Complaint Summary
Date Findings Report Sent
July 21, 2026
Case Number
26-0697
School District
New Haven
Person filing complaint
Attorney representing the Parent and child.
Grade Level
Elementary
Allegation(s)
Issue 1: The Complainant alleged that the Student’s self-contained special education classroom had not been staffed by a certified special education teacher since the third school day of the 2025-2026 school year. (34 CFR §§ 300.323(c)(2) and 300.17 and Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies (RCSA) § 10-76d-1(a)(1))
Issue 2: The Complainant alleged that the District failed to revise the Student’s IEP goals from year to year, despite the Student’s lack of progress. (34 CFR § 300.324 and 34 CFR § 300.324(b)(ii))
Issue 3: The Student was found to be a similarly situated child to the students named in the findings for the investigation of State Complaint 26-0265. Through that complaint, it was determined that the Student was owed compensatory services. The Complainant alleged that those services had not been provided. The Complainant was directed to contact the complaint investigator for State Complaint 26-0265 to address the issue. No further action was taken.
Conclusion(s)
Issue 1: Based on the findings of this investigation, the Student’s IEP requires that she be provided with 25 special education hours per week. The provision of such hours could not be completed in the absence of a certified special education teacher. From the period from November 18, 2025, through May 20, 2026, a full time certified special education teacher was not provided to the Student, but, rather, varied special education teachers were provided for varying hours per week resulting in the Student not being provided with a total of 308.75 special education hours. Such hours were owed to the Student in the form of compensatory services.
Issue 2: While the Complainant alleged that the Student’s IEP goals and objectives were not being updated or changed from year to year, the two IEPs that were in effect during the one-year look-back period for this complaint indicated that, in the most recent IEP, the Student’s goals and objectives were updated from the previous IEP in response to the Student’s progress and new evaluative data. The District was not out of compliance with 34 CFR § 300.324. No corrective actions are issued.
Corrective Action(s)
- On or before September 30, 2026, the District shall convene a PPT to develop, in collaboration with the Parents, a compensatory services plan to provide the Student with 308.75 missed special education hours.
- If the Parent feels that such compensatory services would be overly burdensome or stressful to the student, the Parent, in collaboration with the District, through the PPT process, may determine an alternate number of compensatory service hours or identify alternative compensatory service strategies, methods or programs to compensate the student.
- The full measure of compensatory services must be provided to the Student no later than April 30, 2027. Upon full delivery, the District must inform the State.
- If the Parent feels that such compensatory services would be overly burdensome or stressful to the student, the Parent, in collaboration with the District, through the PPT process, may determine an alternate number of compensatory service hours or identify alternative compensatory service strategies, methods or programs to compensate the student.