Under law, the SBE reimburses school districts for special education costs that are more than four and a half times the school district’s net current expenditures per student (also referred to as the “excess cost grant”). But current law also states that the grant amount for each district is reduced proportionately when the annual appropriation does not meet the necessary amount to fully fund the grant.

The bill modifies this reimbursement method, beginning with FY 23, when the appropriation is not sufficient to fully fund the grant to instead create three tiers of reimbursement based on each town’s adjusted equalized net grand list per capita (AENGLPC). The bill requires SBE to rank the towns in descending order from one to 169 according to each town’s AENGLPC. Then the SBE will pay the grant as follows for towns ranked:

1. 115 to 169: 76.25% of the amount of the town’s eligible excess costs;
2. 59 to 114: 73% of the amount of the town’s eligible excess costs; and
3. one to 58: 70% of the amount of the town’s eligible excess costs.

The bill specifies how regional boards of education must be ranked for this system. Their ranking is determined by (1) multiplying the total population of each town in the regional district by the town’s ranking, as determined under the bill; (2) adding together the figures determined for the towns in the district; and (3) dividing the total by the total population of all towns in the district. The ranking of each regional board of education must be rounded to the next higher whole number.