A Bridgeport special education teacher is allegedly pocketing the change when his students, some of whom are nonverbal, buy lunch during weekly outings, according to several written complaints submitted by school staff and interviews with parents. The complaints also include more serious allegations, including failure to report student welfare issues to the proper authorities, failure to address inappropriate behavior in the classroom, and leaving students sitting in class with little to no instruction for long periods of time.

Daniel Scali, a long-time special education teacher for Bridgeport’s Central High School, is purportedly under investigation by the school, according to emails obtained by Inside Investigator, but has not been placed on administrative leave, which is typical during a human resources investigation, and continues working with the students who range in age from fourteen to twenty-one.

Among the more egregious allegations is that Scali has been shortchanging the students of their lunch money during weekly “field trips.” Generally, the students would go on two field trips per week, according to parents; on Tuesdays, they would typically volunteer at a food bank, and on Thursdays, the students would go to a store to purportedly gain life skills and experience functioning in public spaces. Following the Thursday trip, the students would get lunch at a fast-food restaurant.

In advance of these outings, Scali would send a letter home requesting the parents send in ten to fifteen dollars so their child can pay for lunch, but both the parents and the staff complaints allege the lunches cost less and Scali keeps the change, which, with roughly twenty students, can be substantial.

Tamekia Lemus says she brought her autistic daughter, Dominique, from Mississippi to Connecticut because she was “regressing” in the Mississippi system, and Connecticut’s special education system was better. She wanted Dominique, who is very shy, to get a diploma so she can work after graduating, and she initially met with Scali when Dominique was enrolled in the school.

It was shortly thereafter that Lemus says she received a request from Scali for $20 for lunch for a field trip, which she sent, but never received any money back. Furthermore, Lemus says Scali was asking her for twice as much money as the other parents, which became a point of contention.

“I sent money with her, twenty-five dollars cash, and I didn’t get anything back,” Lemus said. “I’m used to her going on field trips and I’m used to change being sent back, so if another field trip comes up, we go back to what was left from the other and pool it together, and she’ll have money for the next one.”

“He [Scali] would gather up all the money and purchase kids’ meals for teenagers, he would literally buy them the cheapest things on the menu, pay for it, but never send the change home for the parents,” Lemus said. “Everything I’ve told you, I’ve already expressed to the school and the representatives over the special education portion of Central High.”

Lemus eventually began to send her daughter with a debit card, but says she would often send cash in an envelope to pay for other students whose parents struggled to send money, and again would receive nothing back. When she eventually questioned Scali about the missing change, he sent her twenty dollars, which she says, “made no sense.” 

Another parent, “Shannon,” has asked that her identity be withheld as she is concerned about possible retaliation against her son in the classroom; indeed, nearly everyone Inside Investigator spoke to regarding these issues expressed deep concern over personal or professional retaliation.

Shannon says that as part of her 14-year-old son’s Individualized Education Program (IEP), he was to handle his own money and “attempt to independently pay for his lunch,” to develop that life skill. She says Scali would instead collect the money from him, order the food, and the family would never receive any change back.

“Every week since last year, I’ve been sending in ten dollars for my son to purchase lunch, but I never got any change back,” Shannon said. “I never brought it up because I assumed it was paying for the whole trip.”

Shannon provided a February 2, 2026, letter sent from Scali to parents detailing what the students’ trip would be that week and requesting $10 for each student so they could have lunch at Costco in Milford on February 5 after visiting the Milford library and saying that the prices at Costco “are very reasonable.”

However, according to an extensive complaint submitted to Bridgeport Human Resources Deputy Lizette Martinez and Chief of Special Education Michele McKinley outlining several instances of “financial concerns,” sixteen students that day brought ten dollars each, but Scali only purchased one large cheese pizza for the students.

“On this day 16 students brought $10 each for food (minimum $150 collected). About half the students wanted pizza ($1.99 per slice or $9.95 per large pizza), and the other half wanted hot dogs ($1.50) including drink,” the complaint says. “Although $150 was brought in, Mr. Scali only ordered one large cheese pizza. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math.”

Shannon was also able to provide Inside Investigator with what she says is the receipt for that meal, showing a total of $19.26 spent for one large cheese pizza and a chef salad at the Milford Costco on February 5. Shannon says she never received any change.

Shannon says it all finally registered for her when she sent $100 to purchase pizza for the kids for a Super Bowl party during the school week before the game and never received change. Scali had reportedly spent $76.95 on the pizzas, took one pizza home for his own family, and tipped the delivery driver $20. 

