Resource Center

The Resource Center contains a wide collection of reports, publications, and data from Connecticut and national sources. To navigate through the Resource Center, use the keyword search below or browse by selecting a specific category using the drop-down menu below the Featured post.

Task Force to Study Special Education Services and Funding

Jan 15, 2025 Featured

The Task Force to Study Special Education Services and Funding was created by the Connecticut General Assembly to examine a variety of issues related to special education. Specifically, the Task Force looked at the state's severe special education staffing shortage, the lack of resources for special education, the lack of equity in special education across the state, and the failure to close the state's achievement gap.

Special Education Task Force Final Report Special Education Task Force Midterm Report Special Education Task Force Presentation to SpEd Committee

Education Funding Special Education

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Forensics and the Future of a Connecticut Pension Plan (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

Dec 1, 2015

This issue brief, based on a November 2015 comprehensive report from researchers at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, examines Connecticut's State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and the State's significant unfunded liabilities associated with the system. Along with providing a brief history of funding for SERS and offering alternatives meant to shore up the system's finances and improve the overall flexibility of Connecticut's budget, the issue brief examines three major factors that contributed to SERS' unfunded liability. These factors include: 1) legacy costs from benefits promised before the systems were pre-funded; 2) inadequate contributions once the State decided to pre-fund; and 3) low investment returns relative to the assumed return since 2000.

Boston College Final Report on SERS and TRS

Pensions Fixed Costs

Final Report on Connecticut's State Employees Retirement System and Teachers' Retirement System (Center for Retirement Research at Boston College)

Nov 1, 2015

A comprehensive report, from researchers at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, that examines the fiscal health of Connecticut's two largest public sector retirement systems: the State Employees Retirement System (SERS) and the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS). In addition to projecting the systems' finances going forward and presenting "alternatives to shore up the systems' finances and improve budget flexibility," the report, which was requested by the State of Connecticut, looks at the State's unfunded liabilities for both systems and the factors that have caused those unfunded liabilities to increase significantly over the years. The report finds "[t]hree factors underlie the current unfunded liability of SERS and TRS: 1) legacy costs from benefits promised before the systems were pre-funded; 2) inadequate contributions once the State decided to pre-fund; and 3) low investment returns relative to the assumed return since 2000."

Boston College Final Report on SERS and TRS

Pensions Fixed Costs

Data Bulletin: Connecticut's English Learners (Grades K-12) (CT State Department of Education)

Aug 1, 2015

Data and analysis from the Connecticut State Department of Education on English Learners during the 2009-10, 2011-12, and 2014-15 school years. Bulletins details level of support services as well as test scores and demographic breakdowns.

Data Bulletin: Connecticut's English Learners - 2014-15 Data Bulletin: Connecticut's English Learners - 2011-12 Data Bulletin: Connecticut's English Learners - 2009-10 Data Bulletin: Connecticut's English Learners - 2007-08 Data Bulletin: Connecticut's English Learners - 2000-01

Student Enrollment/Demographics

Measuring Municipal Fiscal Disparities in Connecticut (Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)

May 1, 2015

This research report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's New England Public Policy Center measures nonschool fiscal disparities in Connecticut and aims to identify the factors that are driving said fiscal disparities. The report also examines the extent to which existing nonschool municipal grant programs address the existing disparities.

Measuring Municipal Fiscal Disparities in Connecticut

Municipal Aid & Spending

Special Education Select Working Group - Recommendations for Legislative Action (Municipal Opportunities & Regional Efficiencies (MORE) Commission)

Feb 1, 2015

The Municipal Opportunities and Regional Efficiencies (MORE) Commission was created by House Speaker J. Brendan Sharkey in 2010 to work on finding solutions to issues that face Connecticut’s municipalities. The Special Education Select Working Group was formed as a sub-committee of the MORE Commission in December 2013 with the mission of determining how to provide special education in a more effective manner.

MORE Commission Special Education Select Working Group