Connecticut's current system for funding students with disabilities is deeply broken. While approximately $2.8 billion is spent annually in Connecticut on special education services, the bill for these expenses is largely footed by municipalities — making special education costs a frequently volatile and unpredictable line item for district budgets across the state.
Currently, Connecticut is one of only two states that provides state funding for special education services through a high-cost services model (known as the Excess Cost grant), and does not provide school districts with any specific funding for special education unless the cost of a student’s services exceeds 4.5 times the district’s per-pupil expenditure. As a result, the vast majority of Connecticut’s nearly 92,000 students with disabilities do not receive state funding specifically to support their special education needs and services.
On top of this, the state's Excess Cost grant, which is supposed to assist districts in paying for expenses for students with extraordinary special education needs, is not fully funded and provides districts with only partial reimbursement.
We're working to fix this broken system of funding special education and implement policies that support students with disabilities and their needs, offer districts and municipalities budget predictability, and ensure equitable, adequate funding for all students.
Together with parents and community members, special education stakeholders and advocates, and state and local policymakers, we're working to not only fully fund the Excess Cost grant, but to add a weight to the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula specifically to support students with disabilities.
While all districts would benefit from the inclusion of an ECS weight for students with disabilities, the additional weight would particularly bring meaningful support to under-resourced communities that have less means to adequately fund special education services through local property tax revenue alone. This is especially true for Connecticut’s largest cities, which have the highest number of students with disabilities, as well as smaller, rural districts that have the highest percentages of students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP).
