Mass. kids struggling in school need support. Too often, they're being sent to court.
a 6 percent increase from 2022. Petitions from parents, usually filed due to a child running away or being difficult to manage, accounted for close to 60 percent of those petitions in 2024, the report found.
Advertisement
In some cases, children as young as 6 years old were brought to court to address behavioral or discipline problems, including truancy
,
the Office of the Child Advocate reported. Petitions associated with children ages 6 to 12 increased by 17 percent from 2022 to 2024.
Among the state's counties, Suffolk reported the highest rate of children subjected to the petitions, a possible sign of insufficient resources in the Boston school district, Threadgill said.
Advertisement
The district did not respond to a request for comment.
Families at times are advised to turn to Child Requiring Assistance filings by educators, therapists, or medical providers who don't realize that they are often unnecessary and aren't aware of the power the petitions can give the court. In some cases, a petition can result in the child's removal from the home.
Latino children were 3.5 times more likely than white students to have a CRA petition filed against them. Black children were referred to the court system at similar rates to Latino children, the report found.
Glenn Koocher, head of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, expressed concern that Child Requiring Assistance filings, also called CRAs, were more likely to be filed for students in poverty and noted that aggressive immigration enforcement this year was likely to exacerbate existing racial disparities by encouraging children to miss school.
'If you were afraid that your parents are going to get deported, or that your uncles or aunts or cousins are going to get deported...' he said. 'I would think that would make them anxious about going to school.'
A 2022 report from the Juvenile Justice Policy and Data Board, a statewide policy evaluation organization that includes representatives from organizations involved in the juvenile justice system, recommended addressing the needs of children subject to CRAs without the court's involvement.
Since then, though, the opposite has happened, with petitions initiated by schools growing the most. Petitions due to chronic truancy and habitual misbehavior account for roughly 43 percent of all those filed in 2024, the report stated, an increase of almost 14 percent over two years.
Advertisement
Families statewide often struggle to obtain from schools the
Related
:
'The special education system is very complex, the procedures, the process, the regulations that need to be followed,' said Ellen Chambers, founder of SPEDWatch, a Massachusetts activist group for children. 'It is very easy for a school district to pull the wool over a family's eyes.'
Related
:
While the latest report didn't include data on the connection between CRAs and special education needs, the
The Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents did not respond to a request for comment.
School absences or discipline problems, the kinds of behaviors that are often causes for school-filed CRAs, are also signs a child isn't getting needed educational supports, said Chambers, who also works with families as an adviser appointed by the court through the CRA process. The vast majority of children she connects with through CRAs are disengaged at school due to unidentified disabilities or a lack of special education supports.
Advertisement
'They become very, very anxious because they can't keep up with what's going on,' she said.
Karrie Conley is the parent of a teenage girl, who she asked not be named, who was the subject of a CRA petition last year in the Acton-Boxborough School District as she dealt with extreme anxiety.
'She was locking herself in the bathroom for four hours at a time,' Conley said.
The school's attempts to accommodate the teenager's difficulties understanding math as well as her physical and mental health challenges were inadequate, the mother said.
The district withdrew the petition shortly after it was filed, but Conley said the experience only deepened her daughter's antipathy for attending school. Now, she's attending a private school that allows her to learn at home, but she still struggles to manage a full course load, she said.
'I will be lucky if I can get this child to community college when she graduates,' she said.
Peter Light, superintendent of the Acton-Boxborough School District, said he couldn't speak about a specific case involving a student but said the district turns to CRA petitions rarely, once or twice a school year.
'We typically work with parents very closely in these cases,' he said.
In its report, the Office of the Child Advocate
pointed to
Advertisement
'A court process is just not going to be the best way to deal with complicated behavioral health situations, educational situations, or family dynamics,' Threadgill said.
