diff --git a/activerecord/test/cases/helper.rb b/activerecord/test/cases/helper.rb
index 31c5fa4db58..0dc7be2adc8 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/cases/helper.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/cases/helper.rb
@@ -11,9 +11,6 @@ require "active_support/logger"
 require "active_support/core_ext/kernel/reporting"
 require "active_support/core_ext/kernel/singleton_class"
 
-require "support/config"
-require "support/connection"
-
 # TODO: Move all these random hacks into the ARTest namespace and into the support/ dir
 
 Thread.abort_on_exception = true
@@ -24,9 +21,6 @@ ActiveRecord.deprecator.debug = true
 # Disable available locale checks to avoid warnings running the test suite.
 I18n.enforce_available_locales = false
 
-# Connect to the database
-ARTest.connect
-
 # Quote "type" if it's a reserved word for the current connection.
 QUOTED_TYPE = ActiveRecord::Base.connection.quote_column_name("type")
 
diff --git a/activerecord/test/cases/test_case.rb b/activerecord/test/cases/test_case.rb
index 1985a3c7ba7..58b9b8ede08 100644
--- a/activerecord/test/cases/test_case.rb
+++ b/activerecord/test/cases/test_case.rb
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ require "active_support/testing/stream"
 require "active_record/fixtures"
 
 require "cases/validations_repair_helper"
+require_relative "../support/config"
+require_relative "../support/connection"
 require_relative "../support/adapter_helper"
 
 module ActiveRecord
@@ -220,6 +222,9 @@ module ActiveRecord
         end
       end
     end
+
+    # Connect to the database
+    ARTest.connect
   end
 
   class PostgreSQLTestCase < TestCase