OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-1
AN ACT CONCERNING TRANSPARENCY IN EDUCATION.
Primary Analyst: DD 4/12/23
Contributing Analyst(s):
Reviewer: SB
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Education, Dept. GF - Cost See Below See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 24 $ FY 25 $
Local and Regional School
Districts
STATE
MANDATE
1
- Cost
Potential Potential
Local and Regional School
Districts
Revenue
Gain
Potential Potential
Explanation
The bill results in costs to the State Department of Education (SDE)
by implementing several new initiatives. The bill also results in potential
costs and potential revenue gain to local and regional school districts by
making changes to the Alliance District program. These changes are
described below.
Sections 1 to 3 result in potential one-time costs to local and regional
school districts. The bill requires SDE to develop and local and regional
school districts to use a modified uniform chart of accounts when
reporting financial information.
1
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. 2023SB-00001-R000551-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 4
To the extent that the modified uniform chart of accounts requires
changes in the financial software used by SDE and local and regional
districts for tracking and reporting such information, both SDE and
districts could incur one-time costs associated with updating their
software. If the modified chart of accounts requires a substantial
redevelopment of a district's financial system, the costs incurred by the
bill could be significant.
Sections 4 and 5 require the State Department of Education to
conduct trainings for newly elected members of local and regional
boards of education, and requires the newly elected members to attend
such training.
Depending on how many newly elected officials receive this training,
SDE may incur annual costs anticipated to be less than $20,000
beginning in FY 24 associated with hiring a consultant to conduct the
training.
Section 6 makes a technical change and has no fiscal impact.
Section 7 removes the cap, beginning in FY 24, on the number of
Alliance Districts and allows SDE to designate additional Alliance
Districts at its discretion. This section also removes the five-year limit
on the current Alliance District designations, ensuring that current
Alliance Districts retain the designation in future years. The impact of
these changes depends on: (1) whether SDE selects additional Alliance
Districts and if so, how many; (2) whether those towns are considered
overfunded by the ECS formula; and (3) the affected towns' levels of
property wealth.
Alliance Districts are held harmless from any reductions in their
Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grants that they may otherwise receive
formulaically due to overfunding.
2
They also receive the highest level of
2
Eleven of the 36 Alliance Districts are currently affected by the hold harmless
provision. In addition to this benefit, Alliance Districts also: (1) receive the ECS
funding level that is the highest of the prior year, FY 17, or the formulaic amount, and 2023SB-00001-R000551-FN.DOCX Page 3 of 4
reimbursement for certain tax-exempt property through the Tiered
PILOT grant, regardless of property wealth. Designation as an Alliance
District additionally causes a portion of a town's ECS entitlement to be
contingent on SDE approval of a plan regarding how the district will
spend the portion.
If SDE selects additional Alliance Districts that are considered
overfunded under ECS, or that do not have low levels of property
wealth, then the positive impacts to the towns may be significant.
Impacts would begin in FY 24 or whenever additional districts are
designated. Due to the scope of the ECS and Tiered PILOT grants, any
impacts on the formulaic appropriations are expected to be minimal.
The bill also requires Alliance Districts to establish a Family Resource
Center (FRC) in each elementary school. The cost, and funding sources,
of FRCs varies by district. In Hartford, the cost is approximately
$500,000 in FY 23, and that cost is entirely covered by SDE's Family
Resource Center grant to the City.
3
In Bristol, the cost is partially
covered by a $200,000 FRC grant, and partially covered by Title I
funding and private contributions.
The bill requires Alliance District funds (a portion of the ECS
entitlement) to be used for FRCs, which reduces the amount available
for academic interventions. Depending on the cost of the FRCs, the
amount of other funding a district is able to obtain for its FRCs, and the
amount of Alliance District funding a district receives, Alliance District
funding may not cover the cost of the FRCs.
Section 8 results in an indeterminate annual cost to SDE to provide
grants beginning in FY 24 to two districts designated as Alliance
Districts that choose to provide or enhance a pathways to technology
early college high school program. The bill does not provide funding for
(2) along with Priority School Districts, receive a minimum state aid percentage of 10%
under the ECS formula (compared to 1% for all other towns).
3
$5.8 million was appropriated to SDE for Family Resource Centers that schools
currently operate across the state in FY 23. 2023SB-00001-R000551-FN.DOCX Page 4 of 4
these grants, or specify any grant amounts.
Section 9 requires name brand food sold in schools to have the same
nutritional value as similar name brand food sold outside of schools.
This has no fiscal impact, as it is not anticipated to increase the cost of
operating any school meals program.
Section 10 results in costs to SDE estimated to be $1 million per year
from FY 24 to FY 26. The bill establishes a wholesome school meals pilot
program for Alliance Districts and requires SDE to provide annual
grants of $150,000 for each of three years (FY 24 through FY 26) to five
Alliance Districts for participation in the program. The grants result in
an annual cost of $750,000. There is an additional cost of $250,000 per
year to partner with an organization that can assist with program
operations ($50,000 per participant). As it is anticipated that SDE will
partner with an organization that can assist with program operations, it
is expected that the department will not require additional personnel to
administer the program.
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.