CREST Collaborative is a public special education collaborative. We are governed and funded by our member districts, and accept students from both member and non-member districts.

Educational Collaboratives are formed through an agreement among two or more school committees to provide educational programs or services for their member school systems and have been approved by the Commissioner of Education under the provisions of Chapter 40, Section 4E of the Massachusetts General Laws.

Collaboratives are managed by a Board representative from each member school committee, and are funded through local school committee budgets to serve public school students. In some cases collaboratives are also used by member systems to achieve economies of scale on bids for services such as transportation, food service supplies or paper goods.

The educational services provided vary from program to program, but in general, collaboratives offer special education services that would be difficult to provide locally. Many collaboratives also offer vocational education programs and professional development programs.