2023-10-30 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Education
2023-10-30 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Education
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - The public hearing of the joint committee on education is now convened. I'm state senator Jason Lewis, the senate chair, the joint committee on education, and, to my left is, our house chair of the committee, representative, Denise Garlic, and we are also joined by representative Howard. Nice to see you. And we may have some other committee members, participating, online virtually or, joining us in person as we move forward with the hearing. Today's, hearing is, we will be taking testimony on all the bills pending before the committee on topics including college and career readiness, technology and data, Transportation, rural and regional schools, and deaf and hard of hearing children.
We do have, quite a large number of people signed up to testify, either in person or remotely,
and we, really appreciate everyone's participation, in the public hearing process. Again, whether you're here in person or paid virtually. We also, encourage you to submit written testimony, if you haven't already. That's a a very effective way to communicate with, myself and representative Garlic, our staff, and, you know, and, all the committee members. We do have, we do have a significant number of people signed up, so we are asking you to please limit your testimony to 2 minutes. 2 minutes. I know that sounds like a a very short amount of time, but I can assure you that you can, you can effectively, communicate, you know, your position on a on a particular bill or or bills, you know, in a, you know, in a succinct manner, and that that has the biggest impact on, you know, on the committee members. What the way we're gonna conduct the hearing is, everyone who's Here in person, we're gonna, take your testimony first. So we will go through all the bills where there is somebody signed up, to testify in person. And then after that, we142 will then go back to the the beginning of the agenda to take testimony from everyone who has signed up to testify, virtually. We do have some special requests in terms of accommodating, accessibility needs. So, we're gonna at 2 PM, we are gonna take all testimony on, senate bill 316, which is an act166 relative to best management practices for wireless in schools and public institutions of higher education. So, just ask for your Understanding and patience in advance. When we get to 2 PM, we'll switch over to all of179 the, testimony on on that bill. If you are here in person and you do wanna testify, you have to have either signed up in advance or signed up when you arrived at this at the hearing just outside, so if you haven't, please, do so with 1 of the committee staff.
Let's see. Oh, we we only call folks to testify once, so if you want to share, feedback with the committee on more than 1 bill, You should do so at the time you are called to, to testify. A copy of the agenda for today's hearing is available online on the hearings and events page of the Massachusetts legislature website, and we do try to conform to that agenda, while recognizing similar bills together. It is generally the practice of this committee and other committees to, Take legislators, out of turn when they when they arrive. So I do see a number of legislators here in person, and I think we have 1 or 2 virtually. So, Once we begin the hearing, I will I will recognize those folks to testify, to testify first. The hearing is being live streamed on the legislature's website, and the recording will be posted shortly after the conclusion of the hearing. We ask folks to, you know, please, mute your silence your your cell phones if you're here in person and to be sure to mute yourself if you265 are virtual, and then267 you should, unmute, of269 course, once we call you to testify.
If you have any questions or concerns, during the hearing, you could certainly talk to, any of the committee staff. To my right, is, Emily Reynolds, and this is284 actually her 1st day, as our new legislative director in my office. So welcome, Emily. Throwing you right into the lion's den. So great to have you with us. And then we also have the, house staff of the committee, Zach Schwartz, the research director, Andrew Epifanio Epifanio. Sorry, Andrew. I always pronounce your name wrong. I'm gonna get it right 1 of these days, down there at the end. And, Siona Chernoff, also a committee researcher, and, I think that, that covers it. Alright. So, without further ado, we're gonna move to, again, the bills where we have, folks signed up to testify in person, and then we'll we'll go back to, start over, to take virtual testimony. Alright. So I think the in terms of the legislators, I think senator Olivera and rep Daugherty, were you gonna testify together? Okay. So why don't you come up and testify? And then we'll do go to representative Scanlon,357
and senator Hajano, and then representative Lipikarabedian. Did I get everybody? Okay. Thank you.
SPEAKER2 - The 2 minute rule also applies to legislators, does it?
SPEAKER3 - Yes. It does.
SPEAKER2 - Oh, if I leave anything out, I'll write to you.
SPEAKER1 - You know where to find us.
SPEAKER2 - Yeah. So,
REP DOHERTY - HB 466 - SB 338 - Thank you very much for taking us out of turn. It's greatly appreciated, to The chairs, members of the committee, staff persons. I offer my testimony in support of H.466 S.338, an act to promote inclusion of American sign language in the commonwealth's public schools. Current law says That ASL408 may be offered at the discretion of the local school board. Our recommendation is that The law should say shall be required, as, offered as an option in a423 modern languages curriculum. Having an ASL class made available as part of the curriculum and fostering those skills will allow430 greater understanding between people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and hearing people. It will foster a society where people.
Who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can thrive and be supported, not just fit in. The normalization of sign language education and its use would particularly benefit marginalized groups of people, such as those living with a communication disability or a disabling condition. General education classrooms have become more diverse with a variety of disabilities who are mainstreamed. And even as hearing persons, every student would benefit immensely from learning to sign.466 ASL is great secondary language for students to learn if they are anxious or fearful of public speaking. Students with special needs often experience Difficulty with expressive language and verbal ability. Sign language gives these students access to communication while strengthening their ability to produce expressive speech.
And finally, a growing number of children are diagnosed with autism and are often taught sign language at a very young age, including Sign language in497 the education classroom, having classmates and siblings equipped with this skill can have amazing social and benefits all around for all students. The most effective way to ensure that as many people as possible are able to communicate in sign language would be to require515 that sign language be included517 in high school language curriculum, offered for credit and be optional for students. I thank you for your time. I have no idea where I am on the two minutes, but, I have concluded my presentation, And I learned to sign ASL so that's A-S-L. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
SEN OLIVEIRA - HB 466 - SB 338 - SB 334 - SB 330 - HB 570 - Thank you, chair Lewis, chair Garlick, and members of the committee. I'm not going to reiterate since I only have two minutes, but I'm here to testify On the same two bills that rep Doherty just mentioned, but also on two other bills that I'm, filing today as well, an act expanding high school student access to Industry credits, S.334 and also an557 act relative to student transportation, senate bill 330 and house561 bill 570 that I and My good friend Adam Scanlon. But focusing in on the ASL, including as part of the curriculum for course credit to meet the language requirement, I think it's consistent what we're already doing in public higher ed.
In public higher ed institutions here in the Commonwealth, ASL is seen in accredited language that you can use to meet your graduation583 requirements. That extension should be made through the K through 12 side587 just as representative Doherty had mentioned before Because it's particularly helpful for students with disabilities, particularly those with autism or have some verbal issues, that they can actually go forward and have a language to meet that Graduation requirement. I'm so happy to see the hearing today is also, signing with us to allow, for folks with hearing, impairment to actually read, but I also it's something personal for me because in my district in Western Massachusetts.
I have the Willie Ross School, for the hard-of-hearing, and I invite any member of this community, committee to come and take a visit to the school and see what they're doing in the classroom, but also what they're providing. They are in desperate need right now for employees that know how to sign. And having the ability to introduce more high schools, more communities, more school districts636 with ASL can help638 to close that workforce shortage gap that we're seeing in so many institutions642 that provide services to students with hearing disabilities. So with that, I will keep my, comments brief on that. I will make a plug for my last bill and act relative to student transportation.
I think every school district in the Commonwealth has witnessed double digit rising increases when they have a private, transportation provider. I was on a board in Western Massachusetts for the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative for over a decade that did transportation in house through a collaborative model. It was, seven school districts coming together, providing transportation, providing economy of scale, but also better control. And we're also better able to keep down Those cost increases from going forward. This bill would create a commission to look at the possibility of, furthering Educational collaboratives in order to provide transportation services to help, contain those692 costs. With that, I'd be happy to entertain any questions that any committee member might696 have. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Yes. Repowered.
REP HOWARD - Good afternoon, Representative Daugherty and senator Oliveira. On the ASL, your bill, does also apply universal sign language in that bill as well? No vote bills, Not just ASL, but what about universal sign language? We have, you know, students that learning the English language. What about universal sign language?
OLIVEIRA - I don't believe that's included in our bill right728 now, rep Doherty, but we'd be happy and amenable to work with the committee732 and with your office in order to include it to provide those opportunities as well. I don't know if you have anything else to add.
DOHERTY - No. Only that. There are a couple of amendments that we need to make to the brief bill that we have presented in order for greater clarity, and certainly what you, recommended rep would be considered to be included in that as well, so thank751 you for that suggestion.
HOWARD -Thank you.
OLIVEIRA - Yeah. Thank you, rep Howard. And I would only add that both Rep Doherty and I are recovering school committee members. It's Been a long recovery, process. So, we understand the issues that school districts face, especially when you're implementing curriculum and changes, so we wanted to be sensitive of that as well.
HOWARD -Appreciate that. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Yeah. Great. Alright. Thank you both very much. Appreciate your leadership on this, and, And Oliver, you get the the the prize for most number of bills, I think, before the committee today. You're welcome. Less than two minutes. No. You did great. Alright.
SPEAKER6 - Excuse me, Mr. chair.
SPEAKER1 - Sorry. Repiste. Sorry about that. Do you have a did you have a comment or a question?
SPEAKER6 - Actually, my more of a comment. Just Could you please make sure when when we're asking the questions that we're speaking into the microphone so we can hear them out here, please? Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Absolutely. And I thank you for that, and I should, use this opportunity to, recognize, representative Peace and also representative Ferguson, who are both members of the education committee who are, with us for this hearing, remotely.815 So thank you both for being with us. Alright. So, again, the plan is we're going to go to representative Scanlon, then senator Paolo, representative Lipa Garabedian, and then we're going to go, we have representative Cruz followed by representative Reyes who will also be testifying. And then831 after that, we will move to house bill 592, senate bill 256 for in person testimony.
REP SCANLON - HB 592 - SB 256 - SB 330 - HB 570 - Hello. Hi. Also recovering former school committee member. Pre COVID though. So, good morning, Mr. chair and Madam chair and honorable members of the committee and staff, it's a pleasure to be before you. My number one priority in the legislature since day one has been fighting for avenues and pathways for our students in our schools to be able to seek career and workforce development opportunities, at every level. My father was a Mason, and he graduated from Tri County Regional Vocational School. And since then, he was able to build a small business, and has continued that for over 30 years. And that's the American dream that I see and I think a lot of you see, happening in our own backyards, in our own communities.
But, anyways, I wanted to come and support, chair Roy's bill H.592 As well as its senate counterpart, S.256. And this bill would create and expand student907 pathways to success. And when it comes to creating college and career pathway programs, I see this as an opportunity to prepare students for assess in higher education and the workforce. What this bill seeks to do is adopt a north star goal and all-encompassing goal, if you will, that will ensure that all students have access to key elements of pathways, college credit, work based learning opportunities, Industry recognized credentials in dedicated career counseling. We do that by bringing people together as this Legislature often does.
In this case, we would bring various stakeholders together to adopt, these goals and also ensure that the workforce skills cabinet remains a permanent body and charge it with a number of Tasked to oversee and work towards accomplishing these goals. We also know that industry recognized credentials are very important as they are, when students receive them, are more likely to graduate from high school on time, attain an associate's degree, and graduate from a community college, and enroll in a four-year higher education institution. We're very lucky to live in Massachusetts981 because of our investments, In the community college system, we're very excited about that, and I know this committee had a big hand in that.
This legislation would stand a strong signal by giving district an additional $1,000 in funding for every high school student that earns a credential that is aligned with workforce demands is determined by, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. And as I often say, every student at every high school, should have the opportunity to pursue a vocational program as we know. And as I've said before, Vocational education1019 has exceeded the number of seats for many years now, and the current policy structure makes it difficult for greater numbers of high schools to offer these opportunities to their students. This legislation will remove those barriers and make it easier for all high schools across the state to set up vocational education programs.
They give their students high dosage work based learning opportunities in specific occupations to position them to enter the workforce and care Secure a good job in high growth field. It also expands the after dark program, which is a huge component in vocational education. The last thing that I'll point out is the growth of the innovation pathways program. And for those that don't know or are familiar with that program as it gives students coursework in high demand industries such as, manufacturing, health care, environmental studies, business studies, and it allows students, in those types of programs to sort of link up with an employer. This program started with, $600,000, in my, first budget cycle, in 2021. And now the Program is funded at almost $6 million, and, hundreds of students are participating in this program, across the Commonwealth, thanks to this committee's leadership.
The state needs to embed an incentive in the chapter 70 formula to provide funding to districts based on the number of Students who participate in pathway programs. This legislation would create such an incentive for students who participated in early college innovation career pathways or STEM Tech Career Academy programs. Lastly, I would say this bill is a great compliment to The omnibus, vocational bill H.538 that you heard about, earlier this year, and, I really welcome anyone that's willing to come to the table to give our students more pathways and more opportunities to join our workforce, and I thank this committee for its leadership and Jeff Roy's leadership. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, representative Scanlon. Any questions? Alright.
SPEAKER7 - Appreciate it. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Alright. Senator Paolo, welcome.
SEN PAYANO - SB 343 - Good afternoon, members of the committee. Thank you, chair, Lewis, chair Garlick, for the opportunity to speak in front of you, for S.343, an act establishing an education to careers data center. I will say since, several of our colleagues, when they, testify, they mentioned that they were former school committee members. I'll say I'm also a former school committee member. And, you know, one of the memories, that, inspired me and moved me to run, and, joined elected public service, was being in high school. Freshman year of high school, I was sitting at the front of the auditorium at our fresh, assembly. And I remember turning around and looking at the, all the students that were there. Auditorium was filled, standing room only, And the energy, the passion, and sort of the hope that everyone had as you're entering, you know, high school. Fast forward four years later.
Again, I'm sitting in the front row, and I turn around, and almost half of my peers were missing. Empty chairs everywhere, and I remember thinking, where did everyone go? Now, I graduate a little bit over 20 years ago. School systems have improved a lot, since then. But according to DESE, we still have over, we still have thousands of students That are dropping out of high school every year at a rate of 2.1%. We all know that not all students are affected equally. African American students are dropping out a rate of 2.8%, Latinos, 4.3%, and limited English proficiency learners at 7.8%. Without a high school diploma, these students are limited in their academic and professional opportunities. And we'll find it difficult to succeed in a world that increasingly requires more1274 education credentials. This bill aims to establish an education to career data center within the executive office of technology services and security.
This center will serve as a crucial resource for gathering, managing, and disseminating vital data related to education and career development. The centralized education and career data system is designed to provide a comprehensive view of an individual's educational journey. A charge transition from early education to k to 12, higher education ultimately into the workforce. This this will allow us to better understand the pathway individuals take throughout their learning and career development. I will say I remember speaking to, administrative at my school talking about the same thing 12, 13 years ago. And one of the things that they had a difficulty, you know, doing something like this Is the, they didn't have the resources to take something like this on, which is one of the reasons why I believe that it should be centralized.
The centralized system will develop protocols for evaluating strategic initiatives. By collecting and analyzing data, we can1343 measure the effectiveness of educational programs and workforce development efforts. This information will guide decision makers and help us invest in initiatives that truly make a difference. The center would be led by an executive director who will report to the secretary of EOTSS and be governed by a 15-member board. The funding for the center would come from state appropriations, federal grants, as well as other contributions for public, From public agencies.1370 The creation of this system is a testament to our dedication to make an informed data driven1376 decisions That will positively impact the lives of our students and strengthen our workforce. I want to thank all of you for, for your time and for your consideration in this matter. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Thank you very much, senator Paayano. We definitely noted the in your in the course of your your, Testimony there that you were sitting in the front row both in the 1st day and the last day. So Thank you. A very, Dedicated and eager student, and thank you for your leadership on this issue. I want to also recognize representative McGonigal who's with us. Good to see you. Nice to have you with us. Alright. Representative of Lipica Arr obedience, next.
REP LIPPER-GARABEDIAN - HB 530 - SB 343 - HB 532 - HB 280 - Good afternoon, chairs Garlick and Lewis and members of the committee. Thanks much for taking me out of turn. I just wanted to bring, your attention to two bills that I filed with great colleagues. One, the senator just spoke about, which is House, 530 and senate 343, an act establishing an education to career data center. I'm a former teacher. I worked as an attorney for the Commonwealth. I also took sign language in, high school, so, unrelated to these two bills. But This, bill really comes in part from my experience working, for the executive office education where1457 we were doing a lot of data sharing agreements across1459 state agencies.
And looking at leading states that do it more seamlessly and with greater intentionality and recognizing that they have dedicated executive branch offices. They're helping to facilitate those conversations, ensuring legal compliance and making sure that the investments we're making at a state or local level or regional are actually having their intended effects by being able to analyze the data that we're already collecting. So that, I'm glad to be working with representatives Cruz and senator Payano on that bill. The other bill that I wanted to speak about today, and I know you'll hear testimony on this from experts and advocates and, practitioners, is the student Hader Data Privacy Act, House 532, which I filed with chair Jeff Roy and senate 280 with senator Finegold.
This is a bill that1503 you all gave this committee gave favorable review to last session, and I really appreciated that and hope that it will receive a similar, result this session as well. As you have likely seen, according to the data quality campaign, in the last decade, 45 states Have passed 149 laws around student data privacy. Our state is one of the only It's left that hasn't actually put into our statutory framework expectations about how student data should be collected and preserved and protected. And, that's, you know, to the detriment of districts and educators and students where we haven't set consistent Guidelines within our statutory framework for how the third party providers and vendors that are contracting with school districts are using student data.
So we have nothing in our state laws unlike 40 plus other states that say you can't1556 use the data to advertise target advertising to students. You can't1560 use the data to create and I'm asked a student profile that exists past the point of your contract. And so the bill, as you all probably remember from last session, not only establishes these protections, but also then provides leverage and support to districts and individual schools by ensuring that there's statewide leadership at DESE as well as dedicated professionals in every district to keep an eye on the importance of protecting this data. So thank you so much for your time. I hope1588 to, see favorable reviews on both1590 of these bills, and I appreciate it. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Hang hang for one second.1594
SPEAKER10 - Sure.
LEWIS - Thank you, representative. On the very much appreciate your leadership on the student and educate data privacy. Totally agree with you. I think it's an issue that, Long overdue for us to address, so I'm looking forward to working with you and our colleagues, hopefully, on that bill this session. I was wondering I know that, DESE, I think it was last week or the week before they rolled out a new website. I don't know if you had seen this. They are calling it the e2C hub. It sounds to me similar to what the bill that you and senator Payano are also advocating for in terms of connecting1628 all of the data The students going through high school and then into post high school. Is that right? Do you know how it compares to what you’re?
LIPPER-GARABEDIAN - I think that's a yes. It's a really great, So, again, a lot of this work is happening. So in part, the, this particular bill that we filed would Codify work that is ongoing, which is really helpful. It also would take the, this the role, Of the connector of all the longitudinal data that we're collecting, both workforce level and education data, again, within parameters of federal and state privacy law, And put it in a dedicated office that sort of, that with an executive director that, with a board where each of Secretaries and commissioners for the respective agencies are meeting and advising on how this data is going to be used when, you know, a district requests something or a legislative request comes in to better understand a line item that we continuously fund.
