Clarification: The print edition version of this report inadvertently attributed the name Liza Mecca to content that should have been attributed to Alissa Heizler-Mendoza. The online version of the story was corrected before publication, and was supplemented with content that was provided by Ms Mecca.

School officials are promising answers and action after a number of parents came forward at an August 14 Board of Education meeting to detail concerns they had about district Special Education practices.

A number of parents in recent weeks have also come forward to The Newtown Bee to discuss their individual situations and have engaged or corresponded with State Representative Mitch Bolinsky and State Senator Tony Hwang about what might be done concurrently at the state level.

The first parent to contact the newspaper, Liza Mecca, is specifically targeting what she describes as a lack of resources and a non-collaborative — sometimes adversarial — attitude she has witnessed in her own child’s Planning and Placement Team (PPT) sessions. Ms Mecca, as well as at least two other parents who spoke with the newspaper, are also citing what they say are violations in privacy practices.

These parents say they have either been sent or given proprietary information about other children receiving special education services or have learned their own child’s information was sent to other parents.

Ms Mecca is leading a group she states numbers more than two dozen district parents — most, if not all, of whom have sought or are seeking expanded services from administrators because their children are exhibiting signs of, or have been diagnosed with, dyslexia.

According to the Mayo Clinic, dyslexia is a learning disorder that involves difficulty reading due to problems identifying speech sounds and learning how they relate to letters and words (decoding). Also called reading disability, dyslexia affects areas of the brain that process language.

People with dyslexia have normal intelligence and usually have normal vision, the clinic’s website states. Most children with dyslexia can succeed in school with tutoring or a specialized education program, as well as empathetic emotional support. Although the clinic’s site says there is no cure for dyslexia, it affirms that early assessment and intervention result in the best outcome.

Other parents who either came forward at the August 14 Board of Education meeting, or who spoke with The Bee and/or Rep Bolinsky, have children in the district with other challenges, including autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Between 2007 and 2017, the district has experienced a fluctuation in its special education student population from a low of 430 in 2012, to a high of 572 in 2017. Conversely, since Newtown began formally accounting for students with Dyslexia in 2015 — when Connecticut added the category to IEPs — the district has only identified eight students with the learning disorder.

Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue and school board Chair Michelle Embree Ku were both present at the August 14 meeting and heard the concerns being related by a half-dozen parents, including Ms Mecca. Both told the newspaper that they were hearing about these specific issues for the first time, but nonetheless said they will publicly address a course of response at the next board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 4.

Besides Ms Mecca, Alissa Heizler-Mendoza and husband Michael shared similar stories with the board and the newspaper about their child’s feelings of inadequacy, being made fun of, and about learning that someone else received their child’s private information.

Amanda Armato, who identified as a speech/language pathologist and the parent of a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, advised the board that the district needs to do more with data collection.

Julia Conlon told the board that she empathized with how other parents say they are being treated in PPTs.

And Jennifer Strychalsky shared with the board that her daughter’s PPT invitation was sent to someone else, and that someone else received her daughter’s confidential information, and in that case, she was not notified until a month later — by e-mail.

Ms Strychalsky additionally told the board that she has been forced to pay for additional services for her child, who is on the autism spectrum.

Making An Action Plan

After meeting with The Bee, Dr Rodrigue responded in writing, saying she wants to be able to address these issues respectfully and appropriately.

“As a district, we take parents’ issues seriously,” Dr Rodrigue said. “We remain sensitive to parents’ concerns and also want to address all issues with integrity. This will require the time to conduct a fair assessment of our practices — [including] our strengths and areas for improvement, so changes can be made that will positively impact students and families.”

In a memo already dispatched to parents of special needs students, the superintendent says she has outlined a potential plan for conducting a self-study, which is subject to approval and authorization by the school board. Dr Rodrigue said the self-study, if authorized, will utilize an “impartial facilitator from outside the district who can gather feedback from parents to review practices, report out, and develop action steps to improve the system.

