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Students press SELAC for accessibility updates; district to stream next meeting and follow up on door buttons

North Kingstown Special Education Local Advisory Committee (NKCLAC) · January 9, 2026

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Summary

Student presenters at the North Kingstown SELAC meeting urged accessibility changes at the high school, including automatic door buttons; Dr. Rachel Santa said staff would follow up on timelines and the committee voted to enable streaming for the next meeting so wider participation is possible.

Students taking part in the NKCLAC meeting highlighted inclusion and accessibility issues and asked the committee for concrete follow-up. Emmett Chomsym described North Kingstown High School's national recognition as a unified school and reminded members the unified spring week will be March 23—26.

Student Sophia presented a democracy-project proposal to add automatic door buttons at NKHS's media center, cafeteria and gym to improve wheelchair access. "I wanted to add specifically handicap door buttons to the media center doors and the cafeteria doors and possibly the gymnasium doors as well," Sophia said. She told the committee she had raised the issue previously with the school committee and that she believed steps were underway but installation had not yet been completed.

Dr. Rachel Santa responded that the district would follow up and provide more detail. Santa said she would coordinate with staff and check timelines and noted the district had already placed orders for some accessibility items. In addition, the committee discussed making SELAC meetings more accessible to the public: legal questions had been reviewed with counsel and Santa said the next meeting would be available for streaming and that the district would advertise the link widely so people could participate remotely.

NKCLAC members encouraged students to return with photos and updates when accessibility installations are complete; staff committed to reporting progress at the next meeting. The committee also applauded student leadership and encouraged more student voices at future meetings.