The Department of Children and Families is investigating the sudden death of a 12-year-old Enfield girl who was found unresponsive Wednesday.
Enfield police responded to a 911 call and found 12-year-old Eve Rogers dead. News reports say her mother tried to wake the child Wednesday morning and couldn’t. The cause of death wasn’t immediately apparent.
“We can confirm the department received a report on this tragic, untimely death and are conducting a joint investigation with law enforcement. Due to state and federal confidentiality laws, those are all the details we can share at the moment,” DCF officials said in a statement.
Police obtained a search warrant to “permit a full and complete review of this incident scene,” according to a statement posted online.
Enfield Public Schools Superintendent Steven Moccio said in a statement that the child was homeschooled. The schools have made counseling services available for students.
“We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of a 12-year-old child in our community,” Moccio’s statement said. “Although she was not enrolled in Enfield Public Schools at the time of her passing, having been homeschooled, this loss is profoundly felt throughout our town.”
Eve’s mother alerted schools in September 2022 that she would be withdrawing her daughter and homeschooling her “for the rest of the school year and the foreseeable future.”
Safety measures for homeschooled children have come under scrutiny in recent months following two high-profile incidents, including one in Waterbury in which a boy was allegedly locked away for decades after being removed from school for homeschooling and another in which a young girl’s body was found in New Britain after her mother pulled her out of public school for homeschooling.
Lawmakers are considering changes to state statute that would require the Department of Education to report the names of families that withdraw their children from public school to the Department of Children and Families to determine whether the family has any open cases with DCF.
Officials have not said whether DCF had previous involvement with Eve’s family.
Homeschool families have opposed the bill, saying they’re being unfairly blamed for recent tragedies.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