And is it actually in the impact that we hope it does with the revenue from our tax dollars. That we're submitting to it. one thing to note is that the data hub currently is, being funded through federal SDLS grant money, and that is going to finish off in 2025. We heard about this at the symposium the other week that we did here in the building. So it's currently got a dedicated funding stream, but DESE and Massachusetts have been told by the US Department of Education that we will not be eligible for the next round of funding Because they want1718 to give it to states that aren't, haven't received a grant like this in the past. So we know that there is actually A moment in the near future when we're going to want to continue this work. And actually so the bill is sort of well timed to consider that of what will we do long term When with, you know, the federal investment isn't there to support the the data, center any longer.
LEWIS - Great. Okay. That that's very helpful.
LIPPER-GARABEDIAN - Sure. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Anyone else? Alright. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER9 - Thank you all.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. So, we've got a couple legislators with us on virtually, so I'm going to take their testimony, and then we'll come back to open for the public, here in person. So representative Cruz, I believe you're with us.
REP CRUZ - HB 530 - HB 444 - Good afternoon, and thank you, chair Lewis, chair Garlick, and the distinguished members of the joint committee on education, for taking me out of turn. It's a pleasure to be with you today, and I thank you for the opportunity to be able to testify today in support of two pieces of legislation that I filed. The first is H.530, which you have, heard from my dear colleagues, representative Lipper-Garabedian and senator Payano on, and the other is H.444 an act, to expand the use of career and academic plans that I filed with state Representative1795 Estela Reyes, And I will, be brief and succinct on these as I know that there are many folks waiting for time. So the first bill, is, H.530, which you've heard about, it would codify into law and really set a vision as well, for the centralization of an education, career data system.
That would prioritize, cross agency collaboration, data sharing, embedding safeguards for privacy, and data, and it would also foster the strategic exchange of that data, with local partners, and to allow for the, impact of our state Investments to be evaluated, when it comes to both education, workforce development, and training, but most importantly of all, as I've advocated for this bill, it will also ensure that we have an equitable way to monitor the progress of1843 our state investments in these critical areas. And by passing this bill, we would make our commonwealth a national leader with respect to data connected policies and practices, accountability, transparency, in and our ability to conduct things like equity audits as a policymaker, I know that when I'm requesting data from agencies to better inform policies that I'd like to devise, that this is crucial.
And as someone who does hold the dual role of being a state representative and as a school committee member, I know that this ability to have rich, robust, and highly vetted data will strengthen our ability to track our investments and produce policies, that leads to more equitable outcomes for students, families, and communities while also enhancing the competitiveness of our workforce. As a school board member, I'm still regularly using data, at the local level with respect to our tight budgets to think about How we can maximize efficiencies, but also to understand the effectiveness of what we're doing, but to have the ability to do this at scale when it comes to state investment, especially as we think about, new sources of revenue that have come in this itself will lend and trickle down to municipalities, being able to more strongly be able to create greater access of opportunity and equity for all of our students.
And, senator, I'm so Thankful that you raised up the, Education and Career Data Hub, as I was planning on doing that myself, as I think of no more prominent example of the importance of this cross collaboration within our commonwealth, as we think about just one key example, you know, that particular center being able to develop, A study on1939 the impacts of licensure on educators of color. I know that it is a priority of1943 our commonwealth, in this particular committee to do all that we can to try to help state reached the goal of 25% educator diversity by 2030, and that's not going to be possible if we don't have a deep understanding of what's happening within the workforce and the investments that we've made, in this particular legislation not only lends itself to that particular issue, but to all workforce development and education connected initiatives. So with that, I do humbly request that this bill be given strong, consideration, for a favorable report.
And I'll quickly just shift gears, to the other bill that I wanted to speak to, which is H.444 that I filed with my dear colleague, representative, Reyes. And this particular legislation, centers around the use of, career and academic planning tools. In this particular case, one known as MyCAP. And this particular legislation would require that all public Schools, ensure that our students, are engaging with high quality systems and that we have a dedicated, college and career counseling system that allows our students to, develop individualized plans on a digital platform, by the year 2026/2027 school year. And, I just want to quickly talk to the equity of MyCAP cap and systems like it being used at scale. Currently, the propensity in in the use of these high quality Systems for guidance are being predominantly used in more affluent, more white communities.
And in our gateway cities, our rural communities that don't have these particular systems, They're not being utilized, and the difference in outcomes is that we still have students who are in the 20th century when it comes to, the use of guidance in our school districts to inform our students' individualized pathways. And then for our more at advantaged students, they2048 have the most innovative, tools to be able to get intentional guidance. So as I think about racial equity in our commonwealth and when it comes to public education and these particular types of platforms that the use of them has been supported by the Association of School Counselors, by MBAE, and so many other educational organizations, it's because that they understand that our guidance systems need to be reformed, that we need to create that equity of access to opportunity.
And systems like MyCAP, what they do for our students is they put them on a rich journey of self-discovery, intentionality, and integration That doesn't currently exist across all of our communities. And I do think that MyCAP, and systems like it are also complimentary, to other community based organizations that are focused on college and career readiness, and it ensures that there's that collaboration happening as well. And if I could just leave you with a brief story and anecdote about this, senator, and chair Garlick, I want you to think about the profile of a high school graduate, that doesn't have MyCAP. They're seeing their guidance counselors in a gateway city maybe one or two times. I saw this firsthand with one of my mentees, Kendall. Kendall spent seven years, getting guidance and advice that was stuck in the 20th century.
All he wanted to do was go into a union when he graduated from high school and to be a laborer, but the career and academic planning that he was doing wasn't translating to that. And when I looked at his resume, for the last seven years, I saw as he meandered through, opportunities that he had and really struggled to find himself. Last week, he was officially starting, as an apprentice with the laborers because of my intervention and my ability to help him find a program that was relevant for him, but that should have been afforded to him the day that he walked across the stage at high school and not seven years after his graduation. And this is the work that we have to do in our commonwealth as we try to recover from this pandemic to ensure that all of our students have, equitable access to opportunity. So I thank you for your consideration of both of these bills, and for taking me out of turn this afternoon. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, representative Cruz. Really appreciate your, Rob, sharing your insights and wisdom with us. Representative Reyes, I think you're with us also remotely.
Representative Ray Reyes, are you there?
SPEAKER14 - Yes. I'm here. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I was playing with,
REP REYES - HB 444 - Good afternoon, Chair Garlick sheriff Lewis and esteemed member of the committee. Thank you for taking me out of turn, in support H.444, and an act to suspend The use of careers2208 in academic plans. This bill will ensure all high school student across the Massachusetts participate in MyCAP by 2026. My ca MyCAP, My Career in academic plan is the whole school system They allows student to develop individualized college and career plans on a digital platform with this assistant of A counselor. This plan allows student to be the drivers on their education.
By connecting the courses, they enroll in with their college and career interest. MyCAP is designed2250 to begin as early as the 6th Great. While some Massachusetts school system already have functioned college and career counseling programs, Other do not for numerous reasons. Student on the 4th axis district has shown great success When all for college consulate programs such as early college programs and insurance counseling in the school eliminate The dispattery household by household. Thank you for your time and your consideration in this bill. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Great. Thank you very much. Any questions? Okay. Alright. And welcome representative Worrall is with us. Great to see you. Thanks for joining us. Alright. So I think we've covered all the, legislators. And,2302 again, thanks for everyone's patience in allowing us2304 to take their 21st. We are now I think we'll be able to get through the in person testimony for house 592 senate 256, an act to create and expand student pathways to success. So we'll take the testimony of those who are here in person. I'll call you in one moment, and then it will be around two o'clock. At that point, we will move to take all the testimony on, the wireless bill senate 316. Alright. So first up is the, folks from the National Parents Union. So I see Carrie Rodricks. Carrie, good to see you. Patricia Parrott and Emily Villosa. And then next up will be Tanya Metlak and Ed Lambert.
KERI RODRIGUES - NATIONAL PARENTS UNION - HB 592 - SB 256 - Good afternoon, members of the committee. I'm here today as Matthew's mom, also known as Keri Rodrigues, but Matthew is a 10th grade student at the SEEM Collaborative in Stoneham. I'm also Miles and David's mom, a 5th grader at the Hurld Wyman Elementary and a 6th grader at Joyce Middle School in Woburn. I also have the honor of being the president of the National Parents Union. I'm here today with two brand new parent leaders from Massachusetts Parents United Chelsea who are participating for the very first time today. We are here to offer our wholehearted support for an act to create and expand student pathways to success.
This bill represents a monumental step forward in ensuring that our children have access to a bright and promising future. Education should lead to2401 economic mobility. This bill2403 actualizes that goal by providing real opportunities to connect learning to ambition in our States high schools. The core of this legislation embodies our collective commitment to providing every student in Massachusetts, Regardless of their background, with the tools and opportunities they need to succeed in the modern world. As a parent, I've witnessed firsthand the challenges our children face in their journey as I am with my 10th grader right now, and I believe that this bill holds the key to addressing these challenges head on. What impresses me most about this bill is its comprehensive approach to education.
It encompasses all the foundational policy initiatives required to vastly expand the availability of high quality college and career pathway programs. It's designed with the intention of bridging the equity gaps that persist in our educational system and providing more students with opportunities for improved economic mobility. This is not just about creating pathways for Privilege few. It's about opening doors for all. While in Washington DC on Friday with secretary Cardona, he himself expressed his excitement and support for this work happening in Massachusetts, calling it an example for the nation to follow and in alignment with the president's raise the bar effort. I urge all of you to support and act to create and expand student pathways to success. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
PATRICIA PARROTT - NATIONAL PARENTS UNION - HB 592 - SB 256 - Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Patricia Parrot. I'm here before you today not only as a mother, but someone who deeply understands the profound impact of creating more intentional pathways to career and college within our schools. I am here to share my unwavering support for the idea that learning kids engage in today is directly connected to the future our kids will have tomorrow. In a world where the choices we make now can shape our entire future, it is crucial that students have the Opportunity to explore interests and passions in a way that directly prepares them for what lies ahead. This is what creating intentional pathways in high school is all about. The high school journey isn't just about getting through assignments and exams. It's about discovering who you are as a person and who you want to become.
By having more intentional pathways, kids can explore interests and talents, gain real world experience, and skills that will serve our kids in their future. Things like vocational training, access industry recognized credentials, dedicated career counseling, provide clear direction and purpose for our children. This allows children to align learning with and ensure that they are better prepared for the challenges of the future. By supporting the creation of more intentional pathways to career and college, we are investing in our collective future. We are not just2555 preparing ourselves for the workforce, but we2557 are laying the foundation for a brighter, more equitable future for all of us. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you.
EMILY VILLOSA - NATIONAL PARENTS UNION - HB 592 - SB 256 - Hi, members of the hi, members of the committee. My name is Emily Villosa, and I'm the mother of two Children. I have a 19-year-old son and a 14 year old daughter who's the only girl on the chase Chelsea High football team. She is thriving in her freshman year despite having the lack of resources for her school to support her. I'm here today to support the act of create and expand student pathways to success, believing that there is a crucial need for providing more kids from Chelsea with the access to career connected learning and real opportunities.
I firmly believe that by doing so, we can transform the landscape of generalizing opportunities for our community by ex by expanding access to career connected learning, we are giving our kids the chance to break free from the cons constraints of limited opportunities, offering them the chance to Pursue careers in college after high school. Industry recognizes I urge you to stand with us to support this bill and to help us create the change that is so desperately needed. Together, we can refedefine the generalized opportunity means for children of Chelsea. Create a bridge to future for our entire community, thank you for your time and consideration. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Any committee members, questions? Alright. Thank you very much. Appreciate your being here today at the state house, and and thanks for your testimony. Next up, Tanya Metlach and Ed Lambert.
Good to see you both.
TONJA METTLACH - MASSACHUSETTS BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE - HB 592 - SB 256 - HB 530 - SB 343 - Good afternoon, chairman Lewis, chairwoman Garlick, and members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on H.592 and senate 256, an act to create and expand student pathways to success and H.530 and senate 343, an act establishing an education to career data system. My name is Tonja Mettlach, and I'm the executive vice president of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. The secret to Massachusetts' economic success has historically been its ever growing population of well trained and highly educated workers, our nation leading public k through 12 education system and world class colleges and universities, yet we're facing headwinds we can't ignore.
Today, too many students, particularly those from under resourced and marginalized communities, do not have access to programs and experiences that prepare them for college and careers. And by 2030, our state's working age college educated labor force is expected to drop by a 192,000. So what do we do to address these troubling trends? Last year, the roundtable developed a policy framework, a talent agenda to drive Massachusetts' competitiveness focused on talent in three pillars, Talent recruitment and retention, talent development, and talent diversity. Within the talent development pillar, the roundtable has been focused on supporting and scaling programs that position our students today for success in the future. As we think about how to ensure better connections between what students are learning in high school and the careers that await them in our state after graduation.
The bills before you today can help create a more meaningful and relevant high school experience. H.92 and senate 256 would codify the key policy initiatives Necessary to expand the number of high quality college and career pathway programs that are available to students across Massachusetts In ways that will narrow equity gaps and provide more students with opportunities. And I won't, I know my time's up, so I'll just support other people's comments on the career to data education system as a key part, of our longer term strategy and investing in our biggest resource as a state, which is our people. So thank you for the time today, and happy to answer any questions you might have.
ED LAMBERT - MASSACHUSETTS BUSINESS ALLIANCE FOR EDUCATION - HB 592 - SB 256 - HB 564 - HB 444 - HB 530 - Thanks Tonja. I'm here today representing the Mass Business Alliance For Education and the Student Pathways to Success Coalition, Now 16 organizations strong to offer support for a number of college and career readiness bills being offered by our legislative sponsors. House 592, senate 256 to expand pathways to all students, house 564 to incentivize the awarding of industry recognized credentials, House four 44 to require college and career planning for all students, and house 530 to create a state long term, longitudinal data system. Good paying jobs that offer opportunity for growth are going unfilled.
While at the same time, students are graduating high school unaware of and unprepared for The opportunities that await them. We can fix this by strengthening the high school experience. Our coalition representing parents, teachers, students, youth serving Social justice and business organizations supports reinventing high school to give students a jump start on their future. The elements we're calling for are in alignment The United States Department of Education's recommendations to have every high2908 school student earn college credit, earn an industry recognized credential, participate in work based learning and receive dedicated career counseling. This bill would create a foundation for that. It would charge the workforce skills cabinet taking the lead on pathways development and in setting goals and measuring progress in creating universal pathways access and participation.
It would expand the voices to be heard at that cabinet level to include families, students, educators, employees, and business. It would require a biennial review to ensure alignment of programs with labor market need and an annual jobs report to drive decision making around education and workforce investments. It would enhance the development of employability skills in high schools and seek to remove barriers to work based and experiential learning. It would expand access Chapter 74 vocational programs and embed early college and innovation pathways programs into the Chapter 70 formula to sustain their growth. It would incentivize the awarding of industry recognized credentials to high school students.
Ensure computer science is taught in every high school, expand MassCore and make college and career counseling an element of every student's experience. The other bills in the coalition package contain some stand alone elements of this larger bill. We thank you for your consideration, and we know that there are other bills like the college and high school bill and the vocational education comprehensive bills that have been filed, that certainly compliment this that we support as well. And so, as all of that gets put together, we'd be2988 happy to work with you and the coalition, to help, continue to advance the ball for students in Massachusetts. We thank you for your leadership. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - K. Hang on one second. Any questions?
LEWIS - Thank you both very much. Appreciate your long standing hang tight. Long standing, Work on these issues. We've had a number of conversations in the past, and I think the committee, you know, has tried in the past to, you know, to prioritize this area. And, of course, the legislature through the budget has significant increased funding, you3022 know, for early college programs, for innovation pathways, and I think we're very committed to that. What I'd like to suggest I mean, this bill in particular, 592 and senate 256 has a lot in it. Right?
LAMBERT - Of course it does.
LEWIS - Some of which seems like, I mean, maybe low hanging fruit. Some of it seems like Heavy left. So it would be helpful to maybe work with you and others, you know, to really prioritize, you know, if we're going to get the biggest result here in really continuing to, you know, catalyze these efforts Across all of our high schools, and, again, particularly those that serve large numbers of disadvantaged students. I think we all agree we want to do that. You know, where are the levers that give us the most, Return, you know, for our efforts. I know you wanted support and others, you know, everything that's here. Sure. But I think if you could help prioritize, you know, where you think the biggest, impact can be had. I think that would be, I personally would find that very helpful.
LAMBERT - Thank you, senator. We completely agree, actually, and filed it as a conversation starter with regard to a lot of the work committee has already undertaken. So and we appreciate the investments that The legislature has made an early college and some of these other pathways programs. A lot of progress has been made. So we agree.
LEWIS - Thank you. Great. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Alright. Thanks. Alright. So let's see. That about right two o'clock. Perfect timing. Okay. Thank you. So we're going to move now to,
senate bill 316,
which is an act relative to best management practices for wireless in schools and public institutions of higher education, and we have A number of people signed up for in person testimony. So let's see. We have, Cecilia Doucette first, followed by Shelley Wright, followed by Courtney Gilardi3138 and Amelia Gilardi and then several others. And, Let me just say at the outset, I I know this can be difficult for you, and so, again, We appreciate that you're making the extra effort to to be here and testify today.
Oh, they switched. Okay. Okay. So but we'll still do it all now? Yeah. Okay. Because the heat is compressed. Okay. So Do then and go through the rest virtually. Okay.
CECELIA DOUCETTE - MASSACHUSETTS FOR SAFE TECHNOLOGY - SB 316 - Thank you so much again, senator. It's wonderful to be back here. My name is Cecelia Doucette. I'm the director of Massachusetts for safe technology, and here are 10 reasons to pass senate three with urgency. One, the science proves that wireless tablets, cell phones, wearables, Smart boards, access points cause insomnia, headaches, nosebleeds, anxiety, depression, anger, behavior issues, Learning disabilities and more. The wireless industry targets schools outdoors with toxic cell towers and small cells. The Federal Communications Commission is captured by industry as Harvard reports and has been sued for3233 ignoring 11,000 pages of evidence of harm. The courts ordered the FCC to protect our children, and the FCC is not responding. The FCC, in fact, is now pushing Wi Fi on school buses.
We should know that metal amplifies radiation, so this severely increases the kids' exposures. New Hampshire Has finally passed the 1st law in the country to investigate wireless radiation, and they've issued this groundbreaking commission report. And I brought copies for both chairs. We have Already prepared a fact sheet with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health that has yet to be released. Ashland Public Schools is the first in the country to develop best practices for mobile devices, we have presented to DESE, and they are waiting for higher authorities to empower them. That's this bill. The solution is simply plug devices in with Ethernet cables and adapters and then turn off the antennas and the wireless access points. Tech Safe Schools has been developed to teach us how to mitigate this toxin in our schools. And did you know the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition already has K through 12 curriculum on prevention.
Science oh, and there's now free medical training available for our school doctors, nurses, Therapists, counselors, and first responders. Science indicates that indoors, children should never be exposed to wireless radiation. For you and I and our fully formed bodies, they recommend that we be at 10 to a 100 microwatts per square meter. And in this room, right now with wireless access points, our cell phones, our wearables, our tablets, we are already at 2,500. When I turn on my iPhone, it goes to 2.5 million, and we've given every child a tablet to put on their bodies. We are literally frying our kids in school. I, chair Lewis, I will leave this with you and your committee for one month, And I invite you to take it home and go into your district, into your schools, and measure. If it goes into the red, which it will, we are in big trouble with our kids. This radiation must be mitigated if we are to resolve the mental health and chronic illness crises that our children are facing today.3392 I would be so honored to answer any questions you have. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, miss Doucette. Anyone?
