Hartford Courant

The Connecticut State Department of Education announced Wednesday it has hired Kathleen Reiser to fill a newly-created role of dedicated special education attorney. The department created the position to address longstanding dissatisfaction with the state complaint system, a key tool for parents who feel schools are not meeting their children’s special education needs. Parent attorneys said the state’s findings in those complaints were often legally suspect. In January, the consulting firm WestEd recommended CSDE hire a special education attorney to address the issue.