South Kingstown parent says district repeatedly failed special‑education transportation; cites RIDE findings and consent order

Sean Kavanaugh, a Wakefield resident and parent of three South Kingstown students, used the school committee’s public‑comment period to sharply criticize the district’s handling of transportation for his twin daughters, who the committee was told are five years old and on the autism spectrum.

Kavanaugh said his daughters’ transportation problems began in September 2023 and continued into 2024. He told the committee that, based on limited GPS data he received from the district, his children missed “at least 26 and 3 quarters hours of school,” which he described as the equivalent of more than four school days.

The parent said he pursued a formal complaint with the Rhode Island Department of Education and that the district admitted violating state rules on multiple occasions. “I was able to get the district to admit that 21 separate times they had violated Rhode Island Department of Education regulations,” Kavanaugh said during public comment. He also said the outcome of the RIDE process included a consent order, which he said the district reported only after the hearing.

Kavanaugh described an incident on Dec. 6 in which no one picked up his calls to Ocean State Transportation and school staff initially did not respond; his children arrived home about an hour late that day, he said. He said the district’s written explanations to families pointed to poor communication between the district and the bus company and inconsistent understandings about school start times. “The problem, as it turns out, was poor communication between the school department and the bus company,” he quoted from an email he attributed to Superintendent Littlefield.

Kavanaugh said he is pursuing the matter because the delays and missed time have particular implications for his daughters’ special‑education services and individual education programs (IEPs). He said he has purchased a GPS tracker for his children to monitor their transportation and urged the committee to “take responsibility, enforce compliance, restore trust with families you serve.”

The committee chair acknowledged Kavanaugh’s comment and moved on to the next public speaker; the transcript records no immediate committee vote or formal action in response during that meeting. Committee members did not offer a public back‑and‑forth during the allotted public‑comment time.

Why it matters: Kavanaugh framed the issue as both a repeated operational failure and a regulatory compliance matter tied to protections for students with disabilities. He told the committee he believes the district’s response has prioritized legal defense over fixing service delivery and called for accountability and urgency.

What committee records show: Kavanaugh said RIDE regulations limit ride time for special‑needs students and that the district acknowledged violating that rule multiple times; he also said a consent order resulted from the hearing process. The transcript includes his statements but does not contain district responses or a staff presentation addressing his specific claims during the same meeting.

Next steps noted at the meeting: The comment was filed during public comment; the committee did not take formal action on the record that night. Kavanaugh said he had brought documentation (a memo and the consent order) and offered them to the public and the committee.

Source: Public‑comment remarks by Sean Kavanaugh at the South Kingstown School Committee meeting (transcript public‑comment period).