Moriah Lopez has a son who turned 4 in December, which previously would have meant that he would be eligible for kindergarten this fall.
New legislation passed in 2023, however, now requires that kindergarten students be 5 years old by Sept. 1, instead of the previous cutoff of Jan. 1. This change sent Lopez into a spiral for weeks, trying to figure out her next steps.
The mother of two didn’t know why the law changed. She didn’t know if the preschool her son attended would have space for him for another year or if she would need to pay for a year of child care. She worried whether her family could afford child care or if she or her husband would need to quit their job to take care of their youngest child.
She said she struggled to get answers from New Haven Public Schools, where her two sons are enrolled.
“It’s been me trying to navigate everything,” Lopez said. “It’s been a lot of self-research on why this even was passed. The [district] website is just very confusing in general. [Information] possibly could have been on there, but I just couldn’t figure it out.”
Her confusion likely isn’t unique, as more than 9,000 children in Connecticut may be affected by the new age requirement.
Developmental experts, and even Lopez, agree with the change, as Connecticut joins the majority of other states that require kindergartners to be 5.
The problem is how the law is being implemented.
The state Department of Education has taken a hands-off approach and left it up to municipalities to navigate the shift, requiring that districts provide a waiver process with written parental consent and some type of age-appropriate assessment as the only criteria. This means there isn’t any uniformity across the state in how districts are handling the waiver and assessment process.
For the upcoming 2024-25 school year, some districts are requiring only a written request from a parent or guardian for the waiver, as they plan to implement an assessment plan by the following year. Others have already set up full-fledged processes to analyze a student’s social and emotional behaviors. Waiver request timelines also vary, with some cutoff dates in February and others accepting requests on a rolling basis well into the summer.
“There are some things that districts are doing in common, but each district is unique in how they are implementing the waiver process … and I think that the way the legislation was written, and why we have that, is [to create a process that is] fitting the context of every community,” said Fran Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents.
Still, education leaders have voiced concerns about the unfunded mandate, noting that the shift comes at a time when the number of pre-K slots is the lowest it’s been in nearly two decades and it is difficult to open more spaces for pre-K classes that are already at their limits.
“What I worry about, and what has been brought up to me, not necessarily by superintendents, is the whole idea of equity. In the large cities, for example, are all of those parents going to be well-informed on the waiver process and how they can apply for a waiver?” Rabinowitz said. “Are we certain that the children that are not 5 by Sept. 1 are going to continue to receive a preschool experience?”
And with every district using different policies and communication methods, some parents, like Lopez, are living Rabinowitz’s worry — struggling with navigating school websites, finding the best resources and receiving the right information.
“While I was frustrated with the lack of communication from [my school district], I get it at the same time. It’s hard for them to navigate and figure it out when they’re responsible for so many different schools and so many different children,” Lopez said. “But what about other families? … I just have a lot of concerns for everyone else.”
A report released on Feb. 12 fromThe Connecticut Project Action Fund, a social policy advocacy group, said only 60% of schools districts had “updated, easily accessible kindergarten entry [policies] online,” as of late January.
In 2022-23, there were over 34,800 kindergartners in Connecticut, and about 41% of those students were enrolled in just 25 school districts across the state.
The Connecticut Mirror contacted several of those districts with the highest kindergarten enrollments to illustrate how vastly requirements differ, how different the approaches are to ease transitions for families and what concerns education leaders across the state.
SHAHRZAD RASEKH
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CT MIRROR
Many districts across the state, like Bridgeport, East Hartford and Norwalk, are embedding waiver requests into their existing online kindergarten registration process. Others — like Hartford, Trumbull, West Hartford, New Haven and Milford — have separate forms or surveys for parents to fill out if they’re applying for early kindergarten.
The assessment process itself is where districts’ approaches start to vary.
Some districts are requiring only a written parental request. Westport and East Hartford districts plan to use this process as a transition and work toward an appropriate assessment by the 2025-26 school year.
Districts like Bridgeport and Trumbull are requesting that parents use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Milestone Checklist during the registration process to determine whether their child is developmentally ready for kindergarten. Similarly, Hartford Public Schools released a 12-question survey, and Fairfield parents will receive the Connecticut Kindergarten Domain Readiness Skills rubric. School staff will review the responses prior to admission.
