Sunday NY Times Spotlights Westport’s Special Ed Controversy

Sunday’s New York Times spotlights Westport’s special education controversy, saying school board meetings often explode into shouting matches between parents and administrators over the topic.

Under the headline “Amid Affluence, a Struggle Over Special Education,” the newspaper reported:

“Special education is a hot topic here, with school board meetings exploding into shouting matches over what services children are entitled to under federal law and parents spending thousands of dollars on appeals to force the school district to provide those services for their children.

“The parents say they have no choice: the district, one of the state’s most affluent, is fighting just as hard to hold the line on skyrocketing special education costs.”

The Times quotes special ed parent Stanley Alintoff as saying, “The sign outside Westport should say: ‘Don’t Move Here. We Don’t Take Care of Special Ed.’ “

It said he has spent more than $100,000 challenging Westport’s decision to revoke special accommodations his daughter was receiving because of a digestive disorder.

The newspaper noted that with an estimated 5.7 million children in the United States qualifying for special education, similar struggles are playing out around the country.

The Times called Westport “a town of gracious homes and six- and seven-figure incomes, where both Mandarin Chinese and Latin will be taught next fall at the high school, remodeled recently at a cost of $76 million.”

It reported that Westport’s school district has spent more than $2 million on legal fees and settlement costs in the last six years to fight parents’ complaints that special education students get short shrift.

The story appears on the first page of the newspaper’s metro section. It includes photographs of two special ed parents, as well as Landon (and Board of Education Chair Mary Parmelee, who is not identified by name), and two charts—one labeled “Special Education: A Growing Local Burden” and the other, “Westport’s Track Record on Special Education.”