A Las Vegas foster parent says her foster son has been promoted in school even though he still cannot read. The boy came to her as a fourth grader and is now in sixth grade, but she says his reading level is very low and he never received proper reading instruction. She is now asking for intensive, proven help so he can learn to read before he becomes an adult, as reported by 8 News Now.
According to 8 News Now, the foster parent, who requested anonymity, said the boy arrived in her care with an existing Individualized Education Program, or IEP. She told the station that the Clark County School District did not update that plan to reflect later diagnoses of autism and ADHD. She also reported that he sometimes could not identify basic letter sounds even as he was promoted, a situation that has fueled renewed calls from advocates for stronger, districtwide reading supports.
Legal Aid Center Files Dozens of Complaints
The Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada has lodged more than 20 special education due process complaints against CCSD on behalf of foster youth, alleging the district failed to provide required literacy instruction for students with dyslexia, according to KTNV. The complaints cover students from second through 12th grade and argue that many of them were advanced from one grade to the next without first mastering basic reading. Legal Aid contends that those patterns show a systemic breakdown rather than a string of isolated errors.
District Response and Where Parents Can Turn
District leaders told reporters they do not comment on pending litigation, as reported by FOX5. CCSD’s newsroom and family resources webpages list contacts for families who want to raise classroom or IEP concerns and outline a formal public concern process for situations that are not resolved at the school level. Those district resources point parents toward Team Engagement and Family Engagement staff and provide a phone number families can call for assistance.
A History of Special Education Fights in Clark County
The current complaints land in the middle of a longer-running battle over special education services in Nevada’s largest district. A recent decision found that CCSD had “substantially and procedurally” violated the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in a dyslexia case, according to The Nevada Independent. Local coverage has also chronicled prior settlements and class action cases accusing the district of systemic failures to identify and serve students with disabilities, reporting detailed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Advocates say the new wave of foster student complaints and lawsuits points to repeating problems in how CCSD delivers literacy instruction and special education support.
Advocates Call for a Districtwide Dyslexia Program
The Legal Aid Center is urging CCSD to put a uniform, evidence-based dyslexia program in place across the district, staffed by trained specialists, and to offer intensive compensatory education to students who missed out on services. That is the group’s position in a statement cited by KTNV. “Literacy is not a luxury,” Marina Dalia-Hunt, team chief of the Legal Aid Center’s Education Advocacy Program, said in the release quoted by the station. The organization says it hopes to work with the district to resolve the outstanding issues and to make sure foster youth receive the services guaranteed under federal and state law.
How Parents Can Raise Concerns With CCSD
The district instructs families who have a concern to start by contacting their child’s school. If that does not resolve the problem, parents can escalate through CCSD’s Family Engagement or Team Engagement offices and the public concern process, according to CCSD. Families who suspect that an IEP is incomplete or not being followed can request records, ask for new evaluations or independent educational evaluations, and use the district’s formal complaint channels. Legal advocates often recommend that parents keep written records of meetings, evaluations and interventions in case they decide to pursue an administrative remedy later on…