Education Committee
JOINT FAVORABLE REPORT
Bill No.: HB-6556
AN ACT ADDRESSING ISSUES CREATED BY THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON
Title: PUBLIC EDUCATION IN CONNECTICUT.
Vote Date: 3/29/2021
Vote Action: Joint Favorable Substitute Change of Reference to Appropriations
PH Date: 3/8/2021
File No.:
Disclaimer: The following JOINT FAVORABLE Report is prepared for the benefit of the
members of the General Assembly, solely for purposes of information, summarization and
explanation and does not represent the intent of the General Assembly or either chamber
thereof for any purpose.
SPONSORS OF BILL:
Education Committee
REASONS FOR BILL:
This bill addresses issues arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding public education.
Section 1: Requires SDE to (1) use the statewide mastery exams to identify and measure
learning loss and student disengagement and (2) develop mitigation strategies for districts to
use.
Section 2-3: Requires alliance districts to provide a summer learning program; allows SDE
and the after-school committee to administer a grant program for districts offering summer
learning programs.
Section 4: Requires SDE to work with RESCs to support grant recipients of the after-school
program grant in existing law; allows SDE to keep up to 7.5%, rather than 4% of the program
appropriation to do this.
Section 5: Allows substitute teachers, for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, to hold an
associate degree if subbing more than 10 days or a high school diploma if subbing for 10 or
fewer days.
RESPONSE FROM ADMINISTRATION/AGENCY:
Charlene Russell-Tucker, Deputy Commissioner, State Department of Education:
Our statewide summative assessments are vital to determining student growth and COVID
recovery. In response to Section 1(c), SDE is currently designing a learning framework for
education post-pandemic to address the points raised, which will include recommendations
for diagnosing, planning, and monitoring learning using evidence-based guides and
strategies. The framework will provide recommendations for summer learning and extended
day models. They suggest removing Lines 41-44, as there is no need for a single definition of
student engagement and a new one could be burdensome on districts. They collect and
report attendance and discipline data. This year, they also know how students are attending
(in-person or remote). SDE does not believe they need the yearly report outlined in (f), and
they suggest 2 reports, due Jan 2022 and Jan 2023. Existing annual reporting will monitor
student achievement. SDE is also supportive of expanded summer programming, but
additional resources would be necessary. The minimum hour requirement would require
significant additional funding to support a variety of additional staff.
Sarah Eagan, Acting Child Advocate, Office of the Child Advocate:
The global pandemic, and its effects has taken, an enormous toll on children. The last year
has likely had the most profound impact on the states most vulnerable children, those who
have significant disabilities, children who live in families struggling with economic, housing,
and food insecurity, and children with mental health treatment and other support needs. It will
be imperative that school districts are supported to deliver all children developmentally and
educationally appropriate recovery services and enhanced opportunities going forward.
NATURE AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT:
Pahola Almonte; Ricardo Alvelo; Kristen Estabrook; Catherine Jackson; Phil Kent;
Tanis Klingler; Julia Leonard
COVID-19 has made us aware of student disengagement. Engagement is critical for
academic growth and, more than attendance, reflects a students connection to school. In
order to close the engagement gap, we must identify disengaged learners, provide
opportunities to mitigate learning loss for these disengaged students on the district level, and
leverage best practices and accountability measures on the state level to support districts,
schools, teachers, and students to meaningfully increase student engagement and improve
student outcomes. This bill inaccurately conflates attendance with engagement. Engagement
is measured by student participation and output, and that must be reflected in this bill.
Ryan Brown, Teacher: As a teacher, I knew firsthand that student engagement is critical to
academic growth and is pivotal to students connection with school and students ability to
find success both in academics and in their social/emotional development. Black and Brown
students have barriers that do not allow them to access equitable educational experiences. It
is vital to identify learners who are disengaged to attempt to close the achievement gap. We
must provide opportunities to rectify learning loss for disengaged learners on the district and
state level, as well as employ accountability measures on the state level to support districts.
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Andrew Feinstein, Chair, Special Education Equity for Kids in CT:
While this bill's attempt to address issues created by the pandemic is commendable, it still
fails to address other critical issues. Any failure to provide a FAPE, whether negligent or
created by circumstances wholly outside the control of the school district, entitles a student to
compensatory education. SDE has failed to issue guidance on this issue. This bill should
mandate the provision of compensatory services, when needed on an individualized basis,
and provide that some portion of the federal stimulus money that has come to the state or will
come to the state be dedicated to fund those services.
