Massachusetts is often celebrated as a national leader in public education. I call it the state of smoke and mirrors. State officials point to high test scores, strong graduation rates, and repeated rankings placing Massachusetts schools among the best in the country. DESE — the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education — frequently advertises its commitment to equity, inclusion, and educational opportunity for all students.
But for many families of students with disabilities, those promises feel increasingly empty and disconnected from reality.
Across Massachusetts, caregivers are raising serious concerns about whether DESE is effectively fulfilling its responsibility to protect vulnerable students and enforce the rights guaranteed under state and federal law. Families seeking help through the state’s special education complaint process often describe experiences marked by delay, procedural barriers, weak enforcement, and a sense that the system is designed to protect school districts rather than children.
DESE is supposed to play a critical role in overseeing special education services throughout the commonwealth, but this is a responsibility they have abandoned entirely. Under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), students with disabilities are entitled to a free and appropriate public education tailored to their unique needs. DESE is responsible for ensuring districts comply with those legal obligations and for investigating complaints when families believe schools have failed to provide appropriate services or supports.
Families across the state describe filing complaints only to wait months for investigations and responses while their child continues struggling in an inappropriate educational placement. Others report findings that acknowledge procedural mistakes but fail to require meaningful corrective action. Some parents say serious issues, including disability-based bullying, denial of reading interventions for students with dyslexia, improper disciplinary practices, or failures to implement accommodations, are minimized or dismissed entirely.
For families already trying to support children with complex educational, emotional, or medical needs, these experiences can be devastating. The consequences of inadequate special education services are not temporary setbacks. They can alter the course of a child’s life. DESE has made it clear their agenda is not to serve children but to preserve the power of administrators at any cost.
Families often enter the special education process believing schools and state agencies will work collaboratively to help their child succeed. Instead, many encounter a system that feels adversarial and stacked against them from the start.
School districts generally have attorneys, consultants, administrators, and evaluators available to defend their decisions at taxpayer expense. Caregivers, meanwhile, are expected to quickly learn complicated federal regulations, evaluation standards, procedural safeguards, and dispute-resolution systems while balancing jobs, caregiving responsibilities, and the emotional strain of watching their child struggle.
Many families simply cannot afford educational advocates or attorneys. Those who do often spend enormous amounts of money seeking services that students were legally entitled to receive in the first place.
DESE was intended to provide accountability within this imbalance of power. Increasingly, however, parents question whether the agency is willing to aggressively enforce student rights when doing so would place pressure on districts.
The issue is larger than any individual case or disagreement. Public trust in educational oversight matters deeply. If families believe complaints will not be fairly investigated or meaningful remedies will never be ordered, confidence in the entire system erodes.
This is especially concerning in a state that prides itself on educational excellence.
Massachusetts should absolutely be proud of its schools and educators. Many teachers, specialists, and administrators work tirelessly every day to support students with disabilities. But acknowledging the dedication of educators does not mean ignoring a profoundly broken and inverted system that exists to preserve the wealth and power of select individuals is something quite different.
The state must reform DESE, and create a new system that serves students rather than the most powerful adults.
Ben Tobin lives in Williamsburg.