Breakdown of Spending

Ever wonder how school districts spend their money? Use the visualization below to see how much a district spends on instruction, support services, central office, transportation, and other noninstructional services, and how a district's spending compares to the state average.

Use the dropdown menu on the left to select a district. To view how much a district spent on a particular category (both in terms of percentage and total dollars), simply hover over that portion of the district's bar graph. To remove a category from the graph, click on the category in the legend of the chart, or double click on a category in the legend to isolate the category.

The largest expense for every Connecticut school district is people. Salaries and benefits for the teachers, administrators, and staff who educate and support students make up the largest single expense for districts, regardless of a district's size or location.

But just like with spending, staffing levels differ across districts and not all students have the same class sizes or equal access to counselors, psychiatrists, nurses, or other support services that can impact a student's educational success and physical and emotional health.

The visualization below shows the staffing levels (by students per staff member) for the selected district compared to three similar districts. Use the dropdown menu on the left to select a district and use the buttons below to select the type of staff. All staffing levels are displayed as students per the selected staff type.

The visualization at the bottom of the page will also update based on the selected district and display the racial demographics of the district's certified staff compared to the demographics of the district's students.