Connecticut's new homeschool law is on the books — and the homeschool community is not letting it pass quietly. After Gov. Ned Lamont signed Public Act 26-37 in late May, the Home School Legal Defense Association publicly condemned it and Connecticut advocacy groups branded it "targeted interference" with parents' right to direct their children's education.
Ostensibly: families are objecting to specific new burdens — in-person withdrawal, an annual form, and a registry screen they didn't have before.
Probably: the deeper fight is over precedent — Connecticut was the last zero-oversight state, and advocates fear its law becomes the template other legislatures copy.
The objection is less about any single requirement than the principle behind it. Critics argue the law singles out homeschoolers — the overwhelming majority doing right by their kids — to answer for what was, at root, a child-protective-services failure. Supporters respond that a state with no visibility at all had to act.
What happens now is unsettled. HSLDA has a long record of challenging laws it sees as overreach, and Connecticut groups have floated repeal efforts and public-awareness campaigns. Nothing has been formally filed as of this writing — but the timeline buys room to organize: the law's first requirement isn't until fall 2027.
The "targeted interference" framing leans on a specific claim: that the law's registry-and-investigation screen treats every homeschooling parent as a potential suspect to be cleared, rather than a citizen presumed innocent. Opponents also note the academic portfolio review that appeared in earlier drafts was stripped from the final bill — which they read as quiet acknowledgment that the oversight case was thinner than advertised. Supporters counter that the screen only ever applies when an investigation is already open, and affects almost no one.