Tag Archives: Connecticut Department of Education

[OPINION] Special Ed: Solicit Feedback; Prioritize Student Progress Over Legal Proceedings

Posted on May 4, 2026 | 19 comments

Last month, the Board of Education began discussing a system-wide evaluation of Westport’s special education program.

Michelle Vitulich — a town resident for 17 years — has a daughter who is a sophomore at Staples High, and a 7th grader with special needs at Bedford Middle School.

Michelle served for 7 years on the Special Education PTA, and 4 years on the executive board of the Greens Farms Elementary School PTA. She writes:

Financial data from Westport Public Schools reveals a significant allocation of resources toward legal fees and litigation within the special education department.

With annual costs for legal services and settlements approaching $2 million, pushing outplacement tuition expenditures to exceed $6 million in 2025 (as published by the Connecticut State Department of Education), the fiscal sustainability of the current strategy should be under increased scrutiny.

 

This trend echoes challenges documented nearly 2 decades ago regarding parent struggles to secure a Free and Appropriate Public Education. However, the current financial implications for the district have escalated substantially.

(A 2005 New York Times story, headlined “Amid Affluence, A Struggle Over Education,” described Westport BOE meetings “exploding into shouting matches over what services children are entitled to under federal law and parents spending thousands of dollars on appeals to force the school district to provide those services for their children.”

(It notes that Westport spent over $2 million on legal fees and settlement costs in the previous 6 years fighting parents’ complaints “that special education students get short shrift. The parents say they have no choice: the district, one of the state’s most affluent, is fighting just as hard to hold the line on skyrocketing special education costs.” Click here for the full Times story.)

A comparative analysis with New Canaan, a district with a similar demographic profile, highlights a stark disparity in resource management.

The per-student cost of special education legal fees in Westport is 245% higher than in New Canaan, where a more collaborative approach is utilized.

Despite this high expenditure on legal matters, student outcomes do not reflect a corresponding benefit. Data from the state Department of Education regarding the Achievement Gap — a metric measuring the disparity between high needs and non-high needs students — shows that Westport has a gap nearly twice as large as New Canaan across English Language Arts, Math, and Science over the last 4 school years.

These metrics suggest that the current in-district programming and support systems may not effectively meet the needs of students with disabilities.

The data underscores parent concerns regarding whether students are receiving the legally mandated support necessary to make meaningful academic progress.

The continued reliance on a high-conflict legal strategy appears to divert valuable resources away from direct student services, without yielding superior educational results.

To address these systemic challenges, it is imperative to conduct the independent, unbiased review of special education that the Board of Education has requested.

to ensure total objectivity, this review must be carried out by a reputable consultancy with no prior financial ties to the district.

The process should prioritize gathering stakeholder feedback, including perspectives from parents who have navigated litigation and from staff members who can provide insight into internal operational hurdles.

Identifying the root causes of these inefficiencies is the first step toward shifting the district’s focus from litigation to the development of a high quality, inclusive special education program.

By reallocating the funds currently consumed by legal disputes into student-centered investment, Westport Public Schools has the opportunity to build a special education program that prioritizes student progress and fiscal responsibility over adversarial proceedings.

Screenshot from the Westport Public Schools’ special education page.

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Posted in Education

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Staples Students “Voice4Change”

Posted on December 13, 2021 | 3 comments

Connecticut has taken a national lead in empowering youth voices.

Now Staples has taken a lead in making it happen.

This morning, the high school welcomed Governor Ned Lamont, Congressman Jim Himes and State Senator Will Haskell. They, and 2 members of the state Department of Education, outlined a new $1.5 million program — part of the national American Rescue Plan — that allocates $20,000 to 85 schools. Current students propose ideas for their building, then vote on which one to implement.

Then the adults sat back and listened, to a dozen student ideas.

Westport Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice (far right) greets Governor Ned Lamont. Also at the event (from left): Congressman Jim Himes, State Senator Will Haskell and Staples High School principal Stafford Thomas.

Himes noted that while the federal government works “at scale” — allocating $6 trillion in COVID relief — it can’t understand the needs of individual communities. That’s where the “Voice4Change” program comes in.

It was an intriguing morning. Lamont, Himes and Haskell addressed the Staples students as intelligent, involved people. They did not talk down or pander; they did not try to score political points, often pointing out the bipartisan nature of COVID relief funds. They listened and took notes.

Lamont did give props to Connecticut as “an entrepreneur factory.” Why, he wondered, can’t some entrepreneurial ideas come from students?

“I’m all ears,” he said.

Governor Lamont at the podium.

Among the ideas: strengthened school security, including ID cards for student access to the building, and metal detectors; installing solar panels in the parking lot, as at Fairfield Warde High; and enhanced ties between Staples and neighboring, less affluent school districts.

Proposals are due to the state Department of Education by January 9. Each school will have its own ballot, for voting on March 11.

First Selectwoman Jen Tooker offered to mentor students who have ideas. Superintendent of Schools Thomas Scarice challenged them to find sources to match the $20,000.

