Teach Effectively!

A parent whose daughter has autism and receives special education supported by local education agency (LEA) funds at a private school, has formed a group called SpEdWatch to monitor special education programs in Massachusetts, according to stories by Hillary Chabot of the Lowell (MA; US) Sun and Matt Gunderson in the Boston (MA, US) Globe. Ellen Chambers formed the group with the intention of taking on LEAs for systemic failures.

Advocacy for individual special education students is not a new concept, but the idea of a proactive organization tackling systemic issues within special education is, said Chambers.

The group, which now has 66 members, all disgruntled parents from across the commonwealth, uses hard line publicity tactics, such as waging media campaigns and talking to local realtors, in an effort to warn incoming residents about school districts that have allegedly violated special education laws.

So far, the group has taken on Somerset Public Schools and is planning to tackle problems it perceives in Reading and Tewksbury public schools.

Here are links to Ms. Chabot’s article and to Mr. Gunderson’s article (from which I extracted the quote). Also, there’s an under-development Web site for SpEdWatch.org.