A shortage of qualified special education teachers and staff in Connecticut school districts is partly why local schools now rely on private special education providers. That practice has led to a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice against four school districts.
That’s according to Patrice McCarthy, the executive director and general counsel for the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, which advocates and provides training for local school boards.
“Districts are trying to have more students educated in their home district, but often they have no alternative but to go to a private provider,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy didn’t comment specifically on the complaint filed Tuesday by advocacy group Disability Rights Connecticut and the State of Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate.
The complaint alleges school districts in Bridgeport, Hartford, Stratford and Waterbury discriminated against special education students by transferring them to a privately run but publicly funded special education program known as High Road Schools.
The complaint also state students at High Roads received substandard education and faced harsh disciplinary measures including restraints and isolation from other students.
It noted that one Waterbury student was restrained 83 times and pointed to 44 incidents where the student was involuntarily confined to a room, a practice known as seclusion.
The complaint also alleges around half of the teachers at High Road Schools lacked professional certification. Many of the students come from Black and Brown communities and low-income households.
Teens aren’t the ones likely to face these punishments, citing state data on overall punishments within the school system.
“It’s actually young kids that are most affected by disproportionate discipline and by disproportionate restraint and seclusion, which is something I think not many people know,” she said. “It's not older kids who are restrained and secluded.”
McCarthy said outside providers are oftentimes the only resource available. Schools don’t monitor the programs daily, but she said the state’s Department of Education approves programs. Many special education students require teams of professionals, from teachers, to speech therapists to counselors, which continue to be in short supply, according to McCarthy.
“To put that team together, in a local district, in an area where these are all shortage areas in terms of finding personnel who are qualified to do this work, that can be very challenging,” she said.
McCarthy’s statements echo previous reporting from Connecticut Public in 2021, investigating statewide shortages of qualified special education teachers, particularly in Bridgeport.. A spokesperson for the school district did not respond to Connecticut Public’s request for comment Wednesday,
One of the parties to the complaint, Sarah Eagan, who has served as Connecticut’sChild Advocate since Sept. 2013, said High Road Schools has taken steps to fix some issues stemming from their original March report, from hiring more staff to improving their background check process. But Eagan says it's not enough.
“There's still a long way to go to make sure that every child there has an individualized, appropriate education with all of the services and supports that they need and free from restraint and seclusion, which is another one of our very serious concerns,” Eagan said.
Three of the districts described in the report either didn't respond, or gave minimal responses when asked about their investigation, according to Eagan.
Specialized Education Services, Inc. the parent company running High Roads Schools, responded with a statement originally from March, denying the allegations.
“Over the course of two years, High Road Schools provided comprehensive responses that outlined these inaccuracies, as well as highlighted the specific improvements we implemented as part of this process. Unfortunately, the Agencies refused to acknowledge this in their report.”
