• A former student, Aleysha Ortiz, is suing the city of Hartford and the local board of education. Ortiz alleges she graduated without learning how to read or write. She claims it was due to negligence and lack of proper support for her developmental disabilities.

• The lawsuit claims Ortiz was denied necessary testing for dyslexia. It also claims she was removed from special education curriculum and only tested for developmental disabilities on her last day of school, revealing significant unmet educational needs.
• Republican Connecticut lawmakers are demanding answers from the state Department of Education. They question how Ortiz graduated while being illiterate and highlighted systemic failures in providing appropriate educational support.

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The city of Hartford, Conn., and the local board of education are facing a lawsuit from a former student in the district. She contends she graduated without being taught how to read or write.

Aleysha Ortiz had been a student in the Hartford School District since she was in first grade. Due to her developmental disabilities (the complaint infers she’s dyslexic), the lawsuit alleges a staff member bullied and harassed her.

In sixth grade, the complaint said evaluations showed Ortiz’s reading ability and other academic skills were at a kindergarten or first-grade level. As she progressed through school, the complaint says Ortiz pleaded for testing to determine if she had dyslexia. By her senior year of high school, school personnel told her it was too late to conduct those tests. The district removed her from her special education curriculum. 

As graduation day neared, the complaint says the board finally agreed to test Ortiz for a developmental disability. On the last day of school, the results showed Ortiz had “not mastered a number of foundational reading skills.” The complaint says she required explicitly taught phonics, fluency and reading comprehension.

Initially filed in a Connecticut Superior Court on Dec. 10, the complaint alleges negligence on behalf of the City of Hartford and the Hartford Board of Education and “Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress” by Tilda Santiago, a special education caseworker employed by the district. 

Republican Connecticut lawmakers demanded answers from the state Department of Education after hearing about the complaint. 

“The student was allegedly denied services — over 12 years — due to lack of funding and roadblocks to learning at many levels,” State Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding and Sen. Eric Berthel said in their Dec. 19 letter. “We continue to seek accountability as to how this student was illiterate when she graduated and how the system failed her year after year.”

In January, City of Hartford attorneys asked for an extension until March 9, when they must enter a plea. The district did not comment on the pending litigation when requested by local media.

The lawsuit was filed as a Tennessee man was fighting his former school district in court over it graduating him without first teaching him to read. An appellate court on Feb. 3 sided with the man against his former school after graduating him from high school without addressing his dyslexia. Court documents say his grade point average was 3.4 when he graduated amid the court battle. He sought to force the school to pay for a proper education and attorney fees. 

Like Ortiz, the Tennessee resident relied on talk-to-text technology and other aids to complete school work despite the inability to read or write.