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General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 5321
February Session, 2022
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING CERTAIN RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
SCHOOL PARAEDUCATOR ADVISORY COUNCIL.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
Section 1. Subdivision (10) of subsection (a) of section 10-76d of the 1
2022 supplement to the general statutes is repealed and the following is 2
substituted in lieu thereof (Effective July 1, 2022): 3
(10) (A) Each local and regional board of education responsible for 4
providing special education and related services to a child or pupil shall 5
notify the parent or guardian of a child who requires or who may 6
require special education, a pupil if such pupil is an emancipated minor 7
or eighteen years of age or older who requires or who may require 8
special education or a surrogate parent appointed pursuant to section 9
10-94g, in writing, at least five school days before such board proposes 10
to, or refuses to, initiate or change the child's or pupil's identification, 11
evaluation or educational placement or the provision of a free 12
appropriate public education to the child or pupil. 13
(B) Upon request by a parent, guardian, pupil or surrogate parent, 14
the responsible local or regional board of education shall provide such 15
parent, guardian, pupil or surrogate parent an opportunity to meet with 16
a member of the planning and placement team designated by such 17
board prior to the referral planning and placement team meeting at 18 Substitute Bill No. 5321
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which the assessments and evaluations of the child or pupil who 19
requires or may require special education is presented to such parent, 20
guardian, pupil or surrogate parent for the first time. Such meeting shall 21
be for the sole purpose of discussing the planning and placement team 22
process and any concerns such parent, guardian, pupil or surrogate 23
parent has regarding the child or pupil who requires or may require 24
special education. 25
(C) Such parent, guardian, pupil or surrogate parent shall (i) be given 26
at least five school days' prior notice of any planning and placement 27
team meeting conducted for such child or pupil, (ii) have the right to be 28
present at and participate in all portions of such meeting at which an 29
educational program for such child or pupil is developed, reviewed or 30
revised, (iii) have the right to have (I) advisors of such person's own 31
choosing and at such person's own expense, (II) the school 32
paraprofessional assigned to such child or pupil, if any, and (III) such 33
child or pupil's birth-to-three service coordinator, if any, attend and 34
participate in all portions of such meeting at which an educational 35
program for such child or pupil is developed, reviewed or revised, and 36
(iv) have the right to have each recommendation made in such child or 37
pupil's birth-to-three individualized transition plan, as required by 38
section 17a-248e, if any, addressed by the planning and placement team 39
during such meeting at which an educational program for such child or 40
pupil is developed. 41
(D) Immediately upon the formal identification of any child as a child 42
requiring special education and at each planning and placement team 43
meeting for such child, the responsible local or regional board of 44
education shall inform the parent or guardian of such child or surrogate 45
parent or, in the case of a pupil who is an emancipated minor or eighteen 46
years of age or older, the pupil of (i) the laws relating to special 47
education, (ii) the rights of such parent, guardian, surrogate parent or 48
pupil under such laws and the regulations adopted by the State Board 49
of Education relating to special education, including the right of a 50
parent, guardian or surrogate parent to (I) withhold from enrolling such 51 Substitute Bill No. 5321
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child in kindergarten, in accordance with the provisions of section 10-52
184, and (II) have advisors and the school paraprofessional assigned to 53
such child or pupil attend and participate in all portions of such meeting 54
at which an educational program for such child or pupil is developed, 55
reviewed or revised, in accordance with the provisions of subparagraph 56
(C) of this subdivision, and (iii) any relevant information and resources 57
relating to individualized education programs created by the 58
Department of Education, including, but not limited to, information 59
relating to transition resources and services for high school students. If 60
such parent, guardian, surrogate parent or pupil does not attend a 61
planning and placement team meeting, the responsible local or regional 62
board of education shall mail such information to such person. 63
(E) Each local and regional board of education shall have in effect at 64
the beginning of each school year an educational program for each child 65
or pupil who has been identified as eligible for special education. 66
(F) At each initial planning and placement team meeting for a child 67
or pupil, the responsible local or regional board of education shall 68
inform the parent, guardian, surrogate parent or pupil of (i) the laws 69
relating to physical restraint and seclusion pursuant to section 10-236b 70
and the rights of such parent, guardian, surrogate parent or pupil under 71
such laws and the regulations adopted by the State Board of Education 72
relating to physical restraint and seclusion, and (ii) the right of such 73
parent, guardian, surrogate parent or pupil, during such meeting at 74
which an educational program for such child or pupil is developed, to 75
have (I) such child or pupil's birth-to-three service coordinator attend 76
and participate in all portions of such meeting, and (II) each 77
recommendation made in the transition plan, as required by section 17a-78
248e, by such child or pupil's birth-to-three service coordinator 79
addressed by the planning and placement team. 80
(G) Upon request by a parent, guardian, pupil or surrogate parent, 81
the responsible local or regional board of education shall provide the 82
results of the assessments and evaluations used in the determination of 83
eligibility for special education for a child or pupil to such parent, 84 Substitute Bill No. 5321
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guardian, surrogate parent or pupil at least three school days before the 85
