CT legislators don't agree on much. This bill passed unanimously in both chambers

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The Connecticut legislature's omnibus special education bill, which would reform how private providers charge for services and increase oversight of special education programs, is headed for Gov. Ned Lamont's desk to be signed into law after unanimously passing out of both chambers.
House Bill 5001 passed the Senate 35-0 Monday evening. The Senate vote followed just days after the legislation also unanimously passed the House of Representatives late last week.
The bill's final passage is the culmination of a legislative session in which leaders of the Education Committee pledged, from the outset, to bolster special education funding and services in the coming biennium. Earlier in the session, lawmakers also passed emergency legislation adding $40 million to the current year's budget for special education.
'It's not just oversight. It's not just accountability. We're investing in education because this is our priority in our state. Our children are the future we're investing in,' said Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, D-Trumbull, who served as a co-chair on the legislature's Select Committee on Special Education.
Gadkar-Wilcox added that while 'meeting the needs of the students, that's our primary goal, it [also] has to be sustainable.'
The bipartisan bill called for changes to several aspects of the Connecticut special education system. Among the lawmakers' priorities was to augment state oversight of districts that outsource special education services to private providers.
'[This bill] puts us on a path of reform in a way that provides better quality and helps us control costs,' said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk. 'We are working to make sure every tax dollar is spent in the best way possible. But at the same time, we're getting the best results for our students.'
'What I enjoy about the bill that is before us here this evening is it's really focused, not so much on the funding mechanisms, … but more of the policy points that will, I think, help control costs,' Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, added Monday evening.
Once signed into law, the bill will prohibit cost increases from private providers in the upcoming school year and require state agencies to define 'reasonable costs' for services, including speech, behavioral and occupational therapies. it will also establish a rate schedule for direct special education services, which would limit how much providers can charge, and create a billing standard for special education transportation costs.
'It's not to set a minimum. It's not to set a cap,' Gadkar-Wilcox said Monday. 'Step one is to understand what is, in fact, reasonable when you have a complex system of services that are required.'
Rate setting was a controversial proposal earlier this year, with critics of the measure saying it would 'destroy' private programs and potentially harm the state's students with the most severe disabilities.
Gadkar-Wilcox said Monday the rate setting process would not be rushed. She said 'the nuances' would be considered so rates wouldn't be set so low that private providers would be unable to serve high-need students.
'It's also going to be up to the state department, in consultation with the [Office of Policy and Management], in consultation with those stakeholders to understand the nuance of it as well — the intensity of these services, the quality of these services, when you add on multiple of these services for multiple students with the same provider, how do you factor that in?' Gadkar-Wilcox said.
The bill also allots an additional $60 million in the next two fiscal years for school districts to expand in-district special education services. The $30 million allocated for 2026 will be added to $221 million already in the budget for special education that year.
The bill will also require the state Department of Education to establish licensure standards for private special education providers, with Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker assigned to supervise the programs.
The state Education Department will also be responsible for conducting site visits of private special education providers, creating a 'workload analysis' for teachers and school service providers and providing public data on excess cost projections twice a year, which is expected to help boards of education predict estimated special education costs in their budget seasons.
The data will give lawmakers a 'better sense of where we need to invest and what interventions are the most important,' Gadkar-Wilcox said.
Sen. Eric Berthel, R-Watertown, ranking member on the Education Committee, said lawmakers haven't 'given enough coverage' in state reimbursement for special education costs and that 'this bill, in my humble opinion, begins to appropriately address these issues,' he said.
The Office of Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities within the Education Department will also be required to report to the state legislature's Education Committee next year with best practices on evaluations, interventions, student outcomes and teacher preparation measures.
Private special education providers will be responsible for submitting annual enrollment reports to the state, and local boards of education will likewise need to annually report information about their out-of-district placements.
Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney called the annual reports important for oversight and accountability.
'We know in many cases there's children, especially poor children whose parents may not be as skilled as advocates or may be working multiple jobs,' Looney said. 'We need to know that those children will have someone looking out for them with a system to make sure that their care is appropriate, their placement is appropriate, their evaluation is appropriate.' Looney said the bill provides 'greater accountability at all levels.'
House Bill 5001 also raises the age by which a child can be diagnosed with a developmental delay from age 5 to age 8.
'In some cases, we don't know — when a child that comes to school — whether it is a developmental disability or whether it's perhaps just the product of prior years of neglect, in terms of not being part of a quality preschool or daycare program,' Looney, who favors the change, said.
The bill also makes changes to due process hearings, which seek to resolve disagreements between school district officials and parents regarding a student's special education services.
Currently, under state law, the district and parents must participate in a pre-hearing — to resolve the issues and narrow the scope — and disclose specified information at least five business days before the specified date. The two parties must disclose their evidence, witnesses and completed evaluations and recommendations prior to the hearing.
The new proposal will now require all claims to be disclosed before the start of the hearing, require hearing officers to consider all the claims and limit hearings to four days.
Looney said the changes would 'make sure that children's rights are protected.'
'A hearing can be a daunting place for a family that does not have legal representation or may not be adept in all of the kinds of legal infighting that goes on in these hearings,' Looney said. 'So these are procedural protections.'
The bill also will require local boards of education to provide behavior assessments, and make or update a behavioral intervention plan for students with 'challenging behavior' before they're placed with an out-of-district provider.
Earlier this session, other proposals regarding special education passed out of the Education Committee, but were not taken up in the House or Senate.
Among those proposals were bills that sought to codify 504 plans into state law and another that would have shortened the amount of time a student with a disability could stay in the public school system beyond their senior year of high school.
Lawmakers also considered codifying protections under what's known as Section 504 for certain students with disabilities. House Bill 7219 came at a time where the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which lays out protections for this group of students, has come under attack.
In September, a group of 17 states sued the federal government, challenging the constitutionality of the federal law. The lawsuit came shortly after then-President Joe Biden finalized a rule to include gender dysphoria under Section 504 of the law in early 2024.
Nearly 48,000 students in Connecticut have 504 plans, according to the state Department of Education. Unlike an Individualized Education Plan, which provides specialized instruction, children with 504 plans do not require special education services. In schools, a 504 plan instead outlines accommodations for a student with disability, including things like preferential seating, assistive technology or extended time on tests.
Despite receiving broad support, the proposal ultimately fizzled. Education Committee Co-chair Jennifer Leeper, D-Fairfield, said lawmakers are 'waiting to see what happens with the federal case.'
House Bill 7076, a bill that would shorten the time students spend in transitional special education programs, also passed out of the Education Committee 42-3 earlier this year.
Currently services for students with severe disabilities can last through the end of the school year during which they turn 22. Instead of finishing out that school year, H.B. 7076 proposed ending transition services as of a student's 22nd birthday.
The bill gained support among superintendents who say these services are costly, but it also had strong opposition at its public hearing from over 100 parents and special education advocates who say the services are crucial for some the states highest need children.
While some provisions in House Bill 7076 were included in omnibus education bill House Bill 7009, the language that proposed the age change was removed.
Jessika Harkay is a reporter at the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).