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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 153
AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE
TECHNICAL EDUCATION AND CAREER SYSTEM.
SUMMARY
This bill makes several changes affecting the Connecticut Technical
Education and Career System (CTECS), including the services it must
provide students who need special education. Existing law requires
CTECS to, among other things, provide an appropriate educational
program for each child requiring special education. The bill explicitly
requires CTECS to provide transition services as part of this
requirement (i.e., services facilitating the student’s transition from
school to postsecondary activities such as postsecondary education and
training, employment, or independent living) (§ 6).
The bill also requires CTECS (rather than the local or regional board
of education) to convene a planning and placement team meeting for
home-schooled special education students before they enroll in a CTECS
school. As under existing law, the meeting must address the student’s
transition to a CTECS school and ensure that his or her individualized
education program (IEP) reflects the current supports and services he or
she requires (§ 6).
The bill also makes several changes to conform the law to current
practice. It requires, rather than allows, CTECS to offer part-time and
evening programs and requires it to offer extracurricular programs in
vocational, technical, technological, and postsecondary education and
training. The bill also requires that students admitted to a CTECS
postsecondary education program without a high school diploma have
completed the school year in which they turn 22 (rather than be age 21
or older) (§§ 4 & 5).
Additionally, the bill removes obsolete references to conform the law 2024SB-00153-R000548-BA.DOCX
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to CTECS’s establishment as an independent state agency. Specifically,
it removes references to the (1) State Department of Education (SDE) in
a statute requiring CTECS to indemnify certain donors of tangible
property and (2) effective date of the 2017 legislation that established
CTECS (§§ 3 & 5).
Lastly, the bill makes other technical and conforming changes (§§ 1 &
2).
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage, except that the provisions on
transition services, SDE reference, and other technical and conforming
changes are effective July 1, 2024.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Education Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute Change of Reference - APP
Yea 45 Nay 0 (03/06/2024)
Appropriations Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 52 Nay 0 (04/04/2024)