SPEAKER22 - And Alright.
SPEAKER1 - My house. I I appreciate you had a lot more and, all the materials you brought. So I think if you Are comfortable leaving that with the3407 committee or if you need us to make copies, need3409 to return to you.
SPEAKER21 - No. I've got packets to give to all
SPEAKER23 - of you.
SPEAKER24 - That would
SPEAKER21 - be welcome.
DOUCETTE - I put an EMF points of confusion, that's Electromagnetic fields of radiation versus fact because we find ourselves in the big tobacco situation where the industry is pushing their agenda and not giving the facts to us as parents and administrators to protect our families. So thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you Very much.
So as I understand it, everyone else signed up is is remote.
SPEAKER25 - I see. Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Alright. So we're we're just going to take one break in the testimony before we go remote, and I see senator Comerford and representative Blaise are here. And I know you've got students coming as well, so That's just wonderful. And we haven't heard any testimony on rural schools yet today, so I think you're you're So I think you're I think it's time. You're up.
Okay. Great. Thank you. I think these are good.
SPEAKER26 - Are they the same? Here.
SPEAKER27 - We have some. We got different friends over here.
SPEAKER1 - Are they different? Okay. Are they are they different?
SPEAKER11 - one is an
SPEAKER27 - overview of the commission's work,
SPEAKER1 - and one is an overview of the Yeah. Okay. Great.
REP BLAIS - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Great. Thank you. So thank you, chair Garlick, chair Lewis, and, members of the committee for taking us out3508 of order. We're here today to speak in support of H.3567 S. 2388, an act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools. I'm proud to have introduced this bill with my senate colleague, Joe Comerford, and with the strong support of communities and organizations across Commonwealth. In 2019, the Student Opportunity Act was signed into law. It3529 included a commission to examine the unique Fiscal challenges facing rural school districts and districts with low and declining enrollment. The commission's final report included 36 recommendations, many of which are included in this bill. As a result of the commission's work, we understand that insufficient per pupil funding is at the heart of the challenge that is faced by rural school districts.
For decades, these schools have increasingly struggled Under the burden of circumstances that other communities do not encounter, including bumping up against the prop two and a half ceiling, declining populations, stagnant or declining tax bases, and legacy costs in combination with the disproportionately high costs of educating students in smaller schools have left our districts with funding deficits and our communities with impossible choices to make. Several provisions in this legislation are designed to address the very distinct challenges facing rural schools. But, of course, top of the list is the $60 million required for rural school aid. I'm grateful to house and senate leadership and the Healy Driscoll administration for their significant increase to rural school aid in the FY.24 budget, but our schools need A consistent, adequate, and reliable funding stream.
Through the commission's efforts, we also found that there were provisions that could benefit all schools, including fully funding transportation, assisting with shared services and other measures, including the need to fully examine special education here in the Commonwealth. I want to recognize senator Comerford and rep Dan Carey's efforts in this area. Today, you will hear from some phenomenal students, teachers, school committee members, Superintendents, town officials, and others who will speak much more eloquently than I ever could about the need for this legislation to ensure that every student, regardless of their ZIP code, receives the same educational opportunities across our great commonwealth. Thank you again, chairs Garlick, chair Lewis, Members of the committee for your consideration of this legislation, I respectfully request that you report this bill out favorably. Thank you.
SEN COMERFORD - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you, representative Blais for that testimony. Chair Garlick, chair Lewis, honorable colleagues, thank you for affording me this opportunity. I'm going to speak very, very briefly, to the bill because Rep Blais did such a great job. I also want to just note that you have an act providing a sustainable future for, an act fairly reimbursing local transportation for foster children also before you today. I filed that with3698 Farley-Bouvier. And as you know, Auditor Bump found that when foster children continue their education at their school of origin, transportation cost is supposed to be covered by federal sources. However, the auditor found that only 17% of districts are reimbursed. It's about the arduousness of actually asking the federal government for reimbursement.
So it this simply shifts that work to DCF, and then our districts will get reimbursed. I'll submit written testimony, but let me just say that, on an act providing a sustainable future for rural schools, I want to highlight a passage, where the rural school commission, I want to thank representative Blais for her work on that, came to a very stark conclusion, quote and this is a unanimously the held report. “Rural school districts in Massachusetts struggle with a set of challenges that have left many students with less than they need and deserve.” That's a stark fact embodied by that rural schools report, so that's why we're here, chairs and committee, to ask this committee To use our authority as legislators to allow students from every corner of the commonwealth to have the same opportunities to learn and grow and be successful.
The commission's findings must be a wake up call for all of us. The math is brutal in local communities, and we can no longer ignore it. As Rep Blais said Welch, prop two and a half is bringing major collisions to small towns. With declining enrollment, costs do not fall commensurately. That's what the report found. To avoid deficits, cuts must be made to core enrichment programs, to special education, to honors classes, to libraries, to counseling, to health services you understand, and to all after school opportunities in some cases, and then strap local governments on top of that Have to make brutal decisions. Is it a firefighter or a teacher? Is it garbage collection or someone at the recycling center, or is it a special educator? So I would3825 say that this committee should be rightfully proud of the Student Opportunity Act.
Which transformed school funding in the commonwealth and is strengthening opportunities to learn and thrive for many, But not for all commonwealth students. I was proud to vote yes on that bill. Proud, and I'm so grateful to this committee for its leadership. And now Rep Blais and I are coming to ask the committee to finish the job by addressing the glaring and unique needs and challenges in rural school districts. So we're going to submit a section by section, which you have, thanks to Rep. Blais’ efforts. We have many people here to testify before you, And I hope you receive their testimony, and I say this with respect and love for your work, with the urgency that we feel. We cannot let another session lapse without helping our rural schools and our schools with low and declining enrollment. And I'm grateful for the funding gains, but we know so much more needs to be done. Thank you so much.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Any questions? Great.
LEWIS - Thank you both so much. You know, when we were working on the Student Opportunity Act, we knew, as senator Comerford just pointed out, that, you know, there would be a set of schools and students, that would, be helped, but not to the extent that that, that help is and assistance is really needed and, you know, that’s our rural schools and now schools with declining enrollment, and that was, you know, why we did create that special commission as you said. And I I'm just so impressed with, with, you know, the work that Representative Blais, and I think it was former senator Heinz, right, as the co-chairs, and senator Comerford, you know, such a great contributor and along with other colleagues and so many stakeholders. I mean, like, you know, from having that idea of, we should at least put the time and effort.
Into really understanding these issues better to them, you know, work that you then did over a, you know, lengthy period of time, to establish that consensus and then to give us this that re the report, and now to turn that into, you know, actionable legislation. Really, really appreciate everything that's been done in that leadership. And already, of course, it's making a difference because we, you know, expanded the rural school aid line item, you know, vastly more than in the past, although, again, not yet where it needs to be. But I know there's other, recommendations and other strategies that, that you're advocating for We need to work with you on. So, look forward to hearing all the testimony today and, and really making this, hopefully, a priority, for us this legislative session. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER29 - Thank you.
SPEAKER28 - Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Alright. So we're going to return to senate bill 316, and, think we have a number of people waiting to testify remotely. Shelley Wright is next. Shelley Wright.
SHELLEY WRIGHT - CANADIAN EDUCATORS FOR SAFE TECHNOLOGY - SB 316 - Thank you, esteemed legislators. I'm the director of a national nonprofit organization, Canadian Educators for Safe Technology. We support a growing number of students and teachers who are now injured by Wi Fi, microwave Radiation Frequency, RF. Simple, safe tech practices intentionally minimize student and staff microwave exposures. RF power density can be reduced by 25% while maximizing device Deficiency. On off switches and wired tech are inclusive and can prevent fatal or serious injury in schools. 10 years ago, I received a physician diagnosis of electromagnetic hypersensitivity by the director of the environmental health clinic at Women's College Hospital in Toronto. This is an environmentally induced intolerance to microwave frequency emissions.
Physician diagnosed students and staff like me experience microwave sickness. Common symptoms include debilitating migraines, loss of executive functioning, disabling vertigo or disorientation, and cardiac symptoms including pressure in the chest and irregular heartbeat. Those who are severely impacted may not recover for days or weeks or may experience permanent injury. Some of these symptoms are linked to strokes and brain tumors. EMS are also known as causal cofactor for serious autoimmune diseases like ALS, MS, And Parkinson's. Cardiac and neurological symptoms can be life threatening. According to integrative cardiologist Steven Sinatra, Children experiencing tachycardia in modulated microwave frequency emissions can also experience increased risk of stroke or heart failure. Children need protection. I urge you to vote yes to bill s 316. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Next, we're going to hear from Courtney Gilardi and then Amelia Amelia Gilardi, or maybe you're testifying together.
SPEAKER31 - Hello. Can you hear us?
SPEAKER1 - Yes. Hi.
SPEAKER32 - Wonderful.
SB 316 - Hi. I have Amilia next to me, so I'll testify first And then then Amelia.
COURTNEY GILARDI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - Thank you. So my name is Courtney Gilardi. I'm here in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, esteemed legislators. Thank you for your attention to the health and safety of our schools in regards to wireless exposure, radiation exposures. All of our children, teachers, and staff deserve access to safe and healthy technology. Before we were injured, we did not know that this was an issue, but we were lucky enough that our doctors and our pediatricians knew Wi Fi networks create high density wireless radio frequency exposures in classrooms, and research has found that these are associated with cancer, brain damage, headaches, memory problems, and damage to the reproductive cardiovascular systems. Safer solutions do exist, and we need to work together to find them that allow Internet connectivity, but without these harmful exposures.
I am here not just as a school teacher, but as the mother of two Children who have been injured by wireless technology and have suffered greatly. When we reduced our exposure as our physicians and pediatricians advise, my children's health was restored, and they started to thrive again. This is one example. When my youngest daughter was at her sickest with magnetic sensitivity. She was missing school and could not take her MCAS testing. Now after two years of reducing her exposure, she has nearly a perfect score, and I will send this to you guys. She is in the 99th percentile. We're here in Massachusetts. Our state average is at 50%. Our children can thrive, and they can succeed4216 when they are in a healthy environment.4218 In Massachusetts, since there is no monitoring or measure measuring the cumulative exposures of not just the Wi Fi.
But all of the devices in school, without you calling for a task force or to take action, there can be no mitigating or correcting this. There is no federal or state agency examining the Cumulative exposure and risk to children. These standards were set in 1996 prior to the advent of Wi Fi Based on a six-minute exposure to a 220-pound man, our doctors and our school nurses know these risks. They would like to see action. Parents and children would like to see action. And with our testimony, you know What needs to be done? We're asking you to please take action. Please champion this bill and see it through. You have doctors and subject matter experts here on the call that are here to support you. Please work with them and help all of our children in the commonwealth thrive. Thank you so much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Alright. We all set. Oh. Hi. Oh, hello.
AMELIA GILARDI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - My name is Amelia Gilardi. I'm 15 years old, and I live in Massachusetts. I have a4289 medical diagnosis of electromagnetic sensitivity, also known as microwave illness. This is due to an4295 environmental exposure to radio frequency radiation. For those who share my diagnosis, the only remedy is to reduce and limit exposure. Many of the children who share our diagnosis have been forced to be home school or attend a school that has hardwiring. Both my sister and I have this diagnosis, and we have asked for accommodations, and they have not yet been provided. My parents have spoken to several of the superintendents and principals and vice principals. And those in charge have even had meetings with our and yet no action has been taken. Our public schools state on every piece4330 of information that they do not discriminate on the basis of color or religion or disability.
And yet here we are with a medical diagnosis. It should not be too hard to simply work with families to reduce the power output of these Wi Fi routers or install an off switch in classrooms when not in use or simply ask students and teachers to put phones on airplane mode so we are not exposed. We need your help, and today, we are asking. Time and time again, our school administrators say they are waiting for you, our legislators, to make these decisions. So today, we ask you to please make it a priority to examine4368 wireless radiation in our schools here in Massachusetts and make it safe not just for me and my little sister, but for all students to learn and thrive in a healthy environment. I4379 humbly ask for your support on this bill and not that you just pass it, but that you actively champion it for the health and safety of all4387 of us. Thank you so much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. Thank you very much. You did a great job. Thank you. Alright. We're going to next hear from Theodora Scerrato followed by Eileen Dwayne followed by Leslie Frodeema. So Theodora Scerrato.
THEODORA SCARATO. - ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH TRUST - SB 316 - Thank you so much. I am executive director of Environmental Health Trust, and we are a scientific nonprofit focused on prevention. Our organization, along with several other petitioners, sued the FCC, several years ago, in relation to their outdated wireless radiation limits, and we won. The FCC was ordered in our case, Environmental Health Trust Versus the FCC to provide a reasoned explanation as to how its limits for wireless radiation exposure addressed children's vulnerability and long term exposures as well as several other issues. It's been two years, and there's been no response. Now US government limits for wireless radiation were never designed to protect for health effects from long term daily exposure, the kind of exposure that children receive in the school setting.
These limits are based on studies from the seventies eighties exposing rats and small monkeys to under 60 minutes4467 of wireless frequencies. 60 minutes. This is the basis for our scale, for our safety limits. And then they applied that to an adult, a large male adult. And there's many issues with the safe, the way our Radiation is measured, and we go into that in our website and go to environmental health trust to learn more about that. So children are Unprotected. Once upon a time, the Environmental Protection Agency was in development of proper safety standards, but they were defunded, so our schools are stuck with antiquated guidelines. There has been no federal review of the up to date scientific evidence, no, review of the research on damage to the brain, immune system, and reproductive organs. And in the United States, there is no measuring, monitoring, enforcement, or oversight program in regards to this issue.
Other countries have safeguards where Wi Fi is removed from the classrooms. Radiation is regularly measured in classrooms and playgrounds. Insurance insurers rank wireless Non ionizing radiation is high risk comparing it to lead and asbestos, and companies not only classify it as a pollutant, but also warn their shareholders of the risk, but not our parents and teachers. And that's why the Maryland State Children's Environmental Protection council, the New Hampshire Commission, the Santa Clara Medical Association recommend reducing Wi Fi to mitigate risk. So I, submitted extensive scientific evidence supporting the need for policies that put children's health first at the center of decision making. They deserve due diligence, Accountability and safe technology. Thank you so much, and I'm glad to answer any questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, buddy. Thank you. We appreciate you sharing your expertise with us. Alright. Eileen Duane is next.
EILEEN DUANE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - Hi. Thank you for listening to all of us. Yeah. My name's Eileen Duane, and I am a retired school teacher and a mother. And I feel extremely strong, in favor of S.316. And as a lot of people have said, the FCC guidelines are outdated, and the current safety limits haven't been, updated since 1996. That's before the iPhone was even out to the public. The FCC has been sued as people have mentioned, and, the you know, and they're doing nothing. The list of is long and includes cancer and DNA damage. I mean, this is serious stuff. So, the FCC, as someone just mentioned, have not done any long term cumulative, effects.
Which is exactly what we're exposing our children to Every single day, hours and hours Now on the bus. I mean, we need to take action, and I'm so4644 glad you're here to listen to this. We need to go back to hardwiring our computers. You know? When my children were young, we were hardwired. The house was safe. The public's places were safe. We can this. The health of our children is our future. This is a huge deal. We're messing with their biological bodies. Please vote in favor of this important bill, and there's so much research out there that's available to look at. So thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Thank you very much. Just for the benefit of our students and those who are here to testify on the rural School's bill. We have five more individuals who are going to testify on the wireless bill, and then we will open the the hearing on the on the rural on rural schools. Alright. So next up is Leslie Fredema to be followed by Jonathan Merrin and Sandra Galiwango. Leslie Fodema.
LESLIE FRODEMA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - Hi. Thank you. My name is Leslie Frodema. I live in Sudbury, Massachusetts. I'm a registered nurse, And in February, we'll be completing my adult nurse practitioner training. About five years ago, I was at a professional conference On brain health and healthy aging, a topic that I have a lot of interest in education in. And there was a medical doctor there who spoke about the effects of wireless radiation on health. I'd never heard of this before in all my years as a nurse. But he opened my eyes and, kind of sent me along a path to begin my own journey to learn more about educating myself and my patients About the harmful effects of wireless radiation.
Also known as non ionizing radiation, which we now are exposed to 247, as wireless technology surrounds us. He explained at that conference the medical science, which basically, you know, we've come to recognize that there's toxins such as DDT, Benzene, that have these adverse effects on our health, but4777 we have to also all now also expand our thinking to include radiation and4783 wireless radiation as another4785 type of toxin. And, unfortunately, children are the most vulnerable to this toxicity because of their thinner skulls and the higher water content of their brains. Wireless radiation passes through the body, and we are electrical beings. We have heart rhythms. We have brainwaves.
And the wave and the wavelength of wireless radiation affect our signaling and our cells and lead to things like oxidative stress and DNA damage That can cause problems from every system in4816 the body, from neurologic to hormonal. The most I can really do in two minutes is just ask you to go to, to educate yourselves more about this topic, to go to physicians for safe technology, and begin to learn more. Last year, the 1st textbook on wireless radiation and the health effects came out for the medical community. So I think you're going to be seeing more of this in the future, and I appreciate you taking the time to hear our input on this. And I hope you'll support this bill. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Jonathan Muren?
SPEAKER37 - Muren. Yes.
SPEAKER1 - Yes. Hi.
SPEAKER37 - Thank you.
JONATHAN MIRIN - HILLTOWN HEALTH - SB 316 - Hi. How are you? Thank you, chair Lewis, chair Garlick, members of the committee for, for hearing this testimony, of me and everyone else who's speaking on behalf of S.316 Today, I feel honored to have senator Mark as my senator, out in Charlemont, Massachusetts. As you may have heard, Senator Mark became familiar with the issue of electrical sensitivity because he worked for Verizon before he became, went to law school. And now he has colleagues, who are in the same condition as my wife. That is, they're electrically sensitive. They're essentially chronic health and neurologic issues when exposed to wireless radiation levels that the rest of us take for granted.
So this issue, you know, chose me. I didn't go looking for it. I run a theater company. We do a lot of work in schools. I also teach drama at a local, middle school. And, when I go into schools, you know, one of the things I look for is, like, where are the routers? You know, are they in the classroom or are they in the hallway? Just because This is something that I'm aware that I'm giving something the kids need. I'm teaching theater. But at the same time, I'm also aware that they're being harmed, by this involuntary exposure. And, you know, I'm not going to go into the details about the how and the why of that harm because I know that others have sent research for you to look at. The tide is turning. Anytime you question a social norm, it takes time.
But we have three schools in our region, I'm happy to say, who have now made adjustments, this year and previous years, lowering the exposure of students. We're at a place now where it's you can simply adjust the beacon signal of a router, literally at No cost or very low cost adjustment and have it pulse every second instead of every tenth of a second, reducing the exposure by 90%. I cannot think of a more cost effective way to improve the atmosphere and the public health of our students and our teachers Then making this simple adjustment, again, at no or low cost, and I'll send you the link for that beacon signal adjustment. Thank you so much for your time. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Thank you very much. Next up is Sandra Galiwango to be followed by Janet Fitzgerald and then lastly, Shirley Jackson. Sandra Galiwango.
