As districts work to meet increasing student needs and maintain high-quality educational programs, the purchasing power of state and local dollars has eroded under the cumulative effects of persistent inflation. To understand how rising costs are impacting students and teachers in the classroom, we conducted interviews with leaders across 18 school districts.
This policy briefing identifies how reaching “full” ECS funding will alter what education funding school districts can expect from the State each year. Additionally, this briefing examines the impacts of ECS grant changes, budgeting uncertainty, future shifts in funding, and how inflation looms larger for “fully-funded” districts.
This FAQ document dives into how the property revaluation process impacts town ECS grants and how recent property value increases have contributed to volatility in the "fully funded" ECS grant amounts for towns.
As districts work to meet increasing student needs and maintain high-quality educational programs, the purchasing power of state and local dollars has eroded under the cumulative effects of persistent inflation. To understand how rising costs are impacting students and teachers in the classroom, we conducted interviews with leaders across 18 school districts.
The Connecticut General Assembly convened for a special legislative session in November 2025. While education funding was not a primary focus of the session, policy changes were passed impacting students, schools, and communities.
In 2024, the Connecticut General Assembly passed legislation that expanded the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula to include more students participating in various public school choice programs. However, because of how this change was implemented, state grant formulas for school choice programs depend on the ECS formula definitions in state statute but in inconsistent ways.