To respect our child's right to privacy, we have chosen not to provide detailed information regarding our identity. Our child is under the age of six and we wish to respect his privacy. But, the importance of how SPED is being administered has obligated us to tell our story as a way to encourage people to speak out publicly for the good of all our children.

We have been residents of Norfolk County for several years. Our involvement with the SPED department in our town began in early 2006 as our child turned age 3. Upon reaching the age of 3, a child's enrollment in the Commonwealth's Early Intervention (EI)  program ends and there must be a transition to the public school district.

Initially, we assumed that those in the educational system knew what they were doing and would ultimately do the right thing for our children. We were wrong. We were told by many that our school district had a strong SPED department. Later, we became aware that most folks equate a good SPED program with a good reputation for regular education. No such inference should be drawn in our town.

Along with dealing with the shock and anxiety associated with receiving a diagnosis for our child, from early 2006 to fall 2007, we have experienced the following:

• Countless hours fighting to receive educational services outlined by a comprehensive evaluation which had already been accepted by the school district;

• Hiring an Educational Advocate and an Attorney;

• Achieving some success in a Mediation Session called by the district, but at the cost of significant time and many dollars;

• Receiving a finding against the district on four out of five complaint actions (which were fully investigated by the Program Quality Assurance (PQA) group of the Department of Education);

• No change whatsoever in the level of resistance shown by the district in providing necessary service to our child; 

• Continued mistakes by the district's SPED leadership;  

• Failure of the district to implement items already agreed to and included in the IEP;