21 CT school districts lost vital federal funding. See if yours is in danger for next year.

Less than a month before Wilton Public Schools expected to receive vital federal funding, their superintendent got a shocking letter informing him the district was getting nothing.

"This year we were surprised and disappointed to learn that we lost about $100,000 in federal Title I funds," Superintendent Kevin Smith told the Board of Education in January. "That was a grant that we received annually." 

As a result, Wilton had to quickly scramble to find alternate funding  – and it was not alone. 

Twenty other school districts in Connecticut received a letter from the state Department of Education, notifying them their Title I funding amount was going to significantly decrease from 2024 to 2025. The letters, obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media through a Freedom of Information Act request, were dated Sept. 10, just three weeks before the 2025 Title I funding cycle began on Oct. 1. 

School districts use federal Title I grants to fund teaching positions, summer school programs and more to support children from low-income families with educational services that they need. With the funding being contingent on the number and percentage of children in poverty in the town/city a district is located, this funding can be whipped away if that drops below the threshold. 

Districts, each year, go through the stress of seeing if their census data has changed and pushed them over the edge to lose their Title I funding. According to a HCMG analysis, 12 Connecticut school districts are on the brink of losing their Title I funding for next year, while six fall in the category of being automatically ineligible for this funding.

Darien Public Schools, for example, is automatically ineligible for Title I funding in 2026 due to the fact that fewer than 2% of the town's population of school-aged children are living in poverty. The other five districts  —  Canaan, Colebrook, Eastford, Norfolk and Union —  have fewer than 10 students in poverty, which also makes them automatically ineligible to receive Title I funding. 

For example, Regional High School District 9, which serves Easton and Redding, saw a 14% decrease in its students living in poverty. Clocking it at 2.5% now, they are closer to that 2% cutoff. 

Trump's federal freeze ups concerns

Currently, a district is eligible for the funding based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, a program that collects data annually from a variety of state, federal and county agencies "to determine the number of children in poverty in a given community,” according to documents obtained by HCMG through a FOIA request.

However, with President Donald Trump's Jan. 27 announcement of a federal funding freeze — temporarily blocked by a federal judge and then rescinded by the administration two days later — the whole Title I program, like much federal funding, has become a political football.

Greenwich Public Schools Superintendent Toni Jones on Friday said "thank goodness" the federal funding freeze was rescinded because "that would have had huge impacts to schools." 

"Federal funding is often critical to supporting key programs and initiatives directly impacting student learning and well-being," said Southington Public Schools Superintendent Steven Madancy. "Without clarity on the availability of these resources, districts are faced with difficult decisions and must plan cautiously to meet the needs of our students."

The federal government offers three different types of Title I grants for districts that are based on how many children, ages 5-17, from low-income families are living in the town/city they are located in. So, districts that are in a community that has a larger population of these children will get a larger Title I grant. 

For Greenwich Public Schools, the change in population resulted in Title I funding for 2025 slashed to less than half what it was in 2024. In 2024, Greenwich received $1,310,272 in Title I funding, according to the district. This year, that went down to $525,312. 

As a practical matter, the district requested $622,807 to fund five existing teaching positions that were previously covered by Title I funding in the Board of Education-approved operating budget. 

"When we have that level of reduction, that's a significant hit," said Ben Branyan, the district's chief financial and administrative officer. "Not only to the operating budget, but also to how ... you preserve those services being provided to those students."

Greenwich school officials chose to request the loss of Title I funding in their upcoming operating budget because "the staffing and functions they serve are still needed," Branyan said. 

Southington Public Schools saw their Title I money amount cut almost in half.

In 2024, Madancy said, the district got $398,852 for Title I funding. For this year, Southington received $213,792. 

"Any reduction in Title I funding would challenge our ability to provide essential supports and programs for our most vulnerable students. These funds are vital for closing achievement gaps and ensuring equitable access to quality education," he said. "As always, we would work to mitigate any funding shortfalls by exploring alternative funding sources and reallocating resources to maintain critical services for our students."

 Madancy said he also "request(ed) an increase to the operating budget to compensate for the loss of Title I grant funds." 