SANDRA GALIWNGO - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - Hi. Thank you so much for hearing me out today. My name Is Sandra Galiwngo. I am married. I live in Ashland. I'm an MBA from Northeastern University and the mother of 3. And, I myself was suffering, during COVID, when I was working remotely on a laptop and my hands my fingers started feeling these sharp Burning sensations, and I was also suffering from insomnia and vertigo. And I was able to connect the dots and realized that I needed to hardwire my connection in order to alleviate symptoms.
Since then, this year, I have a 3rd grade son and a 5th grade daughter in public school in Massachusetts. And, my son regularly suffers from headaches and recently asked me he said, mommy, do you Do you ever feel that, pain painful, like, burning feeling in5079 your fingers when you're on the computer? And I was like, oh my gosh. You know, my son is having symptoms too. So What I really ask of the committee is to, review the peer reviewed research and, protect our children from harm in schools by taking, by voting yes on this bill and allowing us to take the actions that will, create a safer learning environment. Thanks. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank all set. Thank you very much. Thank you for sharing your your personal story with us.
Janet Fitzgerald?
Janet Fitzgerald, are you there?
SPEAKER22 - I am.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Great. Alright.
SPEAKER22 - Can you see me? Almost. Alright.
SPEAKER1 - Very good.
SPEAKER22 - Thank you.
Thank you. Alright.
JANET FITZGERALD - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - Alright. So I would like to first thank all of you for hearing this very important bill to protect our children while they're in school. My name is Janet Fitzgerald. I live in the North Shore, And I'm a speech language pathologist who has worked not only in health care and the business sectors as well, but in every area of schools from preschool to university level. I've attended many, many hours of, scientific webinars, including, the EMF Medical Conference 2021, which is now available for free, as Mrs. Doucette mentioned. And based on all of the experts I Listen to, over5193 the years, doctors, lawyers, politicians, students like the one you heard from today, Amelia, and many others. We know that we're in new territory here, so we need to do what we can to protect our students While they're in their learning environment, in this in relation to this RF/EMF Area, also called wireless radiation.
So given that there are no long term safety studies Proving safety, we have to use a precautionary principle. And I say yes. Go ahead and please do vote for S.316. How could we not? How could we say to our children, no.? We don't care. You know? Take a risk. Get cancer. Get sick. Doesn't matter. We can't, obviously. So I consider this bill a no brainer. I hope you all agree, based on everything you've heard because we don't want our kids to become lab rats. They're our future. We need them. We have plenty of studies available to us that do indicate serious harm, And I know that it can seem like a bottomless pit of info to try to go through. I'm not an engineer. I know what that's like, but I would tell you that there are tremendous resources available to us.
Including, Massachusetts for safe technology, Tech Safe Schools, e h trust .org, which is environmental health trust. You heard from Theodora Scarato, and positions for safe technology. So we have plenty of resources to make this learning easier for us so that we know we're doing the right thing, which we are. I I'm not sure I mentioned, but I5296 have a daughter who is in a university in Boston. So, of course, I was concerned. I heard there was, through a5302 mother from the same university. Her son had actually died of a brain tumor while he was a student, living in the dorm in this university. So I went to the university myself to measure and as did another mother. And I'm going to just do a quick demo for you to show you how simple it is. It's not it's not really hard to do the right thing. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - A Miss Fitzgerald, you you are going to need to to wrap up, please.
FITZGERALD - Okay. Alright. Well, the demo would show you that with our cell phones, our meters go into from green to red. And on our school campuses, why can't we measure? I went to the school. I asked them, please, I videotape the measurements. Can we talk about this? There are free lectures available to you. However, note takers and I think it's because we don't have the guidelines yet. So we're looking to you for those guidelines so that I can know my daughter's safe on her campus and all the students in Massachusetts can feel safe that they're safe On campus in relation to radiation. Thank you so much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank thank you very much.
Nope. Okay. Nope. Oh, Shirley Jackson, are you there?
Alright. Last chance. Shirley Jackson.
SPEAKER22 - To red. And on our school campuses, why can't we measure? I went to the school. I asked them, please, I videotaped the measures. We will talk about this. There are three lectures available to you. However, note takers, and I think it's because we don't have the
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Should we move on?
SPEAKER20 - She's there. She's there. Okay.
SPEAKER37 - She's there now.
SPEAKER39 - Last person signed up is Shirley Jackson.
SPEAKER40 - Yes. Yes. I'm here now.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER40 - Thank you. Good day, and thank you for listening. Shirley Joy Jackson. 1287 Jackson? Yes. Can you hear me?
SPEAKER1 - Yes. We can.
SPEAKER40 - Good. 12875 Barrow Road, North Palm Beach, Florida, 561-691-8954.
I participate.
SPEAKER39 - Darling Jackson?5464
SPEAKER40 - Yes.
5468 SPEAKER15468 -5468 I'm5468 I I think you have the hearing, live streamed on your laptop. You you need to turn that off.
SPEAKER40 - Okay. Thank you for letting me know. I apologize.
SPEAKER1 - And and you need to turn on your video, please. Yeah. I Okay.
SPEAKER40 - Thought I did that, but
SPEAKER22 - oh,
SPEAKER41 - there we go.
SPEAKER42 - Okay. Is this working?
SPEAKER1 - Yes.
SPEAKER40 - Miracles abound, I tell you. Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Please please go ahead because we are tight on time.
SPEAKER40 - Yes.
SHIRLEY JOY JACKSON - CONCERNED CITIZEN - SB 316 - I'm a retired educator, research project manager, Safe School's coordinator. I invented a database that identified students headed toward risks so that we could Instead, support them and prevent failures. Please take note. Please put whatever teeth are necessary in this bill to monitor and improve the protective health and safety effects, by insisting on the lowest exposure levels possible to achieve educational goals, your efforts to alert educators to their fiduciary responsibilities for the health and safety of youth are absolutely critical. Number two, take note. Insist that the process includes contacting those that are experienced in how to Reduce exposures.
By truly having tested equipment, processes, and training that work. It's actually fairly easy to make big reductions, but learn from those how to purchase and install wisely, following building biology principles to assure health and safety are co requisite goals, expand fiber optics, variable beacon signal outputs, And, scheduling and shutoffs rather than a default5589 of Wi-Fi. In closing, the adverse impacts UMF exposures are real. There's a cost to pay if you don't step to up to minimize exposures. I was forced to retire early with my language facility often impaired. Students react more erratically in high exposure places. Thank you again for keeping us educators alert to the best practices for EMF Health and Safety. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Thank you very much, miss Jackson. Alright. So that wraps up the testimony for bill Senate 316. So thank you, everybody. I'm going to close the hearing on senate bill 316. We are now going to resume in the Order of the bills, with in person taking in person testimony. So we are going to, take up house bill 3567 and senate bill 2388, an act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools. We heard from representative Blay Blay, and senator Commerford earlier, and I know we have a number of students waiting to testify and educators. I'm not sure exactly the order we want to do things. Did we want the students to go first? Or
Okay. Because we have a lot of different people signed up, so,
let's Let's see. Well, I guess I'll just stick with this order, but if if, if we need to change it, we can do that. Jessica Corwin and Joey Pisani. Okay.
And Todd Gasca doctor Gasca? Is doctor Gasca here? Okay. Did you want to I was part of the panel. Okay. I'll talk again. Okay. Little did you know, you were part of this panel? Alright. Then after that, we'll hear from Mark Blatchley, Diana LeBlanc, and then, I think students from the Gateway Regional School District. And is that is that these students? Okay.
SPEAKER13 - Yes.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Alright. Very good. Alright. Welcome. Floor is yours.
JESSICA CORWIN - SUNDERLAND SCHOOL COMMITTEE - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Jessica Corwin. I'm the chair of the Sunderland School Committee. I'm also a licensed teacher who has taught in urban, suburban, and rural districts in Massachusetts. It was my experiences teaching in rural Hatfield’s that drove me to run for school committee. Due to funding constraints, rural schools in my area are far more likely than larger districts to have Health insurance benefits of high costs to employees. When I worked in Hatfield, the town was only able to contribute 50% toward the cost of my health insurance premiums.
Because the other 50% came out of my paycheck when I had two kids in daycare, my daycare bills actually exceeded my take home pay. In other words, I was working only for health insurance, and my family was otherwise entirely supported by my spouse's, job. So single parents can't afford to work in districts with such low benefits. 18 of the 20 lowest paying school districts in the commonwealth are ones that receive rural aid. Over and over again, I watched beloved Hatfield colleagues leave the district To work in larger and higher paying districts to the south. This turnover hurts students. Please understand that rural towns are not luxuriously underpopulated suburbs. We have small tax bases, and many of our towns have already increased our5800 tax rates to some of the highest in the state.
My own town of Sunderland has passed three overrides in the last six years just to remain operational. Rural poverty is a very real challenge. Approximately one third of Sunderland students come from low income families, and these children face unique challenges because of the rural isolate isolation and lack of access to resources. The Student Opportunity Act was meant to provide assistance to students like this, but due to our declining enrollment, more than half of rural school districts have only received minimum funding increases after the first four years. This bill is essential for rural communities to provide the high quality education for which Massachusetts is known. As a parent, teacher, and school committee member, I urge you to Report out favorably on this bill. Thank you for your time and consideration. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you for your, testament. Thank you for your service on the school committee too.
JOEY PAZANI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Good afternoon, everybody. Chair Garlick, chair Lewis, and members of the Joint Committee on Education, my name is Joey Pazani. I'm 17 years old and a senior at Gateway Regional High School in Huntington. And most importantly, I love Massachusetts. I love our commonwealth enough to not only note the incredible accomplishments within the education system, such as universal school meals, but also where there still is work to be done to ensure that every student from the Berkshires to Boston are receiving an equitable, high quality public education. That's why myself and many others from Gateway traveled here to testify for you today. Because currently, our school is not guaranteed a sustainable future, largely because of a simple factor that shouldn't determine the quality of our education in schools, our ZIP code.
I do the announcements every day at school, but many can't hear my voice as the intercom system is currently isn't working, making5902 it difficult for students and teachers to get updates, and as you could imagine, could pose a potential safety concern. The state's, rural schools commission released a detailed report, which I believe you all got, which recommended that $60 million be allocated to rural school aid. This past budget cycle, a historic 15 million was allocated to it. However, 15 million is still only 1% of the recommendation. While I may start be starting to get some senioritis, I cannot afford to only do 25% of an assignment as that is a failing grade. The Student Opportunity Act, as earlier mentioned, was a landmark piece of legislation, and rural schools are expected to get less than 1% of that funding.
Once again, a failing grade. From regionalization costs to transportation reimbursement and equities, our rural schools are struggling to keep their doors open, and families in towns and cities with students are struggling because they currently are having to pick up the bill. Teamwork is a very important thing to me, and this legislation filed by our teammates in this effort who5960 themselves are Rep Blais and senator Comerford lay and rep H.3567 and S.2388, if passed, which couldn't happen without a favorable report today, would address these issues facing our rural schools. As I prepare to walk across the graduation stage in a few months and throughout my education at Gateway.
My goal has been to leave our school better than how I found it. I look to the 4th graders who you'll be hearing from shortly who attend Chester Elementary, which is where I personally began, started my gateway journey. Rural school students5992 are the future. Future students, electricians, Dunkin' Baristas, and5996 even future members of this committee. I hope to do everything I can to make sure that those students have the best gateway experience possible, and I know this bill could help with that. To close with6006 some slightly changed lyrics to Neil Diamond's song, Sweet Caroline. Why6010 rural schools aren't equitably funded, I can't begin to knowing'. But then I know that this legislation would help them be strong. Help us, Gators. We are the future. We believe in you to come along. A favorable6021 report on this legislation would be so6023 good, so good, so good. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
6025 SPEAKER16025 -6025 Thank6025 you.
Well done. Thank you. That was
SPEAKER45 - that was terrific. Really? How am I supposed to follow that?
SPEAKER1 - I know. You're in an unenviable position.
TODD GAZDA - COLLABORATIVE FOR EDUCATIONAL SERVICES - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Good afternoon. My name is doctor Todd Gazda, and I am the executive director of the Collaborative for Educational Services in Northampton. We serve 37 member districts in Hampshire and Franklin County, most of whom are rural districts. This is my 22nd year in public education, and I have been a rural school educator for a large part of that. I've been a teacher, a principal, and a superintendent. I am also the product of a rural education, having graduated from Gateway Regional in 1988. So the funding challenges facing rural schools are nothing new. I can remember my father who was principal of Gateway Regional in 1980 when I was 10 years old. having to deal with the cuts that he had to make in his teachers because of proposition two and a half. That has been exacerbated by industry leaving the area, what industry that we did have.
And so these challenges remain. You have taken action already to help mitigate that, and it's appreciated. one of the challenges though is that superintendents in our area don't know whether they would they can count on it continuing. That's one of the reasons that this is so critical at this juncture. It's important to remember that for four regional schools and communities, the schools are the heart and center of those6119 communities, focusing not just6121 on education, but also serving as community centers. As a child, I can remember going to the elementary school for the local raccoon dinner. Just let me trust me. Raccoons skip it. But I just want to point out that it is important for rural schools to support their communities. In order to do so effectively, we need the supports that are in this bill, and that's why we I'm really here to ask you today to support our districts, and recommend favorable passage of this bill. Thank you for your time. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Thank you very much. And representative Altrino, vice chair of the committee has joined us. Good to see you. Thank you all very much. Appreciate your testimony.
LEWIS - I don't know, Dr. Gazda if you're the right person, I I don't you don't cover Berkshire County, right, with your collaborative?
GAZDA - We are we just about everything but
LEWIS - But Berkshire. Okay. At some point, maybe we can talk about it if if and I'll to my colleagues as well. Maybe not.
GAZDA - There is there's national collaborative in Berkshire County.
LEWIS - I know there was a lot of work there. There was a lot of work on the, a regionalization effort in Southern Berkshire County that just, you know, failed to get, voter support. So would like to that, you know, a little further as to what happened there and, yeah, how we respond to that. Okay. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER47 - Thank you for
SPEAKER46 - your time.
SPEAKER1 - Let's see. Next up is Mark Blachley to be followed by Diana LeBlanc, and, and then, we'll get to our students.
Okay. Is Mark Mark Blotchley here?
No? Okay. Is Diana LeBlanc here? Okay. Welcome.
DEANNA LEBLANC - GATEWAY REGIONAL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Hello, and thanks for hearing my testimony today. My name is Deanna LeBlanc. I use she/her pronouns. I am the director of curriculum I'm at Gateway Regional. I've been a proud Gator for seven years. Much of my time as the director of curriculum is dedicated to grants now, because we're using a lot of, competitive grants to offset much needed funding. Rural school aid is consistently underfunded at the 60 million and it's inconsistent when we get it, which makes it really challenging to actually develop a budget that truly uses that money well and makes it consistent for us to do the budgeting process. As a rural school district, we start our budgeting process early. We're already talking about FY.25. My time should be dedicated to the fabulous students, some of whom you've heard already and some you're about to hear.
To their learning, to talking about their curriculum, to really working on how they learn. But instead, my time is dedicated to finding Competitive funding sources to just kind of make things work and keep things afloat. Our students deserve a predictable world. They deserve my undivided attention as an educator. They deserve all of our undivided attention as educators, and they deserve an equitable educational experience not based on their ZIP code. Rural school aid is the vehicle to make that happen. Give our students the access to what they need. We need the stop, chaotic That chaotic shuffle for competitive funding or trying to figure out what where we need to make cuts, but instead make it a predictable world for our students. I'm sure that they will share so many valuable things with you, so I will keep it very brief. Please report favor favorably on this bill, and thank you for the time today. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. K. Alright. So, let's see. I think we have I think we're ready for our students. The names I have here, but if when you come up, if you could also introduce yourselves, are Kristen Smitey, Sophia Stone, Tucker Robitaille, Brutus Briggs, and Destiny Martinez. Is that right? Yes. Alright. Excellent. So we may have 1, two few chairs.
SPEAKER49 - That's okay.
SPEAKER1 - But, maybe one person could stand, and then, we could just, rotate. Okay.
Alright. And when it's your turn, just bring the microphone over to you. That's in a nice and close, and start by Telling us your name.
SPEAKER34 - Hello.
SPEAKER18 - Hello. Hi, Sophia.
Hello. My name is Sophia Stone. We're very excited to be here today, and we would just like to, have you understand stand that we would like you to have your full attention on us. Thank you.
SPEAKER24 – Thank you
. So we are from Gateway Regional School District. My name is Kristen Smitty. I'm the proud superintendent of the towns of Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery, Chester, Blandford, and Russell. This It's Brutus, Tucker, Sophia, and Destiny, and we're really excited to speak to you today. So Brutus is going to kick us off.
BRUTUS BRIGGS - GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - The Royal Commission report estimated the cost would be around6433 $16 million to level the playing field in6437 the classroom for students living in rural communities compared to those living in other areas of Massachusetts, that alone should lure you to the strength and grit shown by my fellow Gateway Regional students, Families, communities, and schools in the hill towns of western Massachusetts.
TUCKER ROBITAILLE - GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Rural living is not for the faint of heart, especially at Chester Elementary School, which is part of the Gateway Regional School District. A good example of this is when we had to rely on our school to provide Sours and drinking water to those without for a whole week. When a main pipe burst in our town last summer, we sometimes go over the valley and through the woods to not just get to school every day, but to also get safe drinking water.
SOPHIA STONE - GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - But why are the mountains steeper and the forests stents are at school too? Shouldn't all students have access to the same educational and learning opportunities during the school day? I should not have access to Fewer opportunities or a lower quality education because of where my grass grows. Where I live should not Impact my access to quality learning and opportunities in my classroom. Students in the hill towns are just as important as every other student in the state.
DESTINY MARTINEZ - GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Please support the act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools to make sure That every student attending a rural school in Massachusetts has access to a quality education and a successful future, Including us here today from Chester Elementary School. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER51 - Ready? Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. Well, you did such a great job. Thank you all. Superintendent, did you want to say a few words too? Or submitted You did. Okay. And then I'm sorry. I didn't get your name.
SPEAKER17 - I'm Dan and I.
SPEAKER1 - Oh, great. Did you want to say anything? Said it all. They said they said it all? Okay. Oh, representative Pease, I think, has wanted to say something.
SPEAKER6 - Yes. I have to I have to, pipe in here since they're all from the same, Well, a newer elementary school than what I went to in Chester back in the day, but also, seeing, doctor Geisinger there because I'm a few years ahead of him, so I went to Gateway, obviously, when his father was my principal. So they did a great job, and it's really good to see the, The folks from up in the Hilltown area.
SPEAKER1 - Thank you, representative Pease. So you're all 4th graders. Right? And, so do Do you have more than one 4th grade class in your school or just 1? Just 1. Just one 4th grade class. And how many students do you know how many are in your your class in total? 16. 16.
SPEAKER41 - Yep. We traveled really far today, so you could hear
SPEAKER38 - our message.
SPEAKER41 - And it's really important to us to support school's bill,
SPEAKER18 - and we appreciate your consideration.
SPEAKER1 - Great. Well, we really appreciate you, coming to, to be with us today and, and to speak with the committee. So you did did a great job. Good. I hope you at least get to have lunch, you know, in Boston and have some fun while you're here. Pizza. Alright. Thank you so much for having me. Alright. Thank you all. Alright. Super. Alright. I believe we have, two high school students from Gateway Regional. Theo Page? I'm sorry. A little hard to read the name here.
