Cambridge Parent Says CPS Busing Practices Discriminate Based on Disability in Federal Complaint

Each day, when scores of Cambridge students board buses to and from their school, parents are able to keep a careful eye on their children’s location, using live-time bus tracking provided by Cambridge Public Schools.

Many parents of disabled students, however, are not afforded the same treatment — a disparity one parent is looking to change with a civil rights complaint.

On March 7, John H. Summers, a Cambridge parent whose son has autism, filed a discrimination complaint against CPS with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, alleging that the lack of equal tracking measures on buses and vans that serve disabled students constituted disability-based discrimination.

In the complaint, Summers wrote that the duration of the ride to and from school is “the only time of the week when he is not under my care or the care of his teachers” and that as his son does not speak, “it is particularly important for me to know about his welfare—most of all, of course, where he is.”

Last year, The Crimson reported that of the 1,430 Cambridge students with individualized education plans, close to 90 attend private schools — including Summers’ son — which can more closely meet their educational needs.

CPS provides “door-to-door transportation” to and from schools for students with disabilities, sometimes in a private van. Yet, these vehicles do not offer tracking capabilities.

“It simply seems never to have occurred to anyone that the parents of disabled children might wish to know where their children are between home and school,” Summers testified during a March 19 Cambridge School Committee meeting.

Summers has asked the committee members to “amend or reject” CPS’ contract with NRT Bus, the company that supplies CPS with vans or small buses. CPS’ contract with NRT — valued at more than $21 million — is set to expire on June 30.

In Summer’s discrimination complaint, he wrote that by not offering children with disabilities and children without equivalent treatment, CPS violates Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 — which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability — “dozens of times each school day.”

His cause has won him a powerful ally.

On March 20, Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren (D-Mass.) emailed Summers, writing “I have contacted the U.S. Department of Education on your behalf.”

“I know this matter is of great concern to you and I sincerely hope I can be of assistance,” the email reads.

But despite the boost from one of the state’s most powerful legislators, on Sunday, Summers wrote in an email that he is still waiting for the Office of Civil Rights to reply “substantively” to his complaint.

CPS spokesperson Sujata Wycoff wrote in an emailed statement that “the district cannot comment on an active complaint.”

During the School Committee meeting, CPS Chief Operations Officer David Murphy said that NRT vehicles have technology to track buses, “but it is an open question for myself and my staff, frankly, as to why if they have that technology, they’re not able to link up with our tracker maps.”

Murphy also said that CPS and NRT were meeting “imminently” after the March 19 meeting to discuss CPS’ vendor contract with them.

“This is a non-negotiable,” committee member Richard Harding, Jr. said at the meeting. “Just tell them to do it. ‘Do it or lose the contract,’ practice those words.”

In a request for comment on ongoing negotiations, Wycoff wrote that “while the district cannot comment on the specifics of the negotiations, we will have vendors in place as needed.”

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz contributed reporting.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.