Sub head: Special education students in the state鈥檚 largest city lost out on services due to apparent staffing shortages, advocates say.
Bridgeport Public Schools is being ordered to come up with a plan regarding how it will make up for the lack of services that various special education students didn鈥檛 receive.
That order came down this month from the 黑料吃瓜网 Department of Education.
The decision comes months after the Center for Children鈥檚 Advocacy alleged the school district lacked enough special education staff.
Advocates say it鈥檚 a step in the right direction.
鈥淎 pretty significant number of children are going to receive educational instruction that they were entitled to, that they need and that they were being deprived of,鈥� said Ilana Ofgang, an attorney for the Center for Children鈥檚 Advocacy (CCA).
Bridgeport Public Schools did not respond to requests for comment.
The state is ordering the district to contact impacted parents on these changes, and confirm with the state that it will make up the lost service hours to the students. The district is also to designate a staff member to manage and track the changes.
There are various deadlines for the changes, with some due by the end of November.
But advocates say the changes can only work if more teachers are hired and the district gets more funding. Still, they praised the state鈥檚 reaction in the meantime.
鈥淭he corrective action that's come out is robust, and we think sends the message that these children's rights were clearly violated,鈥� said Kathryn Meyer, an attorney and director of the Medical Legal Partnership at the Yale Child Study Center
The initial complaint filed earlier this year alleged special education students in Bridgeport were not receiving legally mandated education for special needs students, which also included specialized language and speech offerings. The CCA alleged those students did not have access to qualified special education staff due to staff shortages. The complaint listed several concerns, including one student who hit their head hundreds of times. Others hurt themselves or soiled themselves due to a lack of specialized staff who could tend to their needs.
Both Ofgang and Meyer say one of the key improvements in the order is addressing issues related to compensatory hours, essentially giving special education students the services to which they were originally entitled under an individualized education program or an IEP.
That could be academic tutoring, speech and language counseling or other services, Meyer said.
But she said the affected children will face challenges because much of the time lost was during critical developmental stages when those services were needed most.
鈥淚t still falls short, just by the nature of that the kid didn't get it at the time they needed it and all the things that result from that,鈥� Meyer said. 鈥淪o compensatory education services 鈥� the time is basically trying to supplement in different forms what they should have gotten.鈥�
The issues with special education come as the state mandated other district-wide changes earlier this year. The statein mid-October citing various achievements, including that there were just two special education teacher vacancies, down from 31.
Ofgang said the CCA has complained about systemic lack of special education services before, referring to a 2021 complaint against the district over many of the same issues.
While Ofgang praised the district鈥檚 efforts at hiring more special education teachers, she said the root causes are still not being addressed.
鈥淪tudents in special education programming are often the hardest hit from budget scarcity and a lack of resources and staffing shortage, and that's really what we saw in the cases that were coming into our office.鈥� Ofgang said. 鈥淚t's what we continue to see, and that's why we had to file the systemic complaint.鈥�
