This morning legislative leaders announced they will convene on Monday, February 24 to vote on providing an additional $40 million in funding in the current fiscal year (FY 2025) for the special education Excess Cost grant.
Background
The Excess Cost grant provides partial reimbursement to districts for the costs associated with educating students who have extraordinary special education needs.
Approximately $181.1 million is currently appropriated to the Excess Cost grant for FY 2025. This is an estimated $75.6 million less than what is needed to fund the grant at its statutory reimbursement tiers, and an estimated $108.2 million less than what is needed to reimburse all districts for 100% of their Excess Costs.
Estimated Impact of Additional $40 Million
The School and State Finance Project has conducted an analysis that provides an estimate of what each district would receive from the Excess Cost grant for FY 2025 with the additional $40 million in funding. To view each district's estimated grant amount, please click here.
School + State Finance Project Response
The School and State Finance Project released the following statement from Executive Director Lisa Hammersley in response to the legislature's plan to invest an additional $40 million into the Excess Cost grant for FY 2025.
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We applaud legislative leadership for taking action now to help address the urgent special education funding needs of school districts and municipalities across the state.
Today’s announcement of an additional $40 million for the Excess Cost grant in fiscal year 2025 is a significant step forward and demonstrates the legislature’s continued commitment to Connecticut’s students. With the $40 million investment, the State would be approximately $35.6 million short of fully funding the Excess Cost grant at its statutory reimbursement tiers.
While the additional funding for the Excess Cost grant offers immediate, much-needed support to communities, we know much more work remains to ensure ALL students —including those with special education needs — receive the funding, services, and high-quality education they deserve.
We look forward to continuing this work with the legislature this session, and urge policymakers as they craft a biennial budget to build on this step forward by adding a weight for special education to the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula and fully implementing a student-centered funding system.
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