Hartford Public Schools Superintendent Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, December 2016: “I understand at a very personal level what our students need to experience in our schools in order to be successful (Hartford Courant, Dec. 1, 2016, B6).

Seven years later, in October of 2023, a report was completed and released by the Dalio Foundation (an educational grant foundation created by billionaire Barbara Dalio because she couldn’t visualize her sons actually sitting in a Norwalk classroom) which found that students who have gone through, or are going through, the Torres-Rodriguez led HPS system are among the most “disconnected” and “at risk” young people in the state.

The report, “Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis: Getting Young People on Track” (view the report here) was “rolled out” in West Hartford in October 2023, which is like having a fire on Garden Street but sending the firetrucks to LaSalle Road.  The report “calls for improving coordination between many state and city and town agencies that work with disconnected youth.”

The report defines “disconnected” young people as those aged 14-26 who have graduated but are unemployed and not enrolled in college, and non-graduates who are employed, and unemployed non-graduates, who are probably out stealing your car as we speak.

“At risk” young folks are defined in the report as high school students who are at risk of not graduating, thereby setting themselves up for a seat at the “disconnected” table.

Statewide, the report found that 19% of 14-26 year olds were “disconnected.”  In Hartford, more than 40% of 14-26 year olds were disconnected (2022 data). Of the 14-26 year olds exiting high school who were “newly disconnected,” Hartford had the highest percentage in the state at 42%!

The report stated that the state average for “at risk” young people was 22%.  Hartford’s “at risk” number was 53%, the highest in the state!  However, Torres-Rodriguez saw things differently.  Five-months after the release of this report, she reported that between 52% and 74% (depending on the grade) of HPS high school students were “on track” to graduate.

So, why am I bringing up a report “rolled out” five months ago, other than to show what a sham Torres-Rodriguez’s time as HPS superintendent has been?

This past week, a bill was introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly to address the “crisis” of Connecticut’s “disconnected” and “at risk” youth.  HB5213, “An Act Concerning Disconnected Youth,” seeks to “improve school data systems and practices to identify and support at-risk students and to establish coalitions and partnerships focused on supporting at-risk and disconnected youth.”

Aided by the University of Connecticut (and a sizeable budget, I assume), a newly created state Advisory Board (when in doubt, create a committee), will draft a plan to address the “crisis,” which will include a plan for interagency data sharing (data to which HPS leadership says, “We don’t have that with us, but we’ll get it to you.”).  The bill’s goal is “to provide a streamlined way for community-based providers in the state that serve disconnected youth to access and share individual-level de-identified data to improve collaboration, communication, efficiency, transparency and outcomes over time.” 

Prior to the Advisory Boards official plan release in January 2025, inserted into the draft bill is a section (Sec. 7, p. 6) which states that students with valid school identification cards will be allowed to ride city buses for free from 2 hours before the start of school to 4 hours after the close of school.  The thought being that this will solve any transportation issues which may play a role in a student’s disconnectedness and at-riskness (can I say that?).

The General Assembly held a public meeting on HB5213 to which Superintendent Torres-Rodriguez submitted testimony (read that here).  Her testimony is two pages long, all except one paragraph deals with her support for, not HB5213, but HB5212, a completely different bill, a school funding bill! 

In her one paragraph support for HB5213, the object of the public meeting, she states that she “strongly” supports the included Section 7 free city bus rides.  She does not state that she supports the bill in whole, just Section 7 while spending the rest of the time telling the seated legislators that $450 million is not enough to run the school district each year.

A quick glance at HPS’ budget books from the 2017-18 school year to the 2022-23 school year, reveals that Torres-Rodriguez has spent more than $70 million on “professional contracts and services,” i.e., those “community-based providers” which the state would like to become involved in rescuing the “disconnected” and “at risk” young folks in Connecticut. 

Monthly the board of education approves a contract to a non-profit or business to provide services to HPS students before, during, and after school, to parents, and to babies of students.  The district has a program where they go to the absent child’s home to see what’s up, they have a program to feed students breakfast, and a plethora of programs aimed at improving  the school “culture and climate” and the “whole student.”

In HPS’ application for their just approved federal grant (“$2.1 Million Over Five Years Nets HPS Three New Central Office Staffers”), Torres-Rodriguez stated that the district is currently working with “over 200” community partners, “and,” she wrote, “this list keeps growing.”  WTF!?

And here we are with Hartford having the largest percentage of “disconnected” and “at risk” students in the state.

Yes, HB5213 is needed, if for anything to bring greater state scrutiny on the inefficient and wasteful spending charade being orchestrated at HPS.

A planned program for rescuing Connecticut’s “disconnected” and “at risk” youth is, states the report, an “economic opportunity,” not just for the students themselves, but for Connecticut.  A successful plan would help fill a portion of the state’s 90,000 unfilled jobs, boost the state’s gross domestic product by $5 billion and improve fiscal performance by $650 million a year by bringing in more tax revenue and lowering spending on government services.

And Torres-Rodriguez takes a paragraph to thank legislators for the free bus rides.  Jesus!