OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sHB-5243
AN ACT CONCERNING THE IDENTIFICATION AND
PREVENTION OF AND RESPONSE TO ADULT SEXUAL
MISCONDUCT AGAINST CHILDREN.
Primary Analyst: SB 4/4/22
Contributing Analyst(s): SB, ES
Reviewer: CW
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 23 $ FY 24 $
Education, Dept. GF - Cost 100,000 100,000
State Comptroller - Fringe
Benefits
1
GF - Cost 40,530 40,530
Children & Families, Dept. GF - Cost 10,000 None
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 23 $ FY 24 $
Local and Regional School
Districts
STATE
MANDATE
2
- Cost
See Below See Below
Explanation
The bill, which makes various changes in laws on adult sexual
misconduct against students, results in the following fiscal impacts:
Section 4 requires that if a school’s survey results reveal that a
1
The fringe benefit costs for most state employees are budgeted centrally in accounts
administered by the Comptroller. The estimated active employee fringe benefit cost
associated with most personnel changes is 40.53% of payroll in FY 23.
2
State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a way
as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues. 2022HB-05243-R000274-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 2
student has been the victim of sexual assault or misconduct by an adult,
the school’s local or regional board of education must collaborate with
the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the State
Department of Education (SDE) to provide or facilitate training and
counseling. Section 4 could result in significant costs to local and
regional school districts associated with expanded counseling for
students who reveal they have been the victim of sexual assault or
misconduct by an adult. Currently, not all districts have enough
clinically trained counselors or school psychologists to provide this type
of counseling to students. Local and regional school districts may need
to hire or contract additional clinically trained therapists, psychologists,
or social workers to provide counseling.
Sections 5 and 6 requires DCF to develop or adopt a bystander
training program. This requirement results in a cost of $10,000, in FY 23,
for DCF to contract for services to record, edit and integrate the required
training into a web-based format and make it available to local and
regional school districts.
Section 9 authorizes SDE to take disciplinary action on teaching,
educator, or coaching certificates, permits, or authorizations if the
holder has had a finding of abuse or neglect substantiated by DCF and
upheld on appeal. This will significantly increase the number of cases
that the Bureau of Investigations and Professional Practices, within SDE,
will be required to investigate and process. SDE would require one full-
time Attorney, resulting in an annual salary of approximately $100,000
and corresponding fringe benefits of $40,530, to complete the
requirements within the bill.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.