Inside the Work Transforming Special Education in Bridgeport

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. David Abbey of the Connecticut State Department of Education Technical Assistance Team to discuss the continued work and progress happening within the Bridgeport Public Schools Special Education Department.

The conversation highlights the district’s adopted 2025–2026 Special Education Goals, focused on strengthening compliance, improving instructional support, expanding professional learning, increasing parent outreach, and building stronger connections between general and special education programming.

Dr. Abbey discusses the ongoing collaboration between the Connecticut State Department of Education and Bridgeport Public Schools to improve systems and supports for students and families, including IEP quality training, curriculum development, expanded coaching for educators and administrators, and the development of a Special Education Blueprint Manual designed to create more consistent programming across the district.

The episode also highlights the continued growth of the Special Education Advisory Council (SEAC), giving parents a stronger voice in the district through trainings, advocacy, and family engagement opportunities.

Additionally, the district has made significant progress in staffing, reducing certified special education vacancies from more than 50 positions to only two remaining openings through ongoing recruitment and hiring efforts.

We also discuss the district’s long-term vision for Special Education, including the future $74 million Special Education Center and the continued commitment to providing stronger supports, services, and opportunities for all students across Bridgeport Public Schools.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome back to The Voice of the District. Today we're honored to welcome Dr. David Abbey, a member of the Connecticut State Department of Education's technical assistance team. Dr. Abbey brings more than five decades of experience in special education, district leadership, and systems improvement. His expertise is central to the state's efforts to support Bridgeport public schools, particularly in strengthening services for students with special education needs. We're grateful to have him here to talk about the work underway, the challenges ahead, and the opportunities to build a stronger future for every learner in Bridgeport Public Schools. So welcome, Dr. Abbey.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Thank you, Carly.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

We're excited to have you here on our district podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

I appreciate the opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Absolutely. So we like to use this as a tool to get out real-time information to our families to better understand and to be really transparent around the challenges we're facing here, but also opportunities for improvement and opportunities to work with experts like you in the field to help Bridgeport become a stronger district. So can you describe for any anyone listening your role on the technical assistance team and the areas that you're focusing on here in Bridgeport?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Well, um I take the lead as a member of the technical assistance team and as a practical matter on a day-to-day or week-to-week really basis. I'm among three, the three of us, three colleagues. Dave Irwin, and Dave is leads the group, and his primary responsibility is working with the Board of Education, working with the State Department of Education as a liaison, and leading our effort. The other member of the technical assistance team is Ed Aram, whose focus, or primary focus I should say, is on the finance and the business operations of the district. And then my primary responsibility is on special education. We all we work together closely, we overlap and we support each other, but um each of us has distinct um priorities in terms of what we do. And um my responsibility is in terms of special education, um, seeing if the district can continue to move forward with respect to supporting students with disabilities. And um my primary uh or the first major portion of my work was devoted to seeing that we close the vacancy gap. Okay. As of November of uh 2025, the district had 31 special education vacancies. Um as of the last few days, we're around two vacancies. So the district has made significant improvement uh in that area, and of course, that is um critical in terms of the needs of our students.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Absolutely. That's a tremendous accomplishment to be able to close that gap for special education teachers here in Bridgeport. Um, and I think it's helpful to understand who you are and what it means to have the technical team here because you know we hear in the community, the state is here, the technical team is here, and so it's really nice to hear directly from you who you are and what areas you're focusing on here in the district. Um so where do you see the strongest opportunities for improvement in the area of special education in Bridgeport?