SPEAKER51 - Theo Is
SPEAKER1 - it Page. Theo yes. Alexis. Great. Alright. You are up.
SPEAKER52 - Hi. I'm sorry. I'm not a high school student.
SPEAKER6 - You had me
SPEAKER1 - fooled. Should I begin? Yes.
ALEXIS BATRA - GATEWAY REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOL - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you for having Me today. My name is Alexis Batra, and I'm a Spanish teacher at Gateway Regional High School in Huntington. It is easy to ignore the reality that rural schools face unique Challenges that necessitate financial support. Rural schools already serve communities with limited resources such as, lack of access to the Internet, hospitals, public transportation, and training opportunities. Adequate funding is essential to provide competitive salaries for educators and support staff enabling these schools to attract and keep the best talent. There's not just there's just not enough staff to support the programs that the students need and want to be competitive in the workforce today.
Adequate funding can bridge this gap, Providing students with access to advanced and competitive educational resources. Adequate funding ensures that school facilities are safe, well maintained and equipped with modern tools and materials. Right now at Gateway Regional High School, we have no functioning clocks in the school. The cost to upgrade our alarm and intercom systems was too high for our schools to afford replacement clocks when the system was revamped. Investing in rural schools has far reaching economic implications. A well educated workforce in rural areas can contribute to local economic growth and help combat the cycle of poverty. The reality is that in rural areas, there aren't even enough minimum wage jobs to choose from, yet our students are not even being trained to be competitive in the job market that will support their families. Our students are aware of this reality, and the result is grim.
We are losing students who believe that school is a waste of time. They don't see a purpose for themselves in the programs that we're able to provide. So many students in our school feel fired, alienated, and unmotivated by the traditional and often bare bones academic track, and they check6811 out or they rebel. They don't see a place for themselves in a system that can't offer them the programs to gain the skills and training they want and need. It's so important to provide funding to rural schools so that we can build a future where people can support a family, feel proud of what they do for a living and contribute fruitfully to the economy. We have to address the needs of this often forgotten group of people, And we have to prioritize and support the education of every child regardless of6841 where they live. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you.
THEODORE D'ANGELO PAGE - GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - My name is Theodore D'Angelo Page, and I'm a 10th grader at Gateway Regional High School. When people from outside of our six towns ask me where I go to high school, 99% of the time, they say, as a student from an entire grade of less than 40 kids, a baseball team that barely has enough players, In the band that is constantly in need of supporting musicians, Gateway somehow makes it work. But I know, in reality, that the opportunities that I have as a student Incredibly limited compared to the average suburban and urban high schooler. These limitations include the amount of AP classes that I'm able to take, which only include four courses taught by our own staff. In addition, we have very few electives or academic courses offerings that fit students' aspirations and less than robust extracurricular.
As a college hopeful, I believe that being fit for taking those next steps is majorly supported by your actions in high school. As you can imagine, our school and counselors can only do so much to help us prepare for college while managing six different grades with a variety of issues on their plate. Having dedicated people to help guide the college process and experience would be a huge asset to Gateway to its students and to me. The money that has been set aside for us is helpful but not adequate to fully support students' lives and futures. These funds can help our school by providing students and teachers with the resources necessary to help us thrive and strive to be better prepared for what's next after we leave our supportive gateway community. With money to fit our needs, We could thrive in the swamps AKA our small rural towns just like the gateway gators we were supposed to be. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Questions?
LEWIS - Theo, did you say you're6962 in 10th grade. Right? That how big is your total your total class? You said 40 students?
PAGE - It's a little less than 40 students.
LEWIS - And so and that's for drawing from six towns, right, that, 10 Gateway?
PAGE - Five or six towns. Yeah.
LEWIS - Okay. So and, is it nine through 12?
PAGE - Yep. Our high school.
LEWIS - So the total Students at your high school, is it is it roughly four times 40?
PAGE - Yes.
LEWIS - Okay. So 160 The total. Yes. And you said you have just the option the choice of only four AP courses That that are offered?
PAGE - Alternate, every other year. So I believe it's only two AP classes per year taught by your own staff.
LEWIS - Are there any additional AP classes you can take, Like virtually?
PAGE - I believe online, but I'm not knowledgeable in that section. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Thank you very much for your testimony. That's that's very impactful. Alright. Thank you to,
Miss was it Glenn? Budge. Budge. Yes. Gus. Yes.
Okay. Last person I think signed up in person is Brian, Forg? Forg? Forg with
SPEAKER53 - an for the next
LEWIS - Got it.
You may want to use a different word for it. It's it's the Easiest 1. I guess so.
BRIAN FORGUE - GATEWAY REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Hello Alright. Good afternoon, members of the education committee. My name is Brian Forgue, and I am a school committee member for the Gateway Regional School District and a selectman for the town of Chester. I'm speaking to urge you all to favorably report H.3567 and S.2388 to finally provide a level of assistance to our rural communities that have been fought for years. This piece of legislation is a godsend for districts like Gateway and towns like Chester. As my young constituents alluded to, Chester has significant infrastructural and service needs that have only been exacerbated by aging, faulty vehicles in crises like the last February's snowstorm and a water main break from last summer.
These bills are coming due and Quickly, in my town and the communities around us are facing similar compounding issues. As I like to say, the people, parents and teachers of the hill towns can be given an inch and make it a mile, but more desperately needs to be done. What this bill will assure us is that The necessary investments in rural schools be consistent with what it with what was suggested in the rural school report, and there will be resources to support Schools are declining enrollment, and that aid is directed to districts where it is most needed. As I've heard numerous times when navigating the legislative process, there are many diverging and pressing priorities y'all have to tackle. However, our town government and the residents of town meeting have overwhelmingly.
And passionately Work to make sure that the needs of the students you heard today are paramount even when they demand some of the highest property tax rates in the commonwealth Even with all the other urgent problems on our docket. We've pioneered new programs and appropriated at least 50% of our annual budgets toward the of our kids, including very successful internship programs to support such7166 declining careers as water operators. I know. I should say, I ask you all to show the same commitment our students are showing, that the residents of the gateway communities have shown and truly give us the big win that we've needed for decades.
LEWIS - Great Well, thank you very much, Mr. Forgue Thank you. You said you serve on both the select board Yes. And the school committee.
FORGUE - I do. Both.
LEWIS - Wow. Thank you very much for your public service.
FORGUE - And, of course, I'm a graduate of Gateway Regional, about two years ago.
LEWIS - That's definitely a theme of this hearing today. The excellent quality of Gateway Regional graduates. Absolutely. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Alright. On this bill too, I assume. Okay. Alright. I think did we Cover everyone who's here in person to Testify. Testify? A couple
SPEAKER7 - of them.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Okay. Great. Alright. I think we have, another champion for rural schools, who's with us virtually, representative Farley Bouvier. Are you there?
REP FARLEY-BOUVIER - HB 3570 - Thank you so much, chair Lewis and chair Garlick, and I've listened, today, to hear about the rural school aid. I'm big supporter of that, though I represent a gateway city, but I support my colleagues, in local and state government on that. I'm actually here to talk to you about a different bill, And I think of interest in this bill because, chair Garlick's work, with education now, her work On, child welfare issues and are working ways and means. This this little bill comes, is at the intersection of all these things. So this is,H.3570, an act to fairly reimburse local school transportation of foster children. I filed this with my colleague and a partner in many child welfare issues, senator Joe Comerford. A little bit of background.
In 2015, the federal government passed the Every Student Succeed Act, And part of that gives foster children the right to continue their education in their school of origin if they are placed in a different school district in their foster placement. The new school district the foster child resides in is responsible for paying for this transportation. You can see how this gets complicated. Federal 9(e) provides the reimbursements to the local school districts for this transportation. However, the reimbursement is complicated, and it isn't sufficient to cover the full cost of transportation. In October 20, 22, a report from auditor Susanna Bumps outlined this issue and highlighted it as a need of reform.
So how are we going to reform this? The what this bill does is address the funding gap between the federal government and the local, school district by just saying DCF is going to fund that gap instead of putting it onto the local school districts. We just need to have a better way of doing this so it's not an additional cost onto the local school district. I'll be submitting written testimony with senator Conifer that it contains further data, And I'm hoping that we can work together,7366 to, help this reform get through. Thank you so much, for the time and attention that you give to this matter and all matters in education. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, representative Farley Bouthia, and look forward to, working with you on this Sounds like definitely something we should, we should be figuring out how to how to resolve. Thank you. I I believe representative Sabados is also with us remotely.
SPEAKER55 - Yes. I am here. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER1 - Hi. Welcome. Thank you.
7400 REP7400 SABADOSA7400 -7400 HB7400 4019-7400 And7400 so I we're continuing on the theme of rural school districts today, but, with a slightly different bill that I filed, H.4019, that I filed with senator Mark for the communities of Chesterfield and Goshen. This is an act repealing certain fiscal stability Procedures in those two communities. I believe someone from the district may have already testified or will be testifying as well about this bill, and we're happy to supply The committee with, as much as in as much information as you'd like. Effectively, during a fiscal review process, the School district found that they had an account that had been set up years ago. That account was no longer used, but it does contain $37,000 that they would like to be able to use.
So in consultation with DESE and the Department of Revenue, it was decided the best course of action7451 would be to file legislation in order to close that account so that they can use the funds for other expenses, fiscal stability, provisions that had been needed in the past no longer being needed now. So this is a slight Step up from a home rule, petition. It does involve two communities, but it is a very important matter to these two communities, and it's hyperlocal. So we're hoping that the committee will be able to review it favorably, and we can move the legislation forward. And I will be available for any and all questions. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - K. Alright. Any questions? Alright. Thanks, representative Sabadoughen. I think it would be helpful to follow-up with us. It was When I was going through the packet for all the bills, I wasn't familiar with this issue before, so I think it would be helpful to just learn get a bit more information on this.
SPEAKER55 - Absolutely. I will send over much more then.
7503 SPEAKER37503 -7503 Thank7503
SPEAKER1 - you. Alright. Thank you very much. Okay. Let's see where we are. We, I'm I inadvertently may have skipped over, Brad Jones, who was going to be testifying on house bill four 119. I'm sorry about that. I confused you with representative Brad Jones.
SPEAKER13 - I got
SPEAKER56 - my picture taken in front of the office earlier.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. And I I I didn't see him, so I assumed that Brad Jones was just not here. But then, fortunately, I was Totally different 1. Corrected. It was a different Brad Jones.
SPEAKER56 - No worries. Thank you. Okay. I
BRAD JONES - GRADUATION ALLIANCE - HB 4119 - Hi. Chairs Lewis and Garlick, members of the committee, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to appear before you today. Appreciate the time and work that chair Roy has put into age 4119, which would establish the framework for an adult workforce diploma program for adults 22 and over in the Commonwealth. My name is Brad Jones. I am here today on behalf of Graduation Alliance, an organization with over a decade and a half of experience reengaging and reconnecting students and adults in 28 six states who have dropped out or are on the brink of dropping out of school. We are also currently partnered with, DESE, for the past two years7578 on a program focusing on addressing in combating chronic absenteeism, it coaches students and families through barriers to engagement in school.
In the Commonwealth, more than 500,000 adults, nearly 10% of the population lack a high school diploma. This legislation proposes a multimodal approach to Providing an adult diploma program based on flexibility, accountability, and transparency. The program allows for multiple qualified and accredited providers to offer adult learners flexibility in a brick and mortar, virtual, or even a blended model setting. The program is outcomes based and operates in a pay for performance model. State funds would only be expended when adult learners attained Outline performance milestones such as credits earned, attainment of employability skills certifications, workforce credentials, and certainly diploma completion. Similar programs in other states have realized significant return on investment for graduates in the state's workforce.
For example, Michigan implemented this program in 20 has continued to grow the program annually. Graduation Alliance serves as one of 16 providers there. The graduate survey data in Michigan shows 68% of graduates in Michigan reported receiving a better job or raise post graduation. They saw significant increases in labor market participation overall as well as employer sponsored health care. Additionally, 20% were enrolled in postsecondary education. Finally, H.4119 aims to equip this population not only with a fully accredited high school diploma, but also with career and technical skills to meet the state's workforce needs. I will be submitting written testimony shortly. I welcome SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - questions. Okay. Great. Thank you very much.
LEWIS - And your organization is Graduation Alliance. Is that right?
JONES - Yes.
LEWIS - A local organization or a national?
JONES - We're a national organization in 26 states in in this area SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. Alright. Please follow-up with us so we we can have more information. Good. Thank you. Alright. Thanks a lot. Thanks for your patience. Alright. We're going to move to now through a few more bills where there's folks here to testify in person. Next one is house 5307707 in senate 343, enact establishing an education to career data center. Ben Foreman. Mr. Foreman?
Hi. Good to see you.
BEN FOREMAN - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 530 - SB 343 - Okay. Good afternoon, chair Lewis, Members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of both, H.530 and S.343 an act establishing an education to career data center, As well as the complimentary legislation, the Student Privacy Data Act. You know, just, a couple of weeks ago, we had three of the leading experts on education workforce data in the country here to talk to us about where Massachusetts stands. And they said, without a doubt, we are the gold standard. We've invested more money than other states in data quality. We have more information on our students and their progression from education to career than any other state, but we lack crucial governance legislation to make sure that we protect this information and that we make the most out of it.
I mean, frankly, when I speak to legislators about our education data, I hear frustration that they don't get the information they need. We know from surveying parents That they aren't getting, the information they need. And we know from talking to researchers that they love to work with Massachusetts data, because it is the best there is, but is it extremely hard and expensive and laborious work to do? And often, by the time they get to the end of the road, their findings, while incredibly valuable, are dated. This legislation would solve a lot of these problems by centralizing the work in one office, In a office that's totally independent and objective, so there wouldn't be any questions about who gets, priority to work with data. It wouldn't be the agency's Individual agenda that's driving data access.
It would be a body, a governing board that works together to set research priorities for the Commonwealth, and to look at the technology we're building and making sure that it's, as efficient as possible and giving legislators access the custom reports that they need as well as the public access to scorecards, dashboards, and other useful information in a way that they, know it's there, and they're able to actually interpret it. So, representative Lipper-Garabedian mentioned the urgency here with the federal funding, expiring, we do feel like there are many opportunities to centralize staff and in in realized savings and at the same time, actually bet get better information from our data infrastructure. I'm going to submit written testimony as well, but I really, I welcome the opportunity to share with you about this, this important legislation. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Very good. Any questions? Alright. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER5 - Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Appreciate your work on this topic. Alright. We are now going to hear move to House bill 532, senate bill 280, enact relative to student and educated data privacy. We have two people signed up here in person. Steve Smith is next, and then will be followed by Cade Cade Crockford. Mr. Smith.
STEVE SMITH - CAMBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS - HB 532 - SB 280 - Yes. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to, House Bill 532 and Senate 280. I'm Steve Smith, the CIO of Cambridge Public Schools. This is my 17th year in that role in Cambridge. And for the past 15 years or so, I've been very passionate about student data privacy. Through the work in Cambridge, we were able to Expand, our efforts around bringing EdTech providers and districts together around student data privacy obligations and expand that across the state of Massachusetts and then, launch the National Student Data Privacy Consortium, which is a nonprofit with over 10,000 school districts, in in 34 states and four countries.
7952 And7952 I tell you all that work and background just to kind of set the stage that, You know, even though the work has started here in Massachusetts and has taken off across the country, we really are still kind of lagging behind, when I look at all districts in the state as far as being aware and meeting their obligations because today, the obligations fall completely on the districts. Without a state privacy law, We're dependent upon the districts enforcing obligations via FERPA onto the EdTech vendors. A law like this one, legislation 532, would put the obligations directly on the vendors and, just create a better environment for holding the vendors accountable.
So, the reason we're not doing very well is the lack of legislation, little guidance or assistance from DESE, which this bill would also8003 address. You know, some of the8005 model states around the country do8007 have state offices that are providing guidance8009 and resources districts around student data privacy. That would be huge for the districts in the state. So, And, again, I'm just here to, you know, offer my expertise because I've been doing this work around the country. I want to ensure that Massachusetts Steps up and helps all the districts in the state, whether they're the Gateway Schools or Cambridge. We're all struggling with the same to address student data privacy with the EdTech vendors.
LEWIS - Thank you very much. Appreciate not just your testimony, but your clear leadership on this in Cambridge and well beyond. Just curious. Do you know why DESE hasn't, you know, done more to support districts in this space. I am sure they recognize what that this is important. Ii it a resource issue? Is it something else?
SMITH - The few times that I've spoken to individuals at DESE, they the response is kind of your there's a great grassroots effort to address it. And, yes, it probably is lack of resources and maybe an impetus to do it, you know, but this would certainly make that happen. That's for sure. Yep. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Alright. Well, thank you. Thank you very much. Cade Crockford?
KADE CROCKFORD - ACLU OF MASSACHUSETTS - HB 532 - SB 280 - Good afternoon Hello, chair. How are you, members of the committee? My name is Kate Crockford. I am the director of the technology for liberty program at the ACLU of Massachusetts. I'm here to testify in support of, house bill 532. Not every district has a Steve. You know, we've been hearing today from a lot of, people from rural communities In districts where, it sounds like even some of the basics of getting an education are, are not quite where they need to be, and I think the resource issue that, Steve just addressed at DESE also applies throughout the commonwealth, particularly at more or less, well resourced schools. So, unfortunately, what we have right now is a dynamic where, Edtech companies, this is an industry that's worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
Some have estimated Is, at an advantage when they work with school districts that don't necessarily have the technology expertise to be able to evaluate claims that are made in terms of service or privacy policies, these are often, as you know, probably as technology users, Very wordy, documents full of legalese, sort of8164 difficult to parse. This is made even more difficult When the federal landscape around student privacy is willfully inadequate, in fact, in 2011, the Federal Department of Education weakened FERPA, as it as it applies to educational technology with the goal of opening up the floodgates for the use of EdTech Throughout, schools covered by FERPA. So there are two problems with enforcement that this bill addresses.
Number one is that FERPA says that students have no rights to enforce their own rights under FERPA, that in fact the schools are responsible for enforcing, the agreements that they make between schools and technology companies. The second issue with FERPA is that Even though FERPA is ill equipped to, you know, and not designed to deal with these digital privacy issues, not once in 50 years has have the enforcement provisions of FERPA ever been triggered, which is to say a school loses its federal Funding as a result of not complying with the federal guidelines. So it's more of a suggestion, really, than a rule book, for student privacy. The 2nd issue is related. There's no way for individuals to enforce their own rights if a company violates them.
So we've seen in New Mexico, for example, the attorney general out there Took Google to court alleging that Google had violated student privacy in a massive way. Got a settlement a settlement in that case. There are hundreds or thousands of technology vendors that are working8257 with school districts across Massachusetts. If you have kids, you're probably familiar with Google Apps for Education and ClassDojo, which are two of the biggest ones. I think ClassDojo is in, like, 95% of classrooms or something like that. But you, as a parent, don't have any rights to enforce your child's privacy right now in Massachusetts law.
