The Superintendents of East Hartford and Glastonbury devised the idea for an elementary magnet school in response to a 1988 Connecticut State Department of Education report, which called for interdistrict cooperation to integrate the state's schools.

The two towns' Boards of Education were supportive of the idea and joined forces to shape a school whose quality and uniqueness would attract children from both districts. 

After two years of planning by a task force of school and community representatives, the Magnet School opened its doors to students, half from each district, in the Fall of 1992. Five years later, the first class of sixth graders graduated from the school in June 1997.

The East Hartford-Glastonbury Elementary Magnet School is a public school; no tuition is charged. It is located in East Hartford, near the Glastonbury town line. Funding for the school comes from the East Hartford and Glastonbury Boards of Education, as well as the state and federal governments and other sources. Responsibilities for the Magnet School's program rest with the two towns' Boards of Education, while fiscal and personnel matters are managed by the Capitol Region Education Council (CREC).