Massachusetts Dept. of Education
The MA DOE has recently published a new Notice, it replaces the "Parent’s Rights Brochure" and is called the Interim Notice of Procedural Safeguards – Massachusetts Department of Education
The Bureau of Special Education Appeals provides dispute resolution services to all eligible students within the Commonwealth including due process hearings conducted by eight hearing officers and mediation conducted by eight mediators.
Phone: (781) 338-6400
Fax: (781) 338-3398
Email: sea@doe.mass.edu
Massachuchetts Dept. of Education Special Education Parent Information Page click here
Including Your Child
Massachusetts Schools Experimenting with Longer Schooldays
Ten Massachusetts public schools are open for longer schoolday hours this fall. Schedules are extended by as much as three hours in these underperforming schools as a test to see whether more school time can bolster academic performance and narrow the achievement gap. These schools receive an extra $1,300 per student under the $6.5 million dollar statewide Expanded Learning Time Initiative. The money pays for extra time spent on core academic subjects and on maintaining or reintroducing enrichment programs such as physical education, art, and music. This initiative affects approximately 4,700 K-8 students, about 75 percent of whom are low-income, in five cites. Participating schools use strategies that have already been used in some community schools to forward the success of this initiative. The Martin Luther King, Jr. School in Cambridge is keeping its 240 pre-K through 8th grade students for two hours longer each day. The extended schedule allows for more time on core subjects and alternative methods such as project-based learning. Enrichment electives such as sculpting, journalism, and Spanish are also given extra time. At Martin Luther King, the enrichment program is provided by community organizations that already ran the school’s after-school programs.