Parent tells South Kingstown school committee bus failures deny timely access to education for his children with disabilities

At the public-comment portion of the meeting, resident Sean Kavanaugh told the South Kingstown School Committee that his twin daughters, both students with disabilities, have experienced repeated transportation failures since September 2023 and said the district had not complied with a Department of Education consent order.

Kavanaugh said the children “have not been in their classrooms at the start of the instructional period every single day save one” since Jan. 14. He also told the committee that on one recent day the district called to say there was no bus for his daughters’ afternoon ride and the bus would be late; the delay grew from a reported 10 minutes to nearly a half hour. He said the same bus serves other students, including one peer who uses a wheelchair.

Kavanaugh questioned the committee’s priorities and said most members had not reached out to him after his prior public comment. He quoted sections of state law during his remarks, including a passage he attributed to Rhode Island General Law 16-2-9a about a school committee’s duty “to provide transportation for transportation services that meet or exceed standards of the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education,” and a provision in Rhode Island General Law 16-2-9.1 about the ethical standards that prioritize the educational welfare of students.

The committee chair acknowledged the comment but noted the committee could not respond during public comment. Kavanaugh said he will return to the committee in two weeks.

No formal action was taken during the meeting on his transportation concerns. The committee later discussed transportation in the context of the FY 2026 budget presentation, where the administration described this year as Year 1 of a two-tiered transportation system and said it needs multiple years of data before making larger changes to routes or contracts.