Homeschooling Families Push Back on Proposed Regulations in Connecticut

When Gina Stewart began homeschooling her oldest child 30 years ago, there were no regulations requiring her to notify the state if, how, or what she was teaching her son in their house.

Stewart, in the years that followed, informed her local district annually, as a courtesy, that her boys wouldn’t be enrolled in public schools.

One son later became a plumber, one enrolled in community college before he was even old enough to drive, and one will attend a police academy after he turns 21.

The youngest, 15, is still completing his high school curriculum, including pre-calculus.

Stewart recently began homeschooling her grandchild, but she said she fears that the educational freedom her family enjoyed for decades is under threat.

A proposed Connecticut state law would require homeschooling parents to provide their local school districts with proof of “equivalent” instruction annually.

It also requires school districts to notify the Department of Children and Families if a child is removed from public schools.

“I don’t want their curriculum,” Stewart, who attended Connecticut public schools and previously taught at a Catholic school, told The Epoch Times.

“I never originally intended to homeschool my kids. But I don’t think the schools are preparing kids to become productive citizens.”

Stewart was among hundreds of concerned parents who attended a legislative committee hearing last week on the proposed legislation.

The hearing went for about 19 hours, during which more than 300 people testified and 3,000-plus provided written opinions, a vast majority against the bill.

“I’d say it’s about 99-to-one against the bill,” Ralph Rodriguez, an attorney with the Home School Legal Defense Association, who also attended the hearing, told The Epoch Times.

“No regulation is acceptable. Today’s check-in can very easily encroach on other freedoms.”

The check-in and notification to the Department of Children and Families regulations are in response to the recent murder of an 11-year-old girl whose mother attempted to cover up the death by telling the local district that she was homeschooling her daughter.

Child Safety Concerns

State Rep. Jennifer Leeper, a Democrat and chairwoman of the House Education Committee, said Connecticut’s child welfare system, established decades before homeschooling was legal in the state, has as its premise that adults in schools account for the well-being of children.

“When that piece is missing,” she said during the March 11 public hearing, “the child welfare system loses visibility to ensure those children are safe.”

Leeper also said the equivalency requirement is needed to ensure that homeschooled students are getting minimal instruction in the same core subject areas as their public-school peers, including math, social studies, science, and English language arts; the intent is to review their portfolios but not analyze them.

“If you are doing much better and more than the public schools, even better,” she said.

Rodriguez said that the 2025 criminal case should drive better child protective service measures but that it doesn’t justify regulating thousands of families.

He estimated that the number of homeschooled children in the state has steadily increased to about 35,000 in recent years, largely after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This appears to be a partisan issue, with strong support from the legislature’s Democratic supermajority in favor of the bill, but such overwhelming opposition from constituents could sway no votes on the House and Senate floors, Rodriguez said.

The Illinois legislature, he said, considered a similar bill in 2025 but failed to pass it after staunch community opposition.

Likewise, the New Hampshire House passed a bill last week removing most state regulations on homeschooling.

Supporters of the Connecticut bill said that certified teachers are better prepared to educate children across multiple subject areas and prepare them for future success and that schools protect children.

“Teachers are mandatory reporters, and if children are not attending school, abuses could be missed,” state resident Joy Talotta said in written testimony.

Homeschooling Debate

Zoe Martin, a college student in Connecticut’s university system, wrote that she supports the proposed regulations because “public schools offer an academic, social, and emotional learning experience that is very difficult to replicate due to the diversity of people, ideas, and opportunities that exist in that environment.”

Some public school administrators testified against the bill, however, saying that districts don’t have the time or available personnel to review homeschool instruction plans, according to the written comments on the state legislation website.

Stewart, who is also an organizer for the GRACE Homeschoolers Alliance, said public instruction regulations would likely conflict with teaching methods and lesson plans that are rooted in Christianity.

She taught her children how to write in cursive, read entire books, respect their elders, interact with people in public, and visit sick community members in the hospital, she said.

There is a homeschool co-op for like-minded families, but instructional materials, field trips, and activities such as sports and music cost a lot in addition to the property taxes members still pay to local public schools.

“It’s like we have a parallel society,” she said, “but we are paying twice.”

State Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, the ranking Republican member of the legislature’s education committee, said that she expects the bill to pass through that committee but hopes pushback from parents continues as the legislation makes its way through the Senate.

She said she opposes the measure and believes that the concerns about child safety are separate matters.

She said her peers on the other side of the aisle should focus on improving public schools instead of attempting to regulate private education.

“My big word has been ‘accountability,’” Zupkus told The Epoch Times. “Our public schools are not up to par.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Home School Legal Defense Association attorney Ralph Rodriguez. The Epoch Times regrets the error.