That would fall, to the attorney general to enforce unfair or deceptive practices. You would be able to enforce unfair or deceptive practices rights under consumer protection statute, but that would only, be triggered if a company lied to your face about what it was doing. The problem that we have right now is that, companies are not necessarily lying about what they're doing because they can essentially do anything, and they are doing a lot with student sensitive data. So this bill would give, a), parents' and students' rights under Massachusetts law, privacy rights that that they currently lack, and two, the means to enforce those rights through a private right of action. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Good. Alright. Thank you very much. Alright. Appreciate the ACLU's work on this and look forward to to following up and work Thank
SPEAKER58 - you very much.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Alright. So that brings us to House bill 3943, an act ensuring language readiness in deaf, deaf blind, and hard-of-hearing children entering kindergarten. I know we have several people, to testify, in person, and, and hopefully, we, you know, we have the appropriate accommodations. So I think Stephanie, Clark is first. Is miss Clark here? Did she just We can come back to her.
SPEAKER20 - Car accident. She's also stuck with being
SPEAKER22 - here today.
8358 SPEAKER18358 -8358 Oh,8358 no. Goodness. Okay. I hope she's Okay,8361 and please pass along our best wishes to her.
Alright. So then that
SPEAKER20 - she was going to be8369 sending We can test
SPEAKER7 - Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Michelle Klein? K. And then next after Miss Klein will be Barbara Wood, and then Jamie Rivas Robertson.
And then this, Ashley.
SPEAKER12 - And okay.
8395 SPEAKER18395 -8395 K.8395
MICHELLE CLINE - NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE DEAF - HB 3943 - Good afternoon, to both chairs, chair Lewis and chair Garlick. I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony today on house 3943.I'm a member of the, board of the National Association of the Deaf, and I'm also a member of the Massachusetts State Association of the Deaf. I8420 served on their board for 10 years. I'm currently here. I've moved to Massachusetts. I've been a Massachusetts constituent for six years, And I'm a strong educational advocate. Many adults that I've worked with in my career, I've seen have Really, struggled and have8439 suffered significant. Significant language deprivation, and that's impacted their relationships, their education, a variety of other opportunities. I will allow Dr. Sanjay Gulati, who is going to testify, to Elaborate a bit more on that.
When I worked in New Jersey, I actually worked a similar bill, that we have here in front of the legislator today. That bill passed, it was related to language acquisition for deaf kids and the deaf children's bill of rights. So we wanted to be sure that deaf children's education was accessible so that all deaf blind and hard-of-hearing children had accessible education between zero to 21. And so I am advocating that we see something similar happen here in Massachusetts. There have been about 20 states that have already passed similar legislation, and we would like to see this legislation passed here in Massachusetts. We need to deal with what is an epidemic that we see in our community, in the deaf community.
To allow the ability to assess and monitor child language acquisition, to ensure that children are at language, appropriate milestone, age appropriate levels when they hit kindergarten between the ages of 0 and 6. We already have, data from other states that show that children at the age of four are way behind their hearing peers, and we would like to make sure that we provide services that support young deaf children, toddlers, to avoid them experiencing significant language delay and deprivation. So there are deaf blind and hard-of-hearing children should be on par with their hearing peers. I want to thank you for your hard work on the education committee and for your support of our deaf blind, and hard-of-hearing children in the Commonwealth.8557 Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Thank you. Very much appreciate your testimony. Thank you, and thank you to our interpreters.
Barbara Wood. Is Miss Wood here?
SPEAKER20 - Barbara Wood is not here.
SPEAKER1 - Not not here today. Okay. Alright. That brings us to Jamie Rivas Robertson, and then we'll have, doctor Sanjay Gulati, and then we'll have Ashley DeRosa Thompson.
JAYME RIVAS ROBERTSON - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 3943 - Hi. How are you?8589 Thank you very much for having us here today. I'm here because I am a teacher of the deaf here in the commonwealth, and this is8597 My 24th year working with deaf and hard-of-hearing children. Almost all of those years, I've worked with preschool and kindergarten children. I also worked in the field of early intervention with, babies and toddlers who are deaf and hard-of-hearing. And, I wanted to Bring to you some experience as, a classroom teacher of what happens when a child who has experienced language deprivation enters8624 the classroom, very far behind age expected milestones.
What We look at from an educational perspective with regard to language is always whether a child can access the curriculum, which is, of course, the very important thing about school and language. However,8641 we end up having children come to us into our classrooms whose level of language is so8647 woefully behind age level expectation that they can't even express their basic wants and needs. They can't tell me the names of their family members. They can't ask me for help or to tell me that they feel sick or they're hurt. And so looking at that level of Language deprivation. It's easy for people to mistakenly assume that's somehow connected to their deafness or their,8674 hearing level, and that's just simply not true.
These children have the ability to enter school on a level playing field with their hearing peers,8682 but it's on the system to make sure that we're monitoring their language acquisition. And if we see that it isn't meeting developmental milestones, that we're providing additional supports so that these children have the full potential to access school and, an educational outcome as well as professional outcomes on the same level as any other child in the commonwealth. And I look forward to your support, in working with our youngest deaf and hard-of-hearing children, and I thank you for your time.
LEWIS - Thank you very much. Just a question for you. Wouldn't, these children be identified. They would be, obviously, be identified at a very young8719 age. Right?
ROBERTSON - Right. Massachusetts is actually one of the leaders in the nation in early identification of children, here as being deaf and hard-of-hearing and getting them in enrolled in early intervention and when the8732 children are born here and go through the screening8734 process and enter the early intervention field, Often, they are monitored. However, we don't have consistent language acquisition monitoring. There's no consistent, tool that is used, and there's no data that's been collected to make sure that we're following these children to make sure that their language acquisition is on level, and that's the part but this.
LEWIS - So they may be, but we don't know that.
8759 ROBERTSON - They may but maybe not. And then children who are not born8761 in Massachusetts and come here from other places are entering in a different way. So they don't have that early identification.
LEWIS - And would they, automatically go on to an IEP, you know, when they're three so they do I'd start in the public schools.
ROBERTSON - So if a child is enrolled in early intervention and then the early intervention transition helps them move into a special education Placement to be on an IEP, then yes. That would happen in.
LEWIS -. Do they don't automatically qualify to go on an IEP or?
ROBERTSON – They automatically qualify, but it also is, on the team supporting the family to make sure that the family is aware of those rights And helping transition them into the special education setting. But, yes, they do qualify.
LEWIS - They do qualify. Okay. Thank you. Alright. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Doctor Sanjay Gulati? Okay. Hi. Welcome.
SANJAY GULATI - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 3943 - I'm a Dr. Sanjay Gulati. 30 years at Children's Hospital, 30 years at, at Cambridge Hospital. I went deaf myself During my education, the ADA came along just in time to save me, make it possible for me to graduate medical school and become a become a psychiatrist. I thought I would be8838 treating people with a minority language. You can see it from the watching the interpreter. Sign language works just as well as spoken language. Maybe better, we can have shots without deserving anybody. Third or fourth most used language in the country and has a beautiful history and culture and poetry all its own. The problem is when a child is born, even if identified early, who is responsible for the language acquisition?
And the answer is Nobody. It's almost Kafkaesque. It's bizarre, the depth of the curve that these kids fall into. Imagine you had a child who was born and then not placed on a surface where they could roll over, crawl, sit up, Walk, run, climb things. Hold that child until age five. Now put them down. Is that child going to learn to walk? No. We all have a strong intuition that that child will not. If they reach age 10 and they're dragging themselves across the background, That's pretty much what we'd expect. That's exactly what language deprivation is. So my claim to fame is originating and researching the idea of language deprivation syndrome. The idea that there's a whole range of outcomes separate from just language, just communication. There's a whole range of outcome.
Ranging from coordination to empathy to ability to regulate emotions, that are a result of having late or inadequate language, acquisition. So why does this happen? The parents think we want our kids to speak our language. We'll bring them to the doctor. The pediatrician sends them the ENT. The ENT gives them the cochlear implant. The cochlear implant is done when the surgery has healed. That person, in my view, is doing a cosmetic language surgery. We're going to make this person go from being a deaf who easily uses sign language to being more like a hearing or hard-of-hearing person who maybe will learn some spoken language. They do not track the outcome, and they take no responsibility for the whatsoever. I come from a family of surgeons.
My personal preference would be that surgeons should take this over, but their view is that Any8956 hearing that they've given the child is fabulous, except the child goes on 60 minutes and speaks three words. Yay. I'm measuring from Fluent language used downward. And by that measure, as you've heard, the majority of deaf kids are way behind. If they have deaf parents, beautiful. If they have sighted parents, beautiful. The brain doesn't care what8976 the language is. That's like, what color playground did you play on? Was it your red playground or green or blue? The brain doesn't use any one particular language. But without language, the brain does not build the structures inside that permit us to think So the many deaf children are essentially in the position of being kids who were carried around.
Early intervention is, what, two or three hours, two or three times a week? Okay. Let's take that kid that's being carried around and give them a hard surface or a playground for two or three hours two or three times a week. Are they definitely going to learn to walk, run, or play? I mean, maybe they will, maybe they won't. And part of the problem here is the variability. You will hear probably you might hear from kids who've had successful cochlear implants. Beautiful. I have no9017 problem with that. That's great. Some people in the deaf community might feel you're taking away the birthright of a deaf person to sign language, but I'm fine with that. My problem is with kids whose9026 brains have not developed to essentially are in the position of the kid who was never put down and never learned to walk.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
understand. Thank you very much. Yeah.
GULATI - Do you have any questions? Happy to answer. This took me years to wrap my mind around. It's not a simple subject. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Indeed. Do you have any questions?
Alright. Thank you very much. We really appreciate your expertise with sharing that with us today. Alright. I believe we have one final person here to testify. Ashley DeRosa Thompson.
Mr. Rosa Thompson.
ASHLEY DEROSA-THOMPSON - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 3943 - Greetings, members of the committee and the chairs. I'm Ashley DeRosa-Thompson. I live in North Grafton. For 13 years, I've been in the education field and early childhood. And I've worked with hundreds of deaf children, and I'm a mother of a deaf child. And her ASL language is above her age level. She has9116 full access to language. She's lucky, but not that many children have access to the kinds of language she has, I believe deaf children all deaf children9132 are provided Full language will develop language, meaning they will have a language which they can, build on for English. I have identified the root cause of language deprivation, and I have seen deaf adults in their life, having the result of language deprivation, and it's really heartbreaking.
I noticed that in the education field, there are lots of gaps. Who takes responsibility? Who does the assessment? Who does the tracking of9179 the language development and the mental health for the mental health development for the deaf kids. There's, Early intervention, zero to three, but there's very9195 little from three to 22. Deaf adults Suffer from a lack of, appropriate language. Families are isolated. There's Academic struggles.9210 There's, suicide attempts,9214 physical abuse, and then a lot of the people end up in group homes, and the life of deaf people Who have language deprivation is not normal, and we need to start kids at the very beginning so that they can have equal, language to their peers. I haven't seen the number of deaf kids who are ready who arrive at school ready to learn are very few. They're quite delayed.
They arrive at school at three, and with the early invention intervention, they do not have language that is on a par with their hearing peers. There's no required language assessment. We use some for early intervention, but They're not designed for the unique deaf the unique language needs of deaf kids. They are not real scores. The raw they're modified scores modified raw scores, in order to match. There's a law that says language acquisition will continue to impact our deaf and hard-of-hearing children's A barely, ability both through their education and profession. And the first five years of education are severely lacking. We don't want our children to grow up Lacking and being behind in their language development. Almost half of the states in the country have passed similar bills. Thank you for your time, and we hope you will support this Legislation for our deaf and hard-of-hearing children. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you. Thank you for your very powerful testimony.
Thank you.
SPEAKER25 - Thank you for your time.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. That's everyone, I think, who was signed up to testify in person. Did we miss anyone who's still waiting to testify who had signed up? Okay. What we're going to do now just, for the benefit of the committee members and those who are waiting to testify virtually, we're going to just take a five minute break, bathroom break and, stretch our legs. And then we will come back, and we will start from the beginning of the hearing of the agenda, and we will then go through everyone who has signed up to testify virtually. Okay? So we'll be back in five minutes.
Alright.
And for everyone's patience, and so we are going to go now again back through the, from the beginning of today's agenda, and we'll be taking virtual testimony again. Or as a reminder, please keep your testimony9423 to two minutes or less. Alright. So senate bill 334, senate bill 36 1, enact expanding high school student access to our industry recognized credentials. Steve Sharrock from Mava. Mr. Sharrock, are you there?
If you don't see someone, just let me know. Okay. You don't see me. Okay. Alright. We don't see Mr. Sherrick, so we are going to close the hearing on those two bills. House bill 56 4. We don't have anyone signed up today, so we'll close the hearing on house 564. House 592, senate 256, enact9461 to create and expand student pathways to success. We had testimony earlier, and we don't have any more testimony, so we're going to close the hearing on those two bills. Senate 297 and senate three six 2, an act to expand dual enrollment for high school students in gateway cities. We don't have anyone signed up, So we will close the hearing on those two bills. House 444, an act to expand the use of career and academic plans. We heard from several state reps on that bill, but don't have anyone else signed up, so we'll close the hearing. House 438, An act to reduce barriers to education and career opportunities. We don't have anyone signed up to testify. We will close the hearing. House four 119, an act relative To adult education and workforce, we heard from Brad Jones on that, and nobody else has signed up, so we'll close the hearing on that bill. House bill 3756, an act relative to full funding of regional school district transportation. No one has signed up to testify, so we Close the hearing on that bill. House 401 9, an act repealing certain fiscal stability procedures in the towns of Chesterfield and Goshen. Rep Sabadosa testified on that. Nobody else has signed up, so we'll close the hearing on that bill. Okay. Next up is house 3567 and senate bill 2388, an act to9544 provide a sustainable future for rural Schools, and we do have a number of people signed up. So first, we will hear from Doug Selwyn. Doug Selwyn followed by Martha Thurber, then Laura Robinson,9557 and then Kip Foch. Do we have Doug Selwyn with us? Doug left. Doug left. Alright. So if Doug does come back, we'll circle back to him. So we will go to Martha Thurber.
MARTHA THURBER - MOHAWK TRAIL REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you. First of all, I want to thank you for holding the hearings on these very important bills. I am Martha Thurber. I'm the chair of the school committee for the Mohawk Trail Regional School District. Our district includes eight small towns in Franklin County, which is the poorest county in the state. We cover about 250 square miles, and Mohawk is Trail is the geographically the largest Regular school district in the state, and we educate about 900 students in pre K to 12. The district has seen no meaningful increase in Chapter 70 for more than 20 years, and we have no hope for any meaningful increase coming from the Student Opportunity Act. Our district towns that have populations ranging from 300 to about 1800 have been amazingly supportive of education.
But they are reaching the limits of what they can9623 afford while still providing essential town services. I assume you've all read the excellent study completed by the special commission on rural schools, which has been referenced here a couple of times. The overwhelming challenges that districts like Mohawk Trail face are clearly laid out there. So instead of reiterating those challenges, I'd like to focus More on what the 60 million in additional and predictable rural aid would mean to Mohawk Trail. It would mean that we could develop robust Academic and co curricular programming in areas such as9653 art, music, and foreign languages. It would mean creating internship and career readiness programs essential to educating and retaining all of our students. It would mean having at least minimal resources to devote to the counseling and tutoring programs that have become essential.
In post COVID world, it would mean knowing that we could afford replacements for the student Chromebooks and other technology that we find and we're able to acquire with ESSER funds. It would mean our educators and administrators could spend more9681 time meeting students' actual educational needs and less time trying to find ways to keep our financial ship afloat. That would mean easing the sometimes adversarial relationships that have all too often developed between our towns and our schools because of the few fierce competition for scarce resources, and it would show a meaningful commitment on the part of the state to reducing the extreme inequalities that exist in the current school funding mechanisms. ZIP codes should not dictate educational opportunity, so I strongly urge your support of this crucial legislation. Now is the time to act Because the very survival of my school district is at stake. Thank you.
9719 LEWIS9719 -9719 Thank9719 you, Ms. Thurber. Do you do you know happen to know, What the total budget is roughly in the Mohawk, district?
THURBER - Yes. It's roughly $25 million. $6 million of which comes from Chapter 70. That's it.
LEWIS - And thank you. And if the legislature were to fund rural school aid at $60 million9740 which9740 I know is the recommended amount in the form the commission. Do you know how much that would represent for Mohawk? Have you seen any estimates?
THURBER - I haven't. If you take the 15 million that was that's, was appropriated for FY.24, which gives us A little almost 700,000. You multiply that times three, yeah, you get a couple million dollars.
LEWIS - We multiply by four. Right?
THURBER - Four. Yeah. That's right. It's almost $3million. That's really, really good amount.
LEWIS - Okay. So you're look $3 million and your total budget is $25 million So it would be more than 10% increase.
THURBER - It would be more than Yes. Yeah.
LEWIS - Okay. So it would be a very significant amount relative to your budget.
THURBER - Absolutely
LEWIS - Okay. I sorry. I can't remember his name, but I think it was the former superintendent of of your district who had a pretty well thought out plan for how we the state9795 could support, shared services.9797 You know, sort of like almost like a back end type9801 services that could be taken off your plate and other region rural districts and then could be provided by the state. Do you happen to recall who I'm thinking of?
THURBER - I know it was Michael Buoniconti was our final superintendent. I don't recall the specifics of his particular plan for that.9819 No. I don't.
LEWIS - Okay. It would be great,9821 saying this to my colleagues if we could track that down because I know he had a pretty well thought out proposal a few years ago, you know, in terms of, you know, models for providing sort of services that so that each district doesn't have to provide that that service themselves.
THURBER - Correct. Yep. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Laura Robinson is next. Don't see it. Okay. Kip Fonch? Kip Fonch. Okay. Larry Langford. Larry Langford? No? Cynthia Yetman? Okay.
CYNTHIA YETMAN - AMESBURY FEDERATION OF TEACHERS - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you very much. Thank you, chair Garlick and chair Lewis and members of the joint committee on education, and Allow me to circle back on H. 3567 and S.2388. My name is Cindy Yetman. I'm a lifelong resident of Amesbury, Massachusetts,9882 Where I worked in the public schools for 36 years, first as a technology teacher and then as a director of technology. I'm also the president of the Amesbury Federation of Teachers, a position I've proudly held for 15 years. I'm a vice president for AFT Massachusetts. I'm here today to voice my enthusiastic support for these important bills That representative Blaise and senator Cam Afford had filed, which is aligned with recommendations from the commission on the long term fiscal health of rural school districts. I had the privilege the great privilege of serving as the AFT Massachusetts representative on this commission.
Which you know released its final report and recommendations in 2022. My participation in the commission was an eye opening experience. It was sobering to learn about the challenges that rural school districts face to find their schools adequately. The commission felt strongly that these challenges must be addressed urgently so that rural schools can move forward On an equal playing field with a hope for a better tomorrow. While Amesbury is not technically a rural district, it faces one of the same central challenges, A sustained decline in student enrollment. For the for example, over the last 20 years, Amesbury student population has declined more9956 than 35%. Because Chapter 78 is driven in large part by student enrollment numbers, we've seen Chapter 78 for Amesbury remain essentially flat and even decline after accounting for inflation. For example, this past year, we are due to receive an increase of $110,000, I'm here 1.2% rise.
