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The death of a 11-year-old girl from New Britain, who police say suffered prolonged physical abuse and malnourishment before she was killed, is sparking criticism of the Department of Children and Families and reigniting debate about regulating homeschooling in the state. Advocates for homeschooling, however, argue that the case is about the failure of the government not about homeschooling. Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres’ body was found last week in an advanced state of decomposition in a storage bin outside of an abandoned home in New Britain. Torres’ mother, Karla Garcia, 29, her boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, 30, and aunt, Jackelyn Garcia, 28, all of New Britain were arraigned this week in connection with Torres’ death. Karla Garcia and Nanita are both facing charges of murder in addition to other charges and Jackelyn Garcia is facing charges of first-degree unlawful restraint, risk of injury to a minor and intentional cruelty to a person under 19 years of age. Lt. Kyle Noddin, operations division commander for Farmington Police, said Friday, “through our investigation we developed a date range of the possibility of Jacqueline’s death, the earliest being June of 2024 with the likelihood in the fall of 2024 in Farmington.” New Britain School Superintendent Tony Gasper has noted in a statement that Karla Garcia filled a “Notice of Intent: Instruction of Student at Home form with the district” when school started in the fall of 2024. Tighter homeschooling regulations Connecticut is one of 12 states with no regulation of homeschooling. All other New England states require some form of annual evaluation and two require pre-approval of the parent’s homeschooling plan before the parent is permitted to homeschool, according to a May report released from the Office of the Child Advocate. The Office of the Child Advocate is conducting an investigation concerning Jacqueline Torres. “In response to questions about homeschooling and DCF’s involvement with the family, OCA cannot comment on the facts of this case at this time as we are still gathering information and it is too early to draw conclusions,” said Christina Ghio, child advocate. “We can confirm that both issues will be part of OCA’s investigation.” Ghio added: “On the issue of homeschooling, we know from previous investigations that some parents use Connecticut’s complete lack of oversight of homeschooled children to withdraw their children from school, isolate them, shield themselves from reports to our child welfare agency, and neglect or abuse their children. This is a known policy issue that the state must address.” The legislature’s Education Committee and the Committee on Children held a joint hearing this past May to discuss the state’s homeschooling policies, with both the Office of the Child Advocate and the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents calling for increased oversight of homeschooling. They suggested possibly an annual evaluation or a portfolio or a standardized test, arguing that current law does not provide a way for educators to ensure children are receiving a suitable education and are kept safe. Report: DCF made years of visits to home of CT man allegedly found captive, starved The discussion came on the heels of the discovery in February of a 32-year-old man who was allegedly held captive and abused by his stepmother in a Waterbury residence for 20 years. The alleged victim told investigators he was withdrawn from school at 11 years old after being told to lie to DCF and say everything was fine, according to the warrant affidavit. The topic of regulating homeschooling is again front and center with Gov. Ned Lamont signaling this week his support for more oversight. “I think when kids are not going to school every day we can sometimes lose a little track of them so I want to work again with the legislature to say how do we do a better job of making sure about some of these kids that aren’t going to school every day,” he said. “Schools are like the early warning system. We get a good idea of how that kid is doing. We lose a little track when they are at home and we don’t see them.” Rep. Jennifer Leeper D-Fairfield, the co-chair of the Education Committee, declined to comment for this article. State Rep. Liz Linehan D-Cheshire, said as the former chair on the Committee on Children back in 2019 she was looking into the issue after the case of Matthew Tirado. Despite Danger Signs, DCF Never Made Contact With Matthew Tirado, Closed Case 4 Weeks Before Disabled Teen’s Starvation Death Tirado, a 17-year-old boy with autism died in 2017 from starvation, dehydration and abuse, according to the report from the OCA. The report states that the mother, who was on the child abuse registry, removed her child from school for the stated purpose of homeschooling. Before that, Hartford Public Schools sent five neglect reports about Tirado to DCF in 18 months and his sister reported that he was being abused. Despite that, DCF closed the case months before his death when Tirado’s mother refused to let workers into the house to see him. “There were additional reports out of the office of the Child Advocate which indicated there were other children around the state who had open cases with DCF and were removed from public school to homeschool,” Linehan said. “The Matthew Tirado case highlighted how our lax laws on homeschooling create opportunities for abusers to hide what they’re doing to their children,” Linehan said. “This is not to say that homeschoolers abuse children. That is not the case at all. But the law allows abusers to unenroll kids from school without a series of welfare