HARTFORD, Connecticut (PNN) - February 13, 2013 - In what critics are seeing as an ultimate power grab, state officials in Connecticut are pushing forward a bill to require state investigations of children like never before - calling for a “confidential behavioral health assessment” of every public school student in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12, and every homeschool student at ages 12, 14 and 17.
The proposed Bill 374 is being described as the ultimate home invasion.
“It’s outrageous that state officials could come into private homes and potentially remove children if they are assessed as a threat as a result of the investigation,” said Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel Dee Black.
“Regardless of what state officials claim, I don’t believe the results [of the investigations] will be held confidential,” said Black.
Black, who provides legal assistance and advice for HSLDA members in what is ironically nicknamed the “Constitution State,” sees this proposed measure as anything but constitutional.
When asked if the psychological tests given by the social services hands the state too much unchecked power - enabling government officials to seize and tag children as mentally unfit or maladjusted - Black answered definitively.
“No question about it,” asserted the Memphis State University School of Law graduate. “I don’t think people who live in a free society should be forced to give into mental evaluations of their children.”
He contends such intrusions are both unwarranted and unconscionable.
“Proposed Bill 374 would essentially authorize the state to conduct regular social services investigations of homeschooling families without any basis to do so,” asserts Black, who earned a Master of Laws degree at Georgetown University Law Center. “This outrageous legislative proposal must be stopped in its tracks before it gains any momentum.”
According to the Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership, a state organization made up of the Department of Children and Families, Department of Social Services, Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and others, a behavioral health assessment is quite comprehensive and invasive.
It includes a review of physical and mental health, intelligence, school performance, employment, level of function in different domains including family situation, and behavior in the community.
Putting things into perspective, Black warns that parents could see social services following their children around their neighborhoods, observing them interacting at home with their families, showing up at their work, inspecting their classroom performance, administering IQ tests, psychologically analyzing them, and physically examining their bodies.
“Proposed Bill 374, filed in the Connecticut General Assembly, would require all homeschooled children ages 12, 14, and 17 to undergo a behavioral health assessment,” said Black, who has served with HSLDA as senior counsel for nearly two decades. “These assessments would be conducted by an unspecified health care provider and would be conducted even though there was no indication whatsoever that these children had a behavioral problem.”
Black urges homeschoolers and any Amerikans concerned about the violation of children’s constitutional rights to act now.