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Well, and um actually I think the community should be aware of the fact that we have goals in special education that uh Dr. Avery adopted as of November 9th. So we have our goals, and that really should ground our work in special education. Absolutely. The uh the most important area is always personnel. We compete for talent, we want the best possible people in front of our ch children, working with the students, and uh that is always first and foremost. And we do have a number of people who are are new. Actually, what's interesting is the the efforts that the uh district has done on behalf of uh recruiting and trying to close, and in fact, significantly closing the vacancy, what I call the vacancy gap, and they did it in a number of ways. We have paraprofessionals participating in a program where they can get uh special ed certification, and in fact, are working now in as classroom teachers. We have cross-certification programs that the district participated in, which means um teachers who are certified in other areas uh have become cross-certified in special education and working towards that and are now teachers of record in the classroom. And the third effort um has to do with hiring special ed teachers who are retired. Okay, and uh the state has a program called DSAP, it's called Durational Shortage Area. And um we have uh several retired teachers who can come back and teach full-time, and it doesn't um disrupt their pensions. So it's an attractive way to get um experienced talent. And in fact, one of them is all has already taken a leadership position at one of the schools. So um they're making a significant contribution. And actually, the there's a fourth area. We have about 45, I should say Bridgeport has uh approximately 45 teachers who are certified in special ed, who are teaching out of special education, they're teaching in other areas, whether it's elementary education or at the high school level. And the district has a very attractive program that in that inspires and induces people to take a special education teaching position for up to four years, and there's a significant uh pay increase, and there's some built-in um protections for them in the sense that if they if they move into special education for one year, for example, they're able to move at the end of the year back into the position. Okay. Um and we do have one person who has availed himself of that opportunity and um is a certified math teacher who is teaching in a resource position, and a resource position is working with and supporting students who spend the majority of their day in general education or what we used to call regular education classes. And what's wonderful about that is that to find first of all, it's hard to find certified math teachers, period. Right. But to have someone who's a math teacher and also a special education teacher is like gold. Right, so the the district has worked very hard in terms of um making sure that there are certified teachers or what we call, state calls teachers of record, uh working with special education students. So that is um first and foremost always. Now, now that they're there, the challenge for the district is in classes, the challenge for the district is always, particularly with our newer teachers, to support them. Right. And that's something that the district is working towards and um still uh is is is improving in that area, but um it's it's very important that that that is emphasized. It's one of the goals that the district has adopted. Um Dr. Avery and uh Michelle McKinley are certainly overseeing that, and um there's a built-in mechanism in terms of report to Dr. Avery to make sure that this goal is progressing in a way that it needs to. And then professional learning is part of what the district does. And um I'm looking at this through a special education lens, and here the state has helped us this year and continues to help us. I'll give you several examples. One is at the beginning of the year, all of these administrators in the district, well over a hundred in the district, um, which makes sense for a district of 20,000 students, which is the largest district in terms of student enrollment in the state of Connecticut. But the state provided three days of high-quality special education training to all of the administrators in the district. And Dr. Avery made it a priority, uh spending the better part of three days at this, and um it was on what we called I excuse me IEP development. The IEP is is is an individualized education program, and the best way of starting uh which every student in special education has to have. And the best way of describing that is it's a blueprint for a child's educational program that parents or caregivers participate in the development of along with special ed staff. In any event, the um the training, the three days of training had to do with IEP development and program monitoring. The state has also is also providing coaches for our special education administrators and um is has worked with on IEP development with our new teachers in terms of helping them understand the IEP system that the state has, which is called CT SEDs. Right. And right now the the um state is also working with Johnson. Um and I forgot I'm forgetting the other school for the moment. Um where is Jackie as supervisor?

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Uh Roosevelt. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Like with the principals uh Jackie Simmons? Yeah. Roosevelt School, yes. I'm sorry. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Um working working with um Johnson and Roosevelt Schools, providing a significant amount of curriculum support to general ed and special educators and also coaching. And I I really um give it to the um hats off to the principals of both schools, Marjorie Koble and Jackie Simmons, for coming forward and uh inviting the state in. And they've already provided um, they're providing professional learning in the area of English language arts and math. And about a week ago, both faculties um participated in the professional learning session with respect to math education, hands-on teaching of math, that um, and the feedback we received was absolutely extraordinary from the participants saying they could use uh immediately what they were learning. Um so those are some examples of professional learning, and so you have um you have recruiting people, right? The best possible people, filling those gaps, um, providing support through district administrators and uh mentors. Right. They also participate in the district's mentor program, and then professional learning. Um to me that is the most important thing. The second, perhaps the second most important thing is um or challenge or goal or objective is um curriculum development, making sure that this the teachers know exactly what the curriculum is that the students need to learn, which in special education is often um if the students are in spend the majority of the day in special education classes, or at least a significant part, there's always the teacher needs to know what the general education curriculum is, what the goals and standards are that are associated with that, and then what a specialized curriculum is, and you often meld the two. Right. Um and it's up to the special education teacher to adapt and modify the general education curriculum so that the students have access to it and have the support and the specialized teaching in order to achieve the goals and objectives that are on their individual education program.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Right. Well, hats off to special education teachers because just hearing you describe the work that they do, um, it's it's it's you know it's it's challenging and it takes a high level of skill to be able to look at the regular education, to look at this the needs of the students, and to be able to support them. And it sounds like the work that you're doing here is very comprehensive, from attracting to retaining, and then making sure that they're prepared for the work ahead of them. So it's really helpful to hear from you that the scale of the work that's being done here, and you know, hopeful that all of that hard work we see in our in the retention of the closing of the gap that you've done here as far as the vacancies. So, with all these improvements that we're making to special education, how how does that connect to the broader stability of the district?