Jason Laughlin can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Chicago Tribune
7 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump's rhetoric about DC echoes a history of racist narratives about urban crime
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has taken control of the District of Columbia's law enforcement and ordered National Guard troops to deploy onto the streets of the nation's capital, arguing the extraordinary moves are in response to an urgent public safety crisis. Even as district officials questioned the claims underlying his emergency declaration, the Republican president promised a 'historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.' His rhetoric echoed that used by conservative politicians going back decades who have denounced American cities, especially those with majority non-white populations or led by progressive politicians, as lawless or crime-ridden and in need of outside intervention. 'This is liberation day in D.C., and we're going to take our capital back,' Trump promised Monday. As District of Columbia National Guard troops arrived at their headquarters Tuesday, for many residents, the prospect of federal troops surging into the district's neighborhoods represented an alarming violation of local agency. To some, it echoes uncomfortable historical chapters when politicians used language to paint historically or predominantly Black cities and neighborhoods with racist narratives to shape public opinion and justify aggressive police action. April Goggans, a longtime Washington resident and grassroots organizer, said she was not surprised by Trump's actions. Communities had been preparing for a potential federal crackdown in the district since the summer of 2020, when Trump deployed National Guard troops during racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd. 'We have to be vigilant,' said Goggans, who has coordinated protests and local civil liberties educational campaigns for nearly a decade. She worries about what a surge in law enforcement could mean for residents' freedoms. 'Regardless of where you fall on the political scale, understand that this could be you, your children, your grandmother, your co-worker who are brutalized or have certain rights violated,' she said. According to White House officials, National Guard troops will be deployed to protect federal assets in the district and facilitate a safe environment for law enforcement to make arrests. The administration believes the highly visible presence of law enforcement will deter violent crime. It is unclear how the administration defines providing a safe environment for law enforcement to conduct arrests, raising alarm bells for some local advocates. 'The president foreshadowed that if these heavy-handed tactics take root here, they will be rolled out to other majority-Black and Brown cities, like Chicago, Oakland and Baltimore, across the country,' said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's D.C. chapter. 'We've seen before how federal control of the D.C. National Guard and police can lead to abuse, intimidation and civil rights violations — from military helicopters swooping over peaceful racial justice protesters in 2020 to the unchecked conduct of federal officers who remain shielded from full accountability,' Hopkins said. Conservative lawmakers have for generations used denigrating language to describe the condition of major American cities and called for greater law enforcement, often in response to changing demographics in those cities driven by nonwhite populations relocating in search of work or safety from racial discrimination and state violence. Republicans have called for greater police crackdowns in cities since at least the 1965 Watts Riots in Los Angeles. President Richard Nixon won the White House in 1968 after campaigning on a 'law and order' agenda to appeal to white voters in northern cities alongside overtures to white Southerners as part of his 'Southern Strategy.' Ronald Reagan similarly won both his presidential elections after campaigning heavily on law and order politics. Politicians ranging from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to former President Bill Clinton have cited the need to tamp down crime as a reason to seize power from cities like Washington for decades. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser called Trump's takeover of the local police force 'unsettling' but not without precedent. The mayor kept a mostly measured tone during a Monday news conference following Trump's announcement but decried the president's reasoning as a 'so-called emergency' and said the district's residents 'know that access to our democracy is tenuous.' Trump threatened to 'take over' and 'beautify' the nation's capital on the campaign trail and claimed the district was 'a nightmare of murder and crime.' He also argued the city was 'horribly run' and said his team intended 'to take it away from the mayor.' The president repeated comments he'd previously made about some of the nation's largest cities during his news conference, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, California, and his hometown of New York City. All are currently run by Black mayors. 'You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities in a very bad, New York is a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore. They're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen,' he said. Civil rights advocates see the president's rhetoric as part of a broader political strategy. 'It's a playbook he's used in the past,' said Maya Wiley, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The president's rhetoric 'paints a picture that crime is out of control, even when it is not true, then blames the policies of Democratic lawmakers that are reform- and public safety-minded, and then claims that you have to step in and violate people's rights or demand that reforms be reversed,' Wiley said. She added that the playbook has special potency in the capital because the district's local law enforcement can be directly placed under federal control, a power Trump invoked in his announcement. Trump's actions in Washington and comments about other major American cities sent shock waves across the country, as other cities prepare to respond to potential federal action. Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Trump's plan 'lacks seriousness and is deeply dangerous' in a statement and pointed to a 30-year-low crime rate in Baltimore as a reason the administration should consult local leaders rather than antagonize them. In Oakland, Mayor Barbara Lee called Trump's characterization of the city 'fearmongering.' The administration already faced a major flashpoint between local control and federal power earlier in the summer, when Trump deployed National Guard troops to quell protests and support immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles despite opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Civil rights leaders have denounced Trump's action in Washington as an unjustified distraction. 'This president campaigned on 'law and order,' but he is the president of chaos and corruption,' said NAACP President Derrick Johnson. 'There's no emergency in D.C., so why would he deploy the National Guard? To distract us from his alleged inclusion in the Epstein files? To rid the city of unhoused people? D.C. has the right to govern itself. It doesn't need this federal coup.'
