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.
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.
This frequently asked questions document covers the 2023 legislative change made to the kindergarten entry age in Connecticut and what this change means for the state’s students, families, districts, and childcare providers.
As a result of school districts serving different student populations with different needs, and having access to varying levels of resources, differences in the type of instruction Connecticut students received during the 2020-21 school year varied greatly. This variation resulted in districts with higher student needs being impacted more than those with lower student needs.
This report explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning models and attendance rates among Connecticut’s local and regional public school districts and charter schools. Additionally, this report examines each district’s student needs and the resources available to address changes and disruptions caused by the pandemic.
Connecticut's public school districts remain deeply segregated and significant funding gaps continue to exist between districts that predominantly serve students of color and districts that largely serve White student populations. These are two of the overarching findings from this School and State Finance Project report, which examines racial disparities in Connecticut education funding.
In Connecticut, there are several different methods for counting public school students in towns, schools, and school districts. Each method uses a different set of rules, and is used for different purposes. This one-pager details these different student counts and how each is used.