Derek Slap

BILL TO HELP STONE ACADEMY STUDENTS TAKES SHAPE IN SENATE

Today, State Senator Derek Slap (D-West Hartford), Senate Chair of the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, led the Senate alongside Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford) and State Senator Joan Hartley (D-Waterbury) in progressing legislation that would provide direct relief to Stone Academy students after that nursing school’s three campuses across the state shut down without warning earlier in the winter of 2023.

A new amendment to the bill, which passed today before being referred to the Appropriations Committee to review its potential cost, would make several changes to legislation in question, directly supporting former students and graduates of Stone Academy.

“The students at Stone Academy had the rug pulled out from underneath them when it abruptly closed in February. They spent time and money but their dreams of becoming nurses was in jeopardy,” said Sen. Slap. “This amended bill, how heading to the appropriations committee, will help them recoup the costs and get their career back on track. The legislation also calls for Stone Academy, not the taxpayers of Connecticut, to ultimately pick up the tab. I’m grateful for the bipartisan teamwork that produced this amendment and look forward to the bill passing both chambers before midnight next Wednesday.”

With new amendments incorporated, Senate Bill 936, “An Act Concerning Workforce Development,” would:

Direct the Office of Higher Education to ensure that students who graduated from Stone Academy in the last two years, but need to take additional clinical work as required by the Department of Public Health, will receive the costs of the additional clinical classes and stipends of up to $1,000. As many as 150 students would be eligible for this support; under current law, someone who did not graduate from Stone Academy but completed classes later deemed invalid by the Department of Public Health for substandard educational quality would not be eligible for reimbursement. This bill would change that and allow the Office of Higher Education to reimburse out-of-pocket costs for such students; allow the Office of Higher Education within its available student protection account’s balance to give additional grants and support to students of Stone Academy; upon its progression today, the amended bill would now need to receive approval by the Appropriations Committee, then receive approval in both the House and Senate.