A late-night amendment from Sen. Ryan Fazio to opt Connecticut into the federal Scholarship Tax Credit went nowhere during debate on a homeschool oversight bill, and the General Assembly adjourned sine die two days later. With the legislative route closed for 2026, any opt-in now rests entirely with Gov. Ned Lamont, who has called the move premature.
Connecticut's 2026 legislative session produced exactly one recorded attempt to join the federal Scholarship Tax Credit (FSTC / ECCA / §25F), and it never had a path to passage. During a late-night Senate debate on May 4, 2026 over HB 5468, a homeschool oversight bill, Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich) offered a floor amendment that would have opted Connecticut into the program, describing the federal credit as “literally free money” for the state. The amendment was one of 39 that Republicans filed against the bill; the majority Democrats defeated nine of them and the remaining amendments were withdrawn. By the reporting on the debate, the §25F amendment did not pass. HB 5468 itself cleared the Senate 22-14 near midnight.
The mechanics of §25F are what made the amendment attractive to its sponsor and unobjectionable on cost. The program, which launches January 1, 2027, lets individual taxpayers claim a federal credit of up to $1,700 for donations to qualifying Scholarship Granting Organizations, with the scholarships funded by donors rather than the state treasury. A state's only required act is for the governor to opt in by submitting a list of eligible SGOs to the U.S. Treasury. That structure is why Fazio framed participation as costless to Connecticut taxpayers. It is also why opting in is, by statute, an executive decision rather than a legislative one, which left the floor amendment as a political signal more than a viable vehicle.
Whatever the amendment's merits, the calendar closed the question for the year. The Connecticut General Assembly adjourned its 2026 regular session sine die on May 6, 2026, two days after the HB 5468 debate. Adjournment means no further bill can opt the state in until a future session convenes, so for the rest of 2026 the legislative route is shut. That leaves a single remaining path: a unilateral opt-in by Gov. Ned Lamont. In coverage dated May 20, 2026, Lamont was noncommittal, calling the move premature and signaling he would rather wait for federal guidance, which Treasury is expected to finalize around the end of September with related rules previewed in January. His hesitancy stood out against neighboring New York, where Gov. Kathy Hochul had just moved to join the program.
Connecticut now sits in the same holding pattern as several other Democratic-led states: the door to participation is open through the governor's pen but unused, with the legislature unable to force the issue. For donors, families, and anyone considering founding an SGO in the state, that means there is no Connecticut program to plan around yet, only an executive decision that has not been made. We track the state's status and every other state's on our Connecticut state page and the state participation map. For context on the broader divide, see our coverage of New York's opt-in under Gov. Hochul and how Democratic governors have split on §25F. Operators weighing whether to stand up an SGO can start with our explainer on how the credit works and our directory of Scholarship Granting Organizations.
