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Honors student sues because she can't read or write

Josie

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A Connecticut student who graduated with honors in June is now suing her former high school, claiming she can't read or write and is failing college as a result of her alma mater's poor curriculum.

Aleysha Ortiz was born in Puerto Rico and moved with her family to Hartford, Connecticut, when she was 5 years old. She graduated through the school program despite reading at a kindergarten or first grade level as a sixth grader, according to reporting by CNN.


During her last month at Hartford Public High School, after she disclosed she was attending the University of Connecticut in the fall, Ortiz completed additional testing that revealed she had dyslexia and "required explicitly taught phonics, fluency and reading comprehension," the first of which is taught in kindergarten.


She's not alone. Every year we have kids going into 5th, 6th, 7th grade who never got the English phonics they needed in elementary school. And, of course, no one is going to teach them that in middle school and high school. They have good expressive English language (which she obviously does if she can "write" papers through speech-to-text programs), but lack in actually reading and writing independently.
 
Can't read or write but understands the power of a lawsuit. At least she has that entrepreneurial spirt.
 
Sounds like the district failed to abide IDEA federal law. Thus denying her FAPE.

English language learners are required to be evaluated in their native language under IDEA. The district didn’t properly evaluate and they also failed to identify a disability.

She’s likely entitled to compensatory services.

Has nothing to do with general curriculum - has everything to do with IDEA and a denial of FAPE.

Good for her learning the law (likely finding an attorney) and holding the district accountable.
 
Assuming for the sake of discussion this young woman's assertions are correct, we can all rest assured those public educational professionals who failed her as a child will not be held to account. Why? Because they never are. There is no accountability for student outcomes in most of our traditional public school systems, and that is a tragic mistake we (collectively) continue to make.
 
I don't doubt this happens but this story doesn't add up.

She testified she was illiterate at a city council meeting, officials "clamored" to give her a diploma and then she was accepted to UConn? Did she get in without taking SATs or ACTs? What about her other standardized testing scores? Were they ignored by the school and her parents?

After testifying about her experience as an illiterate high school student during a May 2024 city council meeting, Ortiz said school officials began clamoring to ensure she received her diploma.
 
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It has everything to do with all of it. In her particular case, her learning disability wasn't identified, but she also obviously wasn't taught phonics effectively either. I need more information on what her elementary years were like. Was she taught in Spanish at all? Can she read/write in Spanish? Did she miss English phonics because she was out of the classroom for other services? Did she miss a lot of school? Did she receive Title 1 services and, if so, what information was taken from that? Did she move around a lot?

I agree that she most likely has a good case if what she's saying is true. It sounds like she was in the district since she was in kindergarten, so she should've been identified with her LD by at least 3rd grade.
 

Good questions. I'd be interested in her English proficiency scores too, but especially her scores from assessments (and what was taught in her classes) in kinder, first, second grade.
 
ESL kids without a learning disability are also not being taught English phonics in many places in the country. This is a disservice to them.
 
The burden is on the district to show their due diligence.

I suspect they cannot.
 

Don't US schools have learning support departments to pick out and support such students? Surely at some point in lessons, a teacher will have asked her to do in-class assignments and picked this up?
 
Josie said:
Good questions. I'd be interested in her English proficiency scores too, but especially her scores from assessments (and what was taught in her classes) in kinder, first, second grade.
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And what about her SATS or ACTs? UConn isn't Harvard but the acceptance rate is not 100%.

As I said, I don't doubt that this happens but this particular story is missing some details.
 
Josie said:
ESL kids without a learning disability are also not being taught English phonics in many places in the country. This is a disservice to them.
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It’s illegal (against IDEA) and a denial of FAPE.



Unfortunately, many parents of ELL don’t know this and don’t hold districts accountable. Because they are also ELL in many cases and/or simply do not know better.
 
Infinite Chaos said:
Don't US schools have learning support departments to pick out and support such students? Surely at some point in lessons, a teacher will have asked her to do in-class assignments and picked this up?
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Federal law requires that students with disabilities are identified. The responsibility is on the districts to do such.

Unfortunately, parents often do not know their rights and know how to hold districts accountable.
 
BirdinHand said:
It’s illegal (against IDEA) and a denial of FAPE.



Unfortunately, many parents of ELL don’t know this and don’t hold districts accountable.
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It's not illegal for kids to not be taught explicit phonics instruction. For years, the whole language method was used. Then it was a balance of both (Balanced Literacy). Now with the "Science of Reading" research coming out, we're swinging the pendulum back to more phonics.

It is illegal to not follow through if you suspect a LD. I wonder how involved the parents were. Did they not realize she couldn't read or write? Were they told by teachers? Were there any interventions at all?
 
Infinite Chaos said:
Don't US schools have learning support departments to pick out and support such students? Surely at some point in lessons, a teacher will have asked her to do in-class assignments and picked this up?
Click to expand...

In my experience, those things are very much there in elementary school and not so much in middle/high school.

More information is needed in this particular case, but I've been saying for years that we're doing a disservice to these ESL kids by not teaching them English phonics because they focus so much on their native language in their first years of school. It's a no-brainer to me, but I guess others think differently.
 
Josie said:
It's not illegal for kids to not be taught explicit phonics instruction.
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Were they sent step 1 - the Home Language Survey?

That should be automatically sent to the home of every ELL student per Dept of Education guidance above.

If step 1 wasn’t done…then process wasn’t followed.
 

Often it’s the opposite - they claim ‘lack of resources’ and demand more money to acquire those ‘resources’.
 
BirdinHand said:
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I don’t know why you’re giving me this document. I’ve been working with ESL kids for 21 years.

BirdinHand said:
Were they sent step 1 - the Home Language Survey?

That should be automatically sent to the home of every ELL student per Dept of Education guidance above.

If step 1 wasn’t done…then process wasn’t followed.
Click to expand...

Are you asking me if that happens in my own districts that I have taught in? Or are you just asking rhetorically about this case?
 

Hmm… “holding the district accountable” likely means making the taxpayers suffer financially while the school district declares the need for ‘more resources’ and the policy of ‘social promotion’ continues.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Often it’s the opposite - they claim ‘lack of resources’ and demand more money to acquire those ‘resources’.
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I would imagine it’s going to be that it’s difficult to determine if a child who speaks a different language needs services because it’s a language issue or because it’s a learning issue. However, she definitely shouldn’t have got to middle school with teachers still wondering that. She should’ve been tested for a learning disability in elementary.
 
With her substandard reading and writing ability, she has a bright future on a motel housekeeping staff but that's not good enough for her. Fortunately, she seems to have a good lawyer who'll get her a lot of money from the school district. If she's frugal, she can support herself for a long time on what the settlement brings.
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Hmm… “holding the district accountable” likely means making the taxpayers suffer financially while the school district declares the need for ‘more resources’ and the policy of ‘social promotion’ continues.
Click to expand...
If the district doesn’t follow policy from step 1, the district didn’t follow policy from step 1.

Then we can get into the “why”

And sometimes the answer IS money.

Districts with more ELLs will need more money. It takes specialized resources to provide specialized services to students that have specialized needs.

Those services don’t just magically happen and they aren’t free.
 

That ignores this student was promoted to the next grade level (presumably with passing grades) each year until finally (aging out?) and declared to have graduated HS “with honors”.
 
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