Support SPEDWatch's special education activism
“My school district is asking me to waive my rights in order to set up a virtual special education IEP Team Meeting for my son. That doesn’t sound right, but I don’t know what to do.”
Within four days of receiving this call, SPEDWatch had notified thousands of affected families, filed a dozen complaints against individual Massachusetts school districts, and ensured that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) notified special education directors to stop this illegal practice.
Swift action by SPEDWatch prevented families from giving up their rights, with potentially disastrous consequences for their children. No other organization does this kind of work. It is exacting, time intensive work that requires a sophisticated understanding of special education, and a direct connection to families, school districts, and DESE.
We all need SPEDWatch to continue increasing its power to influence special education in Massachusetts. But they don’t have the financial means to continue at their present level of operation, let alone to keep pace with drastically increasing demand for their activism.
Without your help, SPEDWatch could end.
If you’re ready to help, please Donate now.
If you want to learn more about SPEDWatch, read on!
SPEDWatch is a nonprofit special education activist group, the brainchild of Ellen Chambers , a Massachusetts special education advocacy consultant. “We have strong special education laws in Massachusetts. We have terrific advocacy organizations supporting families with training, litigation, and policy work,” she says. “Still, violations of children’s special education rights continue unchecked. Why? It took me several months of reflection to come up with the answer I thought made the most sense: families lack power."
There are 174,250 schoolchildren with special needs in Massachusetts, and every single one of them is at risk of having their educational rights violated, because the balance of power between families and schools is so heavily weighted in favor of schools. No law, policy, or parent training alone can change this. Families need to engage in a grassroots, parent-driven, civil rights movement aimed at securing the educational rights of their children with special needs. SPEDWatch is leading that movement.
The stakes are too high not to act. Tens of thousands of these students are denied the services they need in order to achieve at a level commensurate with their potential. In 2019, only 22 percent of Massachusetts third graders with disabilities were proficient readers, compared to 65 percent of their non-disabled peers. The academic achievement gap between these two student subgroups has widened significantly over the years. Not so easily measured is the anguish children suffer because of school failure, and the physical, emotional and financial hardship experienced by families as they engage in what often seems like an unwinnable fight to advocate for their children.
SPEDWatch already has a long history of fighting for children’s special education rights. They convinced Boston’s Channel 5 to produce an entire Chronicle episode, Inside Special Education, giving families equal air time to share their concerns, and persuaded The Cape Cod Voice magazine to devote its entire final publication to the same issues. SPEDWatch has filed hundreds of state complaints on behalf of students, directly challenged school districts and DESE, met with political leaders (including the Massachusetts governor), testified at state house hearings, met one on one with families across the state, appeared on television and radio, authored many publications about special education rights that families use every day in their interactions with schools, and helped several communities present their grievances to local authorites (resulting in the “retirement” of more than one special education director). Their members only listserv is the only listserv in Massachusetts devoted exclusively to providing substantive advice about how to address specific problems encountered in the special education system. Members get straightforward, understandable information about how to directly confront violations of special education law, and what to do to maximize a child’s chances of receiving the education to which they are legally entitled.
When families join SPEDWatch they find, often for the first time, that they are no longer alone in their fight.
Since 2006, SPEDWatch has operated without financial resources, relying solely on the generous volunteer work of its Board of Directors and a handful of donors. It can no longer survive without more significant financial support.
If you want SPEDWatch to continue its critical work on behalf of children with special needs, please donate today.
If you want to become a SPEDWatch member, send an email to Ellen Chambers
The children are waiting.
Photos by Raymond Earley
