During its 2025 regular legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly made a number of changes to how the State funds special education, including the creation of a new formulaic grant to support special education services.
Despite state charter schools receiving most of their funding through state sources, local school districts may still be impacted financially by the opening and operation of a charter school. This briefing focuses on the potential financial implications of state charter schools on local school districts.
These frequently asked questions documents provide more information about FY 2025 funding for different public school types. Included in each document is an overview of funding from the previous year, details on how funding will be allocated in FY 2025, and information about funding in future years.
The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant is distributed to Connecticut school districts in three parts throughout the year: October, January, and April. This one-pager summarizes the ECS grant payment schedule and how districts receive their ECS grant.
On May 7, 2024, the General Assembly passed H.B. 5523, a budget stabilization bill that appropriates funds for fiscal year 2025 and makes a number of different policy changes to K-12 education and other areas. Along with maintaining the $150 million in additional funding for K-12 education in FY 2025 that was allotted as part of the state budget passed last year, the bill overhauls how Connecticut distributes state education funding to school districts.
We surveyed school district leaders in Connecticut in order to quantify how the expiration of federal COVID-relief funds will impact schools, staff, and students. Survey results revealed district leaders believe the loss of ESSER dollars will impact thousands of students and educators through cuts to programs, services, and staff, and make it more difficult to address student learning and mental health needs, support higher-need students, and improve student academic performance.