State Advocacy

S.124 / H.165

Referred to the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities

This bill is similar to the Child Welfare Omnibus bill of 2021-2022, such as to codify DCF's use of an education manager and enhance reporting requirements. It also adds a bill of rights for children in foster care, including to promote siblings connections.

S.71 / H.204

Referred to the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities
Sponsors: Senator Cynthia Stone Creem; Representative Joan Meschino

This bill promotes foster care placements with relatives, that keep siblings and half siblings together, and preserves/promotes cultural, racial, ethnic, religion, and linguistic identities. It also improves emergency removal procedures, such as to enhance communications and protections.

S.101 / H.134 

Favorably Reported from the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities; Senate Ways & Means

This bill expands the role and function of Family Resource Centers (FRCs) to support more children and families outside of the court process; Changes the Juvenile Court CRA filing process to ensure the court is a true “last resort”; Raises the lower age of Juvenile Court jurisdiction for CRA filings from 6 to 12

Supported by the Office of the Child Advocate OCA, the bill builds upon the 2012 reforms, Juvenile Justice Policy and Data Board report recommendation as part of next CHINS (Children Requiring Assistance) reform, as well as recent legislative and executive branch reforms to Massachusetts' behavioral health system to ensure that as many children and families as possible are effectively supported outside of the juvenile court process. Advocacy will include the need for sufficient funding and system to support this effort.

S.947 / H.1713

Referred to the Joint Committee on The Judiciary; Hearing Scheduled for 11/14/23
Sponsors: Senators Julian Cyr, Bruce E. Tarr, Adam Scanlon, and Robyn K. Kennedy; Representatives Sarah K. Peake , Hannah Kane

The Massachusetts Parentage Act (MPA) will update Massachusetts’ outdated parentage law so that it is clear, equitable, and provides legal protection for all families, including LGBTQ+ families. GLAD is the lead on this bill.

S.68 / H.164

Referred to the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities - Report Deadline Extended to: May 2

The bill codifies and creates rights for children in care, such as regarding sharing documents, promoting connection to family, community, and identity, prioritizing families first with placements, duration/frequency of visits, positive contacts/languages maintained, health care accessibility, right to school of origin/education supports, age-appropriate activities, milestones, being informed of supports/services available, access to case worker/attorney, participation in planning, notice, records, and complaints. Bill also promotes siblings connections.(Content of this bill is also in the Child Welfare Omnibus bill).

S.66 / H.158

Pending with the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities; Committee Report Deadline: May 2

This bill creates a Foster Care Review Board independent of the Department of Children and Families. In Massachusetts, foster care review is housed in The Department of Children and Families (DCF), it is an internal DCF department. This structure creates challenges and potential conflicts of interest for ensuring a robust and independent review with transparency, accountability, oversight and real authority to enforce findings and recommendations. This bill, created with the help of Friends of Children, will create an independent review process that addresses these challenges both at the individual case level and at the systems level.

Read more about the issue here: Fact Sheet and FAQs.

S.1542 / H.515

House Bill Referred to Joint Education Committee; Senate Bill Referred to Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee

Proposes systemic reforms, modeled after the Department of Youth Services' educational services, to ensure that youth are regularly engaged in education, including high school, special education, higher education, or vocational educational programs.

Fact Sheet.

S.301 / H.489

The Joint Committee on Education reported the bills out favorably; new draft - S2697

This bill provides the specific structure that is needed to deliver affordable care options for families; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a new, stable source of funding for providers; high-quality programs and services for children; and substantial relief for businesses and our economy. This bill is led by the Common Start Coalition.

See more on this legislation/issue here. Fact Sheets: H489 & S301

S.1999 / H.1157

S.1999 was reported favorably by the Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means (H.1157 is sitting with the Committee on Financial Services)

Provides the framework to establish a Baby Bonds program here in Massachusetts, which helps address the ever-growing wealth divide. State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg convened a Baby Bonds Task Force in March 2022 to explore the issue and the report provided comprehensive recommendations on developing an at-birth, publicly funded, trust fund program for low-income Massachusetts residents and informed this legislation. (Report 2022). By creating a Baby Bonds initiative, Massachusetts kids in our most vulnerable communities will gain asset building opportunities in housing, education and entrepreneurship: to help them buy a home, start a business, save for retirement, and/or access post-secondary education. Eligible kids are those receiving cash assistance under transitional aid to families with dependent children or children under the care or custody of the Massachusetts department of children and families within the first twelve months of their life. The program supports future generations’ upward mobility and saves long-term money to taxpayers as it also helps our economy.

S.2251 / H.3360 / H.3388

Reported favorably from Joint Committee on Higher Ed; Senate passed; House: referred to House Ways and Means

Creates a process for a person who is homeless or is an unaccompanied homeless youth to apply for a Massachusetts identification card and to waive any fees associated with obtaining the identification card. Led by MA Coalition for the Homeless. See Testimonial Statements here.

