House Republican Press Release

May 6, 2008

Press Office: 860-240-8700

REPS. ROWE, CHRISTIANO CO-SPONSOR LEGISLATION DELAYING IN-SCHOOL SUSPENSION LAW

Measure Passes House of Representatives, Moves To Senate

On Monday, May 5, the State House of Representatives approved legislation co-sponsored by State Reps. T.R. Rowe, R-Trumbull, and Tom Christiano, D-Trumbull, that delays implantation of the state’s 2007 In- School Suspension law for one year. House Bill 5826 now moves to the State Senate for consideration.

Public Act 07-66 requires student suspensions to be held on school grounds. Exemptions can be granted if school administration determines that the student poses a danger to persons or property or is too disruptive of the educational process. Prior law defined in-school suspension as exclusion from classroom activity, but not from school, for up to five consecutive days. The act extends this to 10 consecutive days. Under existing law, an exclusion from school privileges for more than 10 days constitutes an expulsion.

Rep. Rowe, who consistently opposes unfunded mandates on municipalities, voted against PA 07-66 in May 2007. It was approved in a 111-29 vote in the House of Representatives. Trumbull officials have expressed concerns over this legislation, particularly the additional cost associated with hiring staff to monitor students serving their suspensions on school property. The legislation was scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2008 but would be delayed one full year under HB 5826. 

"This is an unfair and unfunded mandate,” said Rep. Rowe.  “I am disappointed that our amendment to repeal the mandate altogether was not passed, but delaying implementation for an additional year will save the town from having to hire additional staff, which had been contemplated to satisfy the mandate.  We will also have another year to gather support for an outright repeal"

“I fought like a dog to overturn this bill,” said Rep. Christiano. “We do not need additional costs to the school district at this time. Hopefully, this will free up enough funds so that the Board of Education can restore some of the cuts to its budget.”