Chicago Tribune
37 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
The nation's capital finds itself at the center of a Trump maelstrom as National Guard troops arrive
WASHINGTON — Some of the 800 National Guard members deployed by President Donald Trump began arriving in the nation's capital on Tuesday, ramping up after the White House ordered federal forces to take over the city's police department and reduce crime in what the president called — without substantiation — a lawless city. The influx came the morning after Trump announced he would be activating the guard members and taking over the department. He cited a crime emergency — but referred to the same crime that city officials stress is already falling noticeably. The president holds the legal right to make such moves — to a point. Still unclear as the week unfolds: how visible and aggressive the federal presence in Washington would be, how it could play out, who will be targeted — and how long it might last. On Monday, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said Trump's freshly announced plan to take over the Metropolitan Police Department and call in the National Guard was not a productive step. She calmly laid out the city's case that crime has been dropping steadily and said Trump's perceived state of emergency simply doesn't match the numbers. She also flatly stated that the capital city's hands are tied and that her administration has little choice but to comply. 'We could contest that,' she said of Trump's definition of a crime emergency, 'but his authority is pretty broad.' Bowser made a reference to Trump's 'so-called emergency' and concluded: 'I'm going to work every day to make sure it's not a complete disaster.' While Trump invokes his plan by saying that 'we're going to take our capital back,' Bowser and the MPD maintain that violent crime overall in Washington has decreased to a 30-year low after a sharp rise in 2023. Carjackings, for example, dropped about 50% in 2024 and are down again this year. More than half of those arrested, however, are juveniles, and the extent of those punishments is a point of contention for the Trump administration. Bowser, a Democrat, spent much of Trump's first term in office openly sparring with the Republican president. She fended off his initial plans for a military parade through the streets and stood in public opposition when he called in a multi-agency flood of federal law enforcement to confront anti-police brutality protesters in summer 2020. She later had the words 'Black Lives Matter' painted in giant yellow letters on the street about a block from the White House. In Trump's second term, backed by Republican control of both houses of Congress, Bowser has walked a public tightrope for months, emphasizing common ground with the Trump administration on issues such as the successful effort to bring the NFL's Washington Commanders back to the District of Columbia. She watched with open concern for the city streets as Trump finally got his military parade this summer. Her decision to dismantle Black Lives Matter Plaza earlier this year served as a neat metaphor for just how much the power dynamics between the two executives had evolved. Now that fraught relationship enters uncharted territory as Trump has followed through on months of what many D.C. officials had quietly hoped were empty threats. The new standoff has cast Bowser in a sympathetic light, even among her longtime critics. 'It's a power play and we're an easy target,' said Clinique Chapman, CEO of the D.C. Justice Lab. A frequent critic of Bowser, whom she accuses of 'over policing our youth' with the recent expansions of Washington's youth curfew, Chapman said Trump's latest move 'is not about creating a safer D.C. It's just about power.' Bowser contends that all the power resides with Trump and that her administration can do little other than comply and make the best of it. The native Washingtonian spent much of Monday's press conference tying Trump's takeover to the larger issue of statehood for the District of Columbia. As long as Washington remains a federal enclave with limited autonomy under the 1973 Home Rule Act, she said, it will remain vulnerable to such takeovers. 'We know that access to our democracy is tenuous,' Bowser said. 'That is why you have heard me, and many many Washingtonians before me, advocate for full statehood for the District of Columbia.' Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows the president to take over Washington's police for 48 hours, with possible extensions to 30 days, during times of emergencies. No president has done so before, said Monica Hopkins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union's D.C. chapter. 'That should alarm everyone,' she said, 'not just in Washington.' For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects an escalation of his aggressive approach to law enforcement. The District of Columbia's status as a congressionally established federal district gives him a unique opportunity to push his tough-on-crime agenda, though he has not proposed solutions to the root causes of homelessness or crime. 