Kate Field, Teacher Development Specialist, Connecticut Education Association:
Children were already facing a mental health crisis prior to the pandemic, a crisis that can
only have been exacerbated by COVID. Schools will need more counselors, resources, and
training to address this national emergency as well as the freedom to safely innovate and
time to develop the skills needed to meet the challenges we are only now beginning to
understand. Add SEL to a schools accountability index, include SEL as a component in
student success plans, require inclusion of SEL in educator performance evaluation, call for
collaboration with bargaining unit representatives to create sample SEL learning.
Robert Goodrich, Executive Director, RACCE:
Addressing learning loss must be a top priority for every district in our state. COVID-19 has
further revealed to educators, parents, and students the complexities of creating and
sustaining a culturally responsive educational environment. Black and Brown students have
had and continue to have barriers to equitable educational experiences, and this is one
barrier that we see growing. Student engagement reflects a students connection to school.
Gale Heath, Administrative Associate, CT Association of Boards of Education:
Despite the best efforts of school districts, the pandemic has created significant learning
challenges as well as social and emotional challenges for all students, particularly those most
vulnerable. Supporting our students by accelerating their learning opportunities and
supporting their social and emotional well-being will take a sustained effort at the state and
local level. SDE must have enough staff to meet the requirements of this legislation. They
have made outstanding efforts throughout the past year to support school districts, students,
staff and families during the pandemic.
Jan Hochadel- President, AFT CT: The proposed mastery tests are a convenient and useful
way to of identify and measure the existence and severity of learning loss, but we wonder if
it is the best way to provide a complete picture. Mastery examinations can identify changes in
literacy and numeracy skills, but learning loss is not confined to those strands. We also will
see losses in social and emotional learning, technical skills, and other areas that have a
dramatic impact on a students development and success. A broader picture of each student
and the student population in general will better enable us to create programs that help
students repair the damage of the past year.
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David Lenihan, Director of Government Affair, CASBO:
Many food service operations are experiencing significant financial losses for FY 2020-21
with 80% anticipating losses in the range of $100,00 to over $1,000,000 due to severe drop in
revenues (decreased participation, loss of ala carte sales, etc.) and increased expenses
(PPE, cleaning supplies, staffing, supply chain interruptions, prepackaging, etc.). These
losses are unsustainable and must be borne by boards of education. School districts need
additional funding and more flexibility to allow them to deal with all the Covid-19 impacts.
They encourage all key stakeholders to evaluate other long-term solutions including
expanding National School lunch program to help address these problems.
Hamish MacPhail, Policy and Research Director, ConnCAN: The state must mitigate
learning loss by (1) accurately measuring learning loss through statewide Spring 2021
assessments, (2) creating a portfolio of mitigation strategies, including: afterschool, summer
and small group tutoring, including learning pods at no/low cost and (3) ensuring districts
have the resources and flexibility to adjust length of school day/ school year to meet the
immediate academic needs of their students.
Maria Morelli-Wolfe, Attorney, GHLA, CLS, LAA: Special education students will often be
owed more than what the proposed legislation generally characterizes as learning loss,
because of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act mandates around a free appropriate
public education (FAPE), which is not the same as loss of learning. These decisions must be
made on an individual basis by the students planning and placement team. Learning loss
mitigation offers must be flexible and available over an extended period.
Daniel Pearson, State Director, Educators for Excellence-Connecticut:
We must develop comprehensive strategies to mitigate learning loss from this pandemic
while also developing long term solutions to finally address the structural inequities in our
education system. This includes, enhancing afterschool and summer programs, highly
focused and highly individualized tutoring programs during and after school hours, ensuring
districts have the necessary resources to create and sustain these programs, etc. They
recommend adding the recommendations provided by ConnCAN on clearly defining student
engagement and disengagement.
Syeita Rhey-Fisher, Teacher:
Attendance is not the same as engagement. In addition to investing in programs such as
Harpara and Nearpod, my school began tracking students work completion scores for every
class to help measure engagement, again, separate from attendance. With these programs,
Ive been able to measure growth, recognize patterns in student work behaviors across
content, celebrate, affirm them, and communicate new goals. Partnering with parents has
been easier because I have something to reference and because of transparency. Parents
have a better understanding of how distractions, babysitting, and other elements mentioned
above impact their childrens engagement & learning and will usually adjust appropriately.
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Jim Williams, Government Relations Director, American Heart Association:
Requests an amendment that will address access to water in school for all children, which
would require that any newly constructed public school, or a public school undergoing major
renovations include touchless water bottle filling stations. All kids, no matter where they live,
should have access to water in school. Drinking water can help children learn better, improve
their short-term memory, and improve their fine motor skills and visual attention, which is
important to learning activities such as reading.
NATURE AND SOURCES OF OPPOSITION:
Ronald Goodmaster: I oppose this bill. When Covid-19 ends children in CT should return to
in-person academic learning.
Reported by: Dallas Emerle Date: 4/5/2021
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