Reports & Publications

We surveyed school district leaders in Connecticut in order to quantify how the expiration of federal COVID-relief funds will impact schools, staff, and students. Survey results revealed district leaders believe the loss of ESSER dollars will impact thousands of students and educators through cuts to programs, services, and staff, and make it more difficult to address student learning and mental health needs, support higher-need students, and improve student academic performance.

This brief details how an inflation-based adjustment to the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula's foundation amount could be implemented to mitigate the annual increasing costs of providing educational services. The potential adjustment would alleviate districts’ reliance on local sources to cover rising costs and would ensure all districts have the resources they need to properly operate their schools and provide their students with a high-quality education when economic changes occur.

The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula uses several components to calculate town ECS grants, including student counts and town wealth data. This model shows how each town's variables for the ECS formula have changed over the past five years.

The Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula uses several components to calculate town ECS grants, including student counts and town wealth data. This projection model details how each of the ECS formula's components impact a town's ECS grant.

Excess Cost grant reimbursement requests for FY 2024 have significantly exceeded the $181 million appropriated for the grant in the state budget. Without additional funding, districts and towns will not receive the reimbursement levels specified in statute for the Excess Cost grant, resulting in less funding for all districts educating high-needs students with disabilities.