Staples High School students listen to ideas for Voice4Change.

Lamont had to leave for another engagement. But Himes, Haskell, the state Education reps, and town officials stuck around to chat.

It was a tossup who was more inspired: the students, or them.

Staples High School senior Natalie Bandura is the high school representative on the state Board of Education. She spoke to fellow students about the Voice4Change initiative. (Photos/Dan Woog)

 

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Posted in Education, Politics, Staples HS, Teenagers

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Landon Blasts Regional School Calendar

Posted on March 8, 2016 | 22 comments

Starting next fall, Westport will follow the same school calendar as 16 other southern Fairfield County districts. That follows a state Board of Education decision mandating uniform calendars in regions throughout the state. For Westport, it means — among other things — a shortened winter break.

A new bill being debated in the state legislature would allow the Commissioner of Education to withhold 10 percent of a district’s transportation grant from any board of education that does not use the uniform regional school calendar.

Last night, Westport superintendent of schools Dr. Elliott Landon testified before the legislature’s Education Committee (members include local Senator Toni Boucher and Representative Gail Lavielle). Landon addressed not only the proposed bill, but the entire uniform school calendar concept.

He said:

I am here today to speak against this latest legislative proposal which would have the effect of imposing severe financial penalties upon those school districts that do not abide by the unfunded mandate regarding a Regional Uniform School Calendar.

However, I am also here to urge the members of this Committee to do your best to undo in its entirety the unfunded mandate of a Regional Uniform School Calendar. After all, this unfunded mandate was introduced into a Planning and Development Committee bill as a House floor amendment without it ever being discussed or commented upon at a public hearing.

Dr. Elliott Landon

Dr. Elliott Landon

The ability of every school district to create its own calendar for its students and teachers had long been a practice in Connecticut before the mandated Regional Uniform School Calendar became a reality. Consistent with the New England tradition of supporting local control, the state legislature for decades has not interfered with this particular local option for school districts. With this unfortunate unfunded mandate, the Legislature has expressed its disdain for allowing any school district in every community to create a calendar based upon its own very special local culture, local traditions, and local needs.

Landon said that the loss of a full week of recess in February has been hard on families that cannot visit  relatives who do not live nearby. For many reasons, those visits are not possible during the December or April breaks. He fears that parents will take their children out of school anyway, to visit grandparents and other relatives.

Landon added:

I know from firsthand experience that the February recess enables the rash of extended illnesses to be broken as school children are removed from crowded school environments where viruses, colds and other illnesses are shared. Additionally, when schools have been closed during the February recess for an extended 9 day period, the savings of fuel during the coldest month of the year have been substantially reduced.

Harsh winter weather plays havoc with school districts. Heating costs are high in winter too.

Harsh winter weather plays havoc with school districts. Heating costs are high in winter too.

The Regional Uniform School Calendar was originally intended to save on transportation costs through regional cooperation and by reducing the cost of professional development.

That proved to be unrealistic, purely wishful thinking, indeed. The vast distances and long travel times between school systems across the state have resulted in generating few, if any transportation savings. In Westport, for example, and all the school districts in Fairfield County, I would venture to say that not a dime has been saved in transportation costs because of the unfunded mandate that all school systems abide by a regional and uniform school calendar.

Landon said that because school districts are required to provide professional learning opportunities for teachers “based on their individual needs identified through the local evaluation process,” that the regional calendar — calling for “generalized regional professional development” — contradicts a key component of the teacher evaluation law. 

Even before Staples High School was founded in 1884, local school districts in Connecticut created their own calendars -- and controlled most of their own education policy as well.

Even before Staples High School was founded in 1884, local school districts in Connecticut created their own calendars.

He continued:

I can share with you unequivocally, that in Westport, for example, the Regional Uniform School Calendar has resulted in not a single reduction in costs for the transportation of students both in and out of our school district, nor have we saved any money at all in the area of professional development.

I would urge this Committee to take forceful action and to recommend to the entire Legislature that the valuable time of our elected representatives be focused instead on far more relevant issues than financially penalizing any school district that refuses to adapt such a calendar, an issue that is most irrelevant when compared to other really pressing issues.

Connecticut Department of EducationFor example, our elected representatives would be performing a much more vital service by focusing on such issues as closing the achievement gap between rich students and students of poverty; ensuring that every student graduates from Connecticut high schools with all the schools necessary to be successful in the complex world they will be inheriting; to fund all school systems appropriately; to fully address the full implementation of the State’s obligation for Educational Cost Sharing; to fix a bilingual education program that limits the ability of the educational community to better address the needs of English language learners throughout the state; and, finally, to place the burden of proof in special education cases where it properly belongs.

Nonetheless, if the Legislature continues to support this unnecessary unfunded mandate, I urge the Legislature to exempt from punishment or financial penalty, any school district that follows a traditional three full week recess calendar in any school year.

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Posted in Education, People

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