Parents: How to Withdraw Your Child Who is Enrolled in Public or Private School, to Begin Homeschooling
To withdraw your enrolled child from public (this includes magnet or charter schools) or private school, we offer you, below, sample letters of withdrawal. You can print out the one you need, for public or private school withdrawal, and deliver it to the school your child is enrolled in. Deliver it within ten days of when you start homeschooling. Print two copies; one for you to keep and one for the school district to keep.
If your child is attending a charter or magnet school, you can send two letters of withdrawal; one to the home district superintendent’s office, and the other to the principal of the magnet or charter school.
Sample, Printable Letter of Withdrawal for a public school. View here
Sample, Printable Letter of Withdrawal for a private school: View here
How to Deliver a Letter of Withdrawal (LOW)
Deliver one of your two copies of the LOW, via certified mail, return receipt requested. At your postoffice, this will cost a couple of dollars. Keep the saleslip and your portion of the certified mail. In addition to this, you can also send an email to the public or private school superintendent (or head of school), and “cc” yourself. Also, after it is emailed, go into your “Sent” folder and forward a copy of it being sent, to your email address. This gives you two different copies documenting that the LOW was emailed. We do not recommend appearing in person to hand-deliver the LOW.
We frequently hear about how easy it is to homeschool in CT and how homeschoolers don’t have “do anything”. We don’t have to do anything when it comes to filing paperwork with the government schools, aside from withdrawing a public or private school enrolled child. We do not have to file a Notice of Intent nor do we have to do a Portfolio Review, though we may choose to do so. When parents casually say we don’t have to “do anything”, they are talking about how we have freedom from government oversight and no paperwork is required.
So, what must you do in CT to homeschool? We have an unalienable right to the upbringing of our children. We follow the law, which in CT General Statute 10-184. Duties of Parents. states, “All parents shall instruct their child…” and it goes on to say which subjects we must instruct them 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.” When, where and how we do this is at our discretion as we determine how to instruct our children. Home education in CT has this freedom because it is totally parent-directed and parent-funded. We do NOT accept state or federal funds, as that would create a situation where homeschooling changes to “public-directed and public-funded”, and with that, always comes accountability that we don’t want or need. It’s a loss of freedom and we do not want to replicate public school at home. We have hundreds of options now, to meet our children’s best interest and we intend to keep it that way.
This supports the freedom, creativity and individuality of meeting our children’s educational needs outside of the paradigm of a public school model, which doesn’t fit all children.
Furthermore, CT parents have been homeschooling their children for over 30 years in CT with great success. Strapping families with governmental regulations does not equate successful outcomes; it only hamstrings parents into jumping through hoops and limiting creativity and freedom for children to learn. It is wrong to give authority to the very system that many families have needed to remove their children from. Homeschooling is not limited to replicating public school at home, which simply does not work for all children.
To date, CT legislators have always protected and supported CT homeschool freedom from governmental oversight. CT legislators should be proud of this, (we sure are!), and CT’s statutes in that regard, should be a model for the entire country.
CT parents have repeatedly spoken out, as needed, for legislative support for their freedom to home educate as each family sees fit, to meet the unique needs of each child. We have fought long and hard to sustain our freedom against a minority of negatively opinionated and power-wielding forces who would like to control, suppress and regulate us. Thank you to those legislators who have seen through the facade; the attempted, unwarranted grab for power and control over the small percentage of people who home educate their children in the State of Connecticut.
Frequently Asked Legal Questions on CT Home Education
Visit here
What to do if the School District Confronts You
Uncommonly, a school district will go beyond requesting parents to file the Notice of Intent (NOI), into demanding or threatening that they do. That is wrong, because the NOI is only a policy, not a law. If this occurs, you should reach out to Atty. Deborah Stevenson at National Home Education Legal Defense (NHELD). She is unquestionably a leading expert in this area.
Legislative Process in Connecticut
We encourage you to develop a relationship with your own legislator and inform them about the long history of success in CT homeschools. We ask that they continue to sustain freedom from government oversight or control. Ct homeschoolers have decades of success as part of their history now, and regulating what does not need fixing is unacceptable. The best thing the legislature can do for CT homeschoolers is to leave them alone to do what they do best. Unregulated. Free.