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Department of Defense urges Connecticut to include special‑education students in placement‑stability bill
Summary
A Department of Defense liaison told the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee that House Bill 7123 should explicitly include students with special education needs in advanced enrollment and a 30‑day review to preserve educational continuity for military children who relocate frequently.
The Department of Defense told the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee that House Bill 7123 should clarify that students with special education needs are included in placement‑stability policies for military families.
Melissa Willette, New England region liaison at the Defense State Liaison Office, said Connecticut hosts about 4,300 active‑duty military children and that mobility disrupts education: "Approximately 185,000 US military children move between schools annually," she told the committee, adding that special‑education continuity is a frequent problem. "If a school is able to get a student's special education plan prior to arrival, that district will be better situated to provide immediate comparable services to the military connected child with special education needs."
Willette asked that the bill's timeline for a 30‑day review be applied to the IEP or 504 plan that a child brings from their prior district, not a de novo reevaluation for new services. Committee members cited testimony from the State Department of Education that the 30‑day timeline may be too short for a full reevaluation and suggested the timeline could instead require convening a planning team (PPT) or 504 meeting.
Senator Paul Hoenig pressed Willette on whether the Department of Defense and the Department of Education were, in practice, aligned on that point. Willette said they are when the receiving district's review treats the transferred IEP as the document to be reviewed within 30 days rather than requiring a new full evaluation: "From the Department of Defense perspective, we're seeking the reevaluation of the IEP the child already has. So within 30 days ... the IEP that's being transferred ... that's the IEP that would be reviewed. Not reevaluation for new services, but the evaluation of the IEP or the 504 plan that the student is going to this new school with."
Willette and committee members also discussed allowing older students (juniors and seniors) to remain at a school through graduation in specified circumstances and letting other students finish the current school year when families relocate midyear.
No formal committee vote on HB 7123 was recorded; committee members said they would coordinate with the Department of Education and education stakeholders to reconcile language.
