You asked how much financial assistance Connecticut provides to private schools and how the assistance is distributed.

SUMMARY

The state does not provide any financial assistance directly to private schools. Instead, it requires towns to provide certain services to such schools and reimburses the towns for a portion of their expenses for doing so.

The state reimburses towns through two grants. One reimburses them for providing transportation for students who live in town to private, nonprofit schools located in the town or its school district. The other reimburses them for providing the same health services to students in private schools as they provide to public school students.

The nonpublic school transportation and health services grants are distributed to towns according to statutory formulas that provide varying reimbursement percentages based on town wealth. However, the state has not provided the full formula reimbursement amounts for these grants for several years because of statutory caps that require grants to be proportionately reduced if total reimbursements exceed appropriated amounts. These caps will remain in place through FY 2011 under recently adopted legislation implementing the state budget for education.

NONPUBLIC SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION

Statutory Requirements

State law requires towns to provide their resident students with the same school transportation services to private, nonprofit schools located in the school district as it does to public schools, provided a majority of the students attending the private school are Connecticut residents. The amount a town must spend to provide this transportation is limited to twice the per-pupil amount it spent on public school transportation in the preceding school year (CGS § 10-281). The law also allows, but does not require, towns to provide transportation to private, nonprofit schools outside the district but within the state, but the state does not reimburse towns for providing this transportation unless the town does not maintain a high school and, as a result, it provides transportation to a private high school outside the school district (CGS §§ 10-277 and 10-280a).

State Reimbursement Grant

Towns receive the same state grant for providing required transportation to private schools within their school districts as they do for providing public school transportation, namely a reimbursement of from 0 to 60% of their reasonable costs, with the exact percentage depending on town wealth. The regular reimbursement rate is increased by 10 percentage points for K-12 regional districts and five percentage points for high school regional districts. By law, reimbursements are capped at the amount appropriated for the grants in each year's state budget. If the total grants payable exceed the appropriated amounts, the grants must be proportionately reduced. Grants have been capped in this manner since FY 2004 and will be capped in FY 2010 and FY 2011 under SB 2053, the education budget implementing bill enacted on October 2, 2009.

The annual appropriation for nonpublic school transportation grants for FY 10 and FY 11 is $3.995 million, the same amount appropriated for FY 08 and FY 09. Preliminary reimbursement percentages for FY 10 and town-by-town estimated grants for FY 09, FY 10, and FY 11 are shown in Table 1 (see Attachment 1). Only towns that receive a nonpublic school transportation grant are listed in the table.

HEALTH SERVICES FOR NONPUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS

Statutory Requirements

State law requires towns and regional school districts that provide health services to children in their public schools to provide the same services to students attending private, nonprofit K-12 schools located in the districts, as long as the majority of the students attending the private school live in Connecticut. Towns are also allowed to provide health services to children in prekindergarten programs in the private, nonprofit schools.

Health services provided to private school students must include the following, if the district provides them to its public school students: school physician, school nurse, and dental hygienist services. A town may provide the following services to private school students at its own expense: school psychologist, speech remedial, school social worker services; and special language teachers for non-English-speaking students.

Towns do not have to provide services for children who are not Connecticut residents nor are they required to provide any special education services to private school students (CGS § 10-217a).

State Reimbursement Grant

Towns providing required health services to private school students receive state grants reimbursing from 10% to 90% of their eligible costs. The exact percentage depends on town wealth. A town receives a minimum reimbursement of 80% if (1) more than 1% of its population receives Temporary Family Assistance or (2) its wealth rank among all Connecticut towns is higher than 30 and it provided health services to more than 1,500 nonresident children.

As with transportation grants, health services grants are capped at the amount appropriated for them in each year's state budget. If the total grants payable exceed the appropriated amounts, the grants must be proportionately reduced. The health services grant cap has been the law since FY 06. The cap will continue in FY 10 and FY 11 under the education budget implementing bill enacted on October 2, 2009 (SB 2053).

The appropriation for nonpublic school health services grants for FY 10 and FY 11 is $4.775 million per year, the same amounts appropriated for FY 08 and FY 09. Grants and reimbursement rates for FY 09 and preliminary reimbursement rates for FY 10 are shown in Table 2 (see Attachment 2). Neither the State Department of Education nor the Office of Fiscal Analysis has calculated town-by-town private school health services grants for FY 10.

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ATTACHMENT 1

TABLE 1: STATE PRIVATE SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION GRANTS

Sources: Office of Fiscal Analysis and State Department of Education

ATTACHMENT 2

TABLE 2: STATE PRIVATE SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICES GRANTS

Source: State Department of Education