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Danbury adult-education enrollment more than doubles as program wins grants, adds ESL capacity
Summary
The district's adult and continuing education program reported large enrollment growth, new state and federal grant funding, expanded ESL locations and a new teacher-certification partnership that added instructors at no cost to participants.
Danbury Board of Education heard a report from Rick Rayuci, regional director for adult and continuing education, who told the board the program has more than doubled enrollment in two years and has added services including GED in Spanish, expanded ESL locations and family literacy tied to elementary schools.
Rayuci said the program has grown partly because of outside funding and new partnerships: a federal grant that began three years ago grew from "about a hundred thousand dollars" initially to $185,000 this year, and a contract with the regional workforce board brings roughly $70,000 annually to support employment services.
The growth matters to the district because many adult learners are parents or guardians of children in Danbury schools. Rayuci told the board there were 1,334 individuals served through March and that individual enrollments had passed 1,000 this year. He said the program now operates at 13 locations, six of them at elementary schools, and serves both adult learners and children through family literacy classes.
Rayuci outlined the three programs the state requires municipalities to offer: credit diploma (CDP), GED preparation and the National External Diploma Program (NEDP). He said three years ago Danbury offered only CDP and GED; the district has since added NEDP. He also described new initiatives: an in-district cohort with a community college that certified 17 ESL teachers at no cost to participants and an online CDP-style offering the district developed after a state partnership changed.
On outcomes, Rayuci cited internal and grant-required measures: for the family literacy initiative the program set a target to serve 80 participants (with 30 showing skill gains in the grant application) and reported strong self‑reported outcomes on surveys (for example, 95.31% reported increased confidence supporting their child's education). He also said state data show 14,783 Danbury residents lack a high-school diploma and 7,723 are listed as not speaking English; the state does not provide a breakdown of overlap between those categories.
Rayuci described continuing barriers: the district is not yet an official GED test center because the test locations require hardwired Internet and much of the district's testing currently runs on Wi-Fi. He also said continuing-education, credit-bearing offerings (for example, vocational short courses) remain a goal but have not launched because staff capacity is near its limit after rapid growth.
Board members praised the work and asked for continued emphasis on partnerships and pathways from adult programming to district jobs. Rayuci said the division's annual budget is just over $1,000,000, made up of state aid, cooperating districts that pay to participate, and a $375,000 contribution from the Board of Education through the district budget.
He closed by emphasizing the program's workforce focus and the frequent testimonial feedback: "This program was life changing for me and my family," which he said participants report in evaluations.
Looking ahead, Rayuci said the division will continue to pursue partnerships, work toward on-site GED testing capability, expand family literacy aligned to individual elementary school improvement plans and refine guaranteed-interview pathways (for example, paraprofessional positions) for program completers.
