No CT homeschool regulation changes in omnibus education bill
Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror
An estimated 2,150 people showed up to the Legislative Office Building in Hartford during an informational session about homeschooling earlier this month.
The General Assembly merged disparate education issues into one omnibus bill Tuesday that, among other things, once again extends a deadline for addressing racial imbalances in schools, temporarily tweaks the age to begin kindergarten, sets standards for school crisis drills and encourages students to study civics.
The amended bill that passed the House on a 128-20 vote also is noteworthy for what it did not address: A recent report by the Office of the Child Advocate concluding that Connecticut is one of a dozen states with “no meaningful regulation of homeschooling.”
An informational hearing about the report raised alarms from the families of homeschooled children, who thronged to the state Capitol to oppose more stringent standards and oversight earlier this month. But Rep. Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, co-chair of the Education Committee, said no bill would be attempted this year.
The hearing was called to identify “where there are gaps in the system,” she said.
“Now we’re going to do the public and methodical work to explore all those places where kids are slipping through and see what we can do next session to ensure all the children in Connecticut are safe,” Leeper said.
The report and discussion occurred after a widely publicized case in which no one tracked a 12-year-old Waterbury boy after his father and stepmother pulled from school 20 years ago and, according to police, neglected him as a captive in their home.
Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, said case exposed shortcomings in the Waterbury schools and Department of Children and Families, not with the state’s permissive laws covering home schooling.
House Bill 7009 was amended in the House to include provisions of at least seven other bills that had been favorably reported out of the Education Committee. It marked the second time in as many years the committee wrapped much of its work into a single amended bill negotiated with the Republican minority.
The technique provides a surer path to passage as the General Assembly begins its three-week push its constitutional adjournment deadline of midnight June 4.
The bill avoids addressing whether Connecticut’s school racial imbalance law should be revised and instead delays implementation, as the General Assembly did in a similar omnibus bill last year and has periodically ordered since the law’s adoption in 1969.
The law was intended to address segregation in public schools by requiring school systems to report racial demographics of each school to the state Board of Education and note when a school’s number of minority students is substantially more or less than the system-wide average.
One weakness of the law is that it measures imbalances within school systems, ignoring segregation on a regional basis. Leeper said one consequence is that school systems can be pressured to redistrict schools that are integrated but not precisely balanced.
Fairfield, Greenwich, Groton, Hamden and West Hartford have faced imbalances, she said.
“This law has resulted in the breaking up of our most integrated schools, which I don’t think was the intent of the law, and has caused those five communities over many years a lot of challenges in trying how to best address that,” Leeper said.
Last year, the legislature delayed any push by the state to address imbalances by one year to July 1, 2025. The bill passed Tuesday extends the deadline until 2029.
The measure also delayed another deadline: the age at which children must begin kindergarten. Beginning in 2027, children must begin kindergarten if they are 5 by September.
The bill also directs the Department of Education to establish criteria by which local schools may affix a “Connecticut State Seal of Civics Education and Engagement” on a diploma awarded to students with “a high level of proficiency in civics education.”
It also sets standards for school crisis drills and directs local systems to adopt policies intended to break students of their reliance on smart phones and other digital devices.
Whether those devices will be banned is left to local school systems.
CT Mirror reporter Ginny Monk contributed to this story.
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