The Special Education Surrogate Parent (SESP) Program is a statewide organization that appoints volunteers who accept the responsibility to be special education decision-makers for students who are in state custody and are receiving special education services. Our volunteers have been serving students across Massachusetts for over 35 years, and are actively appointed to over 700 eligible students. The students we represent reside in a variety of living situations including residential schools, group homes, hospitals or pediatric nursing homes, state institutions, diagnostic placements, shelters, and foster homes. They may be in a full inclusion setting at a local public school, or attending a highly structured day school program. In short, our students can land at multiple points along many different continuums.

Children and adolescents in the custody of the state have often experienced numerous traumatic losses and stressful upheavals, and typically have very few family supports available to help them. They wage an uphill battle for success every day of their lives. Appropriate academic services equal a better chance of success in school, and subsequently a better chance of a positive future.