by Karla Ciaglo CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT – Connecticut lawmakers, advocates, and educators gathered for a press conference at the Legislative Office Building on Monday morning to rally behind two major education bills aimed at overhauling how the state funds and regulates special education.
The bills – Senate Bill 1561 and House Bill 7277 – run more than 120 pages combined and propose a statewide tuition rate for private providers, caps on mid-year rate hikes, a new $50 million transportation grant, and a special education offset grant to ease the burden on local districts.
The push comes as costs for private special education placements have surged 35% over the last three years, while the needs of students have also become more complex.
Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, D-Trumbull, who co-chairs the legislature’s new Select Committee on Special Education, hosted the press conference and said the bills were crafted after a series of public listening tours and task force meetings. She called the legislation a continued effort to repair a broken system.
“The children of Connecticut have a constitutional right to a quality public education, but unfortunately, the current system leaves many special needs students underserved,” said Gadkar-Wilcox. “This legislation ensures educators and providers have what they need to offer in-district services, while ensuring we act as good stewards of the taxpayer dollar.
The legislation would place oversight and accountability requirements on programs administered by the Connecticut State Department of Education, while also expanding reimbursement for districts to help cover the costs of transportation, program construction, and overall service delivery for special education students.
“Special education in the state of Connecticut is not sustainable, and we need better oversight,” she said. “Right now, we don’t even have the data to understand why costs are rising the way they are.”
One of the goals of the bills is to reduce dependence on costly outplacements and help districts build their own capacity to serve students closer to home. Currently, just 6% of special education students are placed out-of-district, but often at significant cost.
Hartford school board member Shontá Browdy speaks at a public hearing in the Legislative Office Building in Hartford, CT on April 21, 2025. Credit: Karla Ciaglo / CTNewsJunkie
“If I said stop the bleeding, that would be an understatement,” said Shontá Browdy, a member of the Hartford Board of Education. “We’re trying to stop the hemorrhaging of the funds that leave Hartford Public Schools.”
Browdy said Hartford now spends more than $70 million annually on outplacement tuition, not including transportation.
In New Haven, the price tag is similar. Rosemary Coffey, a speech-language pathologist, said the district spends around $30 million a year on outplacement tuition and another $5 million busing students to programs outside the district.
“Private programs can raise their tuition every year without regulation,” Coffey said. “A fixed-rate schedule would support long-term planning and ensure equitable use of public funds.”
The state currently has no cap on what private providers can charge – and no requirement to justify those increases – which forces some districts to divert funds from general education just to keep up. The proposed legislation would prohibit mid-year tuition hikes without state approval and disqualify providers from receiving additional students if they overcharge, while also helping districts build capacity through new grant funding to develop in-district programs, improve transportation systems, reimburse for the construction of specialized spaces, and support the recruitment and retention of special education staff, from paraprofessionals to certified specialists.
Stephanie Wanzer, a special education teacher from Danbury and member of the state task force, said retention is a growing concern.
“We need to retain and grow educators who work with our most intense-needs students,” Wanzer said.
Shellye Davis, president of the Hartford Federation of Paraeducators, noted that the federal government has been covering about 13% of the cost of special education, far below the 40% that was originally promised.
“Special education is not a luxury; it is a right,” Davis said. “The shortfalls place a tremendous burden on state and local budgets, forcing schools to make impossible choices.”
Rep. Maryam Khan, D-Windsor, addressed what she described as misinformation circulating among parents online, particularly rumors that the bills would eliminate or shut down existing programs.
“There is nothing in this bill that shuts programs down,” she said. “We are strengthening – not stripping – services.”
The bills are drawing debate, with concerns raised from multiple angles.
Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of the Connecticut Community Nonprofit Alliance, warned in a statement that a universal rate schedule could backfire.
“The Approved Private Special Education Programs serve more than 3,000 kids with highly individualized needs and significant behavioral challenges. If the state caps rates, the needs of those kids won’t change; they will continue to need the support of highly trained and dedicated staff. What will change is the number of students any program can take in,” Casa said. “That means the burden will be shifted to school districts, thereby raising local costs. And some kids will be forced into out-of-state programs.”
Rep. Kadeem Roberts, D-Stamford, vice chair of the Select Committee, emphasized that the bills are still drafts and will be revised with welcome public input.
“The process has not been haphazard,” Roberts said. “It’s been deliberate, data-driven, and informed by every corner of the state.”
A public hearing on the bills began Monday afternoon with 198 people signed up to testify. Gadkar-Wilcox expressed frustration that commissioners were not planning to attend in person to answer questions or engage directly in the discussion, noting that only the State Department of Education and the Department of Transportation had submitted written testimony.
“I don’t want to read too much into it,” she said. “But I view it as a significant lack of information that we are really going to need in order to pass this bill out of committee strongly and in the way that kids deserve.”