BOSTON — Resources and supports in special education programs can vary city to city even school to school, say some parents and education advocates. Some schools lack the teachers, therapists or resources to address students’ complex needs.
25 Investigates connected with a Boston mom who says she feels like her child is in exile.
A microcosm in Boston
“What they did was they absolutely sabotaged my son,” says Saquoya Craig a Jamaica Plain mother.
Craig says a lack of appropriate resources and supports for her son derailed his education. She says her 18-year-old son has emotional and physical disabilities.
“So, his IEP stems from trauma,” she told Boston 25 Anchor and Investigative Reporter Kerry Kavanaugh.
She asked that we not identify her son.
His IEP — or individualized education plan — calls for therapeutic supports for PTSD, depression, and ADHD, plus accommodations for sickle cell anemia. She says if her son is having a bad day, he is supposed to be allowed five moments to collect himself and access to a therapist.
“And they didn’t allow any of that,” Craig claims. “They would target him when he was crying out for help and wanted to speak to someone. They would suspend him, making false allegations against him. They just put him in exile.”
For the last three years Craig’s son has attended the Mel H. King South End Academy [MHKSEA] formerly the McKinley School, Boston’s therapeutic day school for “students with social, emotional and behavioral challenges”.
All of its students (99.2%) have disabilities and are classified as having “high needs.”
Craig says the school failed to follow her son’s IEP, did not provide him any education during an extended hospital stay, and she claims a teacher assaulted him during an altercation.
Boston Public Schools wouldn’t comment on a specific student’s situation.
Through a spokesperson BPS released a written statement.
We are fully committed to meeting both our moral responsibility and legal obligation to provide high-quality education services to our students with disabilities.
The district’s Office of Special Services, in collaboration with multiple departments, works diligently to ensure that every student with a disability receives the individualized support they require to succeed in compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and other applicable laws, such as Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE).
While we cannot comment on any specific matter involving a specific student due to the confidentiality of student record information, we remain committed to transparency and accountability in our efforts to provide an equitable education for every student. Whenever a parent, caregiver or advocate raises a concern, we work through all proper protocols and processes to ensure an outcome that fully supports our students and meets their individual needs.
We value and encourage strong partnerships with parents and caregivers as advocates for their children. Open communication, collaboration, and transparency are cornerstones of our approach as we work together to develop and implement effective educational plans for each student.
“It’s a civil right. If you have a disability, you have a civil right to get the supports and interventions that you need,” said Edith Bazille with Black Advocates for Educational Excellence.
Bazille is a parent and student advocate who says the MHKSEA has long underserved its’ students, particularly black boys. She believes it too often results in missed learning time.
25 Investigates pulled state data showing in the 2023-24 school year, 171 students were enrolled in the South End Academy.
More than 25% (25.7) were suspended that year.
It’s higher, 33% (33.3), for the schools’ black students.
This current school year enrollment is down to 125 students.
The district says the MHKSEA is the most restrictive placement in BPS, and they have been working to place student in less restrictive settings when possible.
This fiscal year (FY25) the MHKSEA received $15 million dollars in funding. Funding is not dependent on enrollment.
State data shows the MHKSEA has currently 81.5% chronic absenteeism.
“There was no infrastructure of support, clinical support for these students and they frequently ended up once they arrived at the McKinley school getting worse,” said Bazille.
BPS said this year all staff received specialized trauma-informed, de-escalation training. There is an ongoing partnership with Franciscan Children’s Hospital to staff therapists and they created therapeutic “think spaces.”
Promises made
May 12, 2022, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu officially launched the Green New Deal for Boston Public Schools, new construction and renovation projects to improve Boston’s aging school buildings. Wu was standing outside the MHKSEA announcing it would among the first of many city schools to be rebuilt.
“We’re starting right here. Literally, right here with buildings like this on,” Wu said in May, 2022.
“There was a promise to rebuild the McKinley. And to provide the students with a cutting-edge facility,” Bazille said. “Nothing has happened.”
This week, on May 13th Kavanaugh asked Mayor Wu where the project stands.
“People in the community there feel that nothing’s happened there. They feel disappointed that those promises have not been kept as of yet,” Kavanaugh said to Wu.
“We’ve been working on a lot of the over a hundred schools that need major renovations or in some cases a complete rebuild from scratch,” Wu said. “And at the South End Academy there, the Mel King Academy, there’s been a lot work in programmatic design and making sure that we will be able to design the building that meets the programmatic needs of our young people.”
“Is there a timeline for any changes though to the physical structure at the South End Academy at this point,” Kavanaugh asked.
“We’re still working through programmatic design and at that point it will turn into the community process around the physical design of the building and then thinking about how to secure the funding once we have a budget and everything,” Wu said. “As I mentioned earlier, there are now more school renovation and rebuild projects underway in this moment than in the last 40 years combined, but these are significant projects that have to be done right and also take a lot of resources to make sure that we can deliver them.”
The big picture
Advocates say when special education fails to address students’ needs there are long-term consequences.
“If a kid is acting out, but that behavior arises from their post-traumatic stress disorder, we shouldn’t be punishing kids for their disability,” said Leon Smith with Citizens for Juvenile Justice or CFJJ. “Now we’re stuck in a loop where a kid falls further and farther behind, they get more and more frustrated, you have more acting out behaviors.”
CFJJ crunched state data, obtained from the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education [DESE] showing Craig’s experience at the MHKSEA is not rare. Black and brown students with disabilities are more often disciplined through suspensions.
In 2022-2023, black students were 6.4 percent of the student population in Massachusetts. 9.7 percent of black students with disabilities were suspended that school year. Hispanic/Latino students accounted for 5.3 percent overall yet 8.3 percent of Hispanic students with disabilities faced suspensions, according to CFJJ figures.
And some students of color are overrepresented in the state’s special education classification.
According to a study, out from UMass Boston’s Center for Social Development and Education “In the United States, 15 percent of Black students in the U.S. are identified as disabled compared to 13 percent of white students, despite that Black students constitute 15 percent of the public school population while white students make up 46 percent. Not only are Black students overrepresented in special education, when students of color are evaluated and given a disability classification, it tends to be either emotional disturbance or intellectual disorder.”
25 Investigates asked DESE about the disciplining of students of color who have disabilities.
A spokesperson shared a written statement.
“The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education works with schools and districts to reduce the inappropriate use of student discipline and to provide professional development for educators and supports for students. The Department’s goal is for all students and educators to have safe and supportive school environments and to minimize interruptions in learning.”
“When special education is not administered in accordance with the law, when corners are cut and things are not done with fidelity, or when special education is administered in a biased way, or in a way that’s rooted in low expectations for certain groups of young people, we’ve seen how it can be a barrier to success and actually a ceiling on young people’s potential,” said Smith.
When done right, Smith said special education can be a game changer for students with disabilities, level the playing field and create opportunities for success.
“I would like him to be able to have an opportunity to get his education. I don’t need a magic wand, there needs to be empathy and compassion,” said Saquoya Craig.
Craig says that’s why she continues to advocate for her son.
“Speak up. You can’t be silent,” she said.
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