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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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