News 8

Comptroller Sean Scanlon said Connecticut’s underlying system for special education is “truly broken” in a budget surplus update Tuesday, highlighting staffing shortages, rising rates of out-of-district and out-of-state placements, and strains on district resources. Districts K-12 spent $3.3 billion on special education in the 2024-2025 school year, including transportation, teacher and aide staffing, and supplies and equipment. Spending depends on the intensity of student needs, and extra costs can run as high as $200,000 per year for one student. Nearly one-in-five Connecticut public school students now qualify for an individualized education program, which is substantially more than in the past, the comptroller said. “While state funding for education has increased, the underlying system is truly broken,” the state comptroller said. “The good news is that, whether through the Citizens’ Assembly I’m working with or the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission, there is real momentum to finally replace this broken system with the true, structural change we need to reform how education is funded in Connecticut.” Connecticut and Rhode Island are the only states that don’t use a weighted system for allocating special education resources.