For months, families and staff protested the state's planned closure of Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in Canton, Massachusetts and it paid off. Senator Paul Feeney tells the I-Team, WBZ's reporting put the issue on the radar screen, amplifying the voices of the students and workers. 

Feeney was on front lines in the battle to save the home for disabled kids and young adults, getting the money to keep it open put in the state budget for Fiscal Year 26 that Governor Maura Healey signed last week.

Helping kids gain independence

Pappas is unlike any other residential home. The sprawling Canton property houses a school with classrooms, a handicapped accessible pool and therapies like horseback riding, all designed to help kids grow and gain independence.

Billy Alish is just one of the many residents thriving at Pappas, he is doing so well, he wrote a book when he was just eleven years old. His mom, Alma, credits Pappas telling the I-Team, "he wouldn't be where he is right now if he was just at home."

Despite all of the stories of success, the governor put the hospital for the underserved population on the chopping block to save money, calling it a redirecting of services of care. 

Families tell the I-Team, the plan was to send some of the kids home and others to Western Massachusetts Hospital in Westfield. Critics say the hospital is not a pediatric facility and has no school or special therapies. 

"It bothers me as a policymaker sometimes when I see folks make decisions based on strictly fiscal reasons," Senator Feeney said. "We should be providing care to the most vulnerable young people in Massachusetts. We are their voice, and you have served as their voice as well. These are families and young kids that often get left behind." 

Exploring private public partnerships

Pappas is not out the woods. 

Lawmakers say keeping the hospital open long term will require other sources of funding. A working group is looking into reimagining Pappas and exploring private public partnerships. 

• I-Team