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OLR Bill Analysis
sHB 7076
AN ACT PROVIDING EDUCATION MANDATE RELIEF.
SUMMARY
This bill makes the following unrelated changes to the state’s
education laws:
1. makes the kindergarten waiver process optional by requiring
local and regional boards of education (school boards) to
consider admitting children under age five only if they adopt an
early admission policy (§ 1);
2. ends a student’s eligibility for special education on the student’s
22nd birthday, rather than at the end of the school year in which
the student turns age 22, and makes conforming changes (§§ 2-
8);
3. extends the temporary pause on enforcement of the state’s school
racial imbalance law (§§ 9-11); and
4. repeals a requirement that school boards annually report to the
Commission for Educational Technology certain information on
their use of internet websites, online services, or mobile
applications that do not have a contract that meets the standards
required under the state data privacy laws information (§ 12).
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2026, except that the (1) racial imbalance
provisions are effective July 1, 2025, and (2) report repeal is effective
upon passage.
§ 1 — KINDERGARTEN W AIVERS
Existing law generally requires a child to be at least age five by
September 1st of the school year in order to enroll in public school
kindergarten. But current law establishes a mandatory waiver process 2025HB-07076-R000621-BA.DOCX
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that allows children under age five to be admitted if the (1) child’s
parent or guardian makes a written request to the school principal and
(2) principal and an appropriate certified school staff member do an
assessment that shows the child is developmentally ready.
The bill makes the waiver process optional for school districts by
allowing children under age five to enroll in kindergarten only if the
school board adopts an early admissions policy. Any admissions policy
must require the same written request and evaluation as required under
current law.
§§ 2-8 — AGE FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION ELIGIBILITY
School Boards (§§ 2-4)
PA 23-137 (§§ 32-37) extended qualifying students’ eligibility for
special education through the end of the school year during which a
student turns age 22. (By law, the school year runs from July 1 to June
30.)
The bill instead ends a student’s eligibility for special education on
their 22nd birthday and makes various conforming changes. In doing
so, the bill reverts to the eligibility limit established in 2020 by a federal
court ruling and codified in PA 22-80 (§ 31) (see BACKGROUND).
Under the bill, as under current law, school boards’ obligation to
provide special education ends earlier if the student graduates from
high school before hitting the age limit.
Parental Rights (§ 5)
The bill adds a new component to the “special education bill of rights
for parents” by requiring that it inform parents of the rights to (1) get
information on state agency programs providing services for attaining
a child’s post-graduation goals in the child’s Individualized Education
Program (IEP) and (2) establish contact with, and receive help applying
for, these programs.
The bill also makes conforming changes requiring the State Board of
Education (SBE) to state in its bill of rights that (1) parents’ and
children’s rights are protected until children graduate from high school 2025HB-07076-R000621-BA.DOCX
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or reach age 22 (rather than at the end of the school year when the child
turns 22), whichever occurs first, and (2) parents have the right to ask
the board to consider providing their child with transition services from
age 18 until 22.
Connecticut Technical Education and Career System (CTECS)
Postsecondary Programs (§ 6)
Under current law, any student admitted to one of CTECS ’s
postsecondary programs must have a high school diploma or have
completed the school year in which the student turned age 22. The bill
instead requires that admitted students have a high school diploma or
have reached age 22 if the student was receiving special education and
did not graduate from high school.
Other Agencies or Liaisons (§§ 7 & 8)
The bill similarly amends the age eligibility requirement for children
receiving special education who are placed in a school district by the
Department of Children and Families commissioner, offices of a Native
American tribe’s government, Department of Mental Health and
Addiction Services, or Department of Public Health residential facilities
operators, among others.
It also makes this change for a state law requiring that the liaison
between a school district and the criminal justice system assist all
relevant educational service providers in ensuring that people in justice
system custody who are age 22 or younger are promptly evaluated for
special education services eligibility.
§§ 9-11 — RACIAL IMBALANCE LAW
The racial imbalance law requires SBE, when it finds a racial
imbalance at a public school, to give written notification to the school’s
board of education. In response, the notified school board must prepare
a plan to correct the imbalance and submit it to SBE for approval.
PA 24-93, §§ 3-5, paused enforcement of this law for one year by
prohibiting SBE from notifying a school board of a racial imbalance at
one of its schools until July 1, 2025. The bill extends this prohibition until 2025HB-07076-R000621-BA.DOCX
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July 1, 2029. It similarly extends provisions (1) suspending the
requirement that a board notified of an imbalance prepare and file a
correction plan, and (2) prohibiting SBE taking any action on any plan
received on or after July 1, 2024.
By law a “racial imbalance” is a proportion of minority students
enrolled in all grades in a public school that substantially exceeds, or
substantially falls short of, the proportion of minority students in the
same grades in all the district’s public schools (see BACKGROUND).
BACKGROUND
Age of Special Education Eligibility: A.R. v. Connecticut State
Board of Education
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
requires schools to provide a free, appropriate public education to
qualifying students with disabilities between ages 3 to 21, inclusive;
however, states are not required to do so for children ages 3 through 5
or 18 through 21 if they do not otherwise provide public education to
individuals in those age ranges (20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1)). Prior to 2020,
Connecticut required school boards to provide special education to
qualifying students through the end of the school year in which the
student turned 21.
In 2020, the Second Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the
U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut’s ruling that special
education eligibility cannot end when a student reaches age 21. It
reasoned that since Connecticut provides adult education that can result
in a high school diploma for young adults, the IDEA requires the state
to provide special education to students with disabilities through the
entirety of age 21 and until a student’s 22nd birthday (A.R. v. Connecticut
State Board of Education, 5 F. 4th 155 (2d Cir. 2021)).
Racial Imbalance Defined
State regulations define “racially imbalanced” as any school in which
the percentage of minority students enrolled falls outside the range of
25 percentage points more or less than the district-wide percentage
(Conn. Agencies Regs., § 10- 226e-3(b)). For example, in a school district 2025HB-07076-R000621-BA.DOCX
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that has an overall minority enrollment of 50%, any individual school
that has less than 25% or more than 75% minority enrollment in
comparable grades across the district would be considered racially
imbalanced.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Education Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 42 Nay 3 (03/24/2025)