Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García’s mother reached out to Farmington school officials in late July 2024 with a short email alerting them of her intention to homeschool the 11-year-old.
“Hello I am contacting you today because I would like to homeschool my child for the upcoming school year thank you have a great day!,” Karla García wrote in the July 2024 email.
Less than two months later, the girl was dead, according to court documents.
The child’s body was found in a plastic container in New Britain earlier this month. Documents show she was severely abused and starved. Police have arrested her mother, her mother’s boyfriend and her aunt in connection to her death.
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The case has renewed calls for more regulation of Connecticut’s homeschooling system as well as scrutiny of the state Department of Children and Families. Documents from the two school districts García, the girl’s mother, emailed regarding her plans to educate her daughter show that the homeschooling plan likely hid abuse from people who would have been required to report it to the state.
The majority of reports of abuse and neglect statewide originate from school districts, according to DCF data. School employees are mandated reporters, meaning they are bound by law to report suspected abuse or neglect to the state.
García, who had been granted sole custody of Torres-García in June 2024, emailed the Farmington Public Schools on July 29, 2024 to tell them that her child would be homeschooled.
She later filled out a registration form to give the district more information including her home address, age and some academic history.
Torres-García attended kindergarten through fifth grade at the Consolidated School District of New Britain. Then on Aug. 26, 2024, her mother filled out a homeschooling form. The family would move to Farmington, Karla García indicated in the form.
By alerting both districts about her homeschooling plan, García made it less likely that any school officials would call to report educational neglect. If a child doesn’t show up to school without notice, school employees might make that report, school officials said.
Karla García told her sister that the child died on Sept. 19, 2024, about two months after she alerted school officials about homeschooling plans.
Torres-García’s younger sister attended Farmington schools briefly but was withdrawn, said Assistant Superintendent Dan Zittoun. According to court records, Torres-García also had siblings who are now 10 months old, 3 years old, 4 years old and 11 years old.
Zittoun said if a child moves into their district and doesn’t register or tell the district they’re homeschooling and school staff had become aware of that child, they may call DCF and report educational neglect. Staff also get training on spotting signs of abuse, including signs of malnutrition.
He said in his professional judgment, he’d err on the side of caution and call DCF more readily.
“If I’m asking the question, if I think there’s educational neglect, that’s enough for me to call DCF. You call DCF and you let them determine,” Zittoun said. “I err on that side of being conservative, of making calls.”
Zittoun said the decision to call isn’t always easy.
During the last legislative session, lawmakers held a forum to discuss the results of a report from the Office of the Child Advocate that found some families had been using homeschooling as a way to hide abuse.
The report was issued after news broke that a Waterbury man who was allegedly locked away by his stepmother for over a decade had been homeschooled. It found that Connecticut is one of only 12 states with “no meaningful regulation of homeschooling.”
Although lawmakers discussed methods to increase regulation of the system last session, none was ever brought to committee. Thousands of homeschool families rallied at the state Capitol to protest regulations.
Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire, has expressed concern about the lack of regulation for homeschooled children.
“It was my position then, and it is my position now, that the law allows for abusive parents to exploit loopholes and unenroll their children from public school under the guise of homeschooling to prevent a DCF referral from the school if a child is being abused,” she said.
Diane Connors, of the Connecticut Homeschool Network, said on Wednesday that the issue of homeschooling was being unfairly blamed.
“Until this state addresses the true systems failures instead of targeting homeschoolers as a deflection and scapegoat, it’s gonna happen again,” Connors said.