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Panel recommends neutral study of Connecticut’s Open Choice program amid questions about access and outcomes
Summary
Subgroup members recommended commissioning an independent evaluation of Open Choice to document participation, barriers, student experiences and retention; attendees cited about 2,800 current Open Choice participants and said Hartford demand exceeds available seats.
Subgroup members agreed to recommend a neutral, evidence-focused study of the state’s Open Choice program to understand who participates, who opts out, and what students experience in receiving districts.
Participants described operational barriers — transportation logistics, payment delays from sending districts, and concerns about small cohorts of choice students feeling socially isolated — and urged that any study examine both quantitative outcomes (participation and retention by town/school/grade) and qualitative student experience. One participant noted that application demand, especially from Hartford, outstrips available seats.
Speakers stressed the study should not be designed to reach a predetermined outcome. Instead, members proposed clear research questions: which districts participate, what barriers prevent participation, patterns among districts that stopped participating, and how choice students fare academically and socially. The subgroup agreed to recommend that the Bergen Commission request such an evaluation rather than attempt to run it internally.
No vote was taken; members asked staff to draft neutral, study-focused language for inclusion in the subgroup’s section of the Bergen report.
