Connecticut Education Code For Homeschooling
This is not intended to be legal advice and is distributed
for information purposes only. Check for updates at your public
library or online. Sections are linked to the 1999 code online
for verification.
Compulsory attendance - five years of age and over
and under seventeen years of age. Option to not enroll
until age seven with notification. (Note: the upper age limit
changed to 17 on July 1, 2001. See the Act
Concerning The Mandatory School Attendance Age.)
Parental Qualifications - None mandated
Testing - Not mandated
Section
10-184
Duties of Parents. School attendance age requirements.
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.
Subject to the provisions of this section and section 10-15c,
each parent or other person having control of a child five years
of age and over and under eighteen years of age shall cause such
child to attend a public school regularly during the hours and
terms the public school in the district in which such child resides
is in session, unless such child is a high school graduate or
the parent or person having control of such child is able to
show that the child is elsewhere receiving equivalent instruction
in the studies taught in the public schools.
The parent or person having control of a child sixteen or
seventeen years of age may consent, as provided in this section,
to such child's withdrawal from school. Such parent or person
shall personally appear at the school district office and sign
a withdrawal form.
The school district shall provide such parent or person with
information on the educational options available in the school
system and in the community.
The parent or person having control of a child five years
of age shall have the option of not sending the child to school
until the child is six years of age and the parent or person
having control of a child six years of age shall have the option
of not sending the child to school until the child is seven years
of age.
The parent or person shall exercise such option by personally
appearing at the school district office and signing an option
form. The school district shall provide the parent or person
with information on the educational opportunities available in
the school system.
Sec.
10-184a.
Refusal of certain parents to consent to use of special
education programs or services.
The provisions of sections 10-76a to 10-76h, inclusive, shall
not be construed to require any local, regional or state board
of education to provide special education programs or services
for any child whose parent or guardian has chosen to educate
such child in a home or private school in accordance with the
provisions of section 10-184 and who refuses to consent to such
programs or services.
Sec.
10-184b.
Waiver provisions not applicable to equivalent instruction
authority of parents.
Notwithstanding any provision of the general statutes or public
or special act granting the Commissioner of Education the authority
to waive provisions of the general statutes, the Commissioner
of Education shall not limit the authority of parents or guardians
to provide for equivalent instruction pursuant to section 10-184.
Public
Act Summary 94-245
Special Education and Private School or Home Schooling.
The act exempts students from the state's special education requirements,
if their parents or guardians provide equivalent instruction
at home or in a private school and refuse to consent to special
education services for their children.
Limitation on Commissioner's Waiver Authority. The
act prohibits the education commissioner from waiving any law
if doing so would limit parents' authority to provide for equivalent
instruction for their children instead of having them attend
public school.
Legal Resources
Connecticut
Homeschool Law
Overview with links to sections of state code on own pages. Not
intended as legal advice. For your information only, from TEACH.
Connecticut
Homeschooling Guidelines
Revised October 2000.
Connecticut's homeschool regulation is accomplished by a blending
of legislation and state guidelines. Homeschooling in Connecticut.
Law
& Policy
In Connecticut there are two things homeschoolers need to understand;
the law , and the Guidelines . The two sometimes
cause confusion for people, and sometimes the Guidelines are
mistaken for being law, but they are not law. CT Homeschool Network.
 Public Act No. 00-157
An Act Concerning The Mandatory School Attendance Age.
Sec. 8. This act shall take effect July 1, 2001. Approved May
26, 2000
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to Connecticut homeschooling legal information.
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