Public Funding News for Parents, Advocates, Lawyers, and Neuropsychologists

Thank you for your partnership over the years. We are truly grateful for your advocacy and support of the school.

Four years ago, Carroll School’s Board of Trustees made a complex decision regarding public funding that is easily misunderstood. We hope the following will help clarify our reasoning.

The simple truth is, it has never been easier to place a child at Carroll School

• Over the past three years our financial assistance budget has more than doubled from $900K to $1.9M. We anticipate offering more than $2.3M for the 2018-19 school year and project the assistance budget will increase over the next several years. As such, families and their advocates can seek financial assistance directly from Carroll instead of pursuing funding from school districts.
   
• Families and family advocates can work directly with Carroll, rather than struggling through the cumbersome, and often discouraging, IEP process with one’s city or town. As such, family advocates can have confidence that appropriate candidates for Carroll will have a much greater chance than ever before of receiving financial support to attend the school.
   
• Additionally, as long as a family demonstrates financial need, financial assistance stays with a child throughout their time at Carroll. 

This decision is pro-diversity, pro-equity, and pro-inclusion

• This decision is pro-diversity, pro-equity, and pro-inclusion. By providing need-based financial assistance, we will now be better able to reach a more socio-economically diverse population. Carroll School is currently engaged in wide-ranging outreach and is developing new partnerships to vigorously support this effort.
   
• We understand this decision changes existing practice and routines for advocates. However, our goal is that family advocates will now be more successful than ever in helping families obtain and afford appropriate education for children with language-based learning difficulties.

We are still fully accredited and will continue to have publicly funded students

• In 2018-2019, Carroll will be fully accredited by the DESE and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, although we will no longer be an approved special education facility.
   
• We know that some children are already funded by their cities and towns to attend Carroll next year and beyond. This is permissible, as described in the Code of Massachusetts Regulations. (603 COMAR 28.06:3(e)).

This decision has tremendous programmatic benefits for our students

• Carroll School has a singular focus on students with language-based learning disabilities and has developed highly-specialized approaches, curriculum, and teaching methods designed to highlight dyslexic strengths and to remediate areas of challenge.
   
• The decision regarding Chapter 766 allows us to best fulfill our mission of providing:
  • Data-driven individual education plans to track student performance and adjust plans accordingly without the burden of state standardized testing 
  • Daily embedded tutorials and focused small-group instruction 
  • Targeted cognitive intervention to address underlying causes of language-based academic struggles
  • Integration of arts and movement into the curricula
  • Specialized teacher training and support programs 

Please reach out should you have questions or wish to discuss partnership opportunities: Admissions@carrollschool.org  or (781) 259-8342. To learn more about the school browse our website. 

Again, many thanks for all your tireless work. Our highest goal, like yours, is to help children.

Warm Regards,
Stephen Wilkins, Head of School
Stacey Daniels, Director of Admission, Financial Assistance and Secondary School Placement