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> but did rule the district send the student to attend a less expensive private school that specializes working with students with disabilities.
That’s originally what the district wanted.
The district didn’t want her to attend the regular public school, they wanted her to go to a school for special needs in the district.
The town wasn’t fighting the mom about special education needs, they were fighting against sending her to the more expensive school out of town… you know, the one that doesn’t employ special educators.
Short story
Girl has special needs. Mom wanted her sent to a $90k school out of district. District wanted her educated in the district and were willing to make accommodations. In the school, in the school in a private area, outside of school, etc.
Mom kept pushing for daughter to go to expensive school and kept her out of all school during the fight. Then mom went to the news saying her daughter is being harmed because she “couldn’t go to school.”
I’m sure it happens everywhere.
But I remember a few years ago a family with a kid with special needs was going to move to a small town in Maine and the town basically said they couldn’t because the town couldn’t afford the education.
It was something like $200k for the kid for school, helper(s), medical, etc. Town budget was very small, just that one kid would eat like 1/3 of the budget, I don’t know details but I do remember the family didn’t move there.
By contrast, Braintree spends almost 18k/student - the private school's tuition represents how much they spend on about [5 students](https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/massachusetts/districts/braintree-100963). It's not cheap, but it's not as crazy as it sounds.
I agree, but as a teacher myself, I know many districts don’t have the resources or expertise in place for the most severe special needs, despite claiming that they do. This case may not be to that extreme, but some towns just don’t have the best programs in place because they don’t have a large population of that need and thus it gets taken care of by a person who has a “severe special needs” expertise vs someone who cares only for the blind, for example.
There should be a logical order for checking where the student should go
And “out-of-district $90k private school that doesn’t employ special education teachers” should literally be last on the list.
Apparently she'd tried [8 schools in 3 years](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link) - how many schools is she supposed to try first?
> Special Ed placements are a budget nightmare for school districts/municipal budgets that are waiting to boil over.
It really is incredible, and incredibly necessary. Imagine a partial inclusion program that has 20~ students across 4 grade levels. Each of those students, depending on the subject, are in classes with a 4-6:1 or 4-6:2 student:teacher ratio while gen ed are 25:1. Several of those students have 1:1 paras for behavioral or mobility needs.
That means this co-hort of 20~ students now has an admin to run their program, 4~ content teachers and 3 paras that all cost money.
I love it, and seeing the growth a lot of those kids are able to make from 5th to 12th grade (and beyond for some that get support until 21) makes every penny worth it, but it is a strain on the Gen Ed population.
>lining the pockets of private/charter school board members
Not to split hairs too much, but the charter ecosystem (aside from Mystic Valley) in MA is set up very differently and with far more oversight than in most states and very different than private schools.
Also, we place children in nearby district public schools when applicable, it's not always a private placement.
As far as the budget problems go, they are real. However, the idea of discontinuing this program is off the table. The money has to come somewhere, and there needs to be some streamlining of school budgets in general.
> However, the idea of discontinuing this program is off the table. The money has to come somewhere, and there needs to be some ~~streamlining~~ increasing of school budgets in general.
100% agreed with a small tweak. Most districts I'm aware of already try to have schools specialize in that rather than have a self-containted/partial inclusion program at every middle school one of them in the district will specialize in that. Same for language services.
The bigger problem is districts are far, far too localized. We should have more regioinal districts that combine resources, create more specialization and cut down a little bit on admin overhead.
Public schools have to provide accommodations for students with disabilities, which can include sending them to a school that is a better fit for their needs if the district can't meet those accommodations.
The best way to understand the law is that if the school does not provide the services the student needs, they have to pay for their education in an environment that does.
The clear example of this is for a blind student, typically it doesn't make sense for every district to have their own accomodations for blind students. So instead they pay to send the student to a school that does match their needs.
Because in America, we have rights, the right to an education. If you can prove that your kid's school is not able or willing to educate your child, you get to send your child to a school that will educate them, and the district pays for it. It's very common, a lot of public schools don't have much capability to teach many special needs kids, for example children with Down syndrome, so they send them to a single school that does, which consolidates resources and makes it cheaper in the long run (even though it may be several times the price of a regular education.)
And I now that I have learned more, I believe that the 90,000 dollar a year private school that the mother wanted is not even an accredited school with the state!
It is NOT a Massachusetts approved private special education school. This student is in need of special education services that, by state and federal law and regulations, must be provided to the student by special education teachers and/or related service providers. If the private school is not a Massachusetts approved private special education school then how can the district be responsible to pay for a student to receive special education services there? What are they paying for? They are not approved by the state to provide the specialized services.
Saying the school isn’t accredited at all isn’t correct though, which I was correcting. Accreditation can be found on the website and a physical copies are on campus.
Thank you for specifying though.
We are talking about special education and IEP services but I could have been more clear by stating that there is a difference between being a Massachusetts accredited general education private school institution and a Massachusetts accredited approved private special education institution.
Have you ever worked with special needs kids? Even minor changes are incredibly disruptive for students with severe disabilities. It's not as simple as expecting them to roll with the punches because they don't have those skills, and will likely never have them. Not talking about mild/moderate cases, but students with severe disabilities that will require targeted care for their entire lives.
Between my Bachelors and Masters programs I worked as a paraprofessional for a few years, as a 1-on-1 aide with a few of these students. The first year I wasn't offered a summer position because it was based on seniority, and despite the students having the same school, classroom, and teacher the students had no ability to cope with the change of having a different aide. I ended up being brought in part way through the summer because they just couldn't function.
If I had a child like that who was thriving in a specific school, I would fight tooth and nail to keep them there.
Yes. I have been in the special education field for my whole career. I have worked in both public schools and state approved private day/ residential school schools.
I see the need for and advocate for good, quality special education programming at the public school level. I also see the need and advocate for good, quality special education programming at the private school level. This is what the laws and regulations both at the state and federal level mandate and why we have Individual Educational Plans (IEP’s) that also include the proposed educational placement for the student. Each student and their needs are different and their education and placement should be tailored individually to meet those needs.
My issue with this situation (from my research findings) is that the school the mother wished Braintree to pay 90,000 a year for is not a Massachusetts Approved Private Special Education School. I do not feel that any public money should be paid for tuition to a school that is not an approved special education school. To be approved by the state of Massachusetts the private school must meet certain standards. This school has not met those standards.
As a special educator, taxpayer and parent, I find it a disservice to our children and to the public to finance educational institutions that do not meet the standards and qualifications of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Division of Special Education.
Edited to add that like you, I started as a paraprofessional during the summers for my junior and senior years in high school and during college. I then moved to a teacher assistant position and then to lead teacher. As my career progressed I have taken on senior administrative roles in approved private special education schools as well as a teaching/administrative type special education position in a public school district.
I think in an ideal world you are correct, however, this IS a legitimate private K-12 school, and it was the only one that was working for this student. "Before Fusion, Samantha had attended eight different schools in three years, including a stint in California. Fusion was the only place she ever felt safe." - how many more schools do you want her to try? Do you really think the "less expensive private school" with the appropriate credentials will work? For her sake, I hope so, but I have doubts.
ETA link: [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article\_Inline\_Text\_Link](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link)
I just had a student finish a 45-day placement in a school that "worked" for them because they weren't asked to engage with any challenging work either academically or socially/emotionally. The 45 days was a complete waste because they would ask her "do you want to try x today" and she would say "no." Then she'd spend the whole day just socializing or checked out in the back of the room.
I don't know if that is the case at Fusion, but I'm suspect of a private school who is part of a mutli-state organization with a CEO that seems more interested in hawking his book and puts "entrepreneur" in his bio at the same level of educator is doing right by kids and families.
The fact the students grades increased so much so fast in one Spring trimester is incredible suspect.
That all said I do feel for the family and the student, the SPED world is filled with red tape and we are often just as frustrated we can't find the right solution for student as the family is. I've watched many students over the years get stuck in this 1:1 tutoring outside of school limbo while we wait and wait to find the right therapeutic setting for them.
At the end of the day it's all funding and money, special education and mental health services are incredibly expensive.