The previous years saw similar meager increases. Yeah. While Chapter 78 has remained flat, School operating costs have not. Inflation is up over 11% in Essex County. Utilities are up over 25%. The cost of private special education services for students who cannot serve in district has increased over 14%. Health insurance costs continue to soar and on and on and on it goes. These financial burdens fall heavily on the backs of Amesbury residents who simply can't afford Further real estate tax increases. We're already spending around $20,000 per pupil and a 148% of foundation budget According to DESE's latest figures, an agency already has sky high real estate tax rates. In short, the situation is unsustainable. Without state help, we'll see devastating cuts in programs and services for our students, including staff layoffs and cuts to course offerings, Student support services, music programs, the arts, and other enrichment programs.
The very programs that keep many students engaged and coming to school. The bill before you would help fix many of these problems. I am particularly excited about the bill's creation of a declining enrollment fund, which was recommended by the commission for which Amesbury would be eligible. This supplemental money would be a lifeline for us. In closing, I urge your committee to give this bill a favorable report. In Amesbury, educators and others fight hard fought hard for the Student Opportunity Act. We did so because it was the right thing to do for students from high poverty urban communities who face a disproportionate share of hardship. We fought hard again for the fair share amendment's passage. We also need a helping hand. Passing this bill would send the message that Students in rural and declining enrollment districts are also entitled to the promise of educational excellence. Thank you so much for this opportunity to speak to you today. It was well worth the wait.
LEWIS - Great. Yes. Thank you very much, miss Ms. Yetman. Thank you for your service on that on that commission. Just remind me, Amesbury does have its own municipal school district. Is that right? You're not you're not part of a10111 regional district?
YETMAN - That's correct. We're our own municipality and non public school district. Yes, sir.
LEWIS - And so and you said your enrollment has dropped by 30 some percent. So what what's the current enrollment in for in total? Do you know?
YETMAN - Less than 2,000 students here in Amesbury at this time.10127
LEWIS - So one10131 of the challenges we face in the western central10133 parts of the state is just the geographic distances are so large That, you know, it makes it that much more difficult to, regionalize, but that's10140 less of a factor on the North Shore, although somewhat of a factor. Why, let me challenge you a little bit. Why doesn't Amesbury consider entering into a regional district with some of its neighbors?
YETMAN - We already10153 have we have the Triton Regional School District, senator, and we have the Pentucket Regional School District here, the Masconomet Regional School District, and we also, Whittier Tech Regional High School. So we have our share of regional school districts. We don't for See, cities like Salisbury and New York where they have access to these other regional school districts, changing their course of accessing those districts and coming together and forming yet another regional school district, we don't foresee that being, something that's feasible.
LEWIS - Why couldn’t Amesbury join one of those existing regional districts?10188
YETMAN - No. They're all they're all based upon proximity. So the each neighboring school10192 district, is a part of those regional school districts. Amesbury is its sole entity, as well as new report. So we're not part of those regional school districts, at this time.
LEWIS - Could you become part of it? I guess that's what I'm asking.
YETMAN - Not no. Not at this time. They have their own ways of, calculating the towns, in proximity to their school district that participate in their programs, and we're not we're not part of that.
LEWIS - Okay. Alright. Well, thank you very much.
YETMAN - You're very welcome. Thank you for the opportunity. I wish I was as entertaining as the students were, but what a wonderful what a wonderful testimony you've received today, sir. It's my 1st time experiencing this, and it's been fabulous. Thank you so much.
LEWIS - Oh, well, thank you for that feedback. I'm glad to hear that. Alright. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Next up is Pam Ososky. Let me see. Missus no. Don't see her. Okay. Patricia Kinsella. Patricia Kinsella.
K. Karen Foster Cannon. Karen Foster Cannon.
Cheryl Stanton? Alright. Miss Stanton, you're up.
SPEAKER59 - Thank you. You caught me in between my Cool. So, I am in the car. Can you hear me okay?
SPEAKER1 - Yeah. We can. The audio is very good.
SPEAKER59 - Excellent. I have a Wi Fi hotspot in10280 my truck.
SHERYL STANTON - THE MOHAWK TRAIL AND HAWLEMONT REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICTs - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Good afternoon, and thank you chairs Lewis and Garlick and joint education committee members for the to testify before you today. My name is Sheryl Stanton, and I am the superintendent of the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional School Districts10295 Where learning and growth is our focus and community and courage is our path. I would love to highlight the very valuable, parts of H.3567 and senate 2388 an act to provide a sustainable rural schools. But with the two minutes allotted, I would like to focus on the need for the $60 million annually appropriated amount, and what it can do for our schools and our children.
For Mohawk Trail in Hawlemont, rural aid appropriated annually would mean Keeping principals in every school building and assistant principals in our largest schools to make sure our schools are safe And that our school cultures and climates focus on ensuring every student is learning and growing. It would mean maintaining our curriculum director to support professional development and curriculum alignment, making sure our instruction is aligned to DESE standards So that all of our students have equitable access to learning, to ensure our teachers have the support to implement best instructional practices, Such as the science of reading and new rigorous curricula for improved student outcomes. It would mean maintaining music, art, STEM physical education and health instruction so that students receive the broad educational experience our families10374 value and demand.
Keeping our athletic director to rebuild our athletic program, a casualty of school choice in recent years so that students develop knowledge, Skills and confidence as athletes and scholars and participate on the field and in the classroom. Keeping Social emotional learning supports and curriculum in our classrooms and schools. Post pandemic, these supports are more urgent than ever with10405 funding from ESSER ending. Rural10407 aid ensures we can continue to provide these adequate and equitable funding is necessary to ensure that every child in every classroom every day has the resources to thrive and a school in which they know they belong. Rural funding has and will make a difference in our schools and our communities. Thank you for the time today.
LEWIS - Thank you so much, superintendent Stanton. So you were the superintendent in Mohawk Hawlemont. Right?
10434 STANTON10434 -10434 Yes.10434
LEWIS - Is that a superintendent union then? Is10438 that the correct would that be the correct term? Or10440
STANTON - No. It's two separate school districts. Hawlemont is a Pre K 6 and then Mohawk Trail is a pre K 12 and Hawlemont students join Mohawk Trail at 7:12. It is an example of a10456 shared services agreement for central office. They share the superintendent, Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont. They share the business office, through a shared agreement, and it is something that, has been very successful for both districts in keeping costs down, especially for Hawlemont.
LEWIS - Is that, fairly recent, or has that been the case for a long time?
STANTON - I think it's been the case for a long time, but your reference to the former superintendent, Budokani, I am aware that that, with the shared service Between Hawlemont and Mohawk Trail being successful, his idea was to bring that, further into the region and begin to think about how we can10503 share services for, particularly central office, back office sort of, tasks. In addition, transportation, which really, is difficult to manage in our in our small and regional districts.
LEWIS - So you would it sounds like you would be supportive in in in terms of trying to provide new ways to incentivize and support shared services?
STANTON - Yes. I mean,10534 it's difficult because, you know, your HR department in in a small district10540 like mine is also, you know your payroll department. So, you know, you have to know your employees. So I think, shared services, can certainly make10553 sense, but there will be some obstacles to overcome. When we think about instruction and shared services and instruction, we have some obstacles with, reducing class, teachers with the union. That would certainly be an obstacle. We certainly would have an obstacle with not having the same time and bell schedules across multiple regional school districts.
So to provide shared services, for example, for AP coursework, where I may have two students who need AP chemistry and Frontier or Pioneer may have, three students. We have to be on the same bay bell schedule. We have to have, a teacher teaching that course To do it virtually at the same time, so it would take a lot of planning. But I do think something that would be viable in terms of sharing the Cost of educating students, where we have really low incident student numbers.
LEWIS - Okay. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Any other questions? No? Alright. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you you, taking time to to to testify with us today, and I look forward to, working with you and your colleagues on this legislation.
SPEAKER59 - Absolutely. Thanks for having me, and thanks for your work on this.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Great. Next up is Deb Clapp. Do we have Okay. Miss Clapp.
SPEAKER45 - Hello.
SPEAKER57 - Hi.
DEBORAH CLAPP - WORTHINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you so much, to the chairs and the committee for hearing this testimony today. I am on the school committee for the Worthington School District. We are a very small district consisting of one elementary school. The school is a really important part of the life of our community, and we want to make sure that we continue to provide our students with a quality early education experience. Over the past several years, we've seen a 1% or less increase in Chapter 70 state aid, and we don't anticipate receiving anything from the Student Opportunity Act. Meanwhile, our budgets have increased by nearly 20%.
The budget for the school is nearly 50% of our town budget. And in FY 23, the increase in school costs10698 accounted for 50% of the increase in town expenses. We're a small rural town, and as such, our ability to raise Taxes is severely constrained. And I just wanted to sort of give you a couple of stories, relating back actually to what, representative Blais was talking about, just to sort of illustrate the Importance of, having a consistent and significant amount of State support for rural schools. In FY.22, we had a residential placement for a special needs student in our school That cost the district about $180,000. This is about 10% of our annual budget. That cost was to the district. The entire cost was actually split with DCS, so the cost was really double that.
Some of it, small portion was covered by circuit breaker funds, but circuit breaker funds are paid in the next fiscal year, and so this created a huge crunch for us in the year in which the funds were expended. The student has since left the district, but continued costs of this kind10773 would place a severe burden on the district and on the town. If we had more than one, I10781 don't know what would happen. And, they really create an unstable situation for our schools and our communities. In10793 another instance, a special needs student who is, who needs to be transported to another district, the van pool, which normally transports these, these students, doesn't have enough drivers to be able to transport this student, from our town to this other district.
And, obviously, we're required to10814 provide transportation. Now the parents of this student volunteered to transport the student, and they're being reimbursed for mileage. But, these are the kinds of I just wanted to sort of illustrate for you the kinds of issues that we're dealing with, that this sort of funding would really help us a lot with. And even without these Extraordinary cost. Our transportation budget is, again, is about 10%10843 of our school budget. This bill Would help to stabilize our district and allow us to continue to offer10850 a quality education in a rural environment to the young people in10854 our town, And I, respectfully ask that you report out favorably on this bill, and I thank you so much for hearing this testimony. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much, and thank you for serving on this school committee. I think representative Peace has a question for you. Representative Peace.
REP KELLY PEASE - Hi. How are you? So I when I graduated from the Gateway District, obviously, Worthington was part of that district. So Yeah. And you guys became your own entity. So what Yes. So are you guys looking to become more regionalized again, whether back with Gateway or other options?
CLAPP - My understanding and I'm sorry, representative Pease. I did not live here then, so I don't know exactly what happened. My understanding is that Gateway decided to close the Cool. We decided to the town reopened the school at first as actually a private school, and then, they decided to, create their own district. And so, no, I don't think that the plan would be to Become, regionalized again. Our middle school and high school students, we are part of, Hampshire Regional. Our middle school and high school students go to Hampshire.
PEASE - Oh, you do go to Hampshire now, so you're part of that that thing. Okay. Well, thank you.
CLAPP - And we have an agreement with them. They provide some of our, our front office, kinds of, services, IT and things like that.
PEASE - Okay. Thank you.
CLAPP - Your welcome.
LEWIS - Just following up on Rep Pease’s question. So you are a district that Assist of one school. Is that right?
CLAPP - That is correct. one elementary school.
LEWIS - Okay. Do you so do you have a separate principal and a superintendent?
CLAPP - No. Our, principal superintendent is the same person.10957
LEWIS - Okay. But you still10959 have to have, presumably, other, central office staff for just one school. Right?
CLAPP - Yes. And those we have, one full time, person who works in the office At Worthington, and then the rest of those services are provided by Hampshire Regional.
10978 LEWIS10978 -10978 Oh,10978 through that Shared10979 services agreement that you spoke about.
CLAPP - It's, you know, they do like, grant writing services are provided by them. A lot a lot of different services10987 there.
LEWIS - So if you were to become part of a regional district, let's say, again, whether that's gateway or another, would there Not really be much of a financial benefit then, or has that analysis to you ever been done?
CLAPP - I don't believe that that analysis has ever been done. It it's never been done in my time, but I Don't believe that there would be as things are now, I don't believe that there would be a benefit to us to the town.
LEWIS - Assuming you were going to keep that school open, in your community, which I could certainly understand why that's important to the community.
PEASE - It is Mr. chair.11029 Gateway, back in the day, consolidated a lot,11031 and they were going to move the Worthington Elementary Schools to the new elementary school11035 that was built in Huntington, which is right next to their high school and middle school as well for Gateway. But they wanted to keep their elementary school, which is understandable, but I don't know if it's feasible. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Yep. I'm
SPEAKER47 - sorry. I don't know who was speaking now.
SPEAKER1 - That was representative Peace.
SPEAKER47 - Oh, okay. Great. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Alright. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Next, we're going to hear from Maureen Marshall and Sheila Moore Moore from11063 the, Master Association of Regional Schools. Do we have them? Okay. Great. Hi. Nice to see you again.
MAUREEN MARSHAL - MASSACHUSETTS. ASSOCIATION OF REGIONAL SCHOOLS - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Nice to see you, senator. Thanks very much for giving us the opportunity to be heard this afternoon on these important pieces of legislation. Let me first express the association's Deep appreciation for the legislator's support for increased funding for rural schools that was included in the FY.24 budget. This additional funding is a tremendous first step in recognition of the complex situation in which citizens within the rural parts of our great commonwealth work and learn. Clearly, few probably appreciate that the United States Census Bureau classifies 65%11104 of Massachusetts as11106 rural. The bureau notes that 80% of the Massachusetts 6.5 million citizens live on one fifth of the land mass.
So when we discuss rural communities, we are not simply talking about a few towns in the western part of the state. No. We're discussing many towns located, some of them sprinkled around across the state, and have very similar characteristics. They have very11133 small populations, a small tax base that provides limited resources. They have low population11139 density, Declining populations in most cases. They're generally a limited choice when it comes to cultural activities, medical services, schools, and their regional hospitals are closing several a year. Okay. And eroding economic base with few, if any, new economic options are considered under a lower cost of living, lower wages, more poverty, an aging population, And a much lower birth rate than most11168 other communities of larger11170 size.
Limited broadband availability? No or very limited access to any public transportation and lots of open space and natural resources That the federal government and the state would like to see increased since currently one million acres within the within the commonwealth Is either in land trust or preserved for natural resources. Our very small communities are often Burdened by tax I shall say tax free population and also because of the fact that the A lot of land mass11211 is not taxable. It is preserving the watershed for the11215 carbon regional, I should say, for carbon reservoir and also providing, safe and secure watershed for all of the aqueducts that travel from the western part of the state into the city of Boston. So these characteristics not only create tough challenges for those who work and learn in rural schools.
But also significant challenges for town officials. We must find the financial resources to ensure community needs are met. Legislation H.3567 and senate 2388 that we discussed here today will, if passed, substantially increase the possibility that all students within our schools have equal access to high quality11258 educational experiences. This legislation, coupled with future increases in rural aid, will ensure that an adequate number of highly qualified teachers are available to fill rural classrooms. Declining student enrollments Rural communities will no longer be viewed as a reason to decrease support, but rather as an opportunity to jointly consider and11281 execute Credible solutions supported by proper funding and expert support. In short, we cannot eliminate rural communities from Massachusetts. We should not punish11292 citizens who choose11294 to live or have been left behind in rural communities. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
11300 SPEAKER111300 -11300 Alright.11300 Thank you.
MARSHAL - Failing to bear11302 it well, just to wrap up, if failing to what we really need to do also is to address the biased nature of education, highway Chapter 90, Chapter 70, MSBA,11314 and pilot funding formulas That impact rural communities. And I think I've heard you speak of that yourself in previous times that we've been together. We cannot leave 20% of Massachusetts population without the support necessary to properly care for its children, its elderly, its infrastructure. So the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools Strongly urges the legislature to be supportive of H. 3567 and S.2388. Thank you for your time this afternoon. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Thank you very much. Is Sheila Muir with you? Or
SPEAKER29 - she she is she's on she's in the she's in the group. Okay.
SPEAKER22 - I'm here. You're here. Thank you.
SHEILA MUIR - MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION OF REGIONAL SCHOOLS - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Thank you, chair Lewis, chair Garlick, and11357 committee members for the opportunity to testify in support of H. 3567 and S.2388. My name is Sheila Muir. I want to thank you, for allowing me to testify, to advocate for rural students from across the Commonwealth. I'm the11376 assistant executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools and one of two superintendents who sat on the rural schools commission. It's11385 important to underscore the many benefits of this legislation for all students in the commonwealth. I know that others will likely testify, including these benefits in in their testimony, so I will limit my remarks to rural and declining enrollment districts.
Time and time11401 again, the rural schools commission heard testimony that painted a very bleak picture of the reality of rural schools and communities. Many of the same circumstances exist in non-rural declining enrollment districts. Student needs are increasing, but without the benefit of the Student Opportunity Act funding. Minimum Chapter 70 per pupil aid is simply not enough. Passing the cost11425 to fill the gap between what students need11427 and what Chapter 70 provides on to the local communities only exacerbates the problem. Rural communities are also entire straits. Year after year, community services are drastically reduced to balance budgets. The realization that few people are attracted to communities that do not have their own police force, Senior center or elementary school and lack, oftentimes, high speed Internet Makes the effort to increase population and economic development seemingly futile.
Nevertheless, such efforts are consistently made in an attempt to keep these communities11467 afloat. Rural11469 and declining enrollment districts are Not simply ringing11473 their hands and begging for increased funding. Rural commission testimony made it clear that These folks have been fighting against this tide for years and years. They have increased efficiencies and revenue by changing health care plans, reducing bus routes and staff, adopting open source curriculum11493 materials, delaying necessary capital projects, renting excess school space, increasing student fare fees, sharing staff, closing schools, and exploring regionalization. Despite this, they continue to sink. I can11510 assure you that the increased aid will not put an end to these efforts. In fact, Measures to reduce health care costs, assistance for regionalization.
And MSBA aid are among the many provisions in H. 3567 and S.2388that will provide permanent solutions to the challenges that plague11533 rural districts. Rural districts and communities are drowning. The 15 million in rural aid in the f y 24 budget is a life rope. What they need is a lifeboat. I urge you to report favorably on an act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools. This bill would be the lifeboat that provides schools with A consistent funding source, allowing them to build sustainable programs that provide equitable education for their students, make initial investments to create cost savings for years to come and ease the financial burden on their communities, allowing restoration of local services and increased investments to support economic development and boost tax revenue. Thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony with you SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
today.
SPEAKER1 - Great. Thank you so much, superintendent Muir, and and thank you for testifying and also for serving on the on the commission. Very very much appreciate it. Alright. So we have a I think11597 a couple more people signed up on11599 this on these 2 bills. Just a reminder, we do need to please ask you to keep your testimony to 2 minutes or less because we are bumping up against the, time limit for our ASL interpreters. So Sean Suhaski, not11615 Not there. Okay. Todd Stewart. Todd Stewart. And then last person on the will be Linda Dun Dunlavy. So mister Stewart, you're up.
TODD STEWART - ASHBURNHAM WESTMINSTER REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT - Good afternoon. Thanks so much for having me. My name is Todd Stewart. I'm superintendent of schools of the Ashburnham Westminster Regional School District, and I also served as the mass association of school superintendents Representative on the rural schools commission. I testified before you not only on behalf of my school district, But also with unequivocal support of the Mass Association of School Superintendents. For many of our students in Massachusetts, The Student Opportunity Act was truly a game changer, and I applaud this committee and the legislature at as a whole for making that bill a reality.