Additionally, Dr Rodrigue pledges to utilize the Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) subcommittee of the board to review and assess current, research-based reading intervention programming and the staff in place who support this instruction.

“This would further support the work taking place as part of a coordinated self-study,” Dr Rodrigue added.

Ms Ku, in a separate statement, said her board appreciated hearing from parents who spoke about their concerns at the end of the August 14 meeting.

“I am glad they felt that they could candidly share their stories with us,” Ms Ku said. “There were a variety of issues raised, and I can see there might be different resolutions for each of them.”

Ms Ku confirmed that the school board will have an opportunity at its next meeting to discuss Dr Rodrigue’s recommendation for next steps.

“Importantly, we want to be respectful of everyone involved as we work together to understand how to best address concerns,” Ms Ku said.

Relating Challenges

In a statement to the school board and shared with the newspaper, Ms Heizler-Mendoza said her eight-year-old son has been diagnosed with severe dyslexia.

“He is a bright, empathic kid who volunteers at a dog rescue and wants to be at scientist,” Ms Heizler-Mendoza related.

But on a daily basis, she says her child expresses extreme stress and frustration, saying things like: “Mommy, I am stupid. I am an idiot. How come I try so hard and cannot read? I have been trying for years. Kids in my class laugh at me. School is too hard. I don’t want to go to cub scouts because I have to read. I hate school. Why do other kids get to move their seats in the classroom and I do not. I have a stomach ache, headache, foot ache, etc. The little kids in camp laugh at me since I cannot read.”

Ms Heizler-Mendoza said her child is reading at barely a first grade level as he enters third grade this fall, and she blames “sub-optimal services from the Newtown School District. Ironically, she said it was his first grade teacher who flagged her child’s inability to read within his first week of school.

“I was so relieved that [educators and administrators at his school were] engaged,” she said, adding that their attention to her child’s challenges “provided me with hope that [he] would thrive in this environment. Unfortunately, we were wrong and quickly lost hope when he entered second grade.”

Since last fall, Ms Heizler-Mendoza said that the, “Newtown Special Education Department’s lack of collaboration and refusal to provide evidence-based treatment for kids with dyslexia is limiting my son’s potential and setting him up for failure and further emotional issues by not supporting his right to an effective education.”

In her statement, she told the school board her child’s “fingers are raw from biting the tips and the sides due to anxiety.”

“It is a terrible feeling watching your child try so hard and feel so helpless,” she continued.

Ms Heizler-Mendoza explained to the school board that, “according to the International Dyslexia Society, Structured Literacy is key which translates to evidence-based OG/Wilson services with fidelity.”

“Our ask is easy — bring a fully certified expert into the district to work these kids,” she said. Both Ms Mecca and Ms Heizler-Mendoza told The Bee that the district already has a “Wilson certified” professional who mainly consults from the middle school level and up, but the appropriate support and foundations need to come much earlier.

“Between kindergarten and second grade, kids are learning to read,” Ms Mecca said. “But once they hit third grade, they’re reading to learn. At that point, any child without the proper support begins falling further and further behind.”

Adversaries Or Partners?

Ms Heizler-Mendoza said over the course of the last year’s PPT meetings regarding her child, she has encountered a number of issues with the Newtown Special Education Department and has “asked for assistance from the teachers, as well as our superintendent, without success.”

In regard to confidentiality, Ms Heizler-Mendoza said she wanted the school board to be aware that she has received another child’s Individual Education Plan, or IEP, details, “and was told to shred” them. She also said she learned that another child’s parents received her child’s ESY report, and the district never notified her of that misrouting of proprietary information.

An Extended School Year or ESY report details services designed to support a student with a disability as documented under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to maintain the academic, social/behavioral, communication, or other skills that they have learned as part of their IEP.

