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Adapt, Advance, Achieve: Connecticut’s Plan to Learn and Grow Together
• Do not allow passengers to change seats during the route.
• Plan to increase cleaning and sanitizing for all vehicles, and keep associated logs.
Effectively communicate cleaning protocols to all staff, including measures to prevent
harmful human exposure to chemicals.
• Magnet Schools, Charter Schools, Open-Choice Districts, and Connecticut Technical
Education and Career System schools should consider the complexities of regional
travel, and develop scenarios for how safe inter-district transportation will occur.
Additional technical support from the CSDE will be provided for such unique
transportation requirements.
Fiscal and Budgetary Considerations
The CSDE strongly encourages LEAs to work cooperatively in developing their budgets, with
their local municipality and their local health departments, or in the case of regional boards of
education with the participating municipalities. Regular, open lines of communication will allow
for limited resources to be shifted to critical priorities in a timely fashion.
Guidance
Securing Funding and Planning:
• Develop funding scenarios to support the multiple areas that may require increased
funding, including but not limited to student equipment, protective materials and
cleaning supplies, increased staffing and physical changes to school buildings to
enhance health and safety measures. Consider whether a regional approach will help
streamline securing items.
• Maximize access to available federal funding first through application for Elementary
and Secondary Education Emergency Relief funds and Coronavirus Relief funds, then
through application to the local municipality for FEMA and Coronavirus Relief Funds.
Guidance on accessing these funding sources is available on the CSDE’s website.
• Maximize the use and braiding of current federal program funds, as permitted, for
which federal waivers have been secured to support LEA priorities.
Engaging Stakeholders: Consider a proactive approach in communicating with local
unions, student service contractors, including private special education providers,
contractual suppliers of equipment and supplies, transportation vendors, and have
contingency plans in place for contractual modifications that may be necessary during the
course of the school year.
Funding Priorities: Assess how funds can best support efforts to provide equity and access
to all students. As LEAs develop spending plans for the year, review and consider the state
level priorities established by the Commissioner of Education. This includes:
• Equitable Access to Technology:
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Survey families to collect information about devices and connectivity in their
homes to support blended learning.
Update policies for school-owned devices. Consider allowing broader use to
address families’ need for telehealth access and other state agency support if
school device is the only one in the household.
Prepare for the possibility a student, class, or school will require robust
blended learning at some time during the school year.
Assess if funding would be appropriate to support training adult family
members more effectively in accessing Internet and digital resources used for
blended learning opportunities.
− Consult the CT Learning Hub, See Academics, page 28.