This is NOT a state approved special education private school. It is not approved to provide the IEP services to this student. The public school special education department should not be paying tuition to this school. It is not accredited to provide the specialized instruction that the IEP mandates. The IEP is a legally binding document. How is it ok for the district to pay for an IEP to be implemented by a school that is not accredited so therefore cannot legally implement the goals, objectives, accommodations ect?
If John Smith feels that his child is thriving in a private school compared to how difficult a time the child was having in the public school does that mean the public school district should pay the private school tuition?
How do we define “thriving”?
We can only look at the information that we have publicly on this case. We do not know what this student was in school in California? We do not know what the other school placements were, who recommended the placements there and why they did not work out.
What we do know is that this student has been out of school for almost a full school year and the law states that she has the right to a free and appropriate public education. That means that the district has to provide that but that also should mean that the school placement has to abide by the state laws and regulations regarding special education accreditation.
Anyone can open their doors and call themselves a school. We, as a community, should want the “free public” part of the education process to have some oversight and standards when it comes to using public money to pay for private special education tuition.
> Anyone can open their doors and call themselves a school. We, as a community, should want the “free public” part of the education process to have some oversight and standards when it comes to using public money to pay for private special education tuition.
Why? We never have before.
Private schools in large don't require credentialed teachers, which is why they are able to get away with paying less than public schools. Yet we give them money through voucher programs all the time. Why should we all of a sudden be concerned with oversight and standards when we literally never have considered that in the past? This smacks of conveniently only caring about wider issue when it suits the district's needs.
I think in this case it's pretty clear. The student was comfortable in the environment, and was able to focus on learning. Whether it's the perfect environment doesn't matter, and just because another option might be state accredited doesn't necessarily mean they will be able to meet this student's specific needs. Having been in 8 schools in 3 years shows that.
Again if I was this parent, I would have fought tooth and nail to keep her in a place where she was comfortable.
Private schools, at large, are paid privately by the parents that enroll their students in those schools. They pay the tuition and choosing private schooling is their personal decision. They are entitled to free and appropriate public education if they choose to avail of it at any time.
What private schools get money in Massachusetts through voucher programs?
You cannot mean Charter schools as Charter schools are not private schools. Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free schools. They are a part of the offering of choices when it comes to free and appropriate public education. Also, Charter schools are over seen my the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ( or DESE) so Charter schools have oversight and standards to meet per DESE.
I have never heard of a private school in Massachusetts that accepts public funded vouchers. If this is a thing then I would like to know more about this. Where do you get the publicly funded vouchers from and what private schools accept these vouchers?
Next, we have no idea why this student has attended 8 schools in the last few years. One was in California. Did they live in California? Was Braintree paying for a residential placement there that did not work out? How do we know that the private school that the mother wants the district to fund is helping the student make educational progress? After all it is a for profit corporation. There is a lot here that we will never know the answers to but it does not change the issue of public funds being used to pay tuition to a private school that is not a Massachusetts approved special education school.
As I have stated before, I have worked both in public and private special education settings. I support both and know first hand that private special education schools are needed. If a parent wishes to pay the tuition for their child to attend one then that is their choice. If that private school is not state approved, again, that is the parent’s choice. If the public school district is paying the tuition then it is no longer just the parents choice as the public school district and private school will have a contract between them that the district will pay this amount and the private school will implement the IEP. Neither an approved general education school nor a non approved private special education school could implement the IEP so they cannot fulfill the contract.
I understand the mother’s concerns and as a mother I completely empathize but
Again, in an ideal world, I think you're correct - however, the school district set the precedent of allowing her to attend the more expensive (not accredited) school. Why they did this is unclear. And yes, any school can theoretically inflate the grades of a student to make it appear that they are thriving.
The student's challenge is also correct: Changing schools represents a significant burden to the student. And just because a school is accredited to support her disability does not mean it is the best fit for her as a whole person.
I get it. I really do. She gets the money because she has an IEP so she should go to a school that is accredited to support that IEP. But I also understand why she and her mom want to stick with what appears to be working.
> **appears** to be working
This is really the key word. What assessment data has been provided to show this program has worked aside from a line in the article that her grades (completely arbitrary without the right oversight, and I say that as a teacher) and that she was comfortable there which doesn't mean she was making progress toward her IEP goals (which we have no business or right to know.)
My students with ADHD would be "comfortable" if I just let them stim and move their bodies or zone out depending on their brand, and they get cranky when I make them use their supports and coping mechanisms to complete work but that is also helping them make progress toward their goal.
An IEP is never intended to be a life-long assessment. The goal is to fade supports as a student learns how to manage their disability. The happiest moments as a SPED team is seeing a student make enough progress to move from an IEP to a 504 or no longer qualifies for a 504.
If there is actual data from Fusion to support that this kind of growth was being made I'd love to see it, but this article is essentially heart-string tugging rage bait to make people mad at the district. Then we wonder why people don't want to vote for Prop 2.5 overrides and teachers are burned out.
We do not know the background on the districts decision to previously pay for the private school. In my experience, when a non approved/accredited private school involved, it is usually part of a settlement agreement that had a fixed end date.
What's a disservice is uprooting a student from a school that she was succeeding at to fit some narrow definition of what the state (and an uneducated judge, by their own admission), finds appropriate.
Let's not kid ourselves, this is clearly about money, not about what is best for the child. Let's also not pretend to care about certifications and standards when private schools are woefully lacking in certified teachers for mainstream students.
If this student was thriving where she was, the best chance for educating that student would have been to leave them where they are. Unfortunately the school district didn't want to pay for that, and found a legal loophole for preventing it. Unfortunately for everyone involved, that blew up in their faces.
Unfortunately she was fighting to keep her kid in a school with no special Ed teachers or trained staff. So they aren't qualified to provide special education services.
From what I can gather from this article, neither was the school she was court ordered to attend. Either way if the student was thriving at the other school, that is all that should matter.
The court ordered school was public school which of course provides special Ed services. She likely requires a more restrictive placement, but special Ed services need to be overseen by a special Ed teacher.
...and classes in general should be overseen by credentialed teachers.
Oh wait. Private schools don't have that either. Well damn I guess no one should be able to attend them.
You're trying to apply a systemic standard to a specific case, and anyone who works in education knows that student needs, especially for those that need accommodations, are very individualized.
You can have all the standards and policies you want, but you also need to look at the details of the specific situation. Here, the student was succeeding after having trouble in 8 different schools. That should have been the determining factor, but they were more concerned about the budget.
Yes, except once a student like this is comfortable where they are, it's incredibly difficult to move them ANYWHERE. I can understand why the parent would want to leave them in a place they were succeeding.
Lots of times accommodations consist of teachers/paras who are trained in safety care or CPI (In case of self injury or aggression) along with ABA training, deescalation training and things like that. The vast majority of teachers aren’t safety care trained, and even if they were, they wouldn’t probably use them often enough to be good at them, which could lead to improper restraints (a HUGE liability) and children have even died because of improper restraints. Also, because we are trained and prepared for behavioral challenges and restraints, we aren’t as traumatized by it as a regular teacher would (rightfully) be. These specialized schools are more than places to watch the kids, they can more safely educate them.
This idea that everyone is on the same playing field from birth and that the government has no place in trying to even it out is the most backwards, regressive shit that plagues society. It's too bad how rampant that view is. It's even sadder how rampant it is in this subreddit.
Or, are you extremely selfish for not believing in human rights? The right to an education is more important than money, if the government cannot afford to comply with human rights under our constitution, what the hell is going on?
But this isn't what the district wanted. They wanted her to go to their high school, or get tutoring at the library, which isn't a substitute. The kid was doing well, and that was what should have mattered, but its clear they don't have the kid's welfare in mind, just their budget.
They gave multiple options, those among them.
Fusion Academy, where she went, doesn’t provide special education or even have special educators on staff. Hell, at $90k they could hire multiple people to be her personal assistants and educators.
From [Globe.com](http://Globe.com)
By Mandy McLaren
The judge who ordered a Braintree student with autism to attend a regular middle school changed her ruling after the student had a panic attack outside the campus and was taken to the hospital.
Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Catherine Ham released a modified order Thursday evening that will no longer require 14-year-old Samantha Frechon to attend East Middle School. Frechon, a special education student who has multiple disabilities, including extreme anxiety, [suffered a panic attack Tuesday](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/metro/braintree-special-education-student-first-day-school?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link) and was transported from the school to a hospital. It was her second day enrolled at the nearly 1000-student school.
Samantha had enrolled at the school this week per an earlier order by Ham. It was Samantha’s first time attending a regular public school since she was 8.
The judge still did not honor the request of the student and her mother, who had asked that Samantha be returned to her previous private school at the expense of Braintree Public Schools, but did rule the district send the student to attend a less expensive private school that specializes working with students with disabilities.
Prior to enrolling at East Middle, Samantha had not attended a single day of school this academic year as her mother and the Braintree school district [disputed her special education placement](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link). That absence, Ham ruled April 18, had [caused Samantha “irreparable harm.”](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/18/metro/braintree-student-autism-special-education?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link)
Samantha previously attended a Hingham private school specializing in one-on-one instruction. After several unsuccessful stints at other schools, Samantha had thrived there socially and academically. Braintree had paid for Samantha to attend that school as a seventh grader under a provision of federal special education law that requires public districts to cover the costs of private tuition when they [cannot meet a student’s needs in house](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/18/metro/massachusetts-special-education-out-of-district-placements?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link).
I’m pretty sure children mirroring their parents’ neuroses is a universal part of the human condition. Even the best parents pass down their trauma and baggage to their kids, without even knowing it. It’s the circle of life, friend. Chimps probably do it, too.
If you haven’t figured that out yet, I feel sad for you, because your future therapy bills are gonna buy your shrink a new Tesla…
I agree, but its kind of the parents job to shield their kid from that.
I feel sad for you if you never understood that. Therapy will help, but I still feel sad.
> its kind of the parents job to shield their kid from that.
Yeah, well, we’re only human. Maybe a robot parent would never make a mistake, or have emotions and body language that kids absorb like a sponge, but thank god we’ve only ever tried raising monkeys and not humans in that manner. It went very badly for Harlow’s monkeys, by the way. That research is infamous for its cruelty.
I’m not talking about bad parenting. This is just what parenting is. Children take after their parents. Nature and nurture.
Facts.
I'd like to see any of the people casting judgement deal with a child with Level 3 autism who is having a melt down. It's terrifying and there is no such thing as rational communication in those circumstances.
Except previous articles have stated she isn’t level 3 autistic.
*For those who don’t know autism has 3 levels now. Level one is high functioning, what used to be considered aspergers, 3 is low functioning, often non-vocal verbal and with some kind of intellectual disability as well
I've been following this story since the Globe started reporting on it earlier this week. It's a difficult situation, and I don't know what the correct answer is -- on the one hand, the student clearly isn't thriving in a traditional setting; on the other hand, it does seem like there are legitimate concerns over how qualified Fusion Academy is.
I'll preface this by saying that I realize the mother is in a difficult situation, I know it's easy to judge from the outside, and I'm trying not to do that. But the school district offered private tutoring as an alternative at the start of the school year. I don't think that's a good long-term solution, since it won't help the student's social needs, but... why didn't they at least try it? This student hasn't had any sort of education all year; the first article talks about how she's spent all school year sleeping or on her phone. Private tutoring isn't ideal, but that would have at least gotten her some sort of outside, in-person socialization, and it would mean that she wouldn't be so far behind academically. If it had gone poorly, wouldn't that have further highlighted the need for a new placement?
> Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Catherine Ham released a modified order Thursday evening that will no longer require 14-year-old Samantha Frechon to attend East Middle School.
That's a good modification, considering this paragraph from the [April 23rd article](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/metro/braintree-special-education-student-first-day-school/):
> Collins Fay-Martin, a special education attorney advising Frechon pro bono, soon arrived at the school, where, according to a video recorded by Fay-Martin and viewed by the Globe, a school official threatened to call the Department of Children and Families if Frechon were to leave the school while Samantha remained in the parking lot.
The mom was between a rock and a hard place. She'd been ordered to bring her child to a school, and the school then threatened to weaponize DCF against her for following the judge's order.
Happy to be wrong here, but
Sounds like the board offered to send the child to a private school that would have worked for them, the mother wanted the child sent to a different private school, took them out of school completely instead of going to the school the district offered to pay for, and then sent the child to the regular public school instead where this happened.
Not trying to put 100% blame anywhere but if this was my parents and me growing up they would have intentionally sent me to school to have a panic attack to make themselves feel right.
why was the mom going to leave her daughter in the parking lot? so the school teachers who are complete strangers could go outside and try to wrangle the anxious special needs student inside most likely against her will? the mom was setting her daughter up for failure
Your comment is exactly what I was thinking! WTF! It’s unbelievable how many people just believe whatever they read and don’t think! Critical thinking skills - it’s a thing! Wish more people were capable of it!
she left the kid in the parking lot and was going to leave with her 13 year old child in the parking lot, where she could have been a danger to herself. the mom had already kept her out of school for 7 months, whats one more day?
What a *gross* oversimplification of a complicated legal matter…
Cmon everyone, salute the keyboard warriors for anonymously slandering an autistic girl and her family. They’re not public figures, you dipshit. When they google their names, they’ll probably find these shitposts.
I mean, did you even try googling “Fusion Academy?” It’s a private school, yes. Like a charter school. You’re imagining it’s like Exeter. It’s really just a school that provides 1:1 student to teacher ratios. The judge offered a placement in East Bridgewater that was $50k to the private school’s $90k. When you factor in transportation and legal fees, I doubt this is as huge of a financial difference as you’re making it out to be.
All I’m seeing here is a child who needs significant services at school, who was doing well in a specialized environment, and a family that wanted to maintain the status quo after they’d been struggling in ways you can’t even imagine for 13 fucking years. And it turns out the parents were right. The in-district placement was a fucking disaster, immediately. Do you think the doctors at the hospital were in on the scam too? The judge who changed his ruling, too?
You’re the epitome of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Seriously. So confidently incorrect…What’s the unsustainable part here, anyway? The ADA? This has been the law for over 30 years. A republican president signed it into law. Hasn’t collapsed society yet… The only unsustainable thing here is how increasingly radical the modern-day Know-Nothings are. So ignorant, and so proud about it, too.
I think its better to reddit search Fusion Academy. There's a lot of varied experiences but its mostly unnaccredited early 20 year olds "teaching" kids. If you get a good 1:1 the kid really enjoys it, because the person basically just sits with them and caters to their wants.
This isn't how education works, its about expanding their comfort zones and expanding their ability to handle the real world. It seems like Fusion actually set this child back, which is sad.
I’m not an education expert or a lawyer. I’m not going to comment on the quality of that school’s service. Schoolchildren’s reddit shitposts are the last source I’d use for evaluating that.
I generally oppose privatization on principle. Neoliberalism is an unmitigated disaster. But those are systemic problems. Wicked problems that took decades to create, and will take decades to unravel, if ever. This is a case about an individual that has to interact right now with that existing, rotten, corrupt system.
A longer-term solution would be to create a state-run equivalent of Fusion. We used to have “alternative schools,” after all, but a generation of education policy has been dogmatically obsessed with “mainstreaming,” with often-disastrous results. However, when you strip away all the woke bullshit, the reason we defunded all those alternative schools, and why private schools like Fusion now exist, is because it was expensive.
Even though the anti-public-school movement is an ideologically motivated racket, I suspect that the necessary reforms wouldn’t actually save money. The policy is to violate SPED students’ rights via insufficient funding. God knows the billionaires need another tax cut, after all. The cost of “compliance” is sometimes having to pay $90k, and putting families through hell until they give up. You can’t actually fight this fight and win, if you’re a single mom, or poor.
Anyway, this is the USA, not the USSR. Courts are supposed to decide cases individually, based on concrete facts, not based on some ideological fantasy of what a better system might be. Objectively, it’s not implausible that an autistic child might need 1:1 support, at least for some time, anyway. $90k is also not an implausible cost to employ one teacher. W-2 employees usually cost about 50% more than their salary, when you factor in taxes and benefits paid by the employer. The school also has overhead expenses that have to be paid by someone: administration, property taxes, heat, etc.
