Connecticut § 10-286h - School building project grants for diversity schools.

§ 10-286h. School building project grants for diversity schools.

Sec. 10-286h. School building project grants for diversity schools. (a)(1) The Department of Administrative Services, in consultation with the Department of Education, shall provide a school building project grant in accordance with the provisions of this chapter for a diversity school for any local or regional board of education that has one or more schools under the jurisdiction of such board where the proportion of pupils of racial minorities in all grades of the school is greater than twenty-five per cent of the proportion of pupils of racial minorities in the public schools in all of the same grades of the school district in which said school is situated taken together, and (2) such board has demonstrated evidence of a good-faith effort to correct the existing disparity in the proportion of pupils of racial minorities in the district, as determined by the Commissioner of Education. Such diversity school shall be open to resident students of the school district for the purpose of correcting the existing disparity in the proportion of pupils of racial minorities in the district not later than five years after the opening of the diversity school. For purposes of this section, “pupils of racial minorities” means those whose race is defined as other than white, or whose ethnicity is defined as Hispanic or Latino by the federal Office of Management and Budget for use by the Bureau of Census of the United States Department of Commerce.

(b) An eligible local or regional board of education shall apply to the Commissioner of Administrative Services, in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, for a school building project grant pursuant to this section. Such application shall include (1) evidence that the local or regional board of education is developing policies to make residents of the district aware that enrollment in the diversity school is open to all eligible resident students, and (2) a plan for correcting the existing disparity in the proportion of pupils of racial minorities in the district. The Commissioner of Administrative Services shall approve only applications for reimbursement under this section that the Commissioner of Education finds will assist eligible local and regional boards of education in correcting the existing disparity in the proportion of pupils of racial minorities in the district.

(c) Eligible local or regional boards of education, for purposes of a diversity school, shall be eligible for a school building project grant with a reimbursement percentage determined in accordance with the provisions of subsection (j) of section 10-285a. Such grant shall be used for the reasonable cost of any capital expenditure for the purchase, construction, extension, replacement, leasing or major alteration of diversity school facilities, including any expenditure for the purchase of equipment, in accordance with this section. To be eligible for reimbursement under this section, a diversity school construction project shall meet the requirements for a school building project established in this chapter, except that the Commissioner of Administrative Services may waive any requirement in this chapter for good cause.

(P.A. 11-57, S. 100; P.A. 12-179, S. 12; P.A. 13-247, S. 200; July Sp. Sess. P.A. 19-1, S. 4.)

History: P.A. 11-57 effective June 30, 2011; P.A. 12-179 amended Subsec. (b) by designating existing provision re evidence that board of education is developing policies to make residents aware of diversity school enrollment as Subdiv. (1) and adding Subdiv. (2) re plan for correcting disparity in proportion of pupils of racial minorities in the district, and deleted former Subsec. (d) re programmatic audit and repayment of cost of capital expenditures, effective June 15, 2012; pursuant to P.A. 13-247, “Commissioner of Construction Services” and “Department of Construction Services” were changed editorially by the Revisors to “Commissioner of Administrative Services” and “Department of Administrative Services”, respectively, effective July 1, 2013; July Sp. Sess. P.A. 19-1 amended Subsec. (c) by replacing “reimbursement of eighty per cent of the” with “a school building project grant with a reimbursement percentage determined in accordance with the provisions of subsection (j) of section 10-285a. Such grant shall be used for the”, effective July 23, 2019.