SPEAKER_02 13:25

Well, there are approximately 4,000 students in the district, um, around 20 percent who receive special education services. Okay. The overwhelming majority receive special education services in the district. There are a number of students who receive special education services outside of the district in public or s or private prov with respect to public or private providers. But the majority are in the district, and most of the special education teachers students receive the majority of their education from general education teachers. Okay. And they are often in what we call resource settings or resource rooms. So we're talking about 20% of the students in the district. A number of those students progress beyond high school, whether it's vocational training or uh community college or four-year colleges. So the the the range of students in special education is significant. And I'll give you one area which, when I was looking at the statistics in terms of what the state provides, which was very interesting. Of our special education, that is, of Bridgeport's Bridgeport special education students who attend four-year colleges or two-year colleges, have a very high rate of um retention or persistence. In other words, they do very well in their first year and they move on to the second year. And I was surprised. The the persistence ratio or the number of special students with special needs who graduate from um the Bridgeport public schools, who attend colleges, do well enough to pr proceed into their second year. And these the percentage of students who do that, who are in special education, is just about the same thing. It's at the same rate as the general ed teachers.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

So that's very interesting.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Yeah, yeah. I I was really surprised to see that.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Absolutely. And as a former school counselor and a school counselor at heart, we always look at the persistence rate, right? Like we want to know who's who's enrolled, but persistence is just as important. Yeah. And it shows that once they've gotten that that momentum, once they've gotten started, they're able to um continue in the program. That's a great it's great, it's great to hear. Um Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

So the So when we um if I could, I'm sorry, didn't you? No, you're fine. But when when we talk about students who receive we don't we typically don't talk about special education students. We talk about students first who are receiving specialized instruction. Absolutely. Or students with disabilities. But a large part of any success they have takes place in what the uh legal term is least restrictive environment. That is, to the maximum extent possible, students with special who receive special education services are are to be educated with their um non-disabled peers where they have access to the general um education uh curriculum and instruction. So for most of our students who participate in general education classes, when I say our students, students with special needs, with students receiving specialized instruction in special through special education, the general education teachers are really critical to their success. And you think of elementary school teachers, you think of high school teachers who have to modify the instruction often to meet the needs of students who receive support from special education teachers in order to do so, and there's often a collaborative effort. But that that all of that leads to stability in the district.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Absolutely. Right. And that every student is able to be find their success, right, and to reach their highest potential and feel a sense of belonging. I think that's so important as well, that their academic success, but also that they feel safe and and respected and loved and a part of the school environment and culture as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:58

And here I um here is where principals really in their individual schools set the standard in terms of climate, right, in terms of welcoming other special education teachers, students, uh sort of the other students, or they are students. And what you see throughout the district oftentimes, or most frequently, is their principals embrace that and want and and view all of the students as their students. Even in schools where students have significant disabilities, um, or I should say complex and and significant dis severe disabilities. I mean, there are children uh in our district and in every district who are medically fragile, who may need help um eating, who may need help um uh toileting, who who may need medical attention in order to participate in general in in in in education or special education classes. So um the to the extent that the principal set the tone is a wonderful um uh attribute or characteristic in terms of their professional um efficacy, but also in terms of the support they give to special ed teachers and students.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Absolutely. So thank you for sharing that. Um Dr. Abbey, what would you like? So, you know, the hope is that this podcast reaches a lot of our community and that we continue to build our followers and our listeners to learn more and to be um in tune and aware of of things happening in this district. And so, what would you like our community to understand about how special education needs influence the district's overall budget and funding decisions? So at we're in budget season right now, and so um as far as special education impacting our funding, what what what is important for our community to know?