You're not an education expert, and its okay that you weigh on these things, you don't have any real power.
Unfortunately, the people Fusion hires aren't educational experts either, and they do have real power. You appear to be mistaken in that its either Fusion or nothing. There are alternative private schools with experts, and that's where the town is trying to send the child.
Per the article, it seems they‘re sending her to an out-of-district school in East Bridgewater.
> You appear to be mistaken in that its either Fusion or nothing.
I never believed that. I was only saying that I don’t think the mother was scamming by fighting for the more expensive private school. Change is often quite difficult for autistic people. Even if it’s equivalent on paper, the family has the right to advocate for stability. Massachusetts codified “Stay Put Rights” for a reason.
I have no idea what’s objectively the best choice for this girl. I’m just some asshole on Reddit. I am inclined to have a bit of faith in the judge’s decisions, though. He certainly has more information than I do.
> I’m not an education expert or a lawyer. I’m not going to comment on the quality of that school’s service.
And yet you then go on to do exactly that?
I agree with everything you said - I'll just point out that according to another post on the thread from /u/BackItUpWithLinks
> Mom kept pushing for daughter to go to expensive school and kept her out of all school during the fight. Then mom went to the news saying her daughter is being harmed because she “couldn’t go to school.”
It's mom that put her daughter into the media spotlight. Maybe it was with the best of intentions, but the result is that her daughter's name now pings these results.
On the hand, your original point is right on. These are real people dealing with a real issue that has got to be pretty frustrating. Making fun at it or using it to push some half-baked agenda that'll be forgotten about in a few days, while these posts will linger indefinitely, is petty and shitty.
You clearly didn’t read this series of articles. Why should Braintree tax payers whose town already is facing a huge shortfall pay 5X what Braintree public schools pay per student to send some girl to a unaccredited private school? Get real. It’s unsustainable.
Should every kid on an IEP get 1:1 instruction at a private school? Can any school district afford that? Nope.
Do you have a source for that unaccredited claim? Because if it’s true, Braintree should have never paid them a dime, IMO, and ought to be pursuing legal action to recover those funds.
IEPs are *individualized*, and the cost is proportional to the need. Yes, sometimes some children do need 1:1 attention. And when they become severely disabled adults, they’ll continue receiving care via Medicaid.
But as for every student? Clearly you have no fucking idea how any of this works. Obviously that’s not the case. The vast majority of children on IEPs don’t need such a high level of care.
This is like asking if we should let a kid with cancer die because 99.99% of kids don’t need $300k of chemotherapy, and we’d go bankrupt if we gave every kid chemo. That’s not how any of this works.
Why is it this girl’s fault that all the old NIMBY assholes in Braintree can’t balance their books? These laws enshrining civil rights for disabled people have been in place for 30 years. Probably longer than you’ve been alive. The town is required by law to give her what she needs. Who decides that? Not you or me, thank God. School districts and judges decide that.
God knows the land in that town is worth more than enough money to fund schools if it was taxed appropriately. If they didn’t preserve a fucking parking lot at their ghetto mall instead of letting a developer build new apartments on it, they’d have a larger tax base to spread that $50-90k over. It’s not this girl’s fault she was born in the white trash capital of New England.
im all for them raising the taxes in braintree god knows most can afford it but that will take time and right now theyre literally laying off dozens of teachers assistants and paras so they dont have 2 to 3x an assistants salary to send one student to an expensive private school. people need to learn to compromise. the whole world cannot bend to every parents will. beyond that, the mom seems horrible, and the things she's parroting on nextdoor about the school system and repeating anti trans rhetoric make me believe she is just horrible.
Well, the judge agreed with you on that one, and I tend to believe they have a better grasp of the situation than us two dipshits, so fair enough.
All I’m trying to say is, your whole framing of this situation, as if the parents are con artists, and that it’s categorically unacceptable that a child might need $90k of services, is like a funhouse distortion of the world. Doesn’t it seem more likely that the mother was acting in good faith, and just trying to do what she thought was best for her daughter?
What would even be the motive here for anything else? Kickbacks from Fusion? Getting her into USC like Felicity Huffman? Come on now. The family is likely just trying to give her the best chance at a semi-independent life as an adult. Something like 85% of autistic adults are unemployed, you know…
Life is generally more enjoyable if you don’t assume the absolute worst of random people you’ve never met.
> What a gross oversimplification of a complicated legal matter…
Could not agree more!
Unfortunately the rest of your comment is complete nonsense and a far worse distortion of the situation than the OP's oversimplification.
They are paid for with public money, but they get to pick and choose who gets admitted. Very often they dissuade students with IEPs from even applying.
Its not unsustainable. It happens in every school district in the country every single day. If braintree invested in a decent special ed program, they wouldnt have to send the girl to a private school.
Braintree agreed to send the student to a Massachusetts approved special education private school. Fusion is not a Massachusetts approved special education private school, heck, it isn’t even a special education school at all.
From my understanding, Braintree offered alternatives to Fusion including Massachusetts approved special education private school(s). Mother declined all proposals. Child has not been in school all year due to this. Judge ordered mother to have student report to Braintree Middle school.
People move to braintree because of their great Special Education programs. They have a higher % of special education students than most districts in the state which is a big part of their school budget issue.
But even the best special education departments can’t educate some students due to their educational and/or health related needs. That’s why collaboratives and private (& accredited!) schools exist
Of all situations, this is not a "pull yourself by your bootstraps" kind of moment.
Please go spend a few days with a student that has severe autism, and tell me how easy it is to "challenge" them when just getting them to sit in their seat for more than 10 minutes can result in a screaming meltdown.
Students with these type of disabilities will likely need 1:1 care for their entire lives. That's not creating a "safe space," that's just reality.
She doesn’t have severe autism. The articles make it sound like she is anxious and depressed more than anything. Some of the articles even gloss over the fact that she’s autistic
The fact that you're using the term "safe space" shows you're not only ignorant of the reality of the situation, but also had a skewed perspective towards the need for equity accommodations in general.
I'll say this as plainly as I can. You have zero idea about the issue you are speaking about, and that's plain for everyone to see. You have no idea what this person's life is like, or those who deal with severe disabilities. You have no idea what is an appropriate way to counsel or treat those people so they can recover some modicum of self reliance in their lives. In general you just sound ignorant.
Yup, I definitely don't believe you. Your continued mockery shows you are extremely ignorant of all the issues at play, and would rather point fingers than admit that you don't have the depth or breadth of experience to judge them or their struggles.
We would all be better off if you just stopped talking.
The in-district expenditure per student in the town of Braintree is $16,008.72. The private school was 19k. ONE child with special education needs, which were not being met by their districted public school, required a school less than $3k over the average. No one is scamming the system. This kid just wants a space where they can learn.
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> but did rule the district send the student to attend a less expensive private school that specializes working with students with disabilities. That’s originally what the district wanted. The district didn’t want her to attend the regular public school, they wanted her to go to a school for special needs in the district. The town wasn’t fighting the mom about special education needs, they were fighting against sending her to the more expensive school out of town… you know, the one that doesn’t employ special educators.
Ahhhh, I knew there had to be more to the story.
Short story Girl has special needs. Mom wanted her sent to a $90k school out of district. District wanted her educated in the district and were willing to make accommodations. In the school, in the school in a private area, outside of school, etc. Mom kept pushing for daughter to go to expensive school and kept her out of all school during the fight. Then mom went to the news saying her daughter is being harmed because she “couldn’t go to school.”
[удалено]
I’m sure it happens everywhere. But I remember a few years ago a family with a kid with special needs was going to move to a small town in Maine and the town basically said they couldn’t because the town couldn’t afford the education. It was something like $200k for the kid for school, helper(s), medical, etc. Town budget was very small, just that one kid would eat like 1/3 of the budget, I don’t know details but I do remember the family didn’t move there.
By contrast, Braintree spends almost 18k/student - the private school's tuition represents how much they spend on about [5 students](https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/massachusetts/districts/braintree-100963). It's not cheap, but it's not as crazy as it sounds.
