The Rhode Island Senate approved legislation on June 10 sponsored by Senate President Valarie J. Lawson (D-Dist. 14, East Providence) that would change who is financially responsible for children to attend the Children’s Residential and Family Treatment (CRAFT) Program at Bradley Hospital.

Currently, the City of East Providence pays for each participant in the program regardless of where in the state they are coming from. Bradley Hospital is located in East Providence.

The Senate legislation (2025-S 0113A) would require that the home community pay for the child, just as it would if it were sending them to a school away from their home district.

“This legislation is about ensuring vulnerable children in our state receive the best possible support, and it also about fairness for the City of East Providence and its taxpayers. As the statute currently reads, children in the CRAFT Program are required to be enrolled in East Providence schools and become the educational and financial responsibility of the East Providence School District, even if they are residents of another community,” said Lawson in a press release about the bill. “This creates serious disruptions for students who receive services such as IEPs through their regular school system, and who often have strong existing relationships in their home district. It also places an undue burden on East Providence taxpayers, with costs as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. This legislation would provide for the needs of children in the CRAFT Program to be met as they are in other similar circumstances. It is the best approach for students, and it is the fair approach for East Providence.”

Mayor Bob DaSilva, who has openly supported a move away from requiring East Providence taxpayers to finance all students attending the CRAFT Program, called the current situation an “unfair and unfunded mandate that has been costing East Providence property taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars” in a social media post.

How much has East Providence been paying?
Reached to assess exactly how much the CRAFT program has cost East Providence residents in past years, the East Providence School Department supplied a report showing that the city had spent a total of $2,569,415 in the past three years (with some bills still pending for this year).

Those costs break down to $1,960,415 in the actual tuition costs of the program, and $609,000 for transportation.

That can be compared to the $1,404,000 the city received in state aid for those same three years (the city receives $26,000 per 18 beds utilized in the program, for a total of $468,000 in aid per year from the state).

This means that in the past three years, the City of East Providence has spent a total of $1,165,415 on the CRAFT program.

“This does not factor in any of the staff costs for services to students in the district or managing the IEPs for students,” the statement from the school department continued.