Key Points
- Wilton’s achievement gap between students with disabilities and their peers is the second-smallest among comparable Fairfield County districts.
- More than 95% of students receiving special education services spend most of their day in general education classrooms, a strategy educators credit with helping improve outcomes.
- District leaders are seeing increasing numbers of students with autism and ADHD, along with growing demand for support beginning in the preschool years.
Why It Matters: The data offers a snapshot of how effectively Wilton is supporting nearly 700 students with disabilities while highlighting the challenges schools face as student needs become more complex and services increasingly begin at younger ages.
Wilton Public Schools has one of the smallest achievement gaps between students receiving special education services and their general education peers among comparable districts, although educators say significant work remains to support the district’s nearly 700 students with disabilities.
At the May 7 Board of Education meeting, Assistant Superintendent of Special Services Melissa Barrett and other staff members presented a report on the district’s efforts to support the needs of the nearly 700 students in the district with a disability and improve academic outcomes.
According to data presented to the Board of Education, Wilton’s achievement gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities was 21.8 percentage points in 2024-25, the second-smallest gap among its District Reference Group (DRG) peers. In Wilton, 63% of students with disabilities met benchmark standards, compared with 84.8% of students without disabilities.
Darien had the smallest gap at 21.4 points, while Westport’s was the largest at 26.1 points. The DRG also includes New Canaan (whose gap was 24.5), Ridgefield (22.5) and Weston (25.6).
The district also reported progress in specific academic areas. In math, while the state’s goal for the achievement gap is 13%, Wilton’s achievement gap was 7.3 points in 2024-25, down from 8.1 the previous year and the lowest among comparable districts.
In science, the gap in Wilton narrowed to 8.2 points in 2024-25 from 8.7 the year before.
Wilton Board of Education Vice Chair Nicola Davies asked what factors have helped educators narrow the gap. Barrett said the district has worked with students, who are approaching their benchmarks, to figure out what skills they are struggling with and provide targeted interventions and support while maximizing time in general education classrooms.
“So if you only look at trying to close that gap by pulling them out in retention services, you just feel further behind,” Barrett said. “So that balance that you saw in our first goal around balanced classrooms is really critical.”
“That is another contributing factor,” she continued. “Really looking at the skills that we’re lacking, their time within the classroom, and how we balance that with intervention. And when you think about that, there’s a lot of people vying for time in that equation.”
In a follow-up email to GOOD Morning Wilton, Barrett wrote that special education services need to be considered as part of a continuum of services that includes the general education environment.
“We believe students with disabilities are first and foremost general education students, and our responsibility is to design systems that maintain high expectations while thoughtfully meeting individual needs,” she said. “Support should enhance access — not replace it — and should begin in the classroom whenever possible.”
More than 95% of the students with disabilities spend more than 70% of their school day alongside their non-disabled peers, according to district data. Educators said that inclusion helps students gain access to grade-level instruction and appropriate support simultaneously.
Changing Student Needs
Wilton currently serves nearly 700 students with disabilities, representing a wide range of needs, including autism, dyslexia, emotional disabilities and dysregulation, intellectual deficits and speech-related challenges, among others.
Barrett said that the district has seen increasing numbers of students diagnosed with autism and those with OHI (Other Health Impairment)-Attention Deficient Disorder/Hyperactivity Disorder.
From pre-K through 12th grade, there are 96 students with an autism diagnosis and 128 students with OHI-ADD/ADHD.
“So we have a wide range of neurodivergent learners,” Barrett told the Board.
Staff also provide additional areas of support through academics as well as helping students with self-regulation through Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and the SMARTS Executive Functioning curriculum for grades 2-12, which helps students with goal setting and organizing, Barrett said.
Secondary Director of Special Services Nicole Querze told the school board in May that there isn’t one plan to help narrow the achievement gap because every student has different needs. And sometimes, the children who were closer to benchmarks don’t do as well, but the students who aren’t close to their benchmarks make the most gains.
Another area educators said they want to look at is the number of children in the pre-K (ages three and four) level who are referred by the Birth-to-Three program, Barrett told the board in May.
“There’s not many preschools that give them support and services, so them coming here, that number sometimes looks higher than we might see in kindergarten,” Barrett said. “But that has been a number that has been increasing.”
Barrett added that the special education staff will be discussing next year what they want to do before pre-K.
In terms of how students are referred to special education services, Barrett said there appears to be more of a diverse range of referrals at a younger age, with there also being a steady decrease in referrals at the high school.
“We invested a lot of time in that over the last four years because that’s a space where if a student is being identified you worry, do we have students with some complex social-emotional situations that arise at high school, and that requires some significant intervention,” Barrett said. “That number has really decreased over time.”
She added that referrals have decreased at Middlebrook since educators started their MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Supports) process, in an effort to put interventions in place earlier.
“We’ve stayed pretty consistently at Cider Mill. Miller-Driscoll is the highest it’s been in a while this year, but I don’t necessarily equate that to being a bad thing,” Barrett said. “You know, if I’m going to look at a time when a student is requiring intervention or needing support, I’d want to see those referrals in K-2. That’s not a bad space to see them.”
Barrett said it is about a 50/50 split between parents and the district referring a student to special education for services.
She added that bringing in parents to discuss these issues can be a sad and scary experience, and she’s proud of her team who provide emotional support to these families.
“Even when everyone around that table is in it and feeling good about it — as a parent, it’s a very emotional experience,” Barrett said. “And I think the work our teams do to support parents through that, to make sure students are progressing and to also have them understand is a big part. So when we see it younger, that’s more time for us to help them in the journey.”
Barrett said this week that a strong sense of community is also critical for students with neurodiversity as well as for their families and the town as a whole. The district organized a fashion show and the Especially Everyone Concert to provide such opportunities for the students, and Barrett said her department is looking to expand that to one per quarter next year.
School Superintendent Kevin Smith said after hearing the questions from the board meeting, he can plan a data workshop for the fall.
