Update to Connecticut's Unspoken Crisis
Last year, the Connecticut Legislature passed HB5437, which mandated the state to annually report on youth experiencing disconnection to the legislature. Connecticut’s longitudinal data system, formerly P20WIN, now DataLinkCT, combines datasets from 15 agencies to examine how individuals navigate education pathways into the workforce while utilizing supportive services. Furthering its mission of creating sustainable systems, CTOP and Dalio Education engaged Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to build the capacity of the DataLinkCT system to be able replicate the data analysis in our report, Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis: Getting Young People Back on Track, every year.
Senior Portfolio Director and data scientist Adhlere Coffy facilitated monthly meetings with DataLinkCT and BCG to replicate the report, this time with the State leading the development process. In a rapid research sprint, BCG and Dalio Education, through CTOP, supported the DataLinkCT team in moving from research questions to finalized report in fewer months than it took to just compile data for the original report published in 2023.
As a first-of-its-kind analysis of specific populations using the State’s longitudinal data system, CTOP and Dalio Education hope that this new approach to quantitatively examining the effects of statewide services will drive decision-making that benefits vulnerable young people who would otherwise fall through the cracks.
Key Findings from the 2025 Report compared to CT’s Unspoken Crisis
- 7,000 (~10%) fewer young people were moderately or severely disconnected in Connecticut, compared to the first report, bringing the total to 57,000 young people.
- 6,000 (~10%) fewer young people were at-risk in Connecticut, compared to the first report, bringing the total to 49,000 young people.
This variation in counts of young people across successive years demonstrates the need to focus on trends in population dynamics instead of focusing on data from a single year. These analyses must be combined with an examination of policies, programs, or legislation enacted during the period that may be contributing significantly to the observed changes.
The full 2025 Disconnected and At-Risk Youth Report is available on DataLinkCT’s website.