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.
The State of Connecticut has a constitutional responsibility to provide public elementary and secondary education in the state. In charge of carrying out this responsibility and ensuring the State’s educational interests are met are the Connecticut State Board of Education and Connecticut State Department of Education, along with local education agencies —including local and regional boards of education — that directly provide educational services to the state's elementary and secondary students. This frequently asked questions one-pager looks further into these roles and the entities responsible for Connecticut public education.
This frequently asked questions document discusses Connecticut’s minimum budget requirement (MBR), which prohibits a town from budgeting less for education than it did in the previous year unless it meets specific exceptions.
This frequently asked questions document discusses fiscally independent school districts and the structural differences between school districts that are fiscally independent and those, like the vast majority of Connecticut's school districts, that are fiscally dependent.
In Connecticut, the cost per square foot for school construction, adjusted for inflation, increased 64 percent between 2000 and 2012. This report examines the costs, processes, and state funding associated with school construction in Connecticut and its peer states. The report also examines legislative changes made in 2017 to Connecticut's school construction grant program.
Two pieces of legislation, Conn. Acts 12-116, passed by the Connecticut General Assembly in 2012, and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 2015, require Connecticut to take steps toward greater transparency in education spending. The following policy briefing provides an update on the implementation status of these pieces of legislation, and examines how they impact transparency in school finance.