Chapter 71B

Section 1. The following words as used in this chapter shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly requires otherwise: ''Department'', the department of education. ''Free appropriate public education'', special education and related services as consistent with t…

Section 10. The department may, on an annual renewal basis, upon the request of the parents or guardians and the recommendations of a local school committee refer children requiring special education to any institution within or without the commonwealth which offers curriculum, i…

Section 11A. The department of education shall provide special education to school aged children with a disability who are incarcerated in county houses of correction. Notwithstanding chapter 66A or any other general or special law to the contrary, the department of elementary an…

Section 12. The department shall establish and maintain a school department for school-age children in each institution under the control of the departments of mental health, developmental services, public health and youth services which provides support and care for resident chi…

Section 12A. For the purposes of sections twelve A to twelve C, inclusive, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Disabled person'', a person who is unable to engage in substantial gainful activity by reason of medically determinable physical or mental impairmen…

Section 12B. There shall be within the executive office of human services a bureau of transitional planning. There is also hereby established within the executive office of human services a committee, to be known as the transitional advisory committee, which shall meet on a regul…

Section 12C. A disabled person who has been receiving special education under the provisions of this chapter shall be eligible, subject to appropriation, upon graduation from high school or upon attaining the age of twenty-two, whichever occurs first, to receive habilitative serv…

Section 16. A school age child with a disability, in this section called a student, who is completing the twelfth grade but who has not yet earned the competency determination as required under section 1D of chapter 69 for high school graduation, shall be allowed to participate f…

Section 17. (a) Subject to appropriation, the department of higher education shall develop and administer a discretionary grant program, which shall include planning and implementation grants, to provide money to school committees and public institutions of higher education partn…

Section 2. The board shall promulgate, jointly with the departments of mental health, developmental services, public health, children and families and youth services, the Massachusetts commission for the blind and the commission for the deaf and hard of hearing, regulations regar…

Section 2A. (a) There shall be a bureau of special education appeals which shall provide adjudicatory hearings, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution as determined by the bureau of special education appeals for resolution of disputes between and among parent…

Section 3. In accordance with the regulations, guidelines and directives of the department issued jointly with the departments of mental health, developmental services, public health, youth services, and the commission for the blind and the commission for the deaf and hard of hea…

Section 3A. (a) A school committee with four thousand or more children enrolled in its school system shall appoint a person to be its administrator of special education. Such administrator shall devote full time to the duties involved in supervising the provision of all special e…

Section 4. The school committee of any city, town or school district may, to meet its obligations under section three, with the approval of the department enter into an agreement with any other school committee to jointly provide special education or, subject to the consent of th…

Section 5. Any school committee which provides or arranges for the provision of special education pursuant to the provisions of section three shall pay for such special education personnel, materials and equipment, tuition, room and board, transportation, rent and consultant serv…

Section 5A. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the following meanings: ''Approved costs threshold'', $45,793 in fiscal year 2020 and adjusted by the foundation inflation index, as defined in section 2 of chapter 70, in each subsequent year. ''Ins…

Section 5B. (a) There is hereby established a pooled risk program for extraordinary and unanticipated special education costs to be administered by the department. The board of education shall promulgate regulations necessary for the operation of the program. (b) A local or regio…

Section 5C. (a) There is hereby established a zero interest loan program for extraordinary and unanticipated special education costs, to be administered by the department. The board of education shall promulgate regulations necessary for the operation of this program. (b) Local a…

Section 6. School committees shall annually report to the department, pursuant to regulations promulgated by the department, the assignment by sex, national origin, economic status, race and religion, of children by age level to special education classes and the distribution of c…

Section 7. No results of standardized or local tests of ability, aptitude, attitude, affect, achievement, or aspiration may be used exclusively in the selection of children for referral, diagnosis, or evaluation. Such tests shall be approved by the department in accordance with r…

Section 8. If a school age child with a disability attends a school approved by the department within or without the city or town of residence of the parent or guardian, the school committee of the town where the child resides may be required by the department to provide transpor…

Section 9. The department, after consultation with the departments of mental health, developmental services and public health, shall define the circumstances in which school committees may be required to provide special classes, instruction periods or other special education prog…

Section 9A. The department of education shall provide a workshop curriculum on the rights of students, their parents and guardians under the special education laws of the commonwealth and the federal government to each school district in the commonwealth to be used by such school…