Stamford, New Britain, Norwalk, West Hartford and Southington are a few of the districts that have established more extensive processes, requiring expert assessments to analyze motor, concept and language skills, and academic, emotional and social needs.
Some districts, like New Haven and Glastonbury, are offering a hybrid-like process of what other districts are doing where, depending on the child’s pre-K experiences or their birthdate, they may have to undergo an assessment or be granted automatic admission.
In New Haven, if a child with a birthday past Sept. 1 is enrolled in the district’s pre-K program, “they will automatically move on to kindergarten,” according to the district website. For students not enrolled in the program with a late birthday, they must undergo an assessment process.
Glastonbury Public Schools’ website says that any student who turns 5 before Oct. 31 will be eligible to start kindergarten this year, and for those born between Nov. 1 and Dec. 31, waivers will “rarely [be] granted.”
For parents considering kindergarten waivers, the timeline to request consideration can range from late February through early July, depending on the district.
West Hartford may have one of the earliest cutoffs — written requests were required by Feb. 1.
Hartford and East Hartford have cutoffs on March 1 and May 15, respectively. Stamford, Groton and New Britain have cutoffs in early summer, ranging from June through July. Bridgeport, Trumbull and Norwalk plan to consider requests on a rolling basis.
Most districts said the timeline between requesting a waiver, undergoing an assessment and hearing a decision from school leadership will be about a week.
For districts conducting assessments, many have scheduled appointments — typically on weekends — when children can be evaluated. Some appointment processes opened in the fall, like in Stamford. Other districts like Groton, New Britain and Norwalk will conduct assessments in February through the early spring.
Despite differences in the kindergarten enrollment and waiver process, one similarity among districts is the willingness to work with affected families to ease the transition.
For some districts, that’ll be easier than for others.
In Groton, for example, the district has always screened its kindergarten and incoming students. In the late 2010s, Groton Public Schools created a program called “Transitional Kindergarten” after recommendations from several educators. The program targets 4-year-olds with late birthdays and provides a kindergarten-like experience, with before- and after-school programs, bus transportation and lunch, but at a developmentally appropriate level. Children can be recommended to kindergarten or first grade after enrollment in the program, depending on their readiness.
“I am talking to legislators about how can we make this a golden opportunity for our state to educate our littlest learners. I feel like Groton is ahead of the curve … because we are offering a transition-K program,” Superintendent Susan Austin said, adding that other district leaders have been asking about the model and how to replicate it. “I feel like this is an opportunity.”
Fairfield plans to implement a similar program with the launch of a new tuition-based full-day pre-K for students enrolled in the district’s Early Childhood Center.
“Current 4-year-old students impacted by the change in kindergarten legislation will be given priority to attend the full day pre-K program,” said Superintendent Michael Testani.
Rabinowitz is enthusiastic about transitional kindergarten or universal pre-K models but added that the main obstacle boils down to funding.
“There is concern about the ability for all children to have an educational experience. If they’re not ready, or if they’re not old enough for kindergarten, is there going to be room for them in the preschool? And in some cases, the preschools are not run by the school system,” Rabinowitz said. “I have no problem with 5 years old by September. I just wish [the state legislature] had given us a little bit more time to do this. If it had been [implemented by] 2025, I think we could have better had all the ducks in a row for that, and hopefully, more early care funding.”
The report from The Connecticut Project also surveyed district leaders across the state, and with 98 responses from Connecticut superintendents, the majority echoed Rabinowitz’s support of delaying implementation for at least another year and a general agreement toward increased funding for early childhood education subsidies.
Statewide data show that the number of publicly funded slots for infant and toddler care dropped by 3,490 — about 17% — from 2022 to 2023. The state has 49,898 preschool slots, a 4% reduction from 2022 and the lowest number since at least 2005, according to a report released by research and advocacy organization Connecticut Voices for Children earlier this year.
In Connecticut, child care costs on average $18,156 for center-based care and $11,955 in a family child care home annually. This means Connecticut has the third-most expensive early care costs, behind only Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts, the report said.
Many high enrollment districts, often urban centers, are anticipating hundreds of waiver requests, and some district leaders say they plan to approve a majority of the applications.
