G. Doe v. Pawtucket School Department

INTERIM ORDER

This appeal requesting an expedited hearing was filed in response to Respondent’s refusal to enroll Petitioner’s son, a high-school senior and resident of the city of Pawtucket. Petitioner’s son disenrolled for non-disciplinary reasons from the William M. Davies, Jr. Career and Technical School in late September 2020 and has been without educational services since. Following a telephone conference on October 27, 2020, during which Pawtucket claimed that the Davies School is responsible for educating Petitioner’s son, difficulties arose in scheduling an expedited hearing. On October 29, 2020, however, Pawtucket agreed to enroll Petitioner’s son.

Given Petitioner’s son’s undisputed residency in Pawtucket and some initial confusion about the credits he needs to graduate, we find that the circumstances warrant the issuance of an interim order pursuant to RI Gen. Laws §16-39-3.2 directing Respondent to finalize Petitioner’s son’s enrollment and determine the coursework he needs to meet graduation requirements while the Hearing Officer sets a control date for this matter.

SO ORDERED:

/s/ Paul E. Pontarelli

Paul E. Pontarelli

Hearing Officer

Approved:

Angélica Infante-Green

Commissioner

November 17, 2020