HARTFORD, CT – Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate announced Wednesday morning that they would seek to boost special education funding by at least $40 million during the current fiscal year.
“We all know that special education presents a challenge in equity for many towns, whether they be large or small, rich or poor, because we know that sometimes an expensive placement in a very complicated case can all of a sudden be the responsibility of a community that had not planned for it previously,” said Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven. “We know that the special education services are critical for students in order to get their footing and to be in a position to thrive. We know that all communities are challenged by this.”
The additional funds would be allocated through the Excess Cost grant program, which covers per-pupil expenses above 4.5 times the average to educate certain special education students in the state – a total of about 4,300 youngsters out of the 91,847 special needs students in Connecticut. The additional money will be distributed through a tiered system to prioritize the municipalities most in need.
Democrats said the $40 million will come from a surplus in the current state budget resulting from interest income earned on American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Gov. Ned Lamont had previously said during his budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly that his new budget would also increase special education spending by $40 million. However, that funding would not kick in until the second year of the next biennium, meaning that schools would not see any extra dollars until 2027.
Sen. Derek Slap, D-West Hartford, called the funding from Lamont too little, too late.
“This is going to impact every single town and every single taxpayer all across the state of Connecticut,” he said. “I think all legislators are hearing from their boards of education in the last few months. And the chorus of complaints, understandable as they are, have gotten louder and louder as the mid-year budgets have become more and more strained and they’re looking ahead to gosh, how are we going to balance the budget? Nobody wants to raise the mill rate. And we cannot wait 18 months for an additional $40 million in special education funding.”
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, agreed with Slap, saying that the additional funding this year is “an acknowledgment that we have fallen short on the excess cost grant” this year.
“This is a start, but it’s not necessarily how we’re going to do it forever,” Ritter said. “We hope we can make changes to better solidify the system, put more resources in, and also make it a little more equitable as [Sen. Looney] alluded to.”
Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, co-chair of the new Special Education Committee, discussed the four listening sessions that the committee held to hear concerns from special educators around the state.
“We have a constitutional and a moral obligation to serve all of our students and to make sure that we’re meeting the needs, especially of our most vulnerable,” she said. “So one of the things I’ll just share that we’re looking at right now is the funding, of course. It’s one piece that you know is always requested but it’s not going to solve the systemic problems. So what we’re thinking about as a committee is what are some of those structures that are in place right now that are causing constraints that don’t work in the long run and how can we create a long-term, sustainable solution.”
She said that some of the things the committee heard were the need for more support for the teacher pipeline, noting that Connecticut is facing a crisis right now in terms of a shortage of teachers, especially in special education certification programs. She also said there needs to be more support for paraprofessionals, as they’re part of the entire support team that schools need to think about as essential for special education.
West Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Paul Vicinus described how the extra money would be used this school year.
“This bill will support specialized transportation for special education students,” Vicinus said. “It will support programs in the schools to support those individuals with significant cognitive impairments. It will support student behavioral needs. It’ll support with assistive technology and residential therapeutic placements.”
Asked why there were no Republicans present during the announcement, the Democratic leadership assured those in attendance that the bill would receive support from the Republican caucus.
“A number of meetings are happening right now, but I can tell you the committee’s operating in a very committed bipartisan fashion,” Gadkar-Wilcox said.
“I did talk to Representative Candelora about this multiple times, and I know he’ll be supporting it,” Ritter said.
Later Wednesday, Candelora, Rep. Lezlye Zupkus, a ranking member on the Education Committee, and Rep. Tina Courpas, a ranking member of the Select Committee on Special Education, issued a joint statement reminding Democrats that they had raised the alarm about special education funding last spring.
“There’s no doubt that cities and towns – including our own – will welcome additional special education funding. But let’s be clear: the severe budgetary challenges municipalities now face could have been mitigated if majority party Democrats had acted last spring,” they wrote. “House Republicans sounded the alarm, proposing full funding of the special education excess cost grant to ease the growing burden on local property taxpayers. Instead, Democrats chose to ignore this urgent need, diverting millions to higher education – a decision with lasting consequences as we shape the next two-year state budget. While today’s announcement of gap funding is a step in the right direction, it’s far from a solution, and falls short of what is needed. The special education funding crisis persists, and Republicans remain committed to delivering overdue structural changes.”
The House will convene on Feb. 24 and the Senate on Feb. 25 to vote on the additional funding.
Committee Raises Concept To Address Disconnected Youth
Earlier Wednesday, the General Assembly’s Education Committee met to introduce new concepts to raise.
Six bills received the committee’s approval, including one that would begin to address the issue of disconnected youth in the state. Connecticut has 119,000 teenagers and young adults who are either not working or attending classes. The report, Young People First, supported by Dalio Education, lays out several strategies for helping to reconnect young people to educational and work opportunities.