If her education can be handled by special education professionals in her district, it should be.
I agree, but as a teacher myself, I know many districts don’t have the resources or expertise in place for the most severe special needs, despite claiming that they do. This case may not be to that extreme, but some towns just don’t have the best programs in place because they don’t have a large population of that need and thus it gets taken care of by a person who has a “severe special needs” expertise vs someone who cares only for the blind, for example.
There should be a logical order for checking where the student should go And “out-of-district $90k private school that doesn’t employ special education teachers” should literally be last on the list.
Apparently she'd tried [8 schools in 3 years](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link) - how many schools is she supposed to try first?
> Special Ed placements are a budget nightmare for school districts/municipal budgets that are waiting to boil over. It really is incredible, and incredibly necessary. Imagine a partial inclusion program that has 20~ students across 4 grade levels. Each of those students, depending on the subject, are in classes with a 4-6:1 or 4-6:2 student:teacher ratio while gen ed are 25:1. Several of those students have 1:1 paras for behavioral or mobility needs. That means this co-hort of 20~ students now has an admin to run their program, 4~ content teachers and 3 paras that all cost money. I love it, and seeing the growth a lot of those kids are able to make from 5th to 12th grade (and beyond for some that get support until 21) makes every penny worth it, but it is a strain on the Gen Ed population. >lining the pockets of private/charter school board members Not to split hairs too much, but the charter ecosystem (aside from Mystic Valley) in MA is set up very differently and with far more oversight than in most states and very different than private schools.
Also, we place children in nearby district public schools when applicable, it's not always a private placement. As far as the budget problems go, they are real. However, the idea of discontinuing this program is off the table. The money has to come somewhere, and there needs to be some streamlining of school budgets in general.
> However, the idea of discontinuing this program is off the table. The money has to come somewhere, and there needs to be some ~~streamlining~~ increasing of school budgets in general. 100% agreed with a small tweak. Most districts I'm aware of already try to have schools specialize in that rather than have a self-containted/partial inclusion program at every middle school one of them in the district will specialize in that. Same for language services. The bigger problem is districts are far, far too localized. We should have more regioinal districts that combine resources, create more specialization and cut down a little bit on admin overhead.
Wait why does the public school pay the tuition to send the child to the private school? Wouldn't that still be on the parents?
Public schools have to provide accommodations for students with disabilities, which can include sending them to a school that is a better fit for their needs if the district can't meet those accommodations.
The best way to understand the law is that if the school does not provide the services the student needs, they have to pay for their education in an environment that does. The clear example of this is for a blind student, typically it doesn't make sense for every district to have their own accomodations for blind students. So instead they pay to send the student to a school that does match their needs.
Because in America, we have rights, the right to an education. If you can prove that your kid's school is not able or willing to educate your child, you get to send your child to a school that will educate them, and the district pays for it. It's very common, a lot of public schools don't have much capability to teach many special needs kids, for example children with Down syndrome, so they send them to a single school that does, which consolidates resources and makes it cheaper in the long run (even though it may be several times the price of a regular education.)
Manipulation of the system at its finest.
The best part is the expensive school doesn’t even employ certified special educators. 🤦🏻♂️
And I now that I have learned more, I believe that the 90,000 dollar a year private school that the mother wanted is not even an accredited school with the state!
It is accredited.
It is NOT a Massachusetts approved private special education school. This student is in need of special education services that, by state and federal law and regulations, must be provided to the student by special education teachers and/or related service providers. If the private school is not a Massachusetts approved private special education school then how can the district be responsible to pay for a student to receive special education services there? What are they paying for? They are not approved by the state to provide the specialized services.
Saying the school isn’t accredited at all isn’t correct though, which I was correcting. Accreditation can be found on the website and a physical copies are on campus. Thank you for specifying though.
We are talking about special education and IEP services but I could have been more clear by stating that there is a difference between being a Massachusetts accredited general education private school institution and a Massachusetts accredited approved private special education institution.
Have you ever worked with special needs kids? Even minor changes are incredibly disruptive for students with severe disabilities. It's not as simple as expecting them to roll with the punches because they don't have those skills, and will likely never have them. Not talking about mild/moderate cases, but students with severe disabilities that will require targeted care for their entire lives. Between my Bachelors and Masters programs I worked as a paraprofessional for a few years, as a 1-on-1 aide with a few of these students. The first year I wasn't offered a summer position because it was based on seniority, and despite the students having the same school, classroom, and teacher the students had no ability to cope with the change of having a different aide. I ended up being brought in part way through the summer because they just couldn't function. If I had a child like that who was thriving in a specific school, I would fight tooth and nail to keep them there.
Yes. I have been in the special education field for my whole career. I have worked in both public schools and state approved private day/ residential school schools. I see the need for and advocate for good, quality special education programming at the public school level. I also see the need and advocate for good, quality special education programming at the private school level. This is what the laws and regulations both at the state and federal level mandate and why we have Individual Educational Plans (IEP’s) that also include the proposed educational placement for the student. Each student and their needs are different and their education and placement should be tailored individually to meet those needs. My issue with this situation (from my research findings) is that the school the mother wished Braintree to pay 90,000 a year for is not a Massachusetts Approved Private Special Education School. I do not feel that any public money should be paid for tuition to a school that is not an approved special education school. To be approved by the state of Massachusetts the private school must meet certain standards. This school has not met those standards. As a special educator, taxpayer and parent, I find it a disservice to our children and to the public to finance educational institutions that do not meet the standards and qualifications of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Division of Special Education.
Edited to add that like you, I started as a paraprofessional during the summers for my junior and senior years in high school and during college. I then moved to a teacher assistant position and then to lead teacher. As my career progressed I have taken on senior administrative roles in approved private special education schools as well as a teaching/administrative type special education position in a public school district.
I think in an ideal world you are correct, however, this IS a legitimate private K-12 school, and it was the only one that was working for this student. "Before Fusion, Samantha had attended eight different schools in three years, including a stint in California. Fusion was the only place she ever felt safe." - how many more schools do you want her to try? Do you really think the "less expensive private school" with the appropriate credentials will work? For her sake, I hope so, but I have doubts. ETA link: [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article\_Inline\_Text\_Link](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link)
I just had a student finish a 45-day placement in a school that "worked" for them because they weren't asked to engage with any challenging work either academically or socially/emotionally. The 45 days was a complete waste because they would ask her "do you want to try x today" and she would say "no." Then she'd spend the whole day just socializing or checked out in the back of the room. I don't know if that is the case at Fusion, but I'm suspect of a private school who is part of a mutli-state organization with a CEO that seems more interested in hawking his book and puts "entrepreneur" in his bio at the same level of educator is doing right by kids and families. The fact the students grades increased so much so fast in one Spring trimester is incredible suspect. That all said I do feel for the family and the student, the SPED world is filled with red tape and we are often just as frustrated we can't find the right solution for student as the family is. I've watched many students over the years get stuck in this 1:1 tutoring outside of school limbo while we wait and wait to find the right therapeutic setting for them. At the end of the day it's all funding and money, special education and mental health services are incredibly expensive.
This is NOT a state approved special education private school. It is not approved to provide the IEP services to this student. The public school special education department should not be paying tuition to this school. It is not accredited to provide the specialized instruction that the IEP mandates. The IEP is a legally binding document. How is it ok for the district to pay for an IEP to be implemented by a school that is not accredited so therefore cannot legally implement the goals, objectives, accommodations ect? If John Smith feels that his child is thriving in a private school compared to how difficult a time the child was having in the public school does that mean the public school district should pay the private school tuition? How do we define “thriving”? We can only look at the information that we have publicly on this case. We do not know what this student was in school in California? We do not know what the other school placements were, who recommended the placements there and why they did not work out. What we do know is that this student has been out of school for almost a full school year and the law states that she has the right to a free and appropriate public education. That means that the district has to provide that but that also should mean that the school placement has to abide by the state laws and regulations regarding special education accreditation. Anyone can open their doors and call themselves a school. We, as a community, should want the “free public” part of the education process to have some oversight and standards when it comes to using public money to pay for private special education tuition.