'Let me be crystal clear,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said during Trump's announcement news conference. 'Crime in D.C. is ending and ending today.' Trump's declaration of a state of emergency fits the general pattern of his second term in office: He has declared states of emergency on issues ranging from border protection to economic tariffs, enabling him to essentially rule via executive order. In many cases, he has moved forward while the courts sorted them out. Bowser's claims about successfully driving down violent crime rates received backing earlier this year from an unlikely source. Ed Martin, Trump's original choice for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, issued a press release in April hailing a 25% drop in violent crime rates from the previous year. 'Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the efforts of our 'Make D.C. Safe Again' initiative, the District has seen a significant decline in violent crime,' Martin said. 'We are proving that strong enforcement, and smart policies can make our communities safer.' In May, Trump abandoned his efforts to get Martin confirmed for the post in the face of opposition in Congress. His replacement candidate, former judge and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, was recently confirmed. On Monday, Pirro — standing next to Trump — called his takeover 'the step that we need right now to make criminals understand that they are not going to get away with it anymore.'
San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Latest: National Guard troops arrive in Washington DC as Trump's federal takeover begins
President Donald Trump took unprecedented steps toward federalizing Washington, D.C. on Monday, saying it's needed to fight crime even as city leaders pointed to data showing violence is down. He took command of the police department and deployed the National Guard under laws and Constitutional powers that give the federal government more sway over the nation's capital than other cities. Its historically majority Black population wasn't electing its own city council and mayor until 1973, when Republican President Richard Nixon signed the Home Rule Act. Guard troops start streaming in National Guard troops are beginning to arrive at the Washington, D.C., armory. They were seen arriving this morning at the Guard's headquarters in the city. Trump said Monday that in hopes of reducing crime, he would be taking over Washington's police department and activating 800 members of the National Guard. The crime Trump talked about is the same crime that city officials stress is already falling noticeably. The Republican president, who had himself installed as chairman of the Kennedy Center's board, said in a social media post that the to-be-named nominees are 'GREAT.' 'GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,' Trump wrote in a social media post. 'They will be announced Wednesday. 'Tremendous work is being done, and money being spent, on bringing it back to the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment,' he said, without offering details. The Kennedy Center Honors program typically tapes in December for broadcast later in the month on CBS. Trump spurned the performing arts center in his first term after some honorees refused to attend a traditional White House event recognizing their achievements to protest Trump's policies, including those toward the arts. He did not attend the taping of the awards program during those four years in office. Trump's Tuesday schedule There is nothing on the president's public schedule today. However, press secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a briefing at 1 p.m. ET. Trump's moves toward taking over Washington are unprecedented. Here's what the law says Trump took command of the police department and deployed the National Guard under laws and Constitutional powers that give the federal government more sway over the nation's capital than other cities. The measure still leaves significant power to the president and Congress, though no president has exercised the police powers before. Here's a look at what the law says about Trump's actions: 1. Trump activated the National Guard. The president can still call up the National Guard in Washington. His authority is less clear in Los Angeles, where a legal battle continues over his recent deployment of the National Guard despite the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. 2. Trump took over the local police. Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows for the president to take over Washington's Metropolitan Police Department for 48 hours, with possible extensions to 30 days, during times of emergencies. No president has done so before.
