.
Additionally, following our
request in the past few years, for DCF and 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.
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