The Reform of the Brookline Public Schools Special Education Program: A Retrospective

In the fall of 1964, Robert Sperber, the newly appointed superintendent of schools in Brookline, Massachusetts, surveyed the schools under his direction and found the “scope of services to children with special needs woefully inadequate.” He enlisted the help of specialists in the Department of Special Education, Boston University, asking them to investigate and develop recommendations leading to reform. This article is Professor Sperber's substantive account of the collaboration between a university and a public school system. The university team—Professors Burton Blatt, Frank Garfunkel, and Albert Murphy—studied all aspects of special needs education in Brookline and in 1965 presented a report calling for a new administrative structure, the appointment of a clinical coordinator, and major attention to the problems of differential diagnosis. Professor Sperber goes on to recount the implementation of these and many other recommendations and the further development of the Brookline program during his tenure (1964–1982). He concludes with comments on the current situation, locally and nationally, particularly the issue of division of resources and the cost of providing extraordinary services such as nurse-attendants for individuals.