Bill expands school choice to Danbury

A new legislative proposal could bring students from overcrowded Danbury and Norwalk schools to neighboring districts with declining enrollment.

The bill, proposed last week, would expand Connecticut’s “Open Choice” program to Danbury and Norwalk. This means students from these cities could attend nearby schools, with the state for the most part footing the bill.

The idea is to alleviate enrollment growth in Danbury and Norwalk, address student population decline in other communities, and help make suburban districts more racially and socioeconomically diverse.

“We know this program isn’t a cure-all, but it seems like a valuable opportunity,” said state Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, who is one of the sponsors of the bill.

Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and their surrounding districts already participate.

Student population in Danbury and Norwalk has been growing, although the coronavirus pandemic led to some decline this academic year. Meanwhile, enrollment has fallen in towns such as New Fairfield, Ridgefield and Wilton.

“It really is an opportunity with Open Choice to both address some of our overcrowding, but just as importantly use wonderful resources that other communities have,” said state Sen. Julie Kushner, DDanbury, another co-sponsor of the bill.

The program would be geared toward elementary students, she said.

Enrollment challenges

If approved, Danbury would send students to towns with declining enrollment, rather than accept students.

“We can’t take students in because we just don’t have the space at this point,” Danbury Superintendent Sal Pascarella told school board members when the program was discussed in November.

Norwalk is exploring building new schools due to enrollment growth. Danbury added preschool classrooms this year, is building an annex to an elementary school and aims to create a career academy for middle and high school students.

Norwalk superintendent Andrea Estrella said she “supports options that may potentially create more choice for Norwalk students.”

Kushner said she hopes as many as 150 Danbury elementary students could participate as soon as next academic year, based on approval of state funding and agreements with neighboring districts.

The Ridgefield school board is expected to discuss the bill at its Monday meeting.

Haskell said some schools in his district may be on board. They have wanted students from other communities, but the districts that participate now are too far away, he said.

“It’s just simply not logically feasible to bring students from Bridgeport to Redding schools, for example,” he said.

Students from Bridgeport, however, go to school in Easton, which shares a school district with Redding, Haskell said.

In Bethel, enrollment has grown, making it unlikely that the schools would have room for out-of-town students, Superintendent Christine Carver said

“Philosophically, I think it’s a great idea,” said Carver, who was in charge of the Open Choice program when she worked in Newington. “The idea of creating diversification across school districts is a very positive thing.”

But she said she would need more details about how the program would be funded.

Funding structure

The state pays between $3,000 to $8,000 per participant, depending on the number of children in the program compared to students in the district, according to the Open Choice website.

Although districts spend much more than this on the average pupil, the cost to fill an empty seat in a classroom is not as high, Haskell said.

“It’s really a win-win for the financials of both the sending district and the receiving district,” he said.

The state would fully cover costs to transport the students on buses, Haskell said.

The sending district covers special education costs, Haskell said. But the Open Choice website says the receiving district pays a portion of the additional special education costs, as well.

Under the educational cost sharing formula that determines how much money schools get from the state, Open Choice students would be considered half a student for each district, Haskell said.

“Our school budget wouldn’t take a big hit,” Kushner said.

Providing choice, diversity

Districts would decide whether to join and how many students they would accept.

“If districts don’t want to participate, it’s entirely voluntary,” said Haskell, adding staff from Westport, which is already part of the program, have told him it is more effective when more students participate. Families opt into the program.

“I believe there will be a lot of parents in Danbury who will want to take advantage of this for their kids,” Kushner said.

For suburban districts, it would partially address concerns about lack of diversity, Haskell said.

“We all learn better and grow more when we have classmates who provide lived experiences different than our own,” he said.

But this is just one small way to alleviate that problem, he said.

“It’s a stitch of a Band-Aid on a wound,” Haskell said.