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Well, first of all, special education, um, a lot of what occurs in special education is a function of federal and state laws and regulations. And um when the federal law was put into place in 1975, it was the first time that children with disabilities throughout the country were guaranteed a place in a public school setting or in what they were guaranteed what's called a free and appropriate public education. And before that, it was really up to the individual school districts to decide if a student was in a wheelchair, or a student had um intellectual disabilities, or a student had multiple disabilities, whether or not they would accept the student into a public school setting, or where they in so 1975 was the f the federal law, and the federal law is a very prescriptive law and it has evolved over time. It was due to federal law that every student who is receives special education services receives an IEP. Okay. Um this this was um this never had happened before. Right. Um it was um it was new and important. If you think about that, general education students do not have the same, I would say, support or opportunity. Now, one would one could say because they they don't need it to the extent that students do, but it's a very prescriptive law. It sets timelines for identification and placement of students. It requires school districts to find students students with disabilities in their Community and reach out to them. It's called Child Find. So students and so what the school districts are required to do is to reach out to medical providers, birth to three, to make people aware of the services in school districts. And then school districts are required to serve students to the ages of three to five before they even are in kindergarten if they require those services. So I'd like peep parents to know that there are regulations that prescribe and state regulations that prescribe what the program should be, two other things, that they have rights associated with that. Again, federal and state law. The the process for um having a child enter special education starts with someone making a referral. It could be a parent, it could be a medical provider, it could be a teacher, let's say if the child is in second or third grade. Right. And they enter what's called a pupil placement team meeting or a PPT. Now different states have different uh terms for that, but the federal law requires that there be a planning and placement team, regardless of what it's named. In New York, it's called a committee on special ed. But here we call it pupil placement team meeting. And that meeting has specific um attendee requirements. It includes most oftentimes the um the administrator at the school. It includes parents have to participate. If a parent wants a uh parent wants uh to bring an advocate with them or an attorney, they can do that. It requires that a general edge teacher there, is required there's a special ed teacher there, and at that meeting they decide whether or not a child is going to participate in special education. Now, the meeting often starts out with how are we going to evaluate whether this is the case. And so you have a psychologist who might do um uh assessment, you might have a speech and language pathologist do an assessment, um, you might have uh what's called a physical therapist or occupational therapist. So they decide whether or not a child is one eligible for special education, and if so, they develop an IEP. All of this has to occur with parent approval. If at any time, and and once a child is in special education, there has to be what's called the program has to be reviewed at least annually. Okay. So let's say a student is in third grade and a parent disagrees with the IEP or provisions of the IEP, you do your best to reconcile those differences. And um because, and this is the second item I was going to mention, parents by law are partners in this process. But if they can't reconcile the um their concerns with what the district is providing, there are due process rights associated with that called mediation. There are mediation or um there can there can be a special education hearing. All of that takes place without cost to parents. And the district, in terms of entering the relationship with parents, and the district does this, has to provide all the information associated with the rights, their rights, laws, and regulations. So I'd want them to know two things. I'd want them to know well, three things then. I'd want them to know that they, by law, are partners in the process, and the district is obligated to, and I think it I know it occurs here to a large extent, um, the district reaches out and includes parents, I shouldn't say to a large extent, it occurs here in Bridgeport, reaches out to parents to make sure that they can participate. Either come into the meeting or some or it can be remote.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:24

But they have they're part of the process. The second thing I'd like them to know is that they have rights accorded to them and their children that go beyond what typically occurs for general education students or students without disabilities. And third, there's an ombudsperson in the Department of Special Education who is a certified special education teacher, has experience teaching special education students, and is bilingual Spanish. Now that's wonderful. So if a parent has a concern or it feels that the concern isn't being addressed or wants another perspective, they can set up an appointment with our ombudsperson, and that's an informal way of resolving differences and is often um very successful in terms of doing so. It's also, in terms of my experience, unique to the Bridgeport Public Schools. I'm not aware of other public schools that have ombudspersons, um, and it's um it's um I I I think a great testament to the district wanted to partner with parents.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Absolutely. And additionally, I think to your point about what families should be aware of, through our special education advocacy council, which is now run co-facilitated by two parents, um, they brought in um CPAC, Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center, and they did a no understand your child's IEP training. And we actually just received that recording, so we'll be posting it on our website so that for families that might need some help understanding their child's IEP, we're going to be posting that on our website as well as an another tool for them to be able to utilize.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Thank you for mentioning that. I neglected to mention that I think that's um another example of the district reaching out and being willing to talk to parents as partners in this process.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

Absolutely. And we're looking for more members, so through the Special Education Advisory Council, if there are families, parents that would like to join those conversations, we meet once a month and information is shared through Parent Square. So, Dr. Abbey, we're gonna wrap it up. Um, we always like to ask our guests forward thinking, positive thinking, dream big for Bridgeport Public Schools. What would success look like, let's say, in the next six months or a year? What are you know some some wins that you see for us in the future?

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Well, before I do before I answer that, if I could. Sure. Um one of the goals you asked me about the budget. I did. And uh special education um uh is is about um for about 20 percent of the kids, it's it's um over 25 percent of the budget. It's it's a it's approximately thirty approximately thirty percent of the budget. So it is there are costs associated with with the the program. By the way, that's true of all districts. And what's also true of all districts is that um which is true nationally, is that the um competing for talent or or or obtaining special education uh teachers is a challenge uh generally across the country. Um and that's yet another reason why I'm pleased we the district uh closed the gap. But um in terms of the what the district has done, if a child is placed outside of the district, it's called an outplacement. If a child in order for a child to have a free and appropriate public education, it it either occurs in the district or as I mentioned previously, at times it occurs outside the district, um sometimes in uh in what we call private providers. Um if the costs are such that they're four and a half times, and I'm sorry to get a little technical, but the costs are four and a half times, more than four and a half times um of what a per pupil cost is in the district. So let's say a car uh just using this figure, it's twenty thousand dollars in a in in a district. Four and a half times that would be ninety thousand dollars. If a student is placed outside of a district and in it's more than ninety thousand dollars in this in the example I'm giving you, the district gets reimbursed for that.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 31:06