In Bridgeport, the district currently educates over 1,500 kindergarten students, and about 500 of those children have birthdays between Sept. 2 and Jan. 1.
“We project there are closer to 600 children this new legislation may affect,” spokesperson Lindsay Davis said. “Families have been calling to inquire about being able to enroll their children in kindergarten. We anticipate many families will choose to send their children to kindergarten next year. … The flexibility of kindergarten enrollment will minimize the potential of a financial and scheduling burden for families that were not anticipating another year of pre-K or child care.”
In Hartford, the district educates about 1,200 kindergartners.
“Our School Choice application period only recently opened, so it’s still early to determine kindergarten applications and enrollment for the 2024-25 school year,” spokesperson Julia Skrobak said. “There are currently 279 current pre-K-4 students in our schools with birthdays after Sept. 1. We anticipate the majority of those families will apply for a waiver.”
In New Britain, there’s about 750 kindergarten public school students, said Kristie Bourdoulous, the pre-K-5 academic and accountability officer, adding that about 30% of the district’s kindergartners were born after Sept. 1.
“We do anticipate interest in the waiver, especially in the first year of this new law,” Bourdoulous said. “We heavily marketed changes to admission policy and the process for requesting early enrollment to families with children currently enrolled in our BOE pre-K program and our community partner programs. At this time, we have over 100 families that have responded to our early entry request form with more than 70 students requesting early entry. … Of the students we know about enrolled in BOE or community partners, approximately 90% of those families are requesting early entry. We anticipate many of those requests being approved.”
Representatives from other high-enrollment districts, including Waterbury and New Haven, did not respond to requests for comment.
This story was originally published by The Connecticut Mirror on Feb. 18, 2024.
It’s a scheme made famous by a nearly 30-year-old episode of the sitcom Seinfeld.
Hoping to earn a quick buck, two characters load a mail truck full of soda bottles and beer cans purchased with a redeemable 5-cent deposit in New York, before traveling to Michigan, where they can be recycled for 10 cents apiece. With few thousand cans, they calculate, the trip will earn a decent profit. In the end, the plan fell apart.
But after Connecticut raised the value of its own bottle deposits to 10 cents in 2024, officials say, they were caught off guard by a flood of such fraudulent returns coming in from out of state. Redemption rates have reached 97%, and some beverage distributors have reported millions of dollars in losses as a result of having to pay out for excess returns of their products.
On Thursday, state lawmakers passed an emergency bill to crack down on illegal returns by increasing fines, requiring redemption centers to keep track of bulk drop-offs and allowing local police to go after out-of-state violators.
“I’m heartbroken,” said House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, who supported the effort to increase deposits to 10 cents and expand the number of items eligible for redemption. “I spent a lot of political capital to get the bottle bill passed in 2021, and never in a million years did I think that New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island residents would return so many bottles.”
The legislation, Senate Bill 299, would increase fines for violating the bottle bill law from $50 to $500 on a first offense. For third and subsequent offenses, the penalty would increase from $250 to $2,000 and misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
In addition, it requires redemption centers to be licensed by the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (previously, those businesses were only required to register with DEEP). As a condition of their license, redemption centers must keep records of anyone seeking to redeem more than 1,000 bottles and cans in a single day.
Anyone not affiliated with a qualified nonprofit would be prohibited from redeeming more than 4,000 bottles a day, down from the previous limit of 5,000.
The bill also seeks to pressure some larger redemption centers into adopting automated scanning technologies, such as reverse vending machines, by temporarily lowering the handling fee that is paid on each beverage container processed by those centers.
The bill easily passed the Senate on Wednesday and the House on Thursday on its way to Gov. Ned Lamont.
While the bill drew bipartisan support, Republicans described it as a temporary fix to a growing problem.
House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, called the switch to 10-cent deposits an “unmitigated disaster” and said he believed out-of-state redemption centers were offloading much of their inventory within Connecticut.
“The sheer quantity that is being redeemed in the state of Connecticut, this isn’t two people putting cans into a post office truck,” Candelora said. “This is far more organized than that.”
