On June 30, 2025, President Donald Trump's administration announced it was withholding over $6.8 billion in federal K-12 education funding for the 2025-26 school year, including an estimated $53.6 million for Connecticut public school districts and community organizations.
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.
2024 Survey Webpage
2024 District Leader Survey Results
2024 District Leader Survey All Questions and Responses
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The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula uses several components to calculate town ECS grants, including student counts and town wealth data. This projection model details how each of the ECS formula's components impact a town's ECS grant.
On February 7, 2024, Governor Ned Lamont released his recommended budget adjustments for fiscal year 2025 — the second year of the state's biennial budget. The governor's proposal would alter the current state budget and make a number of changes to policies and funding for K-12 education — including reducing funding appropriated for public schools by $62.9 million.
During the 2023 regular legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a bill of rights for the parents and guardians of multilingual learners. This infographic, available in English and Spanish, explains the Multilingual Learner Parent Bill of Rights and what protections are afforded to parents/guardians as they navigate their student's education.
District Reference Groups (DRGs) are a classification system that groups local and regional public school districts together based on the similar socioeconomic characteristics and status of their students. Developed by the Connecticut State Department of Education, the DRGs have not been officially updated since they were first released in 2006. Although not for official use, the School and State Finance Project has replicated the DRGs using updated data and the same methodology and variables as the original DRGs.