And and the district has done a very good job over the years of getting reimbursed for what's called excess costs out of the district. What the district has done this year for the first time, at least in recent history, perhaps forever, is that the district is aware now that they can get excess costs for students in the district whose education costs are more than four and a half times the per pupil cost. So this year for the first time, the district is has made efforts to look at what the costs are associated with some of the students and to get reimbursement for that. So the district is looking to um in every corner to see um that the district gets what's owed to it. And I was really pleased that the district has moved in that direction in terms of in-district costs. Now, to answer your question, in terms of um in terms of looking down the road, um one of the things that comes to mind is that uh the district has received 75, I think approximately 75 million dollars to build a special education facility that would enable it to bring students back into the district who have been placed elsewhere. And what's wonderful about being in the district is that the children are going to school with their neighbors. Children have access to extracurricular activities that exist in the district, um, and children are students are part of the district and um in every every way possible. So one of the things that did school the challenge for the district and a wonderful opportunity is to describe, is to develop the programs in that new facility to determine who are the students who are going to be brought back and how how the um setting is going to be really built, right, you know, from an architectural standpoint, and then what the programs are going to look like. That's one of the challenges of the district, and it's also a wonderful opportunity, right? Forward-looking opportunity. The other challenge of the district is to continue to compete for talent and to develop supports for the uh uh teachers in the district in a world-class way so that they get consistent support and the professional learning associated with that is really top rate. The other is curriculum development. To make to continue to develop the curriculum, it's an area that uh can be improved, can be developed, can be that's true of every district, but it's a significant part of improving the special education here. It's program development and it's curriculum development. What do I mean by program development? Programs for student, programs for students with autism, for example, or programs for students with intellectual disabilities, programs for students who have emotional and behavioral needs. You know, those are examples of programs that can continue to be developed, and the curriculum associated with that continue to be developed. That's significant. I would also say looking at ways to maximize cost uh efficiencies.

unknown 34:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Uh looking at the transportation system, um both within the district and outside the district, um, continuing to look at grants for additional sources of funding. What I'd like to see and what the district is working towards and needs to continue to improve at is making sure that to the maximum extent possible students with disabilities have access to and participate in general education programs. That is, the percentage of time students with disabilities spend in general education classes expands. And that there are great there are ways of supporting them. We continue to develop those ways, but I'd like to see a higher percentage of students with disabilities participate in general aid classes and are moving out of what we call self-contained classes, where students spend the majority of the day that when appropriate and with proper amount of supports, a greater percentage of students spend a larger part of their day in general education classes in what we call the least restrictive environment. Those are the things that come to mind, and to make sure that the leadership in the district and the s the teachers in the district have access to every development, every technological development, not simply what we look at as technology, but the technology of teaching. We know so much more about teaching today than we did 50 years ago when I was knocking around as a beginning teacher. And to make sure that what we're she that our teachers are well tra uh trained in the best ways possible in order to serve our students.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Absolutely. Well, Dr. Abbey, you've brought a wealth of knowledge to this podcast, to this conversation. We really appreciate you providing such clarity on the work that you're doing, on the work that the district is doing, and for sharing that with our community and for reminding us that our students' potential is at the center of the decisions that we're making here. And, you know, we talked about Bridgeport being full of bright spots in our classrooms, our families, in our schools, and with the support that you're providing with all the work that's being done here in the district, we're really expanding those bright spots into brighter futures. So we appreciate your commitment here to helping us grow, and we appreciate your time here for sharing your expertise and your knowledge with us.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

Thank you very much. And um I I must say that um people in the district, it's not easy to have people outside the district come in. You have to learn the district, you have to uh understand the history, you have to understand the issues, you have to understand the significant strengths, you have to understand the challenges, and it takes time to do so. And sometimes um it's it's hard for people to to accept you and to engage in you. And I can say this honestly, right from the beginning, we have had um people in the district have been open and engaging and have been patient at times with with us. I'll speak in particular with me, and so it's been a good partnership, it's been an excellent partnership uh today.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Thank you. All right, so wrapping up another just another episode of The Voice of the District. Thank you again, Dr. Abby, and we'll see you all soon. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:34

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