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.
The State of Connecticut has several budget controls, commonly referred to as “fiscal guardrails,” which it has committed to bondholders to maintain through at least fiscal year 2028. These budget controls include the bond cap, revenue cap, spending cap, and volatility cap.
One learning need currently not weighted for in the ECS formula is special education. This summary document provides an overview how adding a weight for students with disabilities to the ECS formula would benefit students, the cost of adding such a weight, and other states that currently weight for special education in their funding formulas.
This frequently asked questions document discusses special education services for Connecticut students attending public schools of choice, including how those services are delivered and paid for.
This interactive model breaks down each aspect of the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula and details how each town's grant is determined. Additionally, the model details each town's estimated projected ECS grants, according to the formula, from fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2034.
The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula is the method the State of Connecticut has established to distribute over $2.46 billion annually in state education funding to local and regional public school districts. This one-pager details the current components of the ECS formula, which was last revised during the 2025 regular legislative session.