Complaint Summary

Date Findings Report Sent:

July 24, 2025

Case Number:

25-0649

Grade Level:

Elementary

Person filing complaint:

Parent

School District:

Norwalk Public Schools

Allegation(s):

Failure to provide special education and related services in conformity with the Student’s IEP (34 CFR § 300.17(d))

Conclusion(s):

• The District is in violation of 34 CFR § 300.17(d). The District indicated that there was a lapse in the Student’s reading and executive functioning services from the start of the 2024-2025 school year to February 2, 2025, due to the vacancy of a special education teacher. The following services were missed during the time period of the start of the 2024-2025 school year to February 2, 2025: 20 hours of reading instruction and 10 hours of executive functioning instruction. Additional services were missed from the time period of February 3, 2025, to the end of the 2024-2025 school year: 2 hours of reading instruction, 4.5 hours of executive functioning instruction and 1.5 hours of math instruction.
• The District created a compensatory service plan to address the missed services. 17.5 of the total missed hours of reading instruction was provided to the Student after the regular school day by a special education teacher. In a conversation with District staff, the District indicated that the ESY services recommended by the PPT, were recommended specifically to address the remaining missed services. If all planned compensatory services for reading, math, and executive functioning are provided by a special education teacher during the summer, the Student would be owed an additional 9.5 hours in executive functioning instruction.
• It must be noted that after reviewing the service log provided by the District, there were many instances where multiple services were combined into a single 30-minute period. The services provided to the Student must equate to the exact service hours on the Student’s IEP and cannot be combined into a single 30-minute period unless otherwise stated in the Student’s IEP.
• It should also be noted that the District wrongly recommended ESY for this Student in order to address the missed services. A determination of whether a Student requires ESY should be made by the PPT and ESY is only required to be provided to the Student if the services are necessary for the provision of FAPE to the Student. ESY should not be recommended by the PPT to address compensatory services. Compensatory services can be delivered to the Student in the summer, but this differs from a recommendation for ESY services and should not be indicated in the Student’s IEP as such.

Corrective Action(s):

• On or before August 30, 2025, the District must provide a record to the CSDE at alexa.osterhout@ct.gov of the compensatory services that were provided to the Student during the summer.
• On or before August 30, 2025, the District must develop a compensatory service plan to provide the Student with the remaining owed compensatory services. a. Should all parties feel that the total number of owed compensatory services will be overly burdensome to the Student, the parties may convene a PPT meeting in order to determine a mutually agreed upon alternate number of hours and inform the State of that agreement. b. The full measure of missed services must be delivered to the Student no later than January 31, 2026.
• Immediately upon delivery of the Student’s full measure of compensatory services, the District shall inform the CSDE and provide a record of such services at alexa.osterhout@ct.gov.
• The District must develop a memo outlining the difference between compensatory services provided during the summer and the recommendation of ESY. This memo must be shared with appropriate staff.
• A copy of the memo and staff signatures following the review of the memo must be provided to this investigator at alexa.osterhout@ct.gov, no later than September 30, 2025.