The Connecticut General Assembly closed out the 2026 Legislative Session last night having made meaningful progress for teachers, students, and public education.
“Lawmakers listened to educators and took decisive steps to strengthen the profession and help keep teachers in the classroom,” says CEA President Kate Dias. “Critical to this effort was the passage of HB 5003, which will ensure that serious disciplinary and termination decisions are handled in a consistent and objective manner based on facts, not politics, pressure, or personal bias.”
Thanks to the hard work of CEA members and staff, other big legislative wins for educators include the following.
- Workers’ Compensation – Legislation clarifies that districts must provide full workers’ compensation coverage for teachers injured by students in the course of their job.
- Immigration Enforcement – Schools are designated as “protected areas,” prohibiting law enforcement agencies from taking individuals into custody on school grounds solely on the basis of a civil penalty or without a judicial warrant.
- Aspiring Educator Diversity Scholarships – Legislation expands the existing educator diversity scholarship program to include aspiring educators from across the state, not just those from Alliance Districts. It also identifies subgroups underrepresented in the teaching profession as a teaching shortage area.
- Supplemental Graduate Loan Program – Legislation establishes the Supplemental Graduate Loan Program for educators and other public service professionals. Connecticut is one of the first states to respond to the elimination of federal Grad Plus loans by providing graduate school financing, which will be especially helpful to teachers pursuing graduate credits.
Additionally, the state budget passed by the legislature provides nearly $200 million for education, free school breakfast, universal pre-K, and special education grants.
“We greatly appreciate the efforts of legislators and the governor to pass a state budget that makes much-needed financial investments in our schools. We welcome the additional funding and look forward to working on the blue-ribbon panel created to provide a long-overdue review of ECS funding, which has not been adjusted for inflation for more than 13 years despite significant cost increases. Updating this formula is essential to ensuring districts have the resources they need to support all students,” Dias says.
While the new legislation listed above is essential to address the urgent needs of our schools, Dias says important work remains.
“We are disappointed by last-minute moves to permit state funds earmarked for schools to be used instead for other purposes. Additionally, other teacher- and student-centric legislation did not pass. We must address the financial barriers facing aspiring educators by compensating student teachers to attract and sustain the next generation of educators. Also vital is the need to protect teachers in today’s politically charged environment by ensuring their private contact information is not publicly accessible through FOI requests.”
She adds that a statewide bell-to-bell cell phone ban in our schools is crucial to reducing distractions and providing a productive learning environment. Fewer than one-third of Connecticut high schools currently have cell phone bans in place. CEA encourages Connecticut to join the more than 30 states that already have enacted school cell phone bans.
“We are grateful to the many legislators who championed public education this session and look forward to continuing our work together next year to further strengthen our state’s education system and ensure every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential,” says Dias.
