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General Assembly Committee Bill No. 5698
January Session, 2021
LCO No. 3092
Referred to Committee on COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN
Introduced by:
(KID)
AN ACT CONCERNING TH E COLLECTION AND REP ORTING OF
ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES DATA.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 10-10a of the general statutes is repealed and the 1
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2021): 2
(a) As used in this section: 3
(1) "Adverse childhood experience" means a potentially traumatic 4
event occurring in childhood, including, but not limited to, (A) 5
experiencing or witnessing violence, abuse, neglect, substance misuse 6
or an attempt at or death by suicide, or (B) experiencing instability due 7
to parental separation or incarceration. 8
[(1)] (2) "Teacher" means any certified professional employee below 9
the rank of superintendent employed by a board of education for at least 10
ninety days in a position requiring a certificate issued by the State Board 11
of Education; and 12
[(2)] (3) "Teacher preparation program" means a program designed 13
to qualify an individual for professional certification as an educator 14
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provided by institutions of higher education or other providers 15
approved by the Department of Education, including, but not limited 16
to, an alternate route to certification program. 17
(b) The Department of Education shall develop and implement a 18
state-wide public school information system. The system shall be 19
designed for the purpose of establishing a standardized electronic data 20
collection and reporting protocol that will facilitate compliance with 21
state and federal reporting requirements, improve school-to-school and 22
district-to-district information exchanges, and maintain the 23
confidentiality of individual student and staff data. The initial design 24
shall focus on student information, provided the system shall be created 25
to allow for future compatibility with financial, facility and staff data. 26
The system shall provide for the tracking of the performance of 27
individual students on each of the state-wide mastery examinations 28
under section 10-14n in order to allow the department to compare the 29
progress of the same cohort of students who take each examination and 30
to better analyze school performance. The department shall assign a 31
unique student identifier to each student prior to tracking the 32
performance of a student in the public school information system. 33
(c) The state-wide public school information system shall: 34
(1) Track and report data relating to student, teacher and school and 35
district performance growth and make such information available to 36
local and regional boards of education for use in evaluating educational 37
performance and growth of teachers and students enrolled in public 38
schools in the state. Such information shall be collected or calculated 39
based on information received from local and regional boards of 40
education and other relevant sources. Such information shall include, 41
but not be limited to: 42
(A) In addition to performance on state-wide mastery examinations 43
pursuant to subsection (b) of this section, data relating to students shall 44
include, but not be limited to, (i) the primary language spoken at the 45
home of a student, (ii) student transcripts, (iii) student attendance and 46
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student mobility, (iv) reliable, valid assessments of a student's readiness 47
to enter public school at the kindergarten level, [and] (v) data collected, 48
if any, from the preschool experience survey, described in section 10-49
515, as amended by this act, and (vi) data collected concerning adverse 50
childhood experiences suffered by students; 51
(B) Data relating to teachers shall include, but not be limited to, (i) 52
teacher credentials, such as master's degrees, teacher preparation 53
programs completed and certification levels and endorsement areas, (ii) 54
teacher assessments, such as whether a teacher is deemed highly 55
qualified pursuant to the No Child Left Behind Act, P.L. 107-110, or 56
deemed to meet such other designations as may be established by 57
federal law or regulations for the purposes of tracking the equitable 58
distribution of instructional staff, (iii) the presence of substitute teachers 59
in a teacher's classroom, (iv) class size, (v) numbers relating to 60
absenteeism in a teacher's classroom, and (vi) the presence of a teacher's 61
aide. The department shall assign a unique teacher identifier to each 62
teacher prior to collecting such data in the public school information 63
system; 64
(C) Data relating to schools and districts shall include, but not be 65
limited to, (i) school population, (ii) annual student graduation rates, 66
(iii) annual teacher retention rates, (iv) school disciplinary records, such 67
as data relating to suspensions, expulsions and other disciplinary 68
actions, (v) the percentage of students whose primary language is not 69
English, (vi) the number of and professional credentials of support 70
personnel, (vii) information relating to instructional technology, such as 71
access to computers, and (viii) disaggregated measures of school-based 72
arrests pursuant to section 10-233n. 73
(2) Collect data relating to student enrollment in and graduation from 74
institutions of higher education for any student who had been assigned 75
a unique student identifier pursuant to subsection (b) of this section, 76
provided such data is available. 77
(3) Develop means for access to and data sharing with the data 78
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systems of public institutions of higher education in the state. 79
(d) On or before July 1, 2011, and each year thereafter until July 1, 80
2013, the Commissioner of Education shall report, in accordance with 81
the provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committee of the 82
General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to education 83
on the progress of the department's efforts to expand the state-wide 84
public school information system pursuant to subsection (c) of this 85
section. The report shall include a full statement of those data elements 86
that are currently included in the system and those data elements that 87
will be added on or before July 1, 2013. 88
(e) The system database of student information shall not be 89
considered a public record for the purposes of section 1-210. Nothing in 90
this section shall be construed to limit the ability of a full-time 91
permanent employee of a nonprofit organization that is exempt from 92
taxation under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, 93
or any subsequent corresponding internal revenue code of the United 94
States, as from time to time amended, and that is organized and 95
operated for educational purposes, to obtain information in accordance 96
with the provisions of subsection (h) of this section. 97
(f) All school districts shall participate in the system, and report all 98
necessary information required by this section, provided the 99
department provides for technical assistance and training of school staff 100
in the use of the system. 101
(g) Local and regional boards of education and preschool programs 102
which receive state or federal funding shall participate, in a manner 103
prescribed by the Commissioner of Education, in the state-wide public 104
school information system described in subsection (b) of this section. 105
Participation for purposes of this subsection shall include, but not be 106
