Somerville must improve its compliance with a federal law protecting free education for students with disabilities or be subjected to a more targeted intervention, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said.
Somerville, along with 64 other state school districts, has one year to correct noncompliance with technical assistance, the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education determined in May. The determination in the spring led to an independent report by the Somerville Special Education Parent Advisory Council, which was presented Sept. 11 to the City Council.
“We are concerned that there is a gap between the district’s stated vision and the lived reality of students with disabilities. We believe that gap is not just small, but it’s enormous,” advisory council chair Liz Eldridge told councilors, when sponsored to speak by councilor Kristen Strezo.
While district plans “talk about equity and inclusion, in practice many students are missing legally required services, evaluations are delayed and IEPs are sometimes written based on staffing shortages rather than student needs,” Eldridge said, referring to individualized education programs. “This is illegal.”
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The advisory council has advocated for more fair access and communicated many unresolved concerns in spoken and written testimony to the School Committee, Eldridge said.
The state makes annual determinations about whether any of the 395 school districts under its purview don’t comply with or show inconsistencies in following the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act for “free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities.”
Somerville Public Schools fell into the “needs assistance” category by scoring 73 percent in the most recent state assessment, meeting 30 out of 41 requirements. “Meets requirement” is 75 percent or above.
The school district confirmed in a statement it just missed the “meets requirement” category; it pointed to “new, enhanced criteria” in the state’s review process that caused it to miss the mark by one requirement.
Previous years’ scores were not provided by the school district or the advisory council. Neighboring communities of Cambridge, Medford and Arlington met the requirements in the 2024-2025 school year, while Boston and Chelsea have had intervention for at least two years to get back into compliance.
The school district has taken part in two follow-up meetings hosted by the state and will host on-site technical assistance sessions this fall, said a spokesperson for the school district. During technical-assistance meetings and before the one-year deadline, the district must show proof that it is implementing specific regulatory requirements correctly and rectify every child-specific case in question, according to a state website.
Somerville’s special education department said it welcomed the advisory council’s report as “constructive input” and “a litmus test for how we should proceed in our preparation for serving our students in the best possible manner.”
The report, finished in August and based on district data, public records and testimony from parents and teachers, portrays “recurring patterns” of staffing shortages and other problems. Teachers quoted in the report say simply that students eligible for services “are not receiving them” because “we do not have enough educators.” It cites a math interventionist, Jenna DiNovis, who described her role at the East Somerville Community School as “logistically impossible” and able to serve at best “one-third” of the students who need her support.
“These are not isolated oversights but systemic failures that disproportionately harm students with the greatest needs,” Eldridge said in an email. “Somerville is running a dual system: an aspirational one described in its plans, and an operational one that leaves students without services.”
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