The Connecticut State Department of Education is intensifying its support of Hartford Public Schools after a review found that the systemic issues are ” impacting HPS’ ability to provide special education services.”
The department completed a comprehensive review of the educational records of Aleysha Ortiz, a former Hartford Public Schools student, who alleged she graduated without the ability to read or write, finding that the review raised concerns “aligned with a larger systematic evaluation of the school district’s special education programming and service delivery.
“Given the findings of New Solutions K12 and the significant concerns regarding the systemic issues impacting HPS’ ability to provide special education services to identified students, the CSDE is intensifying our support and targeted monitoring activities within the district,” said Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker in a recent email to Republican Sens. Eric Berthel and Stephen Harding. The senators asked that the CSDE investigate the case of Ortiz.
The New Solutions K12 report released in April of this year found in some of its key findings that the district had widespread staffing shortages; limited general education supports; a high number of students placed in out-of-district programs; limited special education supports; and limited influence or oversight over Open Choice special education costs.
The report states the district “has not as closely managed the special education identification or services for students attending Open Choice schools.
“Special education services for students in Open Choice schools currently cost the district over $20 million,” the report further states.
The report cites that as of Feb. 13, the district had 47.5 special education teacher vacancies among other vacancies including school psychologists, school social workers and speech language pathologists, all of whom are integral to special education services for students.
“This severe lack of special education staff has made it difficult to staff specialized classrooms, to manage Open Choice placements and to provide services,” the report stated.
The report further states that district and school leaders “shared that there are limited supports for students who struggle academically within the general education setting, which exacerbates the problem.”
Currently 21% of K-12 students in the district are identified as students with disabilities, compared to 17% statewide, the report found.
Russell-Tucker explained further in her email to the senators that Hartford Public Schools is undergoing a 2025-26 monitoring cycle by the CSDE including annual performance reporting, Individualized Education Program timeline audit, parent survey and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act grant monitoring.
She said the CSDE has “assumed an enhanced role in overseeing HPS’ implementation of New Solutions K12’s recommendations, ensuring accountability at every stage and sustaining a close watch on measurable progress.”
In the wake of the Connecticut Mirror article about Ortiz, lawmakers raised concerns and Connecticut Republicans called for an investigation into Hartford Public Schools and Ortiz’s record.
Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding said that he appreciated the response from the commissioner.
“I don’t think it should stop there,” he said. “I would like to see more comprehensive discussions and a plan from the department regarding how they are going to fix these issues. It is one thing to spot them but the Department of Education has an obligation to all students in the district no matter where they may live or where their zip code is to provide a quality level of education, which obviously was not done here.”
Harding continued: ”When essentially the commissioner admits that it was not done here and that there are glaring issues as to why it was not done, there should be steps taken and they should be transparent to the city of Hartford, the governor’s office and the legislature on what their plan or their recommendations are of the legislature to fix this and to ensure it does not happen going forward. We are not even close to where we need to be to fix this moving forward.”
Carol Gale, president of the Hartford Federation of Teachers, said the one biggest takeaway in the New Solutions K12 evaluation is “the push to try to have districts like Hartford create more special education classrooms in the district.
“My belief is that every single district in the entire state must be required to have a proportional number of special education classrooms to their student population because right now Hartford gets hardest hit with special ed kids as do other urban centers because we don’t require magnet schools and charter schools to have to provide special education services,” she said. “If we require that every school be responsible for all the kids who came there including special ed … then Hartford would not be disproportionately hit nor would New Haven, Waterbury, etc.”
She said this would help reduce some of the outplacements that cost districts millions of dollars.
“This model would alleviate the out-of-district costs,” she said. ”We can’t continue to treat Connecticut as a dual system of the urban centers where they have to serve every student’s needs versus suburban, magnet and charter schools which tend to choose to not have those kind of services or not have them to the same degree and therefore parents have to fall back on what they can which becomes a lot of our urban centers.”
Despite repeated attempts, Board of Education Chair Jennifer Hockenhull and Vice Chair Francoise Deristel-Leger could not be reached for comment.
Ortiz lawsuit
Ortiz filed a lawsuit last year in Hartford Superior Court against the city, Hartford Board of Education and a special education case manager in the district.
In her complaint, Ortiz alleges she was bullied, harassed and neglected by staff in the school district, including her special education manager.
The lawsuit alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress and negligence, according to the Connecticut Mirror.
Anthony Spinella, her attorney, told the Connecticut Mirror that Ortiz was seeking $3 million in damages.
Spinella told the Courant in an email Thursday that they “made an offer to settle the case” but that they have not heard back from the defendants in the case.
Cristian Corza-Godinez, a spokesman for Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, said the city doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
Spinella said “the defendants are attempting to avoid all responsibility for the harm they have caused my client by asserting immunity through a motion to strike our lawsuit.”
“We have opposed the defendant’s motions,” Spinella said further in his email.
Spinella added in his email that he has yet to be made aware of the results of any internal investigations by the Board of Education.
Decade of flat funding
Pedro Zayas, director of external relations and communications at Hartford Public Schools, said in response to questions about the key findings in the report regarding special education that many of the findings have been raised by the district during legislative testimony and public advocacy as well as the Board of Education’s public meetings.
“Many of these concerns are the result of a decade of flat funding from the state and the city, combined with rising costs of special education services and concentration of need,” he said.
He added one of the key proposed solutions to staffing shortages was the new teacher’s contract adopted by the Board in December, which took effect this month “lifting wages, shortening the school day and providing additional incentives for academic and support areas with high needs, including highly qualified special education staff.”
The New Solutions K12 report states that “district leadership is well aware of these challenges and their impact on students and staff and have begun taking steps to address some, but not all of them.”
The report states that in addressing the shortage of staff, the district has formed partnerships with local universities “focused on special education certification, with tuition reimbursement offers for existing staff who wish to be dual-certified in special education.”
The report also cites the new three-year contract the Hartford Board of Education approved with the Hartford Federation of Teachers in which teachers will get a 15% average salary increase over three years and a shorter workday by 30 minutes.
Significant progress has also occurred in reducing the number of out-of-district placements for students, decreasing from their peak of 587 students in 2019 to 341 students as of the 2023 -2024 school year, the report found.
Further, the $55.8 billion state budget made “historic levels of investments to support special education, growing by $44.9 million in fiscal year 2026 and an additional $49.9 million in fiscal year 2027, as well as capital investments of $10 million in each year,” according to Gov. Ned Lamont’s office.
The Connecticut Mirror contributed to this report.