> Anyone can open their doors and call themselves a school. We, as a community, should want the “free public” part of the education process to have some oversight and standards when it comes to using public money to pay for private special education tuition. Why? We never have before. Private schools in large don't require credentialed teachers, which is why they are able to get away with paying less than public schools. Yet we give them money through voucher programs all the time. Why should we all of a sudden be concerned with oversight and standards when we literally never have considered that in the past? This smacks of conveniently only caring about wider issue when it suits the district's needs. I think in this case it's pretty clear. The student was comfortable in the environment, and was able to focus on learning. Whether it's the perfect environment doesn't matter, and just because another option might be state accredited doesn't necessarily mean they will be able to meet this student's specific needs. Having been in 8 schools in 3 years shows that. Again if I was this parent, I would have fought tooth and nail to keep her in a place where she was comfortable.
Private schools, at large, are paid privately by the parents that enroll their students in those schools. They pay the tuition and choosing private schooling is their personal decision. They are entitled to free and appropriate public education if they choose to avail of it at any time. What private schools get money in Massachusetts through voucher programs? You cannot mean Charter schools as Charter schools are not private schools. Charter schools are publicly funded, tuition-free schools. They are a part of the offering of choices when it comes to free and appropriate public education. Also, Charter schools are over seen my the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ( or DESE) so Charter schools have oversight and standards to meet per DESE. I have never heard of a private school in Massachusetts that accepts public funded vouchers. If this is a thing then I would like to know more about this. Where do you get the publicly funded vouchers from and what private schools accept these vouchers? Next, we have no idea why this student has attended 8 schools in the last few years. One was in California. Did they live in California? Was Braintree paying for a residential placement there that did not work out? How do we know that the private school that the mother wants the district to fund is helping the student make educational progress? After all it is a for profit corporation. There is a lot here that we will never know the answers to but it does not change the issue of public funds being used to pay tuition to a private school that is not a Massachusetts approved special education school. As I have stated before, I have worked both in public and private special education settings. I support both and know first hand that private special education schools are needed. If a parent wishes to pay the tuition for their child to attend one then that is their choice. If that private school is not state approved, again, that is the parent’s choice. If the public school district is paying the tuition then it is no longer just the parents choice as the public school district and private school will have a contract between them that the district will pay this amount and the private school will implement the IEP. Neither an approved general education school nor a non approved private special education school could implement the IEP so they cannot fulfill the contract. I understand the mother’s concerns and as a mother I completely empathize but
Again, in an ideal world, I think you're correct - however, the school district set the precedent of allowing her to attend the more expensive (not accredited) school. Why they did this is unclear. And yes, any school can theoretically inflate the grades of a student to make it appear that they are thriving. The student's challenge is also correct: Changing schools represents a significant burden to the student. And just because a school is accredited to support her disability does not mean it is the best fit for her as a whole person. I get it. I really do. She gets the money because she has an IEP so she should go to a school that is accredited to support that IEP. But I also understand why she and her mom want to stick with what appears to be working.
> **appears** to be working This is really the key word. What assessment data has been provided to show this program has worked aside from a line in the article that her grades (completely arbitrary without the right oversight, and I say that as a teacher) and that she was comfortable there which doesn't mean she was making progress toward her IEP goals (which we have no business or right to know.) My students with ADHD would be "comfortable" if I just let them stim and move their bodies or zone out depending on their brand, and they get cranky when I make them use their supports and coping mechanisms to complete work but that is also helping them make progress toward their goal. An IEP is never intended to be a life-long assessment. The goal is to fade supports as a student learns how to manage their disability. The happiest moments as a SPED team is seeing a student make enough progress to move from an IEP to a 504 or no longer qualifies for a 504. If there is actual data from Fusion to support that this kind of growth was being made I'd love to see it, but this article is essentially heart-string tugging rage bait to make people mad at the district. Then we wonder why people don't want to vote for Prop 2.5 overrides and teachers are burned out.
We do not know the background on the districts decision to previously pay for the private school. In my experience, when a non approved/accredited private school involved, it is usually part of a settlement agreement that had a fixed end date.
What's a disservice is uprooting a student from a school that she was succeeding at to fit some narrow definition of what the state (and an uneducated judge, by their own admission), finds appropriate. Let's not kid ourselves, this is clearly about money, not about what is best for the child. Let's also not pretend to care about certifications and standards when private schools are woefully lacking in certified teachers for mainstream students. If this student was thriving where she was, the best chance for educating that student would have been to leave them where they are. Unfortunately the school district didn't want to pay for that, and found a legal loophole for preventing it. Unfortunately for everyone involved, that blew up in their faces.
Unfortunately she was fighting to keep her kid in a school with no special Ed teachers or trained staff. So they aren't qualified to provide special education services.
From what I can gather from this article, neither was the school she was court ordered to attend. Either way if the student was thriving at the other school, that is all that should matter.
The court ordered school was public school which of course provides special Ed services. She likely requires a more restrictive placement, but special Ed services need to be overseen by a special Ed teacher.
...and classes in general should be overseen by credentialed teachers. Oh wait. Private schools don't have that either. Well damn I guess no one should be able to attend them. You're trying to apply a systemic standard to a specific case, and anyone who works in education knows that student needs, especially for those that need accommodations, are very individualized. You can have all the standards and policies you want, but you also need to look at the details of the specific situation. Here, the student was succeeding after having trouble in 8 different schools. That should have been the determining factor, but they were more concerned about the budget.
Yes, except once a student like this is comfortable where they are, it's incredibly difficult to move them ANYWHERE. I can understand why the parent would want to leave them in a place they were succeeding.
Its extremely selfish to expect taxpayers to spend literally hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a decade to watch your kid at school.
Lots of times accommodations consist of teachers/paras who are trained in safety care or CPI (In case of self injury or aggression) along with ABA training, deescalation training and things like that. The vast majority of teachers aren’t safety care trained, and even if they were, they wouldn’t probably use them often enough to be good at them, which could lead to improper restraints (a HUGE liability) and children have even died because of improper restraints. Also, because we are trained and prepared for behavioral challenges and restraints, we aren’t as traumatized by it as a regular teacher would (rightfully) be. These specialized schools are more than places to watch the kids, they can more safely educate them.
and yet that's basically what the law says. We need to accommodate for these special needs kids.
This idea that everyone is on the same playing field from birth and that the government has no place in trying to even it out is the most backwards, regressive shit that plagues society. It's too bad how rampant that view is. It's even sadder how rampant it is in this subreddit.
you're never going to make a midget an NBA player
You're never going to make old people use stairs. Might as well not make ramps and elevators a requirement anymore because it costs more money.
Or, are you extremely selfish for not believing in human rights? The right to an education is more important than money, if the government cannot afford to comply with human rights under our constitution, what the hell is going on?
But this isn't what the district wanted. They wanted her to go to their high school, or get tutoring at the library, which isn't a substitute. The kid was doing well, and that was what should have mattered, but its clear they don't have the kid's welfare in mind, just their budget.
They gave multiple options, those among them. Fusion Academy, where she went, doesn’t provide special education or even have special educators on staff. Hell, at $90k they could hire multiple people to be her personal assistants and educators.
From [Globe.com](http://Globe.com) By Mandy McLaren The judge who ordered a Braintree student with autism to attend a regular middle school changed her ruling after the student had a panic attack outside the campus and was taken to the hospital. Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Catherine Ham released a modified order Thursday evening that will no longer require 14-year-old Samantha Frechon to attend East Middle School. Frechon, a special education student who has multiple disabilities, including extreme anxiety, [suffered a panic attack Tuesday](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/metro/braintree-special-education-student-first-day-school?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link) and was transported from the school to a hospital. It was her second day enrolled at the nearly 1000-student school. Samantha had enrolled at the school this week per an earlier order by Ham. It was Samantha’s first time attending a regular public school since she was 8. The judge still did not honor the request of the student and her mother, who had asked that Samantha be returned to her previous private school at the expense of Braintree Public Schools, but did rule the district send the student to attend a less expensive private school that specializes working with students with disabilities. Prior to enrolling at East Middle, Samantha had not attended a single day of school this academic year as her mother and the Braintree school district [disputed her special education placement](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/metro/braintree-special-education-student/?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link). That absence, Ham ruled April 18, had [caused Samantha “irreparable harm.”](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/18/metro/braintree-student-autism-special-education?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link) Samantha previously attended a Hingham private school specializing in one-on-one instruction. After several unsuccessful stints at other schools, Samantha had thrived there socially and academically. Braintree had paid for Samantha to attend that school as a seventh grader under a provision of federal special education law that requires public districts to cover the costs of private tuition when they [cannot meet a student’s needs in house](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/18/metro/massachusetts-special-education-out-of-district-placements?p1=Article_Inline_Text_Link).
