Lake Carmel Woman’s Doctorate is Stuff of Lore and Legend

A Lake Carmel woman has copped a guilty plea for using fake credentials to work as a therapist with autistic children.

Stacey Lore, 34, admitted in Connecticut Superior Court last Thursday that she charged two school districts $500,000 for her services after passing herself off as a highly trained special education counselor certified to work with special education youngsters while in fact she only had a GED from a vocational school.

Lore founded Spectrum Kids and collected $300,000 from the Weston School District after falsely advising school officials that she had a PhD. She was paid $200,000 from the Norwalk City School District as well for services provided, but school officials became suspicious when the Putnam woman could not verify her records following complaints from several parents. An investigation resulted in the discovery that Lore was a fraud.

Lore will be sentenced next month to an eight-year sentence after her attorney and prosecutors agreed to three years behind bars and five years probation.

Unlike New York State, Connecticut had no legal requirement for school districts to check on the credentials of outside consultants hired by municipalities and schools. That was until last week when Gov. Jodi Rell signed a bill that establishes clear standards for such consulting positions.