News

Calling all walkers! SPEDWatch, Inc. is gearing up for its first Walk for Special Education Rights. The Walk, to be held on Saturday, August 29th, is around Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, Massachusetts. There is no registration fee and anyone can participate. More Information…

The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. is proud to announce advocate Ellen Chambers as the recipient of the 2009 Diane Lipton Award for Outstanding Educational Advocacy on Behalf of Children with Disabilities. Ellen is the founder and Executive Director of SPEDWatch, Inc, a non-profit civil rights organization working to secure the educational rights of all Massachusetts students with special needs. More Information…

SPEDWatch continues to track the academic achievement gap between students with and without disabilities. The recently released 2008 scores show, once again, that Massachusetts students with special needs are failing in numbers far out of proportion to their abilities. The gap in English Language Arts is unchanged at 46.8 percentage points while the gap in Mathematics has widened to 43.7 percentage points. More Information…

SPEDWatch now has a CafePress store account. Show your support for SPEDWatch and special education rights by sporting a SPEDWatch tee shirt or tote bag, using a SPEDWatch coffee mug, displaying a SPEDWatch bumper sticker, and more! Sizes run on the small size so if in doubt order one size up. More Information...

SPEDWatch sat down with Commissioner of Education Dr. Mitchell Chester less than a month after his arrival in Massachusetts, and spared few words in describing the long-standing, widespread and egregious noncompliance with special education law in the state, and its tragic human consequences. More Information…

SPEDWatch students, parents and teachers demonstrated outside the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education offices in Malden on Dr. Mitchell D. Chester's first day as the Commonwealth's new Commissioner of Education. Participants came from towns as far away as Springfield, Danvers and Taunton to insist that students with disabilities be given the education to which they are legally entitled. More Information…

Take a peek at the SPEDWatch monthly newsletter. Join SPEDWatch to receive these newsletters in their entirety as well as access to all back issues. More Information…

Federal and state laws say children with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate public education, but according to SPEDWatch, there is a huge discrepancy between what the law says and what many districts are doing. More Information…

“Parents call me and ask where they can move where it’s better. The answer is that there’s no place to move. Stay put and fight for your children’s rights,” said the founder and executive director of SPEDWatch, an activist civil-rights movement fighting for the educational rights of all Massachusetts children with disabilities. More Information…

Ellen M. Chambers, the executive director of SPEDWatch Inc., a statewide nonprofit group, met with about 20 parents in Springfield yesterday, and said many school districts don't fully comply with laws governing special education services. "Students in Springfield are in really grave danger of not receiving the education to which they are entitled," she told a group at the Central Library. Mary Anne Morris, executive officer of special education for the Springfield public schools, could not be reached for comment.  More Information…