State denies district’s reading program waiver

School system can resubmit request for Right to Read opt-out

If the district resubmits its waiver with data showing how its Fundations reading comprehension program meets state standards, its waiver will be approved, the state said.

GREENWICH — Greenwich will need to try again to opt out of Connecticut’s new mandated K-3 reading curriculum after the state said the district’s own program fell one requirement shy of acceptance.

Superintendent Toni Jones said her team was “disappointed” to learn Tuesday that the district’s request for a waiver from the state’s Right to Read Legislation was denied, although the state Department of Education said the program Greenwich uses passed four out of five requirements. It fell short on “comprehension,” the denial read, and the waiver is now listed as “transitional.”

If the district resubmits its waiver with data showing how its Fundations reading comprehension program meets state standards, its waiver will be approved, the state said.

The Right to Read legislation was passed in June 2021 and requires the state to oversee school-led literacy efforts. Districts with programs they felt did the job as well as that recommended by the state were permitted to request a waiver to use their own curriculum.

Greenwich Public Schools submitted its waiver Feb. 27, according to a presentation made to the Board of Education in April.

“Ultimately, we chose the waiver because we believe in what we’ve been doing,” said Kim Paladino, K-8 English Language Arts program coordinator, at the April Board of Education meeting.

The Connecticut State Department of Education sent out its waiver determinations to 86 school districts on Tuesday. Seventeen districts had their waivers fully approved; 38 other Connecticut districts — including Darien and New Canaan — were listed as “transitional” along with Greenwich.

School districts that got the transitional waiver status “must add and

substitute specific programmatic or curriculum components,” the state wrote in its waiver determinations.

According to the state's waiver review for Greenwich, the reviewers looked at “Units of Study K-5, Heinemann 2018,” part of the Fundations program, and said it lacked “various components of reading” and “comprehension instruction was heavily focused on strategies

and didn't have a consistent systematic approach to the instruction.”

“The study the reviewers referred to was for the old version from 2018, and not the 2023 materials for K-2. Hopefully, they will update their review,” Jones told the Greenwich Time on Tuesday.

Jones said Greenwich has been improving its early literacy programming over the past several years.

“We started introducing a strong phonics program four years ago and now have it from PreK-3, along

with several other components of the science of reading,” Jones said. “GPS is proud about where we are as a district.”

Jones said the district has been covering the cost of its current early literacy programs through its operating budget and American Rescue Plan funding.

Jones said at the April meeting that it would cost the district “over $1 million” to implement the new state-approved literacy curriculum.

“The state did not provide funding for districts to meet this mandate,” Jones said at the time.

Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media file photos First-grade students during a reading exercise at Cos Cob School on May 2. Greenwich Public Schools requested waiver of the state’s new Right to Read reading curriculum was denied Tuesday.

First-grader Piper Ostruzka raises her hand during class at Cos Cob School.

Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Kathleen Falla teaches her first grade class at Cos Cob School on May 2. Greenwich Public Schools put in a waiver of the state’s new “Right to Read” reading curriculum that was denied on Tuesday.