limited to, reporting on (1) student experiences in preschool by program 107
type and by numbers of months in each such program, and (2) the 108
readiness of students entering kindergarten and student progress in 109
kindergarten. Such reporting shall be done by October 1, 2007, and 110
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annually thereafter. 111
(h) On and after August 1, 2009, upon receipt of a written request to 112
access data maintained under this section by a full-time permanent 113
employee of a nonprofit organization that is exempt from taxation 114
under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any 115
subsequent corresponding internal revenue code of the United States, 116
as from time to time amended, and that is organized and operated for 117
educational purposes, the Department of Education shall provide such 118
data to such requesting party not later than sixty days after such request, 119
provided such requesting party shall be responsible for the reasonable 120
cost of such request. The Department of Administrative Services shall 121
monitor the calculation of such fees charged for access to or copies of 122
such records to ensure that such fees are reasonable and consistent with 123
those charged by other state agencies. The Department of Education 124
shall respond to written requests under this section in the order in which 125
they are received. 126
(i) The superintendent of schools of a school district, or his or her 127
designee, may access information in the state-wide public school 128
information system regarding the state-wide mastery examination 129
under section 10-14n. Such access shall be for the limited purpose of 130
determining examination dates, examination scores and levels of 131
student achievement on such examinations for students enrolled in or 132
transferring to the school district of such superintendent. 133
Sec. 2. Subsection (c) of section 10-220 of the general statutes is 134
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 135
2021): 136
(c) Annually, each local and regional board of education shall submit 137
to the Commissioner of Education a strategic school profile report for 138
each school and school or program of alternative education, as defined 139
in section 10-74j, under its jurisdiction and for the school district as a 140
whole. The superintendent of each local and regional school district 141
shall present the profile report at the next regularly scheduled public 142
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meeting of the board of education after each November first. The profile 143
report shall provide information on measures of (1) student needs, (2) 144
school resources, including technological resources and utilization of 145
such resources and infrastructure, (3) student and school performance, 146
including in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions and 147
expulsions, the number of truants, as defined in section 10-198a, and 148
chronically absent children, as defined in section 10-198c, (4) the number 149
of students enrolled in an adult high school credit diploma program, 150
pursuant to section 10-69, operated by a local or regional board of 151
education or a regional educational service center, (5) equitable 152
allocation of resources among its schools, (6) reduction of racial, ethnic 153
and economic isolation, (7) special education, [and] (8) school-based 154
arrests, as defined in section 10-233n, and (9) adverse childhood 155
experiences, as defined in section 10-10a, as amended by this act, 156
suffered by students. For purposes of this subsection, measures of 157
special education include (A) special education identification rates by 158
disability, (B) rates at which special education students are exempted 159
from mastery testing pursuant to section 10-14q, (C) expenditures for 160
special education, including such expenditures as a percentage of total 161
expenditures, (D) achievement data for special education students, (E) 162
rates at which students identified as requiring special education are no 163
longer identified as requiring special education, (F) the availability of 164
supplemental educational services for students lacking basic 165
educational skills, (G) the amount of special education student 166
instructional time with nondisabled peers, (H) the number of students 167
placed out-of-district, and (I) the actions taken by the school district to 168
improve special education programs, as indicated by analyses of the 169
local data provided in subparagraphs (A) to (H), inclusive, of this 170
subdivision. The superintendent shall include in the narrative portion 171
of the report information about parental involvement and any measures 172
the district has taken to improve parental involvement, including, but 173
not limited to, employment of methods to engage parents in the 174
planning and improvement of school programs and methods to increase 175
support to parents working at home with their children on learning 176
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activities. For purposes of this subsection, measures of truancy include 177
the type of data that is required to be collected by the Department of 178
Education regarding attendance and unexcused absences in order for 179
the department to comply with federal reporting requirements and the 180
actions taken by the local or regional board of education to reduce 181
truancy in the school district. Such truancy data shall be considered a 182
public record, as defined in section 1-200. 183
Sec. 3. Section 10-515 of the general statutes is repealed and the 184
following is substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2021): 185
On or before March 1, 2015, the Commissioner of Early Childhood, in 186
consultation with the Department of Education, shall develop a 187
preschool experience survey that shall be included in kindergarten 188
registration materials provided by local and regional boards of 189
education to parents or guardians of children enrolling in kindergarten 190
pursuant to section 10-184. The board shall use such survey to collect 191
information regarding (1) whether the child enrolling in kindergarten 192
has participated in a preschool program, [and] (2) (A) if such child has 193
participated in a preschool program, the nature, length and setting of 194
such preschool program, or (B) if the child has not participated in a 195
preschool program, the reasons why such child did not participate in a 196
preschool program, including, but not limited to, financial difficulty, 197
lack of transportation, parental choice regarding enrollment, limitations 198
related to the hours of operation of available preschool programs and 199
any other barriers to participation in a preschool program, and (3) 200
adverse childhood experiences, as defined in section 10-10a, as amended 201
by this act, suffered by the child. A local or regional board of education 202
shall not require any parent or guardian of such child to complete such 203
survey as a condition of such child's enrollment in kindergarten. 204
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2021 10-10a
Sec. 2 July 1, 2021 10-220(c)
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Sec. 3 July 1, 2021 10-515
Statement of Purpose:
To require local and regional boards of education, the Department of
Education and the Office of Early Childhood to collect and report data
concerning adverse childhood experiences suffered by children.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]
Co-Sponsors: REP. GOUPIL, 35th Dist.; REP. BERGER-GIRVALO, 111th Dist.
REP. FOSTER, 57th Dist.; REP. MORRIN BELLO, 28th Dist.
REP. THOMAS, 143rd Dist.; REP. PARKER, 101st Dist.
REP. WINKLER, 56th Dist.
H.B. 5698