Home schooling can be successful and healthy, work well for many families and should be an educational option available to parents. There are, however, instances of abusive or neglectful parents who are able to hide their mistreatment of their children because they home-school. These children are not visible on a daily basis to teachers, nurses, psychologists, coaches, bus drivers, principals, lunch ladies, janitors, other parents, etc.—in short, the scores of people who see schoolchildren every weekday. When children who are registered for school don’t attend, the schools call home to ensure the absence is a permitted one and to hear the excuse for the absence. In fact, repeated unexplained absences result in referrals to the Department of Children and Families for educational neglect. Each year the department receives hundreds of such calls.
When parents decide against sending their children to school and to instead provide school at home, there are very few requirements imposed. C.G.S. §10-184 provides that “All parents and those who have the care of children shall bring them up in some lawful and honest employment and instruct them or cause them to be instructed in reading, writing, spelling, English grammar, geography, arithmetic and United States history and in citizenship, including a study of the town, state and federal governments.”
