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The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has failed to comply with a federal law to provide necessary support for students with disabilities, according to a U.S. Department of Education report released on Feb. 12.

The report by the Office of Special Education Programs identified 10 areas of noncompliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law that guarantees free and appropriate public education for children with disabilities. The report stated that DESE did not address and resolve complaints in a timely manner and that Massachusetts lacked a “general supervision system” to identify children who are in need of special education and related services.

Cynthia L. Moore, former president of the Special Needs Advocacy Network, said the report “was long overdue.”

Ellen Chambers, the founder of SPEDWatch — an activist group that mobilized Massachusetts parents in support of the report — said she is “beside myself with the joy that this report is available.”

“They have been fighting with their school districts for decades, and finally, the feds have said, ‘Yes, parents, you are right. The state is wrong. Your children are being denied their special education rights,’” Chambers added.

DESE spokesperson Alexandra Smith wrote in a statement that the department “has taken steps to improve its special education general supervision system, including hiring additional staff and revising policies.”

DESE has increased the number of staff implementing IDEA requirements and processing state complaints.

Chambers said the long-awaited report “vindicates parents and other interested parties who have been complaining for decades that DESE does not enforce federal special education law.”

“This information that Massachusetts is not enforcing special education law is not new. What’s new is that we have visibility into it now with this federal report,” Chambers added.

“So this is a big step forward,” she said.

The report comes after complaints by Cambridge parents that Cambridge Public Schools’ special education system is unnecessarily opaque. An investigation by The Crimson found that parents across the district struggled to access specialized services for their children.

At the time, CPS Interim Superintendent David G. Murphy told the Crimson that the district is continuing to work on improving their special education resources.

A Cambridge Public Schools parent of a second grader with an Individualized Education Plan — which provides students with additional staff support tailored to their specific needs — said they needed to jump through hoops to secure support for their child.

The parent said they were only able to secure an IEP for their child once receiving a diagnosis from an independent psychiatrist — a resource which is not available to all parents.

As the family waited to receive an IEP, the parent reported that their second grader continued to struggle in school. After receiving an IEP and transitioning to a different CPS school, however, the parent said the situation improved.

As Cambridge parents report difficulties navigating the IEP process, advocates say that the state is failing to provide support for students with special education needs.

Massachusetts is widely regarded as having one of the best K-12 education systems in the country, and recently ranked the top state in all four categories of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Advocates like Chambers, however, say the statistics don’t reflect education for children with special needs, and can be misleading.

“Massachusetts’ reputation as top for education is based solely on regular education results,” Chambers said. “If it were based on what’s happening in special education, we would not hold that position at all.”

Moore agreed, adding that Massachusetts is on par with Texas in terms of the disparity between special education and general education students.

“If you are a student with disabilities, you can expect an outcome similar to Texas. If you are a student without disabilities, you can expect the Massachusetts outcome,” she said. “Those are two very different realities.”

Chambers added that the academic achievement gap between Massachusetts students with and without disabilities is “huge, and it has been growing wider every year since 1993.”

“It's a very dire situation. It has been for decades,” she added.

While Chambers recognized that Massachusetts has strong special education laws, she said the state has failed to enforce the laws it has set in place.

“Massachusetts is struggling — because here’s the thing, Massachusetts doesn’t enforce the law,” Chambers said.

Katherine B. Gamble, a developmental neuropsychologist and former CPS parent, agreed that the report could provide the accountability needed for special education to improve.

“If there isn’t that accountability, then there’s a much larger opening for sort of abuse and neglect of these kids — and I mean that in terms of giving them the services that they need,” she said.

Despite the increased awareness, advocates were doubtful that meaningful policy change will follow the report due to the Trump administration’s series of federal funding cuts and repeated calls for the closure of the Department of Education.

“With what’s going on in Washington right now — where the Department of Education could very well be dissolved — there will be no one for parents to go to,” Chambers said.

“So the next step in this whole process for us is to identify mechanisms outside of DESE that we can use to enforce the law,” she added.

Moore said that the report is not enough, stressing the importance for parents to continue coming together and get involved in advocacy to affect actual change.

“Alone, we’re vulnerable and together, we’re formidable,” she said. “I think that one of the ways that you fall victim to the system is that you solve it for your own child, or you suffer in silence.”

“For far too long, we’ve become a little bit passive about thinking that our rights were solid and that somebody was doing something on our behalf,” she added. “Folks need to realize that all of that can go away in a blink of an eye – and that the more of us that are engaged, the more powerful the change will be.”

— Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.

— Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at claire.michal@thecrimson.com.