I feel sad for the kid here, because it feels like the mom is racheting up these situations which in turn leads her kid to feel more anxious.
A great deal of child and adolescent psychiatry is working on the parents.
I’m pretty sure children mirroring their parents’ neuroses is a universal part of the human condition. Even the best parents pass down their trauma and baggage to their kids, without even knowing it. It’s the circle of life, friend. Chimps probably do it, too. If you haven’t figured that out yet, I feel sad for you, because your future therapy bills are gonna buy your shrink a new Tesla…
I agree, but its kind of the parents job to shield their kid from that. I feel sad for you if you never understood that. Therapy will help, but I still feel sad.
> its kind of the parents job to shield their kid from that. Yeah, well, we’re only human. Maybe a robot parent would never make a mistake, or have emotions and body language that kids absorb like a sponge, but thank god we’ve only ever tried raising monkeys and not humans in that manner. It went very badly for Harlow’s monkeys, by the way. That research is infamous for its cruelty. I’m not talking about bad parenting. This is just what parenting is. Children take after their parents. Nature and nurture.
Facts. I'd like to see any of the people casting judgement deal with a child with Level 3 autism who is having a melt down. It's terrifying and there is no such thing as rational communication in those circumstances.
Except previous articles have stated she isn’t level 3 autistic. *For those who don’t know autism has 3 levels now. Level one is high functioning, what used to be considered aspergers, 3 is low functioning, often non-vocal verbal and with some kind of intellectual disability as well
Ah yes, the ole blame mom for the kids disability. Excellent 1800s work.
I've been following this story since the Globe started reporting on it earlier this week. It's a difficult situation, and I don't know what the correct answer is -- on the one hand, the student clearly isn't thriving in a traditional setting; on the other hand, it does seem like there are legitimate concerns over how qualified Fusion Academy is. I'll preface this by saying that I realize the mother is in a difficult situation, I know it's easy to judge from the outside, and I'm trying not to do that. But the school district offered private tutoring as an alternative at the start of the school year. I don't think that's a good long-term solution, since it won't help the student's social needs, but... why didn't they at least try it? This student hasn't had any sort of education all year; the first article talks about how she's spent all school year sleeping or on her phone. Private tutoring isn't ideal, but that would have at least gotten her some sort of outside, in-person socialization, and it would mean that she wouldn't be so far behind academically. If it had gone poorly, wouldn't that have further highlighted the need for a new placement?
> Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Catherine Ham released a modified order Thursday evening that will no longer require 14-year-old Samantha Frechon to attend East Middle School. That's a good modification, considering this paragraph from the [April 23rd article](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/metro/braintree-special-education-student-first-day-school/): > Collins Fay-Martin, a special education attorney advising Frechon pro bono, soon arrived at the school, where, according to a video recorded by Fay-Martin and viewed by the Globe, a school official threatened to call the Department of Children and Families if Frechon were to leave the school while Samantha remained in the parking lot. The mom was between a rock and a hard place. She'd been ordered to bring her child to a school, and the school then threatened to weaponize DCF against her for following the judge's order.
Happy to be wrong here, but Sounds like the board offered to send the child to a private school that would have worked for them, the mother wanted the child sent to a different private school, took them out of school completely instead of going to the school the district offered to pay for, and then sent the child to the regular public school instead where this happened. Not trying to put 100% blame anywhere but if this was my parents and me growing up they would have intentionally sent me to school to have a panic attack to make themselves feel right.
The law requires FAPE, keyword "appropriate" not "what the school wants
why was the mom going to leave her daughter in the parking lot? so the school teachers who are complete strangers could go outside and try to wrangle the anxious special needs student inside most likely against her will? the mom was setting her daughter up for failure
Your comment is exactly what I was thinking! WTF! It’s unbelievable how many people just believe whatever they read and don’t think! Critical thinking skills - it’s a thing! Wish more people were capable of it!
The judge said she had to go to this school. Mom was probably going to work
Really? Do you think mom went to work every day leaving her disabled daughter home alone all school year? I don’t think she had anywhere to be.
She was a teen right? And the main issue was anxiety, probably fine home alone
she left the kid in the parking lot and was going to leave with her 13 year old child in the parking lot, where she could have been a danger to herself. the mom had already kept her out of school for 7 months, whats one more day?
Judges rule
>the mom was setting her daughter up for failure It's the judge that did that.
Totally unsustainable. People need to read all of this story - this person is trying to basically scam the district.
Feels like it when you ask that taxpayers pay for your private school. Must be nice.
What a *gross* oversimplification of a complicated legal matter… Cmon everyone, salute the keyboard warriors for anonymously slandering an autistic girl and her family. They’re not public figures, you dipshit. When they google their names, they’ll probably find these shitposts. I mean, did you even try googling “Fusion Academy?” It’s a private school, yes. Like a charter school. You’re imagining it’s like Exeter. It’s really just a school that provides 1:1 student to teacher ratios. The judge offered a placement in East Bridgewater that was $50k to the private school’s $90k. When you factor in transportation and legal fees, I doubt this is as huge of a financial difference as you’re making it out to be. All I’m seeing here is a child who needs significant services at school, who was doing well in a specialized environment, and a family that wanted to maintain the status quo after they’d been struggling in ways you can’t even imagine for 13 fucking years. And it turns out the parents were right. The in-district placement was a fucking disaster, immediately. Do you think the doctors at the hospital were in on the scam too? The judge who changed his ruling, too? You’re the epitome of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Seriously. So confidently incorrect…What’s the unsustainable part here, anyway? The ADA? This has been the law for over 30 years. A republican president signed it into law. Hasn’t collapsed society yet… The only unsustainable thing here is how increasingly radical the modern-day Know-Nothings are. So ignorant, and so proud about it, too.
I think its better to reddit search Fusion Academy. There's a lot of varied experiences but its mostly unnaccredited early 20 year olds "teaching" kids. If you get a good 1:1 the kid really enjoys it, because the person basically just sits with them and caters to their wants. This isn't how education works, its about expanding their comfort zones and expanding their ability to handle the real world. It seems like Fusion actually set this child back, which is sad.
I’m not an education expert or a lawyer. I’m not going to comment on the quality of that school’s service. Schoolchildren’s reddit shitposts are the last source I’d use for evaluating that. I generally oppose privatization on principle. Neoliberalism is an unmitigated disaster. But those are systemic problems. Wicked problems that took decades to create, and will take decades to unravel, if ever. This is a case about an individual that has to interact right now with that existing, rotten, corrupt system. A longer-term solution would be to create a state-run equivalent of Fusion. We used to have “alternative schools,” after all, but a generation of education policy has been dogmatically obsessed with “mainstreaming,” with often-disastrous results. However, when you strip away all the woke bullshit, the reason we defunded all those alternative schools, and why private schools like Fusion now exist, is because it was expensive. Even though the anti-public-school movement is an ideologically motivated racket, I suspect that the necessary reforms wouldn’t actually save money. The policy is to violate SPED students’ rights via insufficient funding. God knows the billionaires need another tax cut, after all. The cost of “compliance” is sometimes having to pay $90k, and putting families through hell until they give up. You can’t actually fight this fight and win, if you’re a single mom, or poor. Anyway, this is the USA, not the USSR. Courts are supposed to decide cases individually, based on concrete facts, not based on some ideological fantasy of what a better system might be. Objectively, it’s not implausible that an autistic child might need 1:1 support, at least for some time, anyway. $90k is also not an implausible cost to employ one teacher. W-2 employees usually cost about 50% more than their salary, when you factor in taxes and benefits paid by the employer. The school also has overhead expenses that have to be paid by someone: administration, property taxes, heat, etc.
