By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT–The field of candidates vying for the chance to critique the district’s special education services remains at 10 firms.

The board will meet in a special public session at Staples High School on Thursday, July 23 at 9:30 a.m. to discuss the Request for Qualification proposals which, combined, total 980 pages, listing experience, references and examples of past work.

From that group, a subset of firms will be invited to bid on the work through a Request for Proposals process.

Usually a task left to district administrators, the board decided last month that it will select the firms allowed to bid on the project after parents unhappy with the district’s special education programs and services told the panel they do not trust the administration to do it on its own.

Although the board extended the deadline to submit proposals by two weeks, only the firms who submitted paperwork by the original June 18 deadline remain represented in the mix, according to Elio Longo, the district’s chief financial officer.

They include:

Longo said one of the 10 firms failed to submit a hard copy, as was required. That was corrected; two other firms took the opportunity to slightly revise their original proposal, he added.

The proposals will be used to develop a request for proposals that includes the scope of work and cost to the district.

The review is to be conducted alongside a state-led compliance review in the 2026-27 school year.

Roughly 770 students–just shy of 15 percent of the district’s 5,266 students this year–received special education services.

The administration wants the focus of the study to be on the extent to which the district services align with student needs, supports placement in the least restrictive environment and results in positive outcomes. It wants an external partner to help answer whether its services are appropriate, implemented consistently and associated with meaningful student outcomes.

It is expected the review will  include site visits in addition to 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.

Through an online petition that garnered more than 900 signatures, parents have asked to have a say in the selection of the consultant and want firms to make public presentations on what they offer.

The school board, however, decided unanimously that the administration will work with the board in developing the scope of the work, which is to remain a system-level review of district special education programs and services.

Several board members said they want and expect input from district professionals when it comes to making a decision.

If the public likes one vendor more than the others, they will tell us, Board Member Stephen Shackeford said at a meeting last month.

The final say of both the RFP wording and the vendor hired will lie with the board.

The selected firm is also to report results directly to the board.

The 10 submitted proposals range from 10 to 300 pages long, with some including full reports they completed for other districts as appendices.

Two of the firms–CREC and Steadfast–are based in Connecticut. Many of the others have done work for districts in the state.

WestEd, a firm several parents have mentioned to the board as a firm they’d like to see considered, completed two Connecticut district reviews–of New Britain and Bristol–in the past 18 months, according to its submission. WestEd also recently conducted an independent evaluation of Connecticut’s special education systems.

Public Consulting Group, out of Boston, did a 2021 review of Greenwich’s special education programs. The full 165-page Greenwich report was included in the firm’s submission.

New Solutions, from Brookline, Massachusetts said in its cover letter that it has conducted more than 300 special education program reviews across 30 states over the past 18 years and has partnered with more than 40 Connecticut communities, including a recent review in Branford.

Urban Collaborative, of New Jersey, said it has conducted 47 reviews including four in Connecticut: Hartford, West Hartford, Norwalk, and most recently, in 2022, Bridgeport.

Steadfast, of East Haddam, includes a team member who previously led student services and special education in Wilton and Fairfield.

To access the full package of proposals, visit here. 

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.