No IDEA: How Massachusetts Blocks Federal Special Education Funding for Private and Religious School Students. White Paper No. 180

For awhile thousands of children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have been denied in fact (de facto) the special education services to which they, according to Federal Civil Rights Law (de jure), are entitled. According to the Massachusetts' Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), private schools are not entitled to federal funds for their special needs students. Should a private school student need services, they are to receive them at their local public school. As a result, they would have to travel to receive services, meaning a student would miss considerable school time and parents would have to take significant time off from work to transport the student. The authors of the white paper: (1) present how and why this state of affairs has persisted for so long; and (2) offer recommendations which, if implemented, would correct these wrongs that so negatively impact in Massachusetts thousands of private school students.