K-12 curriculum authority, requirements, and statutes in Connecticut
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This page features information about K-12 curriculum authority, requirements, and related statutes in Connecticut.
Background: What is curriculum development?
State or local education officials develop K-12 curriculum for classroom instruction that generally includes lessons and materials used in a particular course of study.[1] Depending on the state, K-12 curriculum may reflect or incorporate state content standards—educational learning and achievement goals that state education officials either require or recommend that local schools satisfy in K-12 instruction.
K-12 curriculum development in public schools varies across the 50 states. State-level entities (such as state boards of education and state education agency leaders) or local entities (such as school districts and local schools) may play a role in the development and approval of K-12 curriculum.
If a state-level entity is tasked with developing a K-12 curriculum, state statutes or regulations may either require or recommend that local schools or districts use the state-developed curriculum in the classroom. Other states allow local schools or districts to develop their own K-12 curriculum.
The following table provides information about K-12 curriculum authority, requirements, and related statutes in Connecticut as of December 2023. The statutes provided may not be comprehensive. The statutory text is provided below the table.
| Connecticut K-12 curriculum authority, requirements, and statutes | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| State | Entity | If state-developed, is curriculum recommended or required for local schools? | Statute or regulation |
| Connecticut | Local/regional boards of education | Recommended | Conn. Gen Stat § 10-16b (2022) |
Conn. Gen Stat § 10-16b (a, c, and d)(2022):
| “ | Prescribed courses of study.
(a) In the public schools the program of instruction offered shall include at least the following subject matter, as taught by legally qualified teachers, the arts; career education; consumer education; health and safety, including, but not limited to, human growth and development, nutrition, first aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16qq, disease prevention and cancer awareness, including, but not limited to, age and developmentally appropriate instruction in performing self-examinations for the purposes of screening for breast cancer and testicular cancer, community and consumer health, physical, mental and emotional health, including youth suicide prevention, substance abuse prevention, including instruction relating to opioid use and related disorders, safety, which shall include the safe use of social media, as defined in section 9-601, and may include the dangers of gang membership, and accident prevention; language arts, including reading, writing, grammar, speaking and spelling; mathematics; physical education; science, which may include the climate change curriculum described in subsection (d) of this section; social studies, including, but not limited to, citizenship, economics, geography, government, history and Holocaust and genocide education and awareness in accordance with the provisions of section 10-18f; African-American and black studies in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16ss; Puerto Rican and Latino studies in accordance with the provisions of section 10-16ss; computer programming instruction; and in addition, on at least the secondary level, one or more world languages; vocational education; and the black and Latino studies course in accordance with the provisions of sections 10-16tt and 10-16uu. For purposes of this subsection, world languages shall include American Sign Language, provided such subject matter is taught by a qualified instructor under the supervision of a teacher who holds a certificate issued by the State Board of Education. For purposes of this subsection, the “arts” means any form of visual or performing arts, which may include, but not be limited to, dance, music, art and theatre.
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See also
- K-12 areas of instruction required by statute in the states
- K-12 curriculum authority, requirements, and statutes in the states
- K-12 education content standards in the states
- Overview of trends in K-12 curricula development
- Use of the term critical race theory (CRT)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ The Glossary of Education Reform, "Curriculum," accessed July 26, 2022
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
