NEWS Is your school district racially segregated? These are the schools that have violated CT’s balance law Alex Putterman June 22, 2022

Is your school district racially segregated? These are the schools that have violated CT’s balance law Alex Putterman June 22, 2022 Bob Luckey / Bob Luckey First passed in 1969 and enforced in 1980, Connecticut’s racial balance law seeks to prevent towns from confining students of color to one or two schools while leaving others overwhelmingly white. But as outlined in a recent Hearst Connecticut Media report, some school districts have struggled to comply with the law, allowing certain schools to stay imbalanced year after year. In 2022, McKinley School in Fairfield was imbalanced for the 15th time in 16 years, New Lebanon School in Greenwich was imbalanced for the 16th consecutive year and Hamilton Avenue School in Greenwich was imbalanced for at least the 23rd straight year. A school is considered “imbalanced” if the percentage of white students among its student body is 25 percentage points higher or lower than the average of the district it sits in. Additionally, a school can be characterized as having “impending imbalance” if its share of white students is 15-25 percentage points off from the district average. Though the racial balance law has plenty of critics, including those who consider it unfair, those who think it lacks ample enforcement mechanisms and those who see it as an overly narrow solution to a much broader problem, its proponents say it is one tool to boost integration efforts in a state whose schools are among the nation’s most segregated. Takeaways from the racial imbalance data include: - Seventeen schools across 10 districts have been imbalanced at least once since 1999. Five of those districts (Greenwich, West Hartford, Groton, Hamden and Manchester) have had multiple schools imbalanced at least once. Three (Greenwich, West Hartford and Manchester) have had multiple schools imbalanced at the same time. - Just five schools account for well over half of the total racial balance infractions in Connecticut over the past two-plus decades: McKinley School in Fairfield, New Lebanon School in Greenwich, Hamilton Avenue School in Greenwich, Charter Oak International Academy in West Hartford and Smith School in West Hartford. Each has been imbalanced at least 15 times during that time period. - Additionally, Church Street School in Hamden and Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School in Groton have been repeatedly out of compliance in the recent past. - West Hartford’s Charter Oak and Smith are the only schools that have been in the imbalance or impending imbalance categories each year since 1999-00. - Most schools that have been out of compliance have had student bodies that were disproportionately nonwhite, as opposed to disproportionately white. Exceptions include Buckley School in Manchester and Bear Path School in Hamden, which were determined to be far whiter than their district’s average. - It has been common, however, for disproportionately white schools to land in the “impending imbalance” category. Bugbee School in West Hartford, for example, has had impending imbalance all but three years since 1999-00. - Unsurprisingly, most districts that have been in imbalance or impending imbalance are those with substantial populations of both white students and students of color. Districts that are overwhelmingly white or overwhelmingly nonwhite may be segregated from their neighbors but are not as likely to the specific type of segregation that triggers the racial balance law. - Though New Haven, Bridgeport, Hartford and other cities have occasionally had schools in impending imbalance, they are partially protected by a clause in the law that says schools cannot be considered imbalanced if they are in a district that is at least 50 percent minority and have a student body that is between 25 and 75 percent minority. Because of this carve-out, an all-white school in a majority nonwhite district would not be considered imbalanced. - The vast majority of schools that have been in imbalance or impending imbalance have been elementary schools, although several middle schools (including Western Middle School in Greenwich, West Side Middle School in Groton and Cutler Middle School in Groton) have appeared on the list as well, as have Hillhouse High School in New Haven and Briggs High School in Norwalk. - The number of schools in one of those two categories had dropped from 40 in 1999-00 to 22 this past school year. Still, 10 districts continue to have at least one school in imbalance or impending imbalance. - Altogether, more than 110 schools have been in imbalance or impending imbalance since the 1999-00 school year.