"Any time we lose any level of federal funding, it has an impact, as we already receive so little federal and state funding," he said. "Only 4.6 percent of our annual budget is comprised of federal funding, and only 22.6 percent is state funding."

Shelton, too, is requesting funds in their upcoming budget to make up a loss of about $400,000 in Title 1. North Haven Public Schools, which saw a drop from about $317,000 to $153,000, is still trying to figure out how to make up the shortfall. 

North Haven Public Schools officials said the district previously used Title I funds "to offer after school and summer remedial instruction to students in the areas of mathematics and language arts."

With the district's hit to its Title I funding, "we may need to reduce after school and summer intervention services as well as additional academic supports during the academic year," according to a statement from the district.

A total loss of Title 1

While some districts lost large chunks of their Title I funding, Wilton, along with Canaan, Darien, Hampton and Madison, completely lost this vital federal funding, according to the state Department of Education Sept. 10 letters.

To qualify for Title I funding, a district must "have at least 10 formula eligible children and the number of these children must exceed 2 percent of the district's total population." 

According to the 2024 Title I funding data for Connecticut schools, Darien, for example, received $152,018 in 2024 before being cut entirely because the number of eligible kids dropped below the 2 percent level for the current funding cycle.

In Wilton's case, Smith said the district lost its Title I funding in 2024 and has since been making up for the lost funding — about $100,000 — in its budget. He said he has called the census office multiple times to figure out why Wilton lost its funding, but he had not yet received an answer, he said at a Jan. 9 Board of Education meeting.

"Maybe they'll give it back next year," he said.

According to SAIPE data, in 2022, formula eligible children made up less than 2 percent of Wilton's population.

The Connecticut State Department of Education said that Scotland also lost its Title I funding in 2025 but it was because it had fewer than 10 formula eligible children, although the district did not receive the Sept. 10 letter like the other ineligible districts did. The district received $6,864 in 2024, according to funding data. 

Not all the Title I funding information was negative. While a good number of Connecticut school districts saw their Title I funding amounts decrease from 2024 to 2025, others got funding increases.

Bridgeport, for example, saw its funding increase from about $14,048,000 in 2024 to $14,088,000 for 2025 and Bloomfield saw its Title I funding jump $45,328 between those two years. 

What to expect in 2026?

School districts do not know yet how much Title I money they will be getting in 2026, a lack of information that made the threatened federal funding freeze even more upsetting. 

Branyan said since Greenwich was not notified of its 2025 Title I grant amount until Sept. 10, which is typically when districts learn how much money they will be getting for the upcoming cycle that begins Oct. 1, it left the district with less than a month to prepare for any changes in the grant cycle. 

"You don't get a lot of lead time," Branyan said. 

Branyan said in Greenwich's case, the district usually budgets "a rollover" – meaning the plan for the same amount as the previous year – since Title I is "not a competitive grant," meaning "there's a high degree of likelihood that you're going to get them year after year." 

Opting for a rollover, given the uncertainty, could be a chancy move for districts. 

Districts have gotten an indication of future funding, however. On Dec. 19, all Connecticut school districts got access to the 2023 census data from which the Title I 2026 funding amounts will be calculated. 

The census data shows that statewide, the poverty rate of children ages 5-17 increased from 11.42 percent in 2022 to 12.34 percent in 2023.

But, 12 districts are close to having fewer than 2% of the population be children from low-income families, meaning they are right at the cutoff to possibly lose their Title I funding. 

School districts were encouraged by the state to review their census data and are allowed to challenge the data if they believe there are non-statistical errors. Districts have until March 17 to make their case. 

Jennifer Murrihy, the Connecticut State Department of Education's Title I director, said school districts should be be prepared for their Title I funding to rise and fall due to demographic changes. 

She said districts should be asking, "How can we make ourselves prepared for that?" and "What is the contingency that we can put into place?" 

Having these conversations can help districts with "more intentional programming, effective use of their dollars and potentially no surprises," she said. 

Branyan said Greenwich Public Schools officials "certainly look at" the census data, but "there's nothing we can do to change that data."