Gloucester released twelve and Ashland fourteen. Both came through storage the districts control, so nothing has been published — and that is the honest state of it.
Between October 8 and October 10, two Massachusetts school districts handed over twenty-six settlement and mediation agreements in response to the same request, and charged nothing for either.
Neither set is published on this site. That is not a judgment about the districts; it is a fact about where the files live, and this project does not label a file “PII-reviewed” it has not read page by page.
What arrived
Gloucester Public Schools closed its public records portal request #26-683 on October 9 and released twelve redacted settlement agreements, numbered 1 through 12. The District had acknowledged receipt in September and then taken a ten-business-day extension.
Ashland Public Schools answered public records request 26-548 on October 9, ahead of the agreed date, with its own count of what exists since September 2021: nine settlement agreements, three Special Ed. Mediation Agreements, zero memoranda of understanding, zero resolution agreements. After we reviewed the folder and asked four follow-up questions, the District supplied two further mediation agreements it had referenced but not uploaded, bringing that production to fourteen.
Two districts, twenty-six documents, zero dollars demanded. Across the project as a whole, 18 districts have now produced records and 15 of them produced with no charge at all.
Both districts’ rows, their counts and their document history are on the Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project tracker, which is also where the figures below come from.
Why nothing is published, in one sentence each
Gloucester’s files live inside the district’s NextRequest portal. They arrived as a release notification listing twelve filenames, not as documents. Until the files are retrieved out of that portal and put through page-level review, this site has nothing to publish and will not say otherwise. The tracker row records the receipt and the count and nothing more.
Ashland’s files live in a Google Drive folder the district controls. The link is in the district’s email. That is the same situation as Northborough-Southborough’s production, which is already labelled “District’s own copy” on the tracker, and it is why the count of productions published here is still 4 rather than 6.
We published 39 settlement files in this project before our own review caught identifiers inside them, and we had to take them back down. “The district says it redacted it” is the exact sentence that produced that failure. A link is not a clearance.
The tracker draws that line for every district on the Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project tracker: the Documents cell reads “Published” only where this site hosts a reviewed file, and “District’s own copy” where the link points at a folder the district opened. Two rows moved into the second category this week.
The portal round trip, and why thirteen minutes mattered
The Gloucester release notice arrived at 10:37 a.m. on October 9 with all twelve filenames listed. At 10:58 a.m. the request’s documents tab displayed no results.
That is the shape of a lost production. The district has already marked the request closed. The release notice is evidence the files existed. And the only place a requester can look — the documents tab — says there is nothing there. A requester who accepts the tab at face value has a closed request, no records, and a notice they may not have kept.
Parent Data Force raised it with district staff at 10:58 a.m., attaching screenshots of the empty tab. The district resolved it at 11:11 a.m.
Two things follow from that, and both are practical rather than rhetorical.
First: save the release notice. The notice, not the tab, is the record of what the district said it released. A portal that can show twelve filenames in an email and zero files in its own interface can do it again, and the next requester may not have anyone to email about it.
Second: a closed request is not a finished request. Gloucester’s row moved to partial production because twelve agreements were released. It does not say published, because published is a claim about this site and no file has been placed here.
What asking the right four questions got
Ashland’s production arrived as a folder with special-education headings, and the district’s letter answered four categories: settlement agreements, mediation agreements, memoranda of understanding, resolution agreements. Our request was broader than that — it covered general-education student disputes and any final written student-related resolution regardless of title, including memoranda of agreement, stipulations, side letters, material amendments and extensions.
Four questions went out at 8:12 a.m. on October 9. All four were answered by 11:19 a.m. the same day:
- A scanned agreement skipped from page 1 to page 4. The District explained the original was front-to-back and the scan had dropped pages 2 and 3, and reuploaded it with them. Nobody had asked for that; we noticed it by opening the file.
- One settlement agreement superseded a mediation agreement dated July 25, 2024. The District said that earlier agreement was never fully executed, explained why the superseding document was drafted days later and signed a fortnight later, and uploaded it anyway.
- A mediation agreement modified an agreement dated February 3, 2026. Same answer: never fully executed, uploaded for transparency.
- The folder headings looked special-education-only. The District said it is checking with the Superintendent, the building principals and district counsel, and will produce anything additional it finds by close of business on October 13.
The count moved from twelve to fourteen without anyone being compelled to move it. That is the whole argument for asking specific questions instead of accepting a delivery.
“Please confirm the search covered general education” is a better sentence than “please provide any additional records.” One asks a question that can be answered yes or no; the other asks for a favour.
Where this leaves the project’s own numbers
Nothing moved on the fee side this week, and that is worth stating plainly: 32 districts have stated a fee totalling $44,641.20 and 1,057.32 claimed hours, and not one of those totals changed when two districts produced records for free. A district can answer the same request at no cost or quote you $27,550 for it. The production side and the fee side are separate tracks, and this week both ran at once.
The project’s figures are computed from the tracker, not collected by hand, and every producing district’s status, count and document history is on the Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project tracker, which carries the same numbers in its header. What happened the day before, when six districts answered and one cut its own fee to zero, is at Six Districts Answered on Oct. 7. And the two free productions that had to come down after our own review found identifiers inside them are written up at 183 Free Pages, Two Districts.
The project is parent-led and grows by request. If your district is not on the tracker, write to the project and it becomes another row on the board.
What This Means for Parents
- Cooperation and publication are different things, and a parent should be able to tell them apart. Two districts did everything right this week and neither set is on this site, because the files sit in storage this project does not control and has not read. When a district tells you records are available, ask where, and whether you can get the files themselves rather than a link.
- Save every release notice and every closure email. Gloucester’s notice listed twelve files an hour before its own tab showed none. That email is the only proof the files were ever released, and it is the document that turns a closed request back into an open one.
- Ask four specific questions instead of one open-ended one. Asking whether a scan is missing pages, whether a superseded agreement is responsive, whether an unexecuted predecessor should be disclosed, and whether general-education matters were searched produced two extra documents and one re-scan from a single district in a single morning. Vague requests get vague answers.
- Ask for the files, not for a link, wherever the law lets you. Our request specified electronic copies by email or download link and expressly declined printing charges for electronically maintained records. A link the district controls can be revised; a file in your hands cannot.
- Free production is achievable and is not rare. Fifteen districts in this project have now produced settlement records without charging for it, while thirty-two have priced the identical request. The number a district quotes is a decision, not a measurement, and this week’s two districts made it for nothing.
Sources
- Gloucester Public Schools, NextRequest portal request #26-683 closure and document release, Oct. 9, 2026; Parent Data Force portal inquiry with screenshots and district resolution, same day.
- Ashland Public Schools, response to public records request 26-548, Oct. 9, 2026; Parent Data Force completeness questions and the District’s same-day responses.
- Parent Data Force public records request template, Sept. 20-23, 2021 record window, as sent to every district in the project.
- District production counts, fees and status as computed from the Massachusetts Student Settlement Records tracker on October 10, 2026: 18 districts produced, 15 produced with no charge, 32 districts with a stated fee totalling $44,641.20.
- Supervisor of Records determination, Dracut Public Schools, SPR26/4024, Oct. 9, 2026.
- Champa v. Weston Public Schools, 473 Mass. 86 (2015); G.L. c. 66, §§ 10(d), 10A(a).
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