What's New: The State Finally Put It In Writing

New York's education department issued a formal compliance order plan dated May 8, 2026, obtained by NPR's Brian Mann. This is the first official state document to confirm the full scope of the abuse at Salmon River Central School District in Fort Covington, New York.

The order confirms at least five elementary-age students with disabilities were confined in what staff called "stations" — wooden boxes with the door held shut. The state's word for it: seclusion.

School employees built boxes, put children inside them, and held the doors closed. The state's official term is "seclusion."

The Euphemism Game

The May 8 order specifically calls out the district's language. "Station" was the word teachers used. The state's report says that word was a euphemism for "a wooden box." According to the compliance order, students "were subjected to seclusion when they were placed in 'stations' with the door held shut."

This is a school district that constructed a cover story at the same time it constructed the boxes. Both were built in November and December of 2025. Both collapsed when photos hit social media.

Parents Were Kept in the Dark — By Policy

The state's investigation found that parents of children placed in the boxes were NOT notified. That's a direct violation of New York state regulations.

New York education department rules are explicit: teachers and school personnel are "prohibited from using corporal punishment, aversive interventions, and seclusion against a student." The district violated all of it. Then kept parents in the dark about it.

Sarah Konwahahawi Herne, a parent and member of the Akwesasne Mohawk tribal community, told NPR she first heard about the boxes through social media rumors. "It was so unfathomable that our children were seeing these boxes and hearing children screaming in these boxes," she said. "I cried, I threw up and I immediately grabbed my laptop and said, What are we going to do?"

She found out from the internet. Not from the school district. Not from the state.

The Reform Order Nobody Can Read

The compliance order plan has not been released to the public.

NPR obtained it. The families affected by it can't download it. The community surrounding the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation can't review it. The taxpayers funding this school district can't scrutinize it.

New York's education department issued sweeping reform requirements in a document it is quietly keeping out of public view.

Still No Firings. Still No Names.

The compliance order does NOT recommend dismissal of any staff member who built, approved, or used these boxes on children.

Asked directly about firings, the New York State Education Department issued a statement to NPR saying: "by law, personnel decisions are a matter of local control."

The people who locked disabled kids in boxes get to keep their jobs, and Albany says that's somebody else's problem.

The May 8 order offers zero names. No ages of the children. No ethnicities listed — despite this community being home to significant numbers of Akwesasne Mohawk kids. No staff identified for discipline.

The state confirmed abuse. The state ordered reform. The state protected the people who did it.

What 'Sweeping Reforms' Actually Means

The compliance order requires the district to overhaul its special education program. The specifics — new training, new oversight, new personnel policies — have not been detailed publicly because the document isn't public.

The actual enforcement mechanism is a compliance order plan that parents can't read, covering staff who won't be fired, in a district that called wooden boxes "stations."

Coverage Across Outlets

Every outlet running this story — NPR, Houston Public Media, Maine Public, KCCU — has led with the reforms angle, framing the story around sweeping changes ahead. The compliance order's status as a closed document and the zero-accountability outcome for staff have received less emphasis.

What This Means For Real People

The children who were locked in those boxes — at minimum five of them, likely more — have no guarantee the people responsible will face any professional consequence whatsoever.

The tribal community at St. Regis Mohawk Reservation is still waiting for a public accounting. They're getting a compliance order they can't read and a reform plan they can't scrutinize.

New York's education department is moving forward while keeping the most important document in this case away from the families it was supposed to protect.