The battle over attempts to regulate homeschooling in Connecticut has intensified in the wake of the death of an Enfield girl who had been homeschooled and the arrest of her stepfather on charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a child in connection with her death.
Eve Rogers, a 12-year-old girl, had been homeschooled since September 2022 when her mother told the school district that she would be withdrawing her daughter and educating her at home “for the rest of the school year and the foreseeable future,” according to Enfield school officials.
Over recent weeks, lawmakers have debated whether to create some basic checks on homeschooling in Connecticut, which is one of about a dozen states lacking regulation.
Some argue that the absence of safeguards is being used as a loophole by a small group of families to disconnect children from the networks of mandated reporters in schools who would otherwise witness signs of abuse and neglect. Though most homeschooling families provide a nurturing environment, they say, others are exploiting the system, which is why regulation is needed.
At hearings, parents and children argued against regulation, describing the many challenges, including assaults and poor education attainment, that pushed them out of the public school system. Some took issue with the legislation’s vague language describing educational attainment, and some mocked officials who spoke in favor of regulation.
Scores of parents and children emphasized the benefits of homeschooling, from high educational achievement to safety from bullying in schools.
Rogers was found dead on March 18, naked from the waist down, in her Enfield home. Investigators used a sexual assault kit to test for DNA, and the child’s stepfather, Anthony Federline, was arrested on Thursday after the test indicated a match with Federline’s DNA.
He appeared in Hartford court Monday, and a judge set bail at $1 million.
Federline, a school bus driver, was terminated from his position after his arrest. In a press release, the Smyth Bus Company said he had passed both a criminal background check and a review of the Department of Children and Families child abuse and neglect registry before being hired. In court on Monday, prosecutors said that Federline did have a criminal record in Massachusetts.
Police are still waiting on a toxicology report in order to determine the cause of the 12-year-old’s death.
The case is the most recent tragedy linked to homeschooling. Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García, an 11-year-old girl, was found dead in New Britain last fall.
She was found to be malnourished and abused at the time of her death, which officials estimate happened just months after her mother withdrew her from public school to be homeschooled.
Her death came months after a Waterbury man, who was found to be malnourished after he set fire to his room to escape, told authorities he had been held captive by his stepmother under the guise of homeschooling for decades.
House Bill 5468 seeks to create some minimal regulations for homeschooling. It would require school districts to notify DCF when a child is withdrawn for homeschooling so that the agency can check if the parents are the subject of a protective order or on the department’s abuse and neglect registry. If they are not, they can homeschool. The bill would also require parents to show some kind of evidence that the child is receiving “equivalent instruction,” like a portfolio of work, or a statewide mastery exam.
“This latest incident in Enfield has truly underscored the need to provide some framework for homeschooling in CT to ensure that kids are safe and being educated,” wrote Rep. Mary Welander, D-Orange, one of the architects of the legislation, in a statement on Monday. “I know that no one policy can prevent every tragedy, but I cannot keep watching more kids being neglected and abused and not try to do something to stop it. This is the right thing to do, and we have to do it now.”
But opposition from the homeschooling community has been fierce, and some lawmakers have opposed the bill, many of them Republicans.
Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, who sits on the Committee on Children, said in a statement that information about the Enfield case is “so far extremely disturbing,” but said that “tragically crimes against children continue to occur to public school students as well, which is why we need to be clear about something: evil acts like this are not the result of a particular education choice, they are the result of individuals who commit horrific crimes.”
Some lawmakers see a middle ground — a version of the bill that would require some checks from DCF but no regulation on educational attainment.
Rep. John Santanella, an Enfield Democrat, released a statement Friday evening calling for House Bill 5468 to be amended.
The bill “extends too far in overseeing homeschooling families who are acting in good faith,” he said, but legislators should close “any loopholes that may allow individuals to evade accountability under the guise of homeschooling.”
Welander said it’s difficult for her to imagine a bill that repeals those elements, because the bill was put together to ensure that children are being educated. Advocates of the bill say that failing to educate a child constitutes another form of neglect.
“We’ve been working on this for more than a year and have tried to put together something really thoughtful, but we want to make sure we are doing our responsibility to make sure that these kids are educated and safe,” Welander said.
Rep. Patrick Biggins, D-Manchester, is a school counselor and also worked on the bill. Biggins said the language in the bill that requires some proof of educational attainment is important.
“As a school counselor, many times I’ve seen both sides of the spectrum: kids who were homeschooling who are doing phenomenal, and at the same time kids who come back to school in sixth grade having left in third grade who haven’t received any education. They’re still reading at the same level as when they left,” he said.
The deaths of Rogers and Torres-García, he said, also present a moral imperative: “With the tragedies we have had in our state, it’s a moral failing of the infrastructure in place, and we need to close to loopholes people are using to hide abuse.”
Christina Ghio, the acting child advocate, said in a statement that her office is investigating the matter and will determine what services were provided to the family and whether there were missed opportunities to ensure the child’s safety and well-being. While she could not comment on the specific facts of the Enfield case, the systemic issues her office has previously raised about homeschooling remain.
“The state currently has no system for following up on children who are withdrawn from school for the stated purpose of homeschooling,” Ghio said. “For parents who wish to do harm, withdrawing a child from school under the false pretense of homeschooling is a very effective way to sever the child’s contact with other trusted adults from whom they may seek help. It is this ability to isolate children from other trusted adults that makes homeschooling unique, and we must grapple with that reality.”
CT Mirror reporters Andrew Brown and Theo Peck-Suzuki contributed to this story.
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.
