Christina Ghio was endorsed Wednesday by the House of Representatives as the state’s child advocate in an unexpectedly partisan vote that reflected deep divisions in the General Assembly over regulating homeschooling.
Ghio’s testimony in support of a controversial homeschool oversight bill at a public hearing two weeks ago turned a routine confirmation debate into a brief, if heated, defense of home schoolers and denunciation of Ghio.
“There’s no question if that issue wasn’t on the table yet, I think that the child advocate would receive near unanimous support,” House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, said after the vote.
The House voted to confirm her on a 97-42 vote with every Democrat and only two Republicans in support. Confirmation also requires an affirmative vote in the Senate.
The House vote in part was the GOP laying down a marker underlining their vehement opposition to the homeschooling bill.
“Her job is to advocate for children and influence policy that we make here in this building. She came in and advocated strongly against homeschoolers,” said Rep. Anne Dauphinais, R-Killingly.
Prior to her public hearing testimony, the legislature’s Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee had unanimously endorsed her for confirmation by the House.
The two Republicans voting for Ghio in the House are members of the nominations committee: Rep. David Yaccarino of North Haven, the ranking Republican on the panel, and Rep. Tony Scott of Monroe.
Ghio testified in support of House Bill 5468, which would require families to get approval by the Department of Children and Families to withdraw children from public schools for home education.
It also would require homeschoolers for the first time to show how they would provide their child with “equivalent instruction” to children in public schools.
Even before the debate, House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, had taken note of the strong public opposition to the bill and predicted significant revisions would result.
The death of an 11-year-old girl in New Britain who stopped attending school prompted the push for greater regulation. Her mother is accused of covering up her death by telling school and DCF staff that she was being homeschooled.
But opponents of the bill said the failure rested with DCF, which had a file on the family. Dauphinais said Wednesday that Ghio’s focus as child advocate should be on DCF, not homeschoolers.
“What her primary job should be is to put out recommendations for DCF reform,” Dauphinais said. “None of her testimony — none of her testimony — gave any suggestions about DCF reform.”
Ghio was the assistant child advocate before her nomination to lead the office, and her supporters say her track record is admirable.
“She has consistently been a strong advocate for children and holding DCF accountable,” said Rep. Liz Linehan, D-Cheshire. “There has never been a time when Ms. Gio has backed away from holding DCF accountable.”
Linehan said she understood that Ghio’s testimony made her no friends with home schoolers.
“I understand that. But she’s not doing this with emotion. She is going back to data to show that there was, in fact, a study that she worked on,” Linehan said.
Linehan said the study showed that almost 30% of children withdrawn from public schools to be homeschooled had open DCF files.
“I think it’s really important that we take a step back and ensure that there is someone who’s going to be impartial and look at the data and be able to stand up and say what’s best for kids,” Linehan said.
Ghio said her office’s report on equivalent instruction was one of eight issued since she became the acting child advocate in September 2024.
“All our recommendations are focused on improving systems that serve our most vulnerable children,” Ghio said in an emailed statement. “I’m very proud of the work our office has done over the last 18 months and, if confirmed, will continue to conduct investigations that provide transparency and hold state systems accountable.”
Rep. Mitch Bolinsky, R-Newtown, a member of the Education Committee, took Ghio’s testimony as accusatory to the parents of homeschoolers.
“To accuse parents in a hearing room sitting there with their children of being potentially homeschooling so that they can abuse their children — absolutely reprehensible,” Bolinsky said.
Ghio said that was not her intention.
“We said in our report, and I have said repeatedly in my public comments, nothing in the report is a general criticism of homeschooling nor a suggestion that children should not be homeschooled,” Ghio said. “Parents choose to homeschool for lots of good reasons. Many parents do an amazing job educating their children at home.”
But she also noted that Connecticut is one only 12 states with no home school standards and said not every parent who withdraws their children from school is providing an education.
“Worse, some take advantage of Connecticut’s complete lack of oversight to isolate children and abuse them,” she said. “Connecticut must grapple with that reality.”