Cotting's preschool, lower, middle, and upper schools offer academic instruction focusing on a variety of skills and content areas, vocational assessment, and training.

Edward H. Bradford and Augustus Thorndike, both orthopedic surgeons at Children's Hospital Boston and was originally called The Industrial School for Crippled and Deformed Children.

Cotting School, A Pictorial History (ISBN 978-0738557656) was written by David Manzo and Elizabeth Campbell Peters and published by Arcadia Publishing (April 2, 2008).

The school offers the following services: special education, assistive technology, art, music, library/media, dental, vision, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, industrial arts, tutorial services, pre-vocational and vocational training.

Cotting School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and has full approval status from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.