The impact of those excess returns is felt mostly by the state’s wholesale beverage distributors, who initiate the redemption process by collecting an additional 10 cents on every eligible bottle and can they sell to supermarkets, liquor stores and other retailers within Connecticut. The distributors are required to pay that money back — plus a handling fee — once the containers are returned to the store or a redemption center.
According to the state’s Department of Revenue Services, nearly 12% of wholesalers reported having to pay out more redemptions than they collected in deposits in 2025. Those losses totaled $11.3 million.
Peter Gallo, the vice president of Star Distributors in West Haven, said his company’s losses alone have totaled more than $2 million since the increase on deposits went into effect two years ago. As time goes on, he said, the deficit has only grown.
“We’re hoping we can get something fixed here, because it’s a tough pill to be holding on to debt that we should get paid for,” Gallo said.
Still, officials say they have no way of tracking precisely how many of the roughly 2 billion containers that were redeemed in the state last year were illegally brought in from other states. That’s because most products lack any kind of identifiable marking indicating where they were sold.
“There’s no way to tell right now. That’s one of the core issues here,” said state Rep. John-Michael Parker, D-Madison, who co-chairs the legislature’s Environment Committee.
Parker said the issue could be solved if product labels were printed with a specific barcode or other feature that would be unique to Connecticut. Such a solution, for now, has faced technological challenges and pushback from the beverage industry, he said.
Not everyone involved in the handling, sorting and redemption of bottles is happy about the upcoming changes — or the process by which they were approved.
Francis Bartolomeo, the owner of a Fran’s Cans and Bart’s Bottles in Watertown, said he was only made aware of the legislation on Monday from a fellow redemption center owner. Since then, he said, he’s been contacting his legislators to oppose the bill and was frustrated by the lack of a public hearing.
“I know other people are as flabbergasted as I am because they don’t know where it comes out of,” Bartolomeo said “It’s a one sided affair, really.”
Bartolomeo said one of his biggest concerns with the bill is the $2,500 annual licensing fee that it would place on redemption centers. While he agreed that out-of-state redemptions are a problem, he said it should be up to the state to improve enforcement.
“We’re cleaning up the mess, and we’re going to end up being penalized,” Bartolomeo said. “Get rid of it and go back to 5 cents if it’s that big of a hindrance, but don’t penalize the redemption centers for what you imposed.”
Lynn Little of New Milford Redemption Center supports the increased penalties but believes the solution ultimately lies with better labeling by the distributors. She is also frustrated by the volume caps after the state initially gave grants to residents looking to open their own bottle redemption businesses.
“They’re taking a volume business, because any business where you make 3 cents per unit (the average handling fee) is a volume business, and limiting the volume we can take in, you’re crushing small businesses,” Little said.
Ritter said that he opposed a move back to the 5-cent deposit, which he noted was increased to encourage recycling. However, he said the current situation has become politically untenable and puts the state at risk of a lawsuit from distributors.
“We’re getting to a point where we’re going to lose the bottle bill,” Ritter said. “If we got sued in court, I think we’d lose.”
NEW BRITAIN, CT — Stanley Black & Decker on Thursday said it has decided to close its manufacturing facility in New Britain.
Debora Raymond, vice president of external communications for the manufacturer, said the decision is a result of a “structural decline in demand for single-sided tape measures.”
The New Britain facility predominantly makes these products, according to Raymond.
“These products are quickly becoming obsolete in the markets we serve,” Raymond said, via an emailed statement Thursday.
The decision is expected to impact approximately 300 employees, according to Raymond.
“We are focused on supporting impacted employees through this transition, including providing options for employment at other facilities, severance, and job placement support services for both salaried and hourly employees,” Raymond said.
As of Thursday at 4:30 p.m., no Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act notice had been filed with the state Department of Labor.
The company’s corporate headquarters remains at 1000 Stanley Dr., New Britain.
Gov. Ned Lamont released the following statement on the decision:
“Although Stanley has made the decision to discontinue operations for manufacturing outdated products, a change in workforce opportunities is difficult for employees, their families, and any community.,” Lamont said. “However, I am hopeful that these skilled workers will be repurposed with the help of Stanley Black & Decker, a company that will still proudly be headquartered here in Connecticut. My administration is working closely with local and state leaders to support affected workers and to reimagine the factory site so it can continue to create opportunity and strengthen New Britain’s economic future.”