Ms Heizler-Mendoza also told school board members in her statement that the district is not following IEPS. In her child’s case, she said the stated goals are not consistent with those typically recommended for a child diagnosed with dyslexia.

She said while the district has a number of educators at the lower elementary level who have received a three-day certification to help them support students with dyslexia, that level of training is inconsistent with recommendations from the International Dyslexia Foundation.

Ms Mecca related a similar story in a statement provided to The Bee. In it, she related that when her family relocated to Newtown from New York, they found "our new definition of heaven on earth."

"We pushed our budget and time frame to ensure our almost five year old would begin his kindergarten year in Newtown, a town we heard and found to be the idyllic small town [where] any parent would want to raise their children," she related.

Four years later, Ms Mecca said she is "disappointed, defeated, and devastated," and that her child is "on his way to 3rd grade at barely a 1st grade reading level."

"Classified as learning disabled due to dyslexia, this smart, sweet, kind, thoughtful, loving almost eight year old has suffered at the hands of this district’s inability to successfully or appropriately implement interventions for children with dyslexia," Ms Mecca stated. "These children require specially trained and certified reading instructors — instructors this district refuses to provide."

Out-Of-Pocket Expense

Ms Mecca said in order to ensure her son does not continue to fall behind, she has been forced to hire a private certified reading tutor at $100 per session.

"The recommendation is five sessions per week, but our family can only afford two," she said. "Our hope is something is better than nothing."

Saying her family is "robbing Peter to pay Paul" to cover the tutor for her child, Ms Mecca cited research that shows that children with dyslexia who do not receive early intervention fall further and further behind their peers and require more intensive intervention.

"Third grade is the documented critical age/grade for these children," she said.

Ms Heizler-Mendoza said she and her husband are “currently paying $2,000 per month out of pocket for an Orton Gillingham reading specialist to provide evidence-based learning proven for dyslexia, and as a result, they are seeing their child finally starting to build the foundation for reading.”

“It is unacceptable the school is not providing similar proven effective services,” Ms Heizler-Mendoza said.

Ms Heizler-Mendoza said besides joining with Ms mecca and a group of parents who recently met with Rep Bolinsky, she has shared her concerns with US Senator Chris Murphy so he can work to affect changes at the national level. She said she has filed complaints about issues that she is encountering with district administrators at the state Department of Education and the “office of civil liberties.”

“I am requesting the Board of Education to investigate the conduct and practices of the Special Education Department and be the voice for our children, as you represent them,” she stated. “You would think, living in Newtown, we would learn from our experiences — be more sensitive and listen to our children with special needs.”

Rep Bolinsky Responds

Rep Bolinsky told The Bee that he is working with parents and that he is “saddened by their feelings of frustration in not being able to have more collaborative relationships with our special education resource folks.”

Rep Bolinsky, who is running for re-election against Democratic opponent and school board Vice-Chair Rebekah Harriman-Stites, said he is “trying to understand the disconnect so I can perhaps close the gap and have all oars rowing in the same direction for the good of their children and the entire district’s diversity and inclusiveness.”

Ms Harriman-Stites was approached for comment about what she heard from parents, and said she understood the board chair, Ms Ku, was issuing a response. Ms Harriman-Stites said she plans to speak to the issues she heard from parents at the September 4 school board meeting.

Rep Bolinsky said, “I’ll do whatever I can to make these parents feel like their kids’ needs are being addressed and evaluate state resources to channel support through my work on the Education and Appropriations committees.”

In her statement, Dr Rodrigue said, “On a much broader scale, we know that so many positive things happen every day in Newtown classrooms to support our students. I have great confidence that working collaboratively with the director of pupil personnel, staff, and parents — we will be able to capitalize on what we do well, as well as to refine and improve what we do in the best interest of our students.”

The superintendent said she welcomes any parent with concerns to attend the September 4 board meeting to learn first-hand about her proposals to address the concerns shared at the previous meeting.