Report Raises Questions About Mayoral Candidate Sharon Beloin-Saavedra’s Record on Special Education

As candidate Sharon Beloin-Saavedra (R) is seeking to become mayor of New Britain, she is running on her experience as school board member and president from 2005 until 2017. In her recent campaign leaflet, she list her school board accomplishments, including “supported key program creation & expansion for children with autism.”

However, she neglected to acknowledge that in 2015, the State of Connecticut Office of Child Advocate (OCA) launched an investigation based on parent complaints that the district failed to provide appropriate services for children with autism. In 2016 OCA issued a report finding that the New Britain School district indeed failed to adequately serve students with autism:

• “Educational records review raised significant concern that the District did not provide appropriate services for children who entered the District already clinically diagnosed as having an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Some children received minimal or even no direct speech and language therapy.”
• “Most children received no occupational therapy.”
• “No child’s…documented provision for services from a behaviorist, recommendations for 1:1 support, or hours of instruction consistent with best practices for children with Autism.”
• “Site visits gave rise to additional concerns about the dearth of evidence-based curricula or methodologies consistently being utilized for children with ASD, or whether adequate support and training for staff was provided to educate children with Autism”
• “…the fact that commonly needed services were missing from every IEP that OCA reviewed for a child previously diagnosed with ASD was a red flag that children were being denied critical supports that they needed.”
(Investigative Report: Educational Service Delivery for Preschool Age Children with
Disabilities Entering New Britain Public Schools, 1996, p.4)

The OCA concluded that, “The District Did Not Adhere to Best Practice Standards, Including Instructional Hours and Related Service Delivery, for Educating Children with Autism” (p.23). OCA recommendation included much needed staff training, parent training, full day programing, better and more comprehensive assessment and intake, and more.

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/3225070/OCA-INVESTIGATIVE-REPORT-EDUCATIONAL-SERVICE.pdf

Editor’s note: The cover photo is by Dr Frank Gerratana.