“You don’t tip the driver on my dollar, you ask me if that’s okay,” Shannon said. “That’s when it came to light that the money I was sending for these trips, my son was not able to go up and purchase his own food, that Dan [Scali] was purchasing the food for him, I was never given any change.”

But keeping the students’ lunch money may be the lesser of some of the other allegations about what is occurring in this particular classroom; both the parents and the complaint letters say the teacher is ignoring classroom issues, failing to report serious concerns regarding student welfare, leading the class in inappropriate discussions at times, while other times offering little instruction at all, and parents say they are being given disingenuous reports by Scali as to how their children were performing in the class. 

Lemus eventually asked to have Dominique removed from the class altogether following an “emergency PPT meeting,” and placed her into a more advanced class.

“But there’s still children that are left,” Lemus said. “Their parents are coming to me saying they can’t get PPT meetings, that the school is giving them the runaround about Mr. Dan [Scali], and apparently he has been doing this a lot when it comes to cash money.”

Parents who spoke with Inside Investigator say they began to question their children and other staff members about what was going on in the classroom, and didn’t like what they heard. Shannon says that during the field trips to the food bank, her son was made to just sit in the back room and not do anything, and that at other times the students would just sit in class without instruction.

Both Tamekia Lemus and the complainants indicated Scali could be verbally aggressive with the students, and “frequently makes inappropriate and demeaning comments about students’ learning abilities.” 

“The difference between my daughter and a lot of students in the class is my daughter can talk, and she started coming home and telling me things,” Lemus said. “She said he spoke to the kids very rudely, that he made them cry, he was calling them names.”

“I have never observed Mr. Scali provide direct instruction to the students,” one of the official complaint letters stated. “Several of the students in the class are capable of learning new academic and functional skills with proper instruction and support; however, no meaningful teaching is occurring.”

“My son may be autistic, but I do not send my son to school every day to get rid of him, I send my son to school to learn,” Shannon said. “If my son has to be in the class with him until he’s twenty-two, this is going to be a problem.”

Among the allegations included in several separate and detailed written complaints is that Scali failed to provide teaching instruction, did not maintain professional and ethical responsibilities, did not fulfill his duties as a mandated reporter, and inappropriately delegated responsibilities to paraeducators, along with the above-mentioned “financial misconduct.” 

Furthermore, the complaints allege that the students aren’t really getting anything out of these repeated trips because there is no structure to them; trips to Barnes & Noble, for instance, don’t include reading and the students become frustrated because they don’t have money to purchase anything; a trip to IKEA had “no observable educational objective,” other than getting lunch during which Scali purportedly collected $10 from every student and purchased $5 lunches; trips to public libraries result in students playing games on computers; and during a trip to the Knights of Columbus where there are “religious statutes from various countries,” Scali made no attempt to educate the students on the statutes, and “made a statement suggesting they were incapable of understanding.”

The complaints all request an administrative investigation and review, along with “protection from retaliation and intimidation,” for bringing these concerns forward.

Among the incidents listed in the complaints was Scali’s dismissal of student welfare concerns, particularly one female student who showed “clear signs of hygienic neglect,” including “unidentifiable bugs,” crawling on her scalp, did not have underwear at home, resulting in an unfortunate incident during her menstrual period, and during the winter did not have appropriate clothing, including a winter coat or hat.

At one point, the student walked forty-five minutes to school in the middle of winter. The student later reported physical abuse at home and had bruises on her body. When staff reported this to the Connecticut Department of Children and Families, which directed them to the Department of Developmental Services because the student was 18 years old, Scali allegedly became upset, questioning why a report was made and stating “she’s always looked like that,” and “she’s always had trouble with her menstrual,” according to the complaint.

According to the other complaint, Scali “refuses to take action to report and document incidents, including violent incidents, of students.” Those “incidents” include violent outbursts by some of the students on trips during which he allegedly does not intervene to help the paraprofessional as they are calling for help, or losing track of students during the trek through IKEA, none of which was documented, according to the complaints.

“Many students do not have documentation in their file because he is unwilling to act. When incidents are brought to his attention, he is dismissive,” the complainant wrote. 

Similarly, the teacher allegedly failed to intervene when his students engaged in inappropriate or harassing behavior toward others. The complaints indicate that a male student had been harassing a female student by grabbing her breasts and buttocks, exposing himself to her, and spitting in her face. The student indicated such behavior had been occurring for “two years,” and had gone to the teacher requesting help, but stated that Scali “doesn’t do anything.”

