Jennifer Leeper

Last night, I spoke on the House floor for about six hours about the legislature's homeschooling bill. I explained what was in the bill, defended its contents, and the bill passed 96-53. For those interested, you can watch the debate here (starting around the 5:15:00 mark).

In recent years, a handful of child abusers have exploited the fact that Connecticut has no regulation around homeschooling – resulting in bad actors isolating their children and committing horrific crimes of abuse, kidnapping, and homicide. 
 

• Creates an annual form for all students to indicate whether a child will be attending a public school, non-public school, or be homeschooled, which the law will now call "parent managed learning",
• Requires schools to conduct a one-time crosscheck with DCF records for active investigations into child abuse or neglect and whether anyone residing in the household 18 or older is on the Central Registry for Child Abuse or Neglect prior to a child being withdrawn from school.
• If an adult is either in the midst of an active DCF investigation or on the registry, the child cannot be withdrawn from public school for homeschooling

You can read coverage of the bill and its passage here.

This week, the House passed HB 5044: An Act Establishing Connecticut Vaccine Standards.

In the past, Connecticut's vaccine policies and standards have been tied to the expert recommendations developed by the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC). Unfortunately, the CDC has recently abandoned its standing as the premier resource of medicine and science guidelines.

HB 5044 seeks to update Connecticut's vaccine policies so they are based on science, not political agendas. The bill will:

• Allow the Connecticut Department of Public Health to promote COVID and flu vaccines
• Require private insurance companies to cover the cost of your vaccinations
• Allow Connecticut to buy vaccines from suppliers other than the CDC
• Establish an adult vaccine program for uninsured and under-insured individuals

Connecticut House Democrats passed legislation to make sure our 2026 elections are free and fair.

We took steps to:

• Modernize our absentee ballot laws and vote counting procedures
• Create more safeguards to ensure your vote counts
• Protect our elections from corrupt outside forces

Additionally, we’ll keep ICE and people with weapons away from our polls, increase penalties for tampering with vote counts and intimidating poll workers, and empower the Attorney General to prevent people from interfering with our elections, among other provisions.
 

People’s right to vote is under constant attack around the country, but here in Connecticut, we’re making sure elections are free and fair.