referral planning and placement team meeting at which such results of 86
the assessments and evaluations will be discussed for the first time. 87
(H) Each local or regional board of education shall monitor the 88
development of each child who, pursuant to subsection (a) of section 89
17a-248e, has been (i) referred for a registration on a mobile application 90
designated by the Commissioner of Early Childhood, in partnership 91
with such child's parent, guardian or surrogate parent, or (ii) provided 92
a form for such child's parent, guardian or surrogate parent to complete 93
and submit to such local or regional board of education that screens for 94
developmental and social-emotional delays using a validated screening 95
tool, such as the Ages and Stages Questionnaire and the Ages and Stages 96
Social-Emotional Questionnaire, or its equivalent. If such monitoring 97
results in suspecting a child of having a developmental delay, the board 98
shall schedule a planning and placement team meeting with such child's 99
parent, guardian or surrogate parent for the purposes of identifying 100
services for which such child may be eligible, including, but not limited 101
to, a preschool program under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities 102
Act, 20 USC 1471 et seq. If a parent, guardian or surrogate parent of any 103
child referred for a registration on the mobile application or provided a 104
form to complete and submit, pursuant to subsection (a) of section 17a-105
248e, fails to complete such registration or complete and submit such 106
form after a period of six months from the date of such referral or 107
provision of such form, the board shall send a reminder, in the form and 108
manner determined by the board, to such parent, guardian or surrogate 109
parent to complete such registration or complete and submit such form. 110
The board shall send another reminder after a period of one year from 111
such referral or provision of such form if such registration remains 112
incomplete or such form is not submitted. 113
(I) Prior to any planning and placement team meeting for a child or 114
pupil in which an educational program for such child or pupil is 115
developed, reviewed or revised, if the parent, guardian, pupil or 116
surrogate parent has requested that the school paraprofessional 117 Substitute Bill No. 5321
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assigned to such child or pupil attend such meeting, then the 118
responsible local or regional board of education shall provide (i) 119
adequate notice of such meeting to such school paraprofessional so that 120
such school paraprofessional may adequately prepare for such meeting, 121
and (ii) training, upon request of such school paraprofessional, on the 122
role of such school paraprofessional at such meeting. Following such 123
meeting, such school paraprofessional shall be permitted to view such 124
educational program in order to be able to provide special education or 125
related services to such child or pupil in accordance with such 126
educational program. 127
Sec. 2. Subsection (c) of section 10-220 of the 2022 supplement to the 128
general statutes is repealed and the following is substituted in lieu 129
thereof (Effective July 1, 2022): 130
(c) Annually, within available resources, each local and regional 131
board of education shall submit to the Commissioner of Education a 132
strategic school profile report for each school and school or program of 133
alternative education, as defined in section 10-74j, under its jurisdiction 134
and for the school district as a whole. The superintendent of each local 135
and regional school district shall present the profile report at the next 136
regularly scheduled public meeting of the board of education after each 137
November first. The profile report shall provide information on 138
measures of (1) student needs, (2) school resources, including 139
technological resources and utilization of such resources and 140
infrastructure, (3) student and school performance, including in-school 141
suspensions, out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, the number of 142
truants, as defined in section 10-198a, and chronically absent children, 143
as defined in section 10-198c, (4) the number of students enrolled in an 144
adult high school credit diploma program, pursuant to section 10-69, 145
operated by a local or regional board of education or a regional 146
educational service center, (5) equitable allocation of resources among 147
its schools, (6) reduction of racial, ethnic and economic isolation, (7) 148
special education, [and] (8) school-based arrests, as defined in section 149
10-233n, and (9) paraeducators, including the number of paraeducators 150 Substitute Bill No. 5321
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employed within each school and for the school district as a whole, the 151
job titles held by paraeducators, the hourly rate of pay for each 152
paraeducator, the total number of hours and days worked for each 153
paraeducator, the health care contributions as a percentage of salary for 154
each paraeducator, and the annual salary for each paraeducator 155
calculated by multiplying the number of hours worked by such 156
paraeducator's hourly rate of pay. For purposes of this subsection, 157
measures of special education include (A) special education 158
identification rates by disability, (B) rates at which special education 159
students are exempted from mastery testing pursuant to section 10-14q, 160
(C) expenditures for special education, including such expenditures as 161
a percentage of total expenditures, (D) achievement data for special 162
education students, (E) rates at which students identified as requiring 163
special education are no longer identified as requiring special education, 164
(F) the availability of supplemental educational services for students 165
lacking basic educational skills, (G) the amount of special education 166
student instructional time with nondisabled peers, (H) the number of 167
students placed out-of-district, and (I) the actions taken by the school 168
district to improve special education programs, as indicated by analyses 169
of the 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
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 Substitute Bill No. 5321
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This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2022 10-76d(a)(10)
Sec. 2 July 1, 2022 10-220(c)
ED Joint Favorable Subst. C/R APP
APP Joint Favorable Subst.