Driscoll Signs onto Letter Regarding the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children

FEBRUARY 24, 2025

Senator Driscoll signed onto a joint letter to Governor Healey, co-authored by Senator Feeney and Representative Galvin, calling for the pause and review of the proposed closure of the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children.

Please see the content of the letter, below:

Dear Governor Healey,

We are writing to express our collective concern with the planned closure of the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in Canton, Massachusetts, outlined in the proposed FY26 Budget Proposal.

Since we first learned the news of the proposed Pappas closure, our offices have received an immense outpouring of messages, calls, emails, and social media outreach from constituents expressing deeply held reservations about the closure of Pappas -- concerns which we seek to echo and uplift. In an email, one provider said, “[The students] had opportunities far beyond what would be possible in a more traditional setting of being in a unit on a wing... there was joy, everywhere!” In a Facebook comment, a former patient said, “Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children is a big community [of] family and friendship...like a home to me, they made me feel loved.” And in recent news coverage following the announced closure, a former patient said, “Pappas is family” (Boston 25).

There is no doubt that Pappas is a special place, something more than a residential medical institution. Pappas offers a high quality of life to students with distinctive medical needs through its unique blend of specially-designed patient care and individually-tailored recreational opportunities, including an equestrian program, aquatic programs, and a fully handicap accessible gym – all services we believe cannot readily be replicated at an alternative location. The campus full of activities, classrooms and expert staff allow those cared for at Pappas to be students rather than patients, a central reason why Pappas is so beloved. There are further questions which have been brought to us about the transition of the Pappas staff and patients to another location, with great uncertainty if other locations elsewhere in the Commonwealth can meet the same level of medical or recreational needs.

We invite you, in conjunction with the appropriate secretariats, to join with us to pause, reconsider, and reimagine the Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children in order to meet today’s needs. We appreciate the challenging fiscal situation of the Commonwealth and the desire for consolidation that can result in savings for the taxpayers we serve, and that investments in aging infrastructure require cultivation long before the current administration. We are willing to collaborate with you, the respective state agencies of jurisdiction and anyone necessary to identify alternative paths forward.

Thank you for your continued collaboration and service to the Commonwealth.