It is unfortunate that before the Connecticut Law Tribune's editorial board published the article “It's Time To Regulate Home Schooling” [ctlawtribune.com] the board did not reach out to those who know the most and have the facts about home schooling. Had the board done so, it certainly would have been more informed, and the article published would have reflected more accurately existing history, law and custom.

First, it is important to note that the term “home schooling” is simply a nickname coined in the 1980s to describe a statutory right and duty that parents have had since the inception of the colonies, and as recorded initially in Ludlow's Code of 1650. That is, parents have the statutory duty under Connecticut General Statute §10-184 to instruct their own children, or cause them to be instructed, in certain subjects. That is the first sentence of that statute, and it is what is known as the state's “compulsory education law,” i.e.: all children must be educated in those subjects — by whom? — by their parents. This is not a choice. This is a statutory obligation.

Parents do have a choice if they do not abide by that statutory mandate to instruct their own children. The second sentence of the statute specifies that if parents have children between certain ages, they must send them to a public school, unless they are able to show that the child is receiving equivalent instruction elsewhere. That second sentence is what is known as the state's “compulsory attendance” law. That section, however, is not applicable if parents already are undertaking their mandatory obligation under the first sentence of the statute to instruct their own child. If parents are undertaking their obligation to instruct their child, attendance at a public school simply does not apply.