These news briefs were originally written for CT Politics, The Connecticut Mirror’s weekly newsletter providing updates on the 2025 legislative session. To sign up for CT Politics, click here.
Special education recommendations
The Task Force to Study Special Education Services and Funding delivered its final report of recommendations to state lawmakers earlier this week, highlighting “four major issues” around special education, namely:
- A severe staffing shortage of special education teachers, paraeducators, transportation personnel and other service staff
- A lack of resources for school districts to “effectively meet their special education needs”
- A funding gap between lower-income and wealthy towns
- Not meeting the goal of closing opportunity gaps between general education students and those with disabilities
Education funding is expected to be a major topic of debate in the legislature this year, and the report doubled down on proposals for the state to change how it’s distributed, including adding a “50% weight based on the number of eligible special education students in the district” to the Education Cost Sharing grant. It also proposed greater state responsibility for the excess costs of special education services and an incentive grant program for districts to educate students with disabilities within their own districts.
The report also recommended funding tuition payments for special education certifications. It provided ideas on how to alleviate burnout and made several recommendations for the state Department of Education to review standards for paraeducators and revise best practices for instructional staff.
— Jessika Harkay, Education Reporter
Insurance and Real Estate Committee
In the committee’s first meeting of the session Tuesday, legislators committed to tackling the high cost of health insurance and exploring ways to help property owners safeguard against the impacts of climate change. Rep. Kerry Wood, D-Rocky Hill, focused on the importance of developing solutions to extreme weather. “We’re seeing wildfires, we’re experiencing flooding here in our own state. We want to make sure that we have the strongest consumer protections in place, as well as a robust market that is doing business here in Connecticut,” Wood said.
Last year, the committee failed to advance any legislation, drawing criticism from legislative leaders. House Speaker Matthew Ritter, D-Hartford, chalked it up to “strong personalities” and “years of adversarial relationships that just keeps boiling over.”
— Katy Golvala, Health Reporter
E-books
Legislators will try again this session to find ways to increase e-book and audiobook access at public libraries by limiting the costs associated with the licensing process. The Planning and Development Committee on Friday voted to raise a bill that would address this issue. The bill will need to go before a public hearing and committee vote before heading to the full House and Senate.
For the past few legislative sessions, librarians have told lawmakers that it’s costly to provide access to e-books and audiobooks because of the limits publishers put on the amount of time or number of “borrows” that libraries can offer electronic books. Publishers have pushed back against versions of this bill in the past, saying it would violate federal law.
— Ginny Monk, Housing & Children’s Issues Reporter
Public Health Committee
The committee on Friday raised bill concepts regarding a wide range of topics, including health care in correctional facilities, certificates of need, access to reproductive health care and private equity ownership of health care institutions. Last session, in response to deteriorating conditions at three hospitals owned by formerly private equity-back Prospect Medical Holdings, several legislators raised bills to regulate private equity’s role in the state’s health system. However, ultimately those proposals failed to pass.
Legislators, who were also frustrated with how long the state took to approve a pending sale of those hospitals to Yale New Haven Health, also raised several proposals to reform what’s known as the certificate of need, which is the state’s approval process for major hospital transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, overseen by the Office of Health Strategy. Those proposals also failed to become law.
— Katy Golvala, Health Reporter