{"id":656486,"date":"2026-05-21T13:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656486\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:26:09","slug":"bridgeport-schools-to-get-2-2m-from-people-incorrectly-on-healthcare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/656486\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridgeport schools to get $2.2M from people incorrectly on healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRIDGEPORT \u2014 A total of about $2.2 million is owed to the\u00a0Bridgeport Public Schools<\/a> by some individuals who were covered by the school district\u2019s health insurance plan but should not have been, the state Department of Education said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The people incorrectly covered were former Bridgeport <\/a>school district employees or their dependents who no longer qualified for the healthcare coverage, according to a Tuesday statement from the state Department of Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The error with the school district’s medical insurance came to light\u00a0during a financial review that has been led by the state Department of Education and a technical assistance team assigned to support the Bridgeport Public Schools by state\u00a0Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ed Arum, a member of the technical assistance team, said at the May 13 meeting of the state Board of Education that his experience in education and school finances prompted him to conduct an insurance audit in the Bridgeport Public Schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe there are employees who should not have been on the plan or who have died,\u201d he said at the meeting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the individuals will be required to pay back the Bridgeport Public Schools a total of $2,210,991.13, Arum said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the repayment process, \u201carrangements were handled\u201d on an individual basis with each person involved, and it was \u201cworked through collaboratively to ensure repayment plans were reasonable and appropriate based on each situation,\u201d the Bridgeport Public Schools’ communications department said in a Tuesday statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ongoing intervention<\/a> also gives the state education commissioner the authorization to have the final say as to who will be the district’s next\u00a0superintendent<\/a>, along with requiring school board members to go through governance training and more.<\/p>\n

In total, the state Department of Education, Bridgeport school officials and the technical assistance team members were able to recover over $12 million by finding ways to save money in various areas, including in special education, staffing, Medicaid, health insurance and more. This work has been taking place over the past few months, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile there is still work ahead, Bridgeport Public Schools is in a stronger position moving into the next school year, with improved stability, stronger systems and a continued focus on students and the staff who support them,\u201d a state Department of Education statement said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In its statement, the Bridgeport Public Schools said it \u201cappreciates the continued partnership and support from the Connecticut state Department of Education, the technical assistance team and the state Board of Education as we continue working together to strengthen operational efficiencies across the district.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Arum said they will look at more areas for cutting costs, including\u00a0when it comes to transportation.<\/a> Arum said he has been in contact with We Transportation, the transportation provider for Bridgeport Public Schools, about changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be reducing the bus routes, the buses that are there. … I\u2019ve been talking to We Transportation for almost a year. We\u2019re going to renegotiate the contract at a lower level,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRIDGEPORT \u2014 A total of about $2.2 million is owed to the\u00a0Bridgeport Public Schools by some individuals who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[107602,97,252,253],"class_list":["post-656486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-connecticut-post","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}