Similarly, Shannon stated that her 14-year-old son began to come home with “invitations” and letters from a twenty-two-year-old student proclaiming his love for her son, along with stick-figure drawings of the two of them together. When she asked Scali about it and expressed concern that he had not intervened at an appropriate time, he was “dismissive.”

“That was concerning to me,” Shannon said.

Although many of the allegations regarding instruction in the classroom say much of it isn’t occurring, one complaint detailed a classroom discussion Scali initiated regarding a Nikki Minaj song that included the N-word, and reportedly using the word to explain “that although historically derogatory, during his time as a high school student it became a greeting or term of endearment among Black students.” 

But many of the allegations come back to money, or at least benefiting in some way from the inability of the students to really understand what is going on. While most parents send the requested money with their student, some either don’t or can’t afford to, but those who don’t bring money don’t eat the special food and have to eat the school-provided lunch, even if there are leftovers, according to the complaints.

When Scali ordered six medium pizzas at Paradise Pizza, estimated to cost roughly $86, those few students who had not brought ten dollars were not given pizza. According to the complaint, one of the paraprofessionals purchased an additional pizza with her own money. Scali then took a leftover pizza home with him. No change was distributed back to the students.

“We do not know their families’ financial circumstances, and it is deeply concerning to allow students to be visibly excluded based on whether they were able to bring money,” the complainant wrote. “This is not an isolated incident.”

When the students are provided snacks for their help at the food pantry by the food pantry manager, Scali allegedly collects the snacks to give out as prizes during games of Bingo.

“These snacks are intended to directly acknowledge and reinforce the students’ efforts that day,” the complainant wrote. “Not all students win Bingo. As a result, students who worked at the food pantry do not receive the reward given to them for their labor. Instead, the treats are presented as though they are prizes provided by Mr. Scali, rather than recognition from the food pantry for the students’ service.”

Bridgeport Public Schools (BPS), particularly its special education program, has been under state scrutiny for several years, following complaints submitted by the Center for Children’s Advocacy (CCA) in 2014, 2021 and 2025 to the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE) that alleged the school was not providing adequate education for its special education students.

In 2014, the CCA filed a complaint with CSDE alleging systemic failure by BPS officials to refer students for special education services, systemic failure to implement IEPs, and denial of a Free and Appropriate Public Education as required under federal law.

In 2021, CCA and Connecticut Legal Services filed a joint complaint with CSDE again, alleging, “Bridgeport failed to maintain adequate staffing to serve students with disabilities and neglected to inform parents and guardians when services were curtailed,” according to the press release. The complaints were filed on behalf of multiple students with disabilities in the Wilbur Cross School, claiming that BPS’s special education system had not provided an adequate education, “causing them to fall behind academically.”

Lastly, CCA again filed another complaint in 2025, alleging BPS had failed to provide special education students with adequate education, resources, and staffing, and “violated parents’ legal rights by predetermining what services children could receive without giving parents a right to be heard at special education planning meetings for their children, violation of federal law.”

Among CCA’s concerns outlined in the complaint and in the press release, an autistic child was placed in a classroom with no special education teacher and a paraprofessional who was not trained to work with autistic children. The child became “increasingly frustrated and isolated, and on several occasions was allowed to hit her head against the wall over 250 times without any adult intervening,” according to the press release.

Another child spent a year and a half in a classroom with no special education teacher, and another was “denied speech and language services for almost an entire school year.” All the children reportedly showed signs of deterioration and regression.

That’s the experience for “Melinda” and her daughter, who is enrolled in Scali’s special education class. Through an interpreter, Melida told Inside Investigator that her daughter “hasn’t learned anything that he is supposed to be teaching her; she doesn’t even know how to count change, or anything like that.”

Melinda says her daughter does have a disability, mostly with speech, but she should be learning. Melinda has taken her concerns to school officials and says that during a meeting with school officials and Scali, Scali indicated that her daughter couldn’t be taught counting and math “because she forgets everything.”

Melinda says that’s not true and that her daughter has shown progress since she’s been receiving after-school tutoring help, but in the class, she was just stagnating.

Likewise, Melinda never received any money back from her daughter’s field trips. Melinda, like many others, asked to keep her identity secret for fear of reprisal, an issue also reflected in CCA’s complaint, which indicated staff were fearful of retaliation.

