By Linda Conner Lambeck
WESTPORT – A newly released Request for Proposals to critique the district’s special education program is not sitting well with parents who insist the selected consultant be independent and not hand-picked by district administrators who oversee the program.
“We need the board to oversee the scope and choose the consultant,” said Vivian Hsu, one of a half dozen speakers who spoke at the start of the school board meeting on Thursday. “That is the only way to guarantee a truly independent evaluation.”
The parents have collected more than 560 signatures on an online petition asking for the same.
Earlier that day, on the very bottom of the district website’s bid page, a five-page solicitation was posted for firms willing to conduct a comprehensive, system-level review of the district’s special education programs and services.
The review is to be conducted alongside a state-led compliance review.
The intent of the consultant review, according to the posting, is to focus on the extent to which the district services align with student needs, supports placement in the least restrictive environment and results in positive outcomes.
The district lists what it offers to support students and said it wants an external partner to help answer whether those services are appropriate, implemented consistently and associated with meaningful student outcomes. It is expected the review will include site visits and focus groups or interviews to gauge family experience and satisfaction with what is offered.
The review is not to investigate individual student issues, parent complaints or constitute a full audit although suggestions for program improvement are expected.
The submission deadline is June 18, 2026.
Trust
At the meeting Thursday, Michelle Vitulich, a parent, said the RFQ, though detailed, does not address parent concerns. She asked that the document be amended and said the district can not rely on the state alone to provide meaningful oversight.
Leslie Derkash, another parent, said it doesn’t seem good to her that district special education officials play a role in shaping the review scope and also evaluate the vendor.
“This creates an unavoidable appearance of self-policing,” Derkash said.
Most parents place trust in the school district when their child has special needs, added parent Tracey Vizzo.
“When communication is incomplete, or questions go unanswered … when we struggle to get basic information, that trust begins to erode,” Vizzo said.
Reoccurring parent concerns include appropriate educational supports, inadequate para-professional training and failure to identify learning disabilities soon enough, Vizzo said.
“We are not asking for anything unreasonable,” she added.
Parent Rosa Balestrino said allowing the administration to take control of the review is textbook conflict of interest. She also said parents must be involved in the selection process.
To not do so, she said, is a direct path to litigation.
Roughly 770 students–just shy of 15 percent of the district’s 5.266 students this year–received special education services.
One, just about to graduate, also addressed the board.
Wynston Browne, a graduating senior at Staples, communicating through a typed message shown on a screen, told the board that he has faced many barriers as a non-speaking autistic student.
Browne spells to communicate and his words are spoken by a computer-generated voice. Often, Browne said, his requests for necessary accommodations at school were delayed or denied. There was a lack of confidence in his intellectual abilities due to his outward movements. Sometimes it led to him being placed in class levels that did not challenge him, he said.
“Being underestimated does not support my learning, it limits it,” he said “My hope is that Staples high school will do better.”
He said he wants the district to make necessary changes that will benefit all students.
The last time
The last district special education review was conducted in the 2017-18 school year by Cooperative Educational Services, a regional service provider. That review concluded that the district had a strong, well-functioning system.
Because CES also provides services to the district and its governing board includes Westport representation, parents who want the independent review say CES should not do the new review.
Some parents clearly want a specific nonpartisan research agency–WestEd–to do the review. WestEd recently conducted a review of the state’s special education infrastructure.
It is unclear how many firms are interested in the work. Michael Rizzo, the district’s assistant superintendent for special education, told the board last month he had already been in touch with five.
After the parent comments on Thursday, Board Chair Lee Goldstein said there is a proposal to put the RFQ topic on the agenda for the next board meeting which is set for June 11 or a special meeting.
Linda Conner Lambeck
Linda Conner Lambeck covers education for Westport Journal. She was a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications. She has covered education throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties. She is a proud member of the Education Writers Association.
I believe it is important to clarify that the 2017 review performed by Cooperative Educational Services (CES) was an assessment of the district’s administrative model in the schools, not a comprehensive review of Special Education. Additionally, the independence of this report is questionable, given the district’s long-standing financial relationship with CES.
The last review of Special education was performed in 2008 by Capital Regional Education Council (CREC) another entity with apparent financial ties to WPS. Both of these entities have been contacted by WPS district administrators to discuss the upcoming review of special education.
After nearly two decades without a comprehensive review, Westport now has one opportunity to do this right and fix what is broken. The futures of Westport students with disabilities are dependent on WPS getting this right. An independent evaluation should be non-negotiable. Every child matters.
We cannot let the administration grade itself. It seems that Assistant Superintendent Michael Rizzo currently has primary oversight of our special education system review. This could be a glaring conflict of interest.
We must learn from Greenwich Public School’s initial missteps with their special education evaluation in 2020-2021 (Greenwich program review). Greenwich was forced to redo their initial review because it lacked transparency, failed to comprehensively audit the system, and shut out parent input. The parallels to Westport are striking.
Allowing the administrator responsible for the current Special Education system to control the review process and consultant selection undermines confidence in the review’s independence. Families deserve a process that is objective, transparent, and free from even the appearance of bias.
Let’s not waste the students’ time and taxpayer money.
Our vulnerable students deserve a truly independent, transparent audit—not an internal, rushed review designed to shield the administration from accountability. The Board of Education must take back control and mandate a fully independent, parent-inclusive process.
An article on the Greenwich program review is available at: https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/Greenwich-parents-say-time-to-act-is-now-16299609.php
The real question is whether this review will be truly independent, transparent, and trusted by the community.
Families want confidence that the firm selected to conduct the review is reputable, qualified and unbiased.
Other districts have established steering committees that include Board of Education members, parents, and other stakeholders to help guide similar reviews. That approach could serve as a valuable model for Westport.
Our children deserve nothing less.
This Thursday’s June 18 Special Board of Education meeting matters. Staples HS Cafeteria at 7pm
It was shared the sole agenda item will be the role the BOE will play in the comprehensive review of Special Education.
Show up and express what our kids deserve: a truly independent review — overseen by the BOE, not the administration — that confronts the real problems in Special Education head-on. Research. Best practices. The law. *Our most vulnerable kids are depending on it*