New laws affecting homeschoolers in Nebraska and Connecticut essentially presume that homeschool parents are abusers.

Opposition to homeschooling is growing. But what do these bills actually do? And what do they mean for homeschooling nationwide?

In summary, they fail their stated goal of protecting children while simultaneously infringing upon constitutionally protected freedoms.

The new Nebraska law is straightforward. It says that parents who are being investigated by CPS cannot transfer or disenroll their children from school for 14 days. Read more here: https://hslda.org/post/lb-1224.

In Connecticut, the laws will become increasingly more restrictive as the bill goes into effect over the next two years. First, parents will not be able to withdraw their children from a government school to homeschool if any adult living in the home (not just the parent) is on the state child abuse and neglect registry or is even being investigated by DCF. To withdraw their children from a government school, parents must pass a background check with DCF, but a home visit is not required. Second, the law will require homeschool parents to submit an annual intent to educate form. Read more here: https://hslda.org/homeschool-freedom-under-threat-in-connecticut.

These bills incorporate language from the Coalition for Responsible Home Education’s (CRHE) model law, the “Make Homeschooling Safe Act.”

The stated goal behind these bills is to protect children from parents who want to abuse them outside the eye of school personnel. However, these bills do not meet that goal.

They only apply to families who are currently being investigated. That means CPS already knows about the family’s situation. If CPS is already investigating, it does not matter whether the children attend government school during the day—the investigation is happening regardless.

The only difference is that parental consent is not required to interview children at school. But even if it becomes necessary to interview children at home, court orders can easily be obtained.

Once a family is already under investigation, it is unclear how forcing the children to continue being educated outside the home would make them much safer.

These bills also fail to account for perfectly innocent reasons parents may have for homeschooling—including avoidance of an abusive school official.

Additionally, it will not make children safer to simply add a child’s name in another government database, which is all the Connecticut annual intent form accomplishes.

On top of failing their stated goals, these bills cause more harm than good. Instead of protecting children, they weaponize a broken CPS system to limit homeschool freedoms.

Although intentionally false reports to CPS are illegal in both states, that law is rarely enforced, and anonymous reporting is allowed. This means that any person who objects to homeschooling need only report the family to CPS, and the family cannot homeschool, for 14 days in Nebraska and until the investigation is completed in Connecticut, which can take months.

To make matters worse, Connecticut is taking away the option to homeschool from an entire class of individuals who have been convicted of no crime. Permanently. Or at least until they can get their record expunged.

While to some it may not seem horrible to prevent confirmed child abusers from homeschooling, the fact is that having your name in a child abuse and neglect registry does not necessarily mean you are a child abuser. All it takes for someone to end up in the registry is one CPS investigator or supervisor deciding the allegations were substantiated.

Except for a few differing and vague exceptions, there are few due process protections and woefully inadequate judicial oversight for the registry. That means innocent parents can easily end up in it and can only be removed with great difficulty and expense, if at all.

Fundamentally, these bills assume aspiring homeschool parents are likely child abusers. This violates the basic legal principle that the people are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Also violated is the constitutional presumption that parents act in their children’s best interests. The United States Supreme Court has explicitly recognized that the right to control and direct a child’s education is a constitutionally protected fundamental right. As a result, these laws will likely be challenged.

Regarding Connecticut, HSLDA and Family Institute of Connecticut have filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education, and both complaints have been accepted for further inquiry.

Heritage Defense will continue to monitor the situation.

So what does this mean for homeschoolers across the U.S.?

These new laws reflect growing opposition to homeschooling. Freedom must be actively guarded, so families should be vigilant against similar legislation in their own states. One way to do this is by contacting and supporting HSLDA and state homeschool organizations which send legislative alerts and connect families with their legislators. Find your state homeschool organization here: https://homeschoolfreedom.com/resources.

Along the way, Heritage Defense is here to protect our member families against false allegations and unnecessary CPS investigations.