Paraeducators assist teachers with kids who need extra attention, including special-needs students. Connecticut is short 1,300 of them, according to the state Department of Education.

The reason is simple: chronically low pay.

But starting Monday, the state is expanding a major incentive to keep paraeducators on the job – help paying for their health insurance.

Rose Laude is a paraeducator in Stamford. At Rippowam Middle School, she works with special needs students on basic life skills.

“They need the extra assistance that we offer them every day to do the most simplest things. I call them the ‘small great things’ that we get excited about – as simple as holding a pencil,” she said. “Helping them to wash their hands because they can’t, on their own, go the faucet and turn the water on. Something we take for granted,” she said.

But the pay is extremely low. The average paraeducator starts at $27,000 a year in Connecticut. Laude earns so little that she works three other jobs.

“I also do babysitting as well, and I also work at a senior living community on the weekends,” Laude said.

Starting this week, the state comptroller is distributing $10 million to help more than 7,000 paraeducators pay for health insurance. It's a major expansion of a program launched last school year.

“If you’re an educator on a high-deductible health care, we’re going to pay 74% of your deductible,” said Comptroller Sean Scanlon. “If you’re on a traditional health care plan, it’s $1,800 of benefit if you’re an individual; $3,000 if you’re a family.”

The money makes a major difference. Scanlon said the average health insurance deductible for paras is $5,000.

Last year, the Paraeducator Healthcare Subsidy Program allocated $5 million to only cover high-deductible plans. More than 4,100 staffers received assistance averaging $1,185.

The money comes from the 2023-24 state budget, but funding runs out at the end of this school year. The purse strings will be tighter next year, now that federal American Rescue Plan dollars are used up. State lawmakers must decide whether they can keep the fund going when they return to Hartford in January. Part of that conversation may involve loosening the state's strict spending limits, known as "fiscal guardrails."

“I think $10 million for what this does, to me, is an incredibly important investment,” Scanlon said.

Laude said it’s not just an investment in her, but in your own kids.

“Just remember when you were in school, when you were struggling with something,” she said. “There’s people here that was helping you at the time.”