Administrators at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center contend that their methods have merit and are uniquely effective with certain special-needs cases. In a statement from the school, some parents endorsed the school’s methods and said they dramatic positive effect.

“My son Andrew has spent 18 years severely injuring himself and others, sending over 40 people to the hospital with severe human bites and concussions,” Robin and Joe Pisano of Revere said in the statement. “Nine months ago we made the very difficult decision to petition the court to try the GED (skin shock treatments). It has been a miracle. ... There is no torture here.”

Louisa Goldberg, of Newton, said her son Andrew was assaultive and was heavily drugged and “restrained on the floor for hours” in other programs.

“It is my job as his mother to find a treatment that helps him to be safe, calmer, healthy, happy and educated,” Goldberg said in the statement. The Judge Rotenberg Center is the best program for him.”

Last October, Governor Deval L. Patrick’s administration enacted new regulations that prohibit the school from punishing any newly admitted students with electrical shock. The school can still administer shock treatment to those who obtained court-approved therapy plans before the new rules took effect — 88 of the school’s 233 students.

“The effort to ban this practice has been going on for decades,” said State Senator Brian A. Joyce, a leading advocate for it in the Legislature, in an interview during the rally. “I’ve learned to temper my optimism with the reality that there are well-paid lawyers, lobbyists, and PR people defending the school. But I’m more hopeful than ever before that this will pass” because of support from Governor Patrick, the success of the new regulations, and the recent circulation of a video showing a student getting shocked.