Education committee advances multiple bills; votes held open until 4 p.m.

The Education Committee met June 9 in Hartford and took up a package of bills on school policy, staffing and curriculum, debating definitions and funding sources and placing several measures on the consent calendar while keeping roll-call votes open until 4 p.m.

Members spent extended time on a proposal that would require local and regional boards of education to adopt policies governing “smart devices” in schools (House Bill 6923). Committee members debated whether the bill’s definition—“portable technology that can connect to the Internet, collect, process and transmit data and communicate with other devices”—would unintentionally include school laptops and Chromebooks. Representative Howard said the bill “is just requiring districts to have a policy on these devices,” and noted it does not prohibit devices. Representative Corpus said she “strongly support[s] the limitation of smart devices in schools” but advised caution about statewide mandates, saying local districts already have working policies.

Members also considered a bill addressing paraeducator benefits and health-care offsets (House Bill 7010). Representative Howard voiced support for section 1 of the bill while opposing section 2, which would require districts to pay full employee pension contributions for paraeducators and direct the comptroller to reimburse at least 50 percent. Howard asked where the comptroller would draw those funds and said changing benefit arrangements enacted in 2023 would be unfair to many C mers members; he said he would offer an amendment to remove section 2 if necessary. The committee acknowledged the language does not specify the funding source for the reimbursement.

A proposal to create a small pilot aimed at teacher recruitment and retention (House Bill 7168) drew questions…