Conn. s lax homeschool regs may have aided woman who abused stepson for years in house of horrors

The woman accused of keeping her starving stepson locked away in a house of horrors for decades may have gotten away with the horrific abuse because of Connecticut’s unregulated homeschooling system.The tragic victim, now 32, told police after his daring escape from his deplorable confines at the Waterbury home last month that he was yanked out of school by his stepmom in just the fourth grade — and essentially vanished into a life of hell.“Once he was pulled from school, his weekday routine and captivity became brutally consistent for the rest of his life,” police said based on their interview with the tortured man, according to a criminal complaint against his stepmother, 56-year-old Kimberly Sullivan.Connecticut does not have clear guidelines for ensuring that a child is being properly and safely homeschooled, meaning the state basically loses all contact with a child once they leave school, said Sarah Eagan of the Center for Children’s Advocacy, a legal rights law firm for children, to NBC News.“When a child is dis-enrolled from school, with a caregiver saying, ‘I’m withdrawing my child to home school,’ that kind of ends it.That’s the end.

There is no, ‘We’ll meet again.We’ll verify,’ ” Eagan said. “Connecticut has no system for that and has been reluctant to create a system yet,” she said.To remove a child from public school in Connecticut, parents “should” formally submit paperwork to the school district showing their intention to homeschool their children, according to state regulations reviewed by NBC.The parents are also supposed to keep a portfolio for each homeschool child showing “samples of activities, assignments, projects and assessments, as well as a log of books and materials used,” the regulation states.But the regulations do not appear to have any real means of enforcement.Even when the boy was still in the public school system, he allegedly horribly fell through the cracks.The former principal at Bar...