H.1597 / S.983

Joint Judiciary Committee decided this bill would accompany study order S2753

Decriminalizes people being bought and sold in the sex trade (overwhelmingly women and girls, and disproportionately BIPOC and LGBTQIA individuals), and expands access to critical resources for the estimated 89% of those who want to exit the sex trade while upholding current anti-trafficking laws. Also establishes commission to report/recommend ways to improve access to services & ed/prevention; correlation btw youth missing from care and being exploited; the exploited youth shouldn’t be criminalized (My Life My Choice: Bill Overview)

H.157 / S.65

Referred to Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities; Committee Report Deadline Extended to: May 2

Ensures kids eligible for benefits are getting them, corrects the state's current practice of taking children's benefits, makes sure benefits aren’t being used for things DCF purchases for other children in care, requires financial literacy training, and ensures youth exiting state care without permanency have these needed assets for support.

Additional advocates of this bill include The Disability Law Center and Child Protection and the Committee for Public Counsel Services.

S.1990 / H.3084

The Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight reported the bills favorably to their respective Ways and Means Committees

This bill would build the capacity of key public-facing state agencies to meet the language access needs of an increasingly diverse population by standardizing and enforcing language access protocols and practices. This bill is led by the Mass. Law Reform Institute, Massachusetts Appleseed, and Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

S.672 / H.985

Reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Financial Services and referred to the Joint Health Care Financing Committee

Calls for the Department of Public Health to establish and administer statewide programs providing universal postpartum home visiting services. Led by CHAC (Children's Health Access Coalition).

S.740 / H.1237

The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing reported the bill favorably to the Senate Committee on Ways and Means

Cover All Kids extends MassHealth benefits to children/young adults who couldn’t otherwise receive benefits due to their immigration status. This is led by the Children's Health Access Coalition (CHAC).

S.940 / H.1495

Accompanied a new draft (S.2756) and reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on Senate Ways and Means

A 2018 statute on judicial pre-arraignment diversion excluded several offenses, including low-level conduct. This bill expands the list of offenses that are eligible for judicial consideration but continues to prohibit judicial diversion for offenses, for which adults would be subject to a mandatory incarceration of five years or more.

See Massachusetts Coalition for Juvenile Justice Reform's Fact Sheet.

S.936 / H.1451

Sitting with the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. Committee Report Deadline extended to: June 30

Reduces the list of offenses ineligible for expungement; allows expungement of all records that resulted in non-convictions/non-adjudications; incentivizes not re-offending; prohibits dissemination of finger print juvenile arrests to the FBI (expect to submit sealing and expungement orders) to prevent juvenile records from being available to the public; and requires annual reports on expungement convictions to evaluate the legislation's impact.

More info. on expungement: Expungement is a tool allow individuals to completely and fully re-integrate into society without the burden of a criminal record, particularly when the record has no predictive value of future offending. Also aims to rectify the documented systemic racism at every point of the criminal legal system. Note: states where there are minimal administrative barriers to sealing and/or expungement of juvenile records have significantly reduced re-arrest/recidivism rates and increased college graduation and incomes as these young people transition to adulthood.

S.300 / H.517

Replaced by S.2663; Reported favorably by Joint Committee on Education and now pending with Senate Ways and Means

This bill clarifies conduct requiring disciplinary or law enforcement responses; creates a grant program (administered by Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) to transition to police-free schools; increases data on school policing; prohibits SROs (school resource officers) from being assigned to a district if a superintendent doesn’t publicly report that data.

See the Mental Health Legal Advisors Committee and Citizens for Juvenile Justice Fact Sheet.

S.931 / H.1802

Joint Committee on The Judiciary send the bill to accompany a study order (S.2612)

This legislation would authorize the Office of the Child Advocate to gather and report key demographic data at major decision points to better identify and evaluate policies or practices of the juvenile justice system.

Check out the MA Coalition for Juvenile Justice Reform Fact Sheet.

S.829 / H.1275

Reported favorably (as slight redraft - S.2678) by the Joint Committee on Higher Education and sent to SWM

This bill establishes a behavioral health workforce center of excellence to assess the behavioral health workforce on longitudinal basis and recommend strategies to meet needs; gather data/research to advise policy leaders on how to address the crisis in the behavioral health workforce across the Commonwealth; and be established at one of the public institutions of higher education in Massachusetts. This bill is being led by the Association of Behavioral Healthcare.

S.77 / H.214

Reported favorably by the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities; S77 - Senate Ways & Means

This bill would create an education loan repayment program for eligible human service workers who provide essential services to one-in-ten state residents, thereby also supporting human
service organizations to recruit and retain a stronger, more qualified workforce.

This bill is led by the Providers’ Council. Here's a Fact Sheet.

S.84 / H.191

Referred to the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities; Committee Report Deadline: May 2

This bill would eliminate the pay disparity that exists between the salaries of human services workers employed by community-based human service providers and state employees holding similar job titles who perform similar work. This bill was put forth by the Provider’s Council, of which CLM is a member.

Here's a Fact Sheet.