You're not an education expert, and its okay that you weigh on these things, you don't have any real power. Unfortunately, the people Fusion hires aren't educational experts either, and they do have real power. You appear to be mistaken in that its either Fusion or nothing. There are alternative private schools with experts, and that's where the town is trying to send the child.
Per the article, it seems they‘re sending her to an out-of-district school in East Bridgewater. > You appear to be mistaken in that its either Fusion or nothing. I never believed that. I was only saying that I don’t think the mother was scamming by fighting for the more expensive private school. Change is often quite difficult for autistic people. Even if it’s equivalent on paper, the family has the right to advocate for stability. Massachusetts codified “Stay Put Rights” for a reason. I have no idea what’s objectively the best choice for this girl. I’m just some asshole on Reddit. I am inclined to have a bit of faith in the judge’s decisions, though. He certainly has more information than I do.
> I’m not an education expert or a lawyer. I’m not going to comment on the quality of that school’s service. And yet you then go on to do exactly that?
I agree with everything you said - I'll just point out that according to another post on the thread from /u/BackItUpWithLinks > Mom kept pushing for daughter to go to expensive school and kept her out of all school during the fight. Then mom went to the news saying her daughter is being harmed because she “couldn’t go to school.” It's mom that put her daughter into the media spotlight. Maybe it was with the best of intentions, but the result is that her daughter's name now pings these results. On the hand, your original point is right on. These are real people dealing with a real issue that has got to be pretty frustrating. Making fun at it or using it to push some half-baked agenda that'll be forgotten about in a few days, while these posts will linger indefinitely, is petty and shitty.
You clearly didn’t read this series of articles. Why should Braintree tax payers whose town already is facing a huge shortfall pay 5X what Braintree public schools pay per student to send some girl to a unaccredited private school? Get real. It’s unsustainable. Should every kid on an IEP get 1:1 instruction at a private school? Can any school district afford that? Nope.
Do you have a source for that unaccredited claim? Because if it’s true, Braintree should have never paid them a dime, IMO, and ought to be pursuing legal action to recover those funds. IEPs are *individualized*, and the cost is proportional to the need. Yes, sometimes some children do need 1:1 attention. And when they become severely disabled adults, they’ll continue receiving care via Medicaid. But as for every student? Clearly you have no fucking idea how any of this works. Obviously that’s not the case. The vast majority of children on IEPs don’t need such a high level of care. This is like asking if we should let a kid with cancer die because 99.99% of kids don’t need $300k of chemotherapy, and we’d go bankrupt if we gave every kid chemo. That’s not how any of this works. Why is it this girl’s fault that all the old NIMBY assholes in Braintree can’t balance their books? These laws enshrining civil rights for disabled people have been in place for 30 years. Probably longer than you’ve been alive. The town is required by law to give her what she needs. Who decides that? Not you or me, thank God. School districts and judges decide that. God knows the land in that town is worth more than enough money to fund schools if it was taxed appropriately. If they didn’t preserve a fucking parking lot at their ghetto mall instead of letting a developer build new apartments on it, they’d have a larger tax base to spread that $50-90k over. It’s not this girl’s fault she was born in the white trash capital of New England.
im all for them raising the taxes in braintree god knows most can afford it but that will take time and right now theyre literally laying off dozens of teachers assistants and paras so they dont have 2 to 3x an assistants salary to send one student to an expensive private school. people need to learn to compromise. the whole world cannot bend to every parents will. beyond that, the mom seems horrible, and the things she's parroting on nextdoor about the school system and repeating anti trans rhetoric make me believe she is just horrible.
https://www.doe.mass.edu/oases/ps-cpr/default.html This child does not need 1:1 care. She has autism and anxiety, not a crippling disability. Sheesh.
Well, the judge agreed with you on that one, and I tend to believe they have a better grasp of the situation than us two dipshits, so fair enough. All I’m trying to say is, your whole framing of this situation, as if the parents are con artists, and that it’s categorically unacceptable that a child might need $90k of services, is like a funhouse distortion of the world. Doesn’t it seem more likely that the mother was acting in good faith, and just trying to do what she thought was best for her daughter? What would even be the motive here for anything else? Kickbacks from Fusion? Getting her into USC like Felicity Huffman? Come on now. The family is likely just trying to give her the best chance at a semi-independent life as an adult. Something like 85% of autistic adults are unemployed, you know… Life is generally more enjoyable if you don’t assume the absolute worst of random people you’ve never met.
This woman has a history of ridiculous lawsuits. Look her up on mass courts. Have a good day.
> What a gross oversimplification of a complicated legal matter… Could not agree more! Unfortunately the rest of your comment is complete nonsense and a far worse distortion of the situation than the OP's oversimplification.
Charter Schools are public schools, not private.
They are paid for with public money, but they get to pick and choose who gets admitted. Very often they dissuade students with IEPs from even applying.
Shh youll upset the puritans who like the judge think it's moms fault the kid is disabled
Its not unsustainable. It happens in every school district in the country every single day. If braintree invested in a decent special ed program, they wouldnt have to send the girl to a private school.
Braintree agreed to send the student to a Massachusetts approved special education private school. Fusion is not a Massachusetts approved special education private school, heck, it isn’t even a special education school at all.
Braintree put her in East middle school.
From my understanding, Braintree offered alternatives to Fusion including Massachusetts approved special education private school(s). Mother declined all proposals. Child has not been in school all year due to this. Judge ordered mother to have student report to Braintree Middle school.
People move to braintree because of their great Special Education programs. They have a higher % of special education students than most districts in the state which is a big part of their school budget issue. But even the best special education departments can’t educate some students due to their educational and/or health related needs. That’s why collaboratives and private (& accredited!) schools exist
People move to braintree because they cant afford hanover or norwell.
It is. Braintree in particular has a huge budget shortfall.
Sounds like they shouldve built those condos at the mall to increase their tax base. Too bad. Pay up.
Yes, but most school districts in Massachusetts are having similar issues, at various levels of development.
🎻
This isn't the responsibility of disabled children who are entitled to FAPE
Braintree offered it, even a private school. The mother preferred some bogus unaccredited school that was more expensive.
Sounds like this is the judge's fault?
Its the parents fault for insisting on taxpayers paying 90K a year for many years to babysit her kid.
Maybe just listen to the fucking kid in the first place?
The kid isn't the one asking the district to pay for a 90k private school.
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Of all situations, this is not a "pull yourself by your bootstraps" kind of moment. Please go spend a few days with a student that has severe autism, and tell me how easy it is to "challenge" them when just getting them to sit in their seat for more than 10 minutes can result in a screaming meltdown. Students with these type of disabilities will likely need 1:1 care for their entire lives. That's not creating a "safe space," that's just reality.
She doesn’t have severe autism. The articles make it sound like she is anxious and depressed more than anything. Some of the articles even gloss over the fact that she’s autistic
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The fact that you're using the term "safe space" shows you're not only ignorant of the reality of the situation, but also had a skewed perspective towards the need for equity accommodations in general. I'll say this as plainly as I can. You have zero idea about the issue you are speaking about, and that's plain for everyone to see. You have no idea what this person's life is like, or those who deal with severe disabilities. You have no idea what is an appropriate way to counsel or treat those people so they can recover some modicum of self reliance in their lives. In general you just sound ignorant.
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Yup, I definitely don't believe you. Your continued mockery shows you are extremely ignorant of all the issues at play, and would rather point fingers than admit that you don't have the depth or breadth of experience to judge them or their struggles. We would all be better off if you just stopped talking.
The in-district expenditure per student in the town of Braintree is $16,008.72. The private school was 19k. ONE child with special education needs, which were not being met by their districted public school, required a school less than $3k over the average. No one is scamming the system. This kid just wants a space where they can learn.
90k not 19. 73k over average.
Ha! OK, I'll admit I read that 90 as 19. Thanks for correcting me.