checks under the guise of homeschooling.” Missing warning signs Homeschooling advocates question why DCF did not continue to investigate those cases, whether the children were enrolled in school or not. Diane Connors, president of the Connecticut Homeschool Network said the death of Jacqueline Torres was a failure of government systems, not homeschooling. “The school district, the courts and DCF all had contact with this family and still missed the warning signs,” she said. “Blaming homeschooling is an attempt to cover bureaucratic negligence with political theater.” Deborah Stevenson, attorney, founder of the Home Education Legal Defense, argues that Jacqueline may have been dead before her mother withdrew her from school. “We know because we have read the publicly available case detail appearing on the state’s judicial website concerning the mother Karla Garcia.” she said, adding that the case detail “clearly listed the date of offense of the murder as June 21.” Mom of 11-year-old CT girl allegedly fooled DCF into believing she was alive months after her death But police still have not listed the exact date of the incident, stating it was more likely to have occurred in the fall. Rep. Anne Dauphinais, R-Danielson, told the Courant that there is a common thread in the cases of Tirado, the Waterbury individual known as S. and Jacqueline Torres: DCF. “DCF followed all of these children,” she said. “There has been to date no proof that Matthew or the Waterbury (man) was actually homeschooled. There is nothing that proves that. They were pulled out of school.” She agreed that Jacqueline was already dead before the form was filled out with the intent to homeschool her. “This witch hunt on homeschooling has to stop,” she said. Senate Republican leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield said by targeting homeschooling you are missing the blame on agencies that are tasked with helping children. “Clearly something devastating was missed by our agency that is charged with protecting her and every child in the state of Connecticut,” he said. “There is no way that you can’t look at this tragedy and say that something did not go terribly wrong in the state system.” DCF said Friday that Karla Garcia tricked DCF into believing they had seen Jacqueline Torres Garcia on a video call likely months after she was already dead. Linehan said unfortunately the “homeschooling community sees this as an attack on their freedom. “That is not the intention,” she said. “From my point of view I have no interest in regulating curriculum or testing. I am solely interested in the child welfare side. How do we protect children from abuse? She added that one way is to set up the system to allow families to educate their children how they see fit but require in-person yearly homeschool enrollment criteria. “Require that children and adults bring paperwork to the district every year, maybe twice a year,” she said. “Additionally I like the idea of having a pediatrician sign off on a child welfare form for the district to keep on file. I really hope families will come to the table to discuss these ideas and hopefully some of their own. We need them to be open and a part of the process. Children’s lives are at stake.” Fran Rabinowitz, executive director at the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, said regulating homeschooling is urgent. “What we are asking for is very basic regulation,” she said. “We want it to be mandated that parents sign a form letting us know that they are going to homeschool their child. Once a year there should be some kind of check-in so we can ensure that the child is on track and that the child is in fact learning.” Rabinowitz said this is not meant as an indictment on homeschooling. “There are phenomenal success stories about homeschooling,” she said. “There are also those that say they are homeschooling and may not be doing that. We need to keep track of our children.” Sharp criticism of DCF State Sen. Ceci Maher and Rep. Corey Paris, the Senate and House chairs of the Committee on Children, sharply rebuked DCF this week concerning the case. “This horrific situation should not have happened and we are angry to hear that our state’s systems did not protect Jacqueline,” Maher and Paris said in a statement. “As we learn more, it is becoming apparent that the Department of Children and Families failed her; DCF has one of the most important roles in our state and when it accepts less than 110%, our most vulnerable children are left in harm’s way, with children like Jacqueline suffering the consequences. It’s clear that DCF did not meet the moment here, and we need answers as to how and why this happened, as well as assurances that we can make certain it never happens again.” The New Britain delegation of legislators including Reps. Bobby Sanchez, Manny Sanchez, Gary Turco, David DeFronzo and Sen. Rick Lopes has requested that DCF “conduct a comprehensive internal review of the case.” “Connecticut children deserve a child welfare system that sees them, protects them and acts swiftly when they are in danger,” the legislators said in a letter to DCF Interim Commissioner Susan Hamilton this week. “This tragedy must serve as a catalyst for reform and accountability, not just reflection.” Mom of child found in bin outside CT home facing charges along with her boyfriend, sister Hamilton said in a statement that DCF has “already begun a thorough review of our history with the family. “Consistent with our practice, this multidisciplinary review will include our knowledge about the family, supports provided, casework decisions, adherence to policy, as well as communication and collaboration with other system and community partners,” Hamilton said.
