On Sept. 26, 2025, at a joint subcommittee meeting of Springfield Public Schools'Student and Parent Concerns and School Safety subcommittees, district staff reviewed procedures for parent advocacy, special-education safeguards and volunteer screening.

District Assistant Superintendent Jose Escobano and a member of the exceptional learners team, identified in the meeting as Dr. McCarthy, described multiple entry points for family concerns, the district's tracking and escalation process, and ways parents can participate as advisors. "It is really important that families know how to reach out when they have concerns," Escobano said, adding staff from multiple departments work together to resolve issues.

Dr. McCarthy outlined special-education supports and dispute-resolution options available to families, including individualized education program (IEP) meetings, requests for independent evaluations, mediation, facilitated team meetings and hearings. She said the district provides an annually distributed procedural safeguards document in multiple languages and has created an online request form for exceptional-learner support monitored by central office compliance staff. "We have had 29 families this year access [the DESE problem-resolution system], and of those, only one is unresolved," she said.

The district described how concerns are triaged: initial acknowledgement is made quickly and many cases are handled at the school level; matters that cannot be resolved there are escalated to central office with a formal intake form routed to the appropriate department. Escobano said the district tries to treat complaints as mediation opportunities and to connect families to the correct teams.

Staff also described parent engagement structures. The exceptional-learner parent advisory council will meet Oct. 1; Dr. McCarthy said nine parents have agreed to serve as council board members required under Massachusetts regulations governing special-education parent advisory committees. The district also described a broader Parent Advisory Council (PAC) that reviews draft policies and provides feedback, and a volunteer-tracking system run through Springfield School Volunteers that handles applications, background screening and placements.

Board members asked clarifying questions during the presentation. One member suggested comparing the number of parent concerns to the district's total student population rather than only to the number of school days, a point district staff acknowledged when discussing the scale of incoming reports. Escobano said central office aims to capture all entry points and funnel them into the tracking system so trends can be analyzed.

Action: after the presentation and questions, the subcommittee adjourned. The meeting record shows a motion to adjourn was made and seconded and the motion carried.

The district provided specific contact pathways (email, phone, online forms and Zoom meetings) and emphasized translation and access for families. Staff highlighted that remote participation (Zoom) increased parent attendance at team meetings during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing working parents to join without leaving work.

Less critical details: staff said they offer training sessions at school drop-off times to reach more families, and the volunteer process includes CORI/background checks and orientations. The district said the volunteer-tracking system is new this year and will quantify volunteer involvement across schools.