“Staff in Bridgeport have confidentially shared with CCA attorneys that they are afraid to speak up or speak out as they expect retaliation for informing parents of their legal rights,” the CCA press release stated.

The state’s various interventions in the Bridgeport school system, particularly its special education program, were enough for the CSDE to devote an entire webpage just to Bridgeport, along with regular press releases on how those interventions were proceeding. 

Those state interventions included a forensic audit by CliftonLarsonAllen after BPS announced a $39 million deficit in 2025, which found inefficiencies, poor budgeting practices, and misclassification of expenditures; the Bridgeport Board of Education underwent training by the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education to ensure proper “governing structures and operations, and creation of a technical assistance team to support “financial management and instructional initiatives and processes,” according to a February 2025 press release from CSDE.

A lack of staff and funding for special education in Bridgeport has been identified numerous times in both the complaints submitted to CSDE and in the corrective actions issued by CSDE to BPS. Special education funding has long been a problem area for school districts, and special education funds largely flow from three tranches: the federal government, the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, and the state’s Excess Cost grant, which helps cover special education students placed out of district.

When unable to meet the needs of special education students, school district officials will often place them out of district at either another public school system more suited to care for their special needs or private schools dedicated to special education, but the placement can be prohibitively expensive. 

According to the latest April 2026 CSDE update on BPS, the school district and the state identified $5 million in savings from out-of-district special education students either returning to the district or graduating, and the district was also able to be reimbursed $529,000 by Medicaid for its special education services. However, the report also found savings in reducing the number of paraprofessionals in some instances.

There has been a push by municipalities this legislative session to increase the ECS grant to school districts, and last year the legislature set aside an additional $30 million for special education, but the actual need is reportedly around $190 million, according to Fran Rabinowitz, head of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, in previous comments to Inside Investigator.

“Upon review and investigation, state officials found that Bridgeport Public Schools violated the rights of these children and other students in these classrooms. Bridgeport is now directed to undertake a series of corrective measures to address these legal rights violations,” CCA wrote in October 2025, in response to CSDE’s findings. “CCA will advocate to ensure that state education officials undertake concurrent fact finding and corrective action with regard to all students with disabilities who were denied educational services due to lack of staffing and service provision.”

In February 2026, CSDE Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker released an open letter to the families of BPS informing them the state was stepping in as a partner to try to get the district back on track, including improving student performance “with a particular focus on students whom BPS has found eligible for special education and related services.”

“Change can feel uncertain, but I want to assure you that every decision being made is focused on ensuring that Bridgeport’s students receive the education they deserve and that the district has the best possible chance of success,” Tucker-Russell wrote in the open letter. “We are not implementing a solution and walking away—because if it falls apart, we have achieved nothing.”

Requests for comment to both school officials and Scali were not returned; however, sources indicate that although Scali remains in the classroom, the field trips for special education students have ended, even though trips into the community to develop life skills are part of some students’ IEPs. As indicated before, emails from school officials say that an investigation is pending.

Despite the systemic complaint filed by CCA in 2021, by 2024, the special education system for BPS had 31 vacancies for certified special education staff, according to the Connecticut State Board of Education, and the number of special education complaints to the CSDE had “substantially increased year-over-year since 2022.” The school district had also cycled through five superintendents in seven years, and since 2024, Dr. Royce Avery has served as acting superintendent. 

According to the October 2025 update from CSDE, that number has been reduced to only two special education vacancies.

As an alliance district, BPS’s student population is majority low income, with 86 percent of its student population qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, 28 percent English learners, and 20 percent with disabilities, according to CSDE’s information. The parents of special education students have little extra money to go around, but according to conversations with those parents, they and the paraprofessionals will often pitch in their own money to help out those students who can’t afford or aren’t provided some basic things, including the occasional pizza. 

But, as these special education complaints mount, so does the potential risk for the school district.

“These issues are not isolated incidents,” one of the complainants wrote, “they reflect a pattern of conduct that jeopardizes student welfare, undermines compliance with the districts special education procedures, and places the district at legal risk.”

“It seems these children and some of these parents don’t have a voice, that because of his tenure, everybody turns a blind eye,” Lemus said. “If you’ve been in this situation for thirty years, it’s not the same game as it was back then. Times have changed and parents are starting to pay way more attention to what’s going on with their children.”

“You do not steal from people who don’t understand they’re being taken advantage of,” Shannon said. “This is wrong on a whole lot of levels.”

Republish This Story

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.