New Britain Mayor Bobby Sanchez said he is “deeply disappointed” the company will be closing its Myrtle Street operations.
“For generations, Stanley Works has been part of the fabric of our city, providing good-paying jobs, supporting families, and helping build New Britain’s proud reputation as the ‘Hardware City,’” Sanchez said.
According to the mayor, his office’s immediate focus is on helping affected workers and their families. The mayor has been in contact with Lamont’s office, and they will be working closely to make sure employees have access to job placement services, retraining opportunities and support, Sanchez said.
“We will continue aggressively pursuing economic development opportunities and attracting businesses that are looking for a true community partner, a city ready to collaborate, innovate and grow alongside them,” Sanchez said. “New Britain has reinvented itself before, and we will do so again.”
Stanley Black & Decker, founded in 1843, operates manufacturing facilities worldwide, according to its website. It reports having 43,500 employees globally, and makes an array of products, such as power tools and equipment, hand tools, and fasteners.
Newly released police video shows former WWE executive Vince McMahon ram his luxury sports car into the rear end of another vehicle on a Connecticut highway last summer as he was being followed by a state trooper.
McMahon, now 80, was driving his 2024 Bentley Continental GT at more than 100 mph on the Merritt Parkway when he crashed in the town of Westport, according to state police.
A trooper’s dashcam video shows McMahon accelerating away, then braking too late to avoid crashing into the back of a BMW. The Bentley then swerves into a guardrail and careens back across the highway, creating a cloud of dirt and car parts.
“Why were you driving all over 100 mph?” state police Detective Maxwell Robins asked McMahon after catching up to the wrecked Bentley, which can cost over $300,000.
“I got my granddaughter’s birthday” McMahon replied, explaining he was on his way to see her. The encounter was recorded on police bodycam video.
No one was seriously injured in the July 24 crash, which happened the same day that WWE legend Hulk Hogan died of a heart attack in Florida.
Besides damage to the rear of the BMW, another vehicle driving on the opposite side of the parkway was struck by flying debris. The driver of that third car happened to be wearing a WWE shirt, according to the police video.
McMahon was cited for reckless driving and following too closely. A state judge in October allowed McMahon to enter a pretrial probation program that will result in the charges being erased from his record next October if he successfully completes the program. He was also ordered to make a $1,000 charitable contribution.
McMahon’s lawyer, Mark Sherman, said the crash was just an accident.
“Not every car accident is a crime,” Sherman said. “Vince’s primary concern during this case was for the other drivers and is appreciative that the court saw this more of an accident than a crime that needed to be prosecuted.”
State police said Robins was trying to catch up to McMahon on the parkway and clock his speed before pulling him over. They said the incident was not a pursuit, which happens when police chase someone trying to flee officers. They also said it did not appear McMahon was trying to escape — though in the video the detective suggests otherwise.
“I’m trying to catch up to you and you keep taking off,” Robins says.
“No, no no. I’m not trying to outrun you,” McMahon says.
An accident information summary provided to the media shortly after the crash did not mention that a trooper was following McMahon.
The Associated Press obtained the videos Wednesday through a public records request. They were first obtained by The Sun newspaper.
The trooper’s bodycam video also shows him asking McMahon whether he was looking at his phone when the crash happened. McMahon said he was not and adds that he hadn’t driven his car in a long time.
After Robins tells McMahon that his car is fast, McMahon replies, “Yeah, too (expletive) fast.”
The videos also show McMahon talking to the driver he rear-ended. Barbara Doran, of New York City, told the AP last summer that McMahon expressed his concern for her and was glad she was OK. She said she was heading to a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard at the time of the crash.
After McMahon was given the traffic summons, he shook hands with Robins and another trooper and they wished him well.
McMahon stepped down as WWE’s CEO in 2022 amid a company investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. He also resigned as executive chairman of the board of directors of TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of WWE, in 2024, a day after a former WWE employee filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against him. McMahon has denied the allegations. The lawsuit remains pending.
McMahon bought what was then the World Wrestling Federation in 1982 and transformed it from a regional wrestling company into a worldwide phenomenon. Besides running the company with his wife, Linda, who is now the U.S. education secretary, he also performed at WWE events as himself.
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