April 18, 2025

Bolinsky: A Call to Action for Special Education Families

This article was archived from the previous WordPress site. Formatting and media should be close, but may not match the original post perfectly.

A Call to Action for Special Education Families to weigh in, submit testimony, speak and or ask questions about these substantive changes for Connecticut’s Public School Special Education Students. Note that these proposed changes are designed to be transformative and include early detection and interventions without most student placements defaulting to far-away specialty schools, which also tend to come with difficult transportation challenges, and a student’s separation from their home community.

I believe you’ll see this in House Bill 7277, and in Senate Bill SB-1561, a pair of proposals that, at this time, are parallel, and identical. The reasoning for two-identical bills is somewhat unclear, however links to each appear below, along with instructions on how to electronically submit testimony, or speak at the scheduled Public Hearing, on at 11:00am on Monday, April 21, 2025 in the Legislative Office Building’s hearing room 2D, and on zoom.

For regional, and smaller school districts, these proposed changes will center near the students’ home district, with incentives to develop shared, close-to-home supports. The Connecticut DOT will also help coordinate transportation options.

Some of the items to change do concern me, like the appearance of what is likely to be a multi-layered administrative organization that seems to remove some details about programming specifics from Connecticut’s State Department of Education (SDE), shifting it to the Office of Policy and Management (OPM). This will be a new responsibility for OPM, and a large commitment to educational oversight, something they do not presently do, on such a scale. Other concerns involve the following:

Very few references to designated, science-based programing, and measures of efficacy. I believe a lack of measurement may result in inconsistent outcomes. or limit individually focused IEP planning. “One size will not fit all”.
An aggressive reliance on rate-setting may negatively impact, or limit access to, more intensive, outside placement options.

In conclusion, despite the short notice, and a lengthy bill, the input of as many of our “Special Education Warriors” will be of great help to us, in the continuing development of Special Education in Connecticut.

Here are the links to HB-7277, and SB-1561:

Here is a link to register to speak and here is second link to prepare, and/or submit electronic testimony to the Select Committee on Special Education.

You can watch the full public hearing on Monday here on YouTube.

Thank you!