Now to truly have an equitable funding mechanism for all students in our state, we need to address unique challenges faced by our rural districts, Challenges that you've heard about extensively through this afternoon's testimony. In short, our rural districts are sparsely populated. They have, in many cases, declining student enrollment, and they do not have the local tax base that some11693 of our suburbs have where they can make up for deficiencies in state funding at the local level. As a result, there is a constant tension of rural districts between cutting needed services and funding very expensive programs. To run an advanced placement class for eight students is obviously more expensive than to run it for 22. But in many of our districts, the choice is to run it for eight or not run it at all.
I have an AP biology class in my high school at current That is11725 meeting in an independent study fashion and being supported by a teacher voluntarily during her lunch break. And it's not nearly as dire in my regional school district as You've heard from some of our smaller, more rural districts across the state. one of the reasons why we continue to hear that Student Opportunity Act did not support some of these districts. It's simply because it is a student based formula. And in areas of declining enrollment, the answer unequivocally needs to be the substantial and continuous funding that these bills call for. So I thank you for your continued efforts around this and look forward to full support of this bill moving forward.
LEWIS - Great. Thank you very much, superintendent Stewart, and thank you for serving on the commission as well. Just a quick follow-up question. You described that situation with only eight Students,11779 you know, not enough to for, an AP an AP class to be offered, you know, say in biology in your in the school. Is are there not options for, students to take courses like that, essentially virtually?
STEWART - There are, and those options are exceptionally expensive on a per people basis as well. So, Again, the choice becomes, you know, to pay significantly on a per pupil basis, you know, or to not run it. And certainly, you know, the funding would not be a panacea. In in all of our districts, we need to make choices. But at Current, I think that we've explored those in just a if I may, senator Lewis, I appreciate many of your questions to others about regionalization and shared services. one of the things that was eye opening sitting on the commission is that of the highest need rural districts, and there are there are three categories.
My home district is the lowest of the three categories. So, again, things are relative. But if you look through that list, the vast majority of those districts have already regionalized or already have a superintendence union, and everyone that I know of is sharing resources. So there are in this bill, some great opportunities for the state to support that further. Some one-time seed money as folks look at further regionalization. But from my seat and certainly from the superintendent11863 association, it's the11865 funding that is first and foremost most important, not, we've sort of turned every rock over looking for every opportunities. And at this point, it really is money.
LEWIS - Okay. Alright. Thank you very much. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay.
Alright. Let's, Linda Dunlavy. Is is Linda Dunlavy with okay. And then I believe Carolyn11892 Shores Ness also, is testifying on on these bills. Alright. Let's go with Linda Linda Dunleavy next.
LINDA DUNLEAVY - FRANKLIN REGIONAL COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS - HB 3567 - SB 2388 - Hi. Thank you. Thank you, chairman Lewis. And, I I'm going to submit what I plan to talk about in writing, which was more about revenues and expenses and instead talk a bit a bit more about regionalization since, chairman, you have asked a couple of questions about that. So every town in Franklin County is part of a regional school district already except for the city of Greenfield. We are11929 a 725 square mile region. Sheryl Stanton, who testified from her car, she manages a district that's about 235 square miles.
And so we've looked at everything we can do to Titan belts in our school districts, and we, have looked at shared purchasing of text books and fuel and supplies and food. Our organization, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, have just put together A school bus transportation bid for11964 all of our districts as a way to help them save money and think about ways where We can continue to spend our money on our children instead of on stuff, and so we are struggling to keep our school districts afloat and to provide quality education and really support H.3567, Senate 2388. Thank you.
LEWIS - Thank you very much. That that that was very, very helpful. Okay. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Carol do we have with us Carolyn Ness?
Carolyn Shores Ness? Don't see it. Don't see it? Okay. I do know who's oh, dish. Not there? Okay.
Okay. We don't see her.
Last chance, Carolyn Ness, are you with us?
SPEAKER60 - Okay.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. So I think that is going to do it for house 3567 and senate 2388. So we're going to close the hearing On those two bills, thank you for everybody's testimony. Do we need to move now to just cover the, Okay. Would you alright. In the interest of our12049 we only have our ASL interpreters, I think,12051 for another 20 minutes. We're just going to skip over to finish up bill h 3943 and then h four 466. So h three nine four three and act ensuring land language readiness in deaf, deaf blind, and hard-of-hearing children entering kindergarten.
Let's see. I believe, Susan Suzanne Bedrosian.
I'm just calling on the folks first who12080 will be using an ASL interpreter. So is is she with she had to leave? Oh, sorry about that.
Let's go to then, Bert Carter.
Is Bert Carter with us? Okay. And Ashley Poitier? Ashley Patheier?
Okay.
How about for bill h 466, senate bill 338, Harry Wiseman?
Okay. Mr. Wiseman?
SPEAKER20 - Hi.
SPEAKER1 - Hello.
SPEAKER61 - Chairs hello. Can you hear me okay?
SPEAKER1 - Yes.
HARRY WEISSMAN - DISABILITY POLICY CONSORTIUM - HB 3943 - HB 466 - SB 338 - Great. Chairs Lewis and Garlick and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am testifying on behalf of the Disability Policy Consortium, a statewide disability rights advocacy policy and research organization In support of H.3943, H.466, and S.338. So in addition to the points that Rep Doherty and senator Oliveira made earlier today, H.46612166 and S.338 is an opportunity to introduce a new generation of hearing people to American sign language. Most deaf people are not able to learn English or another spoken language, but almost anyone can learn ASL. And the more widely used ASL is, the more accessible and accepting our society is for people who rely on the language.
Furthermore, we see this as a way to address the state's current crisis level interpreter shortage. To share a brief anecdote, one of my closest childhood friends took one ASL class in high fall in love with the language and went on to become a certified ASL interpreter. And he's currently in Dubai interpreting for a deaf student at the University of Rochester during their semester abroad, an opportunity that student would never have had without people like my friend who were Inspired at a young age to become an interpreter. Of course, that's just one example, but, this really can go a long way in, broadening and understanding and acceptance for deaf folks. As for H.3943, it12226 should go without Saying how crucial the 1st few years of a child's life are for language development.
As the pandemic has reminded us, children who fall behind in their education are at huge disadvantages compared to their peers. Investing in language readiness for deaf, deaf blind, and hard-of-hearing children will prepare them for school and put them on equal footing with their hearing peers for years to come. At DPC, our credo12248 is about us, by us. So not only should people with disabilities get a seat at the table, but we should be driving12254 the conversation and providing input on decisions that affect us. H.3943 establishes a standing committee that ensures community members can have that input and How is MCDHH, a state agency run by and for the community in question to lead the important work the rest of the bill lays out? I see I'm already out of time, so thank you for your time, and These all these bills favorably and strictly out of committee. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. Thank you very much. Thanks for, testifying your patience today. Alright. We're going to return to house bill 530, senate bill 343, an act establishing an education to Korea data center. We have one more person signed up to testify. That is Brennan Parton. Do we see Brennan Parton with us?
Okay. Can you hear us, Brennan?
SPEAKER62 - I can. Thank you.
SPEAKER1 - Great. Alright. Please go ahead.
SPEAKER63 - Sure.
BRENNAN MCMAHON PARTON - DATA QUALITY CAMPAIGN - HB 530 - SB 343 - Thank you so much to the chairs and members of the committee for12314 considering this when you have so many other things on your docket today, I appreciate it. My name is Brennan McMahon Parton. I'm the vice President of policy and advocacy at the Data Quality Campaign, which is a national nonprofit. And as I always say, we just have one line in the sand, and that's the data work for people. And you as a committee have an opportunity to consider how you might do that. Massachusetts, as you12336 may have heard earlier, has long been a data leader. You have the building blocks you need to support Massachusetts in their journeys through education into meaningful careers. But when everyone's in charge, no one's in charge. Pulling together data from across different agencies is hard.
Right? We need to acknowledge that. That's it's hard state work, but it's essential to answering your questions as lawmakers and also for using data to understand and advance quality pathways from education into career, whether you're talking about rural students, students with disabilities, all the All the young people that you've been hearing about today, and cross agency data governance, not a cool term, not a super exciting term, but it's the best way12376 to manage your cross sector data. And just to quickly what that is is formal. It has12382 a leadership level body, so meaning12384 your agency heads, and it's responsible and accountable for making decisions in the sunshine about how data linked between state agencies is connected, secured, accessed, and used.
And in our 20 years of experience at DQC, we found that the best way to ensure that governance has all of that, has the right people, is sustainable through funding, has the right level of decision is through legislation. And I know you have a bill12409 in front of you that's considering many of those best practices. They'll just say again, our sustained, provide a clear mission for the system, establishes a data Switzerland meeting outside of one12420 of the contributing agencies To give it a fair amount of autonomy, the right staffing, an opportunity to provide for data access for people beyond the folks in those agencies themselves. So we're hoping that Massachusetts will join a small but growing number of states and even leapfrog some of the early adopters by assuring ensuring, excuse me, cross agency data governance. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. Thank you very much. We appreciate you working with us on this issue. So we're going to close the hearing now on House 530 and senate 343. On senate bill 316, we heard all the testimony earlier today, so we're going to close the hearing on that bill. House 532 senate 280 enact relative to student educated data privacy. We have two more people signed up. David Saleh and Felicia Vassudevan. Okay. Alright. David Mr. Saleh, you're next.
DAVID SALLAY - FUTURE OF PRIVACY FORUM - HB 532 - SB 280 - Yes. Hello Thank you good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm David Sallay. I'm the director of youth and education at the Future of Privacy Forum, a global nonprofit dedicated to advancing principal data practices in12493 support of emerging technologies. Prior to this, I worked as the chief privacy officer12497 at the Utah State Board of Education. So my testimony today will be based on my current12501 role as well as my personal experience as being one of the few people in the country who's held the job this bill proposes to create. We'd like to first commend12509 you for taking on this important topic. Parents, students, and educators want access to high quality educational tools that they can also trust will not be misused. When we started our privacy work in Utah, schools.
Were inconsistent with how they applied privacy requirements, and parents often had little recourse for violations. State law helped create structure, transparency, and consistency. two things that I saw work particularly well in Utah that I applaud you for incorporating into this bill are Designating privacy focused personnel like a chief privacy officer and requiring staff training.12538 You asked earlier why DESE was not12540 providing more support to schools on privacy, and I imagine it is due in part to not having full time dedicated privacy staff. In most state agencies, there are at best one person who does it along with four or five other duties, we had the luxury of it being our full time focus. About a quarter of that time is spent focusing on data changes in standards with other12557 state agencies and researchers, the kind of exchanges your education to career data center anticipates.
We spent the rest of our time developing strong relationships the schools and then creating resources that removed burden while ensuring compliance. I'll note that rural schools were often particularly appreciative of the latter. Our12573 law also required that teachers receive training annually on data protection, and we spent12577 a lot of time creating and distributing these materials. I'll note that there are school staff with access to student records besides teachers, and we recommend considering how to ensure that they are also adequately trained. FPF has resources that address12589 much of this in more detail. We also welcome the opportunity to work more directly with the bill sponsor to further refine the bill. I'm also happy to answer any questions you have right now. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Thank you very much. Felicia Vassudevan.
FELICIA VASUDEVAN - THE EDUCATION COOPERATIVE - HB 532 - SB 280 - Good afternoon, chair Lewis and chair Garlick and the committee. I'm here. I'm an attorney, that works for The Education Cooperative. TEC, which is an education collaborative established in 1968. We're here to support, House Bill 532. TEC has started negotiating data privacy agreements for member districts and then expanded its work, and we now, negotiate data privacy agreements for a 124 school districts in Massachusetts. We've expanded to we represent New Hampshire school districts, main school districts, Rhode Island school districts, and Vermont districts.
12646 Through12646 our work, we've gotten a total of 12,301 signed data privacy agreements for districts in Massachusetts. And one of the keys to our success in getting so many data privacy agreements is that we've adopted a national agreement, that came from the Student Data Privacy Consortium that Steve Smith talked about earlier today in person. That agreement is used in 30 states. Vendors and school districts like this agreement. Is a standard agreement, and so it creates consistency, but we have state specific provisions in that agreement. Because we represent all five states, we've been able to see the positive and significant impact a state law has on protecting student data privacy.
Maine and New Hampshire have adopted laws to protect student data privacy in online programs, as well as Vermont. These laws provide school districts Leverage when negotiating with vendors to ensure that student data privacy is protected because school districts can tell vendors but they are bound to the requirements under state law. When12707 that's the case, vendors are more likely to12709 agree to those terms. Given the Massachusetts statute is outdated, Massachusetts doesn't have a similar ability as its neighboring states to point to statutes to require vendors to adhere to particular standards. As a result, Teck is in support of this bill as it furthers our goal to protect student data privacy, and Brett is in favor of the provisions that protect our students. Thank12732 you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Okay. Thank you so much. That wraps up the testimony on house bill 532 and senate bill two 80. So we'll close the hearing on those two bills. That brings us to house bill 609, enact to expand virtual school eligibility for school choice Students, we have three people signed12752 up. First is Chris Lord, and then Jennifer Omasta, and then Sandra and Owen Fife. Chris Lord.
SPEAKER60 - Good afternoon.12764 Just double checking. Can you all hear me12766 here?
SPEAKER1 - Yes. Hi.
CHRIS LORD - PEABODY PERSONALIZED REMOTE EDUCATION PROGRAM - HB 609 - Hi. Good afternoon, chair Lewis, chair Garlick, members of the committee, and those listening in for a few minutes of your time today. My name is Chris Lord. I'm the executive director of the Peabody Personalized Remote Education Program, or PPD PREP for short. I hope to illustrate an issue of inequity in our state with respect to virtual learning that our community hopes you can resolve with bill H.609. Over a decade ago, the Massachusetts Department of Education provided its citizens with the opportunity to establish virtual schools. Using Internet as a basis for teaching and learning, over 4,000 students are currently engaged with this opportunity.
12801 But12801 hundreds12801 have already graduated from our virtual programs. These students and their families embrace this choice for a wide variety of reasons, Including an aversion to the decades old factory model of schooling, the personal expense and time, money associated with travel to and from buildings, A medical or personal health reason, a typical the typically more personalized and self-paced nature of online schooling, An unusual athletic opportunity requiring a special training and schooling schedule or overseas commitments during the school year for families. As a result of the pandemic, hundreds of students and their families discovered the value of online learning.
Seven Massachusetts school districts surveyed12839 their communities and established single district virtual schools based on the laws at that time. two more opened12845 last summer. These single district virtual schools only appeared in districts with an economy of scale large enough to make class sizes economically feasible. Springfield, Peabody, Chelsea, Brockford, Brockton and other large cities currently have flourishing virtual programs. Sadly, students and families in smaller communities are excluded from these single district virtual schools Because the economy of scale does not exist where they live. As we have heard today, they too should not be penalized because of their ZIP code. As the law is currently written, only students who have physical address in one of the SDVS cities have the choice to be in that city's virtual program.
Sadly, even though students in neighboring communities who do school choice into the brick and mortar buildings of those cities, all of them are excluded from the virtual program in that city. In fact, no students in smaller districts without a single district virtual school have the opportunity to learn virtually. We request the legislature amend the current law to allow for school choice to virtual and neighboring communities12901 that geographically border a12903 city or a town that has a virtual school. Working with the memorandum of agreement or other guidelines the committee sees fit to establish,12910 students in the smaller towns surrounding these cities that have a single district virtual school will be able to make that choice for a virtual program. Thank you.
LEWIS - Thank you. So you what you're proposing then, you mean, is the same way that school choice would work today for physical school buildings where a student would be able to enroll in a neighboring12930 community, and you're asking for that Ability for a the virtual schools, the seven that exist.
LORD - I mean, that that would be that would be one option. There has to be some more discussion about it simply because the money follows the student. If the sending district and the virtual school district shares the money, explicit for some reason, explicit in some way, That would make it equal. I mean, the reason they put the law in place years ago when they established a single district virtual school option is there would be a vacuum in smaller districts like we've heard from today of kids that wanted to learn virtually, and they will lose all their funding to the district that did have the single district virtual school.
So the Surrounding communities were excluded because the12968 money would follow the kids to the single district virtual school, but I'm suggesting if the sending district and the single district virtual district could Share the funding in some sort of split or tuition in format, memorandum of agreement between the two superintendents, for example. That kind of thing would allow us to have, kids that want to do virtual schools in small districts that currently can't, they'd be able to come in to the virtual.
LEWIS - Why couldn't those students in the districts That don't have their own virtual school, which of course is the vast majority of districts. Why can't they attend one of our two statewide virtual schools?
LORD - They can, but there's a waiting list of, I believe, 700 students to get into those virtual schools. And those virtual schools are also required to have MCAS in person, and I believe they spend about $800,000 enable them to run MCAS in person, and that's a lot of money that could be dedicated to hiring teachers. And if they're more localized and they're more regionalized around cities that do have single district virtual schools. The sending districts can still run the MCAS exams and the expense associated with them, But the kids can be, learning virtually. So if there's some shared financing between the two cities, I think that for13033 the two jurisdictions, that might be a solution.
LEWIS - Okay. Thank you. This is interesting. Thanks for your testimony. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER20 - Thank
SPEAKER1 - you. Jennifer Omasto
SPEAKER19 - is back.
SPEAKER6 - The chair?
SPEAKER1 - I'm I'm sorry. Representative Peace. Go ahead.
PEASE - Yeah. And I just wanted to jump on here because I just had a conversation with my superintendent here, and They have a virtual school in Westfield. And, obviously, up in the hill towns like the Gateway region, they get a lot of kids that can come down there, but they can't for the virtual school because Right now, it's not set up that it's allowed. So they're ready to accommodate the surrounding areas with those and, like, I went to the graduation last year, and there's one lady, one young girl, well, actually, gave birth to13076 a child during the school year, but she13078 would've never graduated if the virtual school wasn't13080 available. So, anyway, that's just my 2 cents so thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. So thank you, representative Peace. Alright. Very good. Jennifer Omasta is next.
JENIFER OMASTA - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 609 - Hi, everybody. My name is Jen Omasta. I am a teacher at one of the single district virtual schools. I've been teaching 23 years, and I've been teaching for three years virtually. And, if you told me 23 years ago that I would be teaching virtually, I would have said, you're crazy. Right? I think I started my career writing on with chalk on the chalkboard. And, you know, here I am in front of a computer each day and interacting with my students, for the school day, I just almost caught myself saying just like a real teacher. Right? But I'm just I am a real teacher. So, you know, I have a, you know, I teach just like you're saying me now. I have a, a monitor next to me where I can see all of my students' faces at times or at other times, I can see every one of their screens.
So they're on their Chromebook at home, and I'm looking at what they're looking at. I can see every keystroke, that they that they type. I often13160 have another monitor where kids can13162 work together in small groups. And I think, you know, one thing that I would Add to what, Dr. Lord just said is that, you know, it's not just13175 kids, you know, who Want to join a virtual school. There are some students who really need this to access their education. So I have students who are successful in this model, who13190 haven't been successful in a long time. They may have, you know, gaps in their education because they couldn't attend school because of a health13201 reason, either, you know, short term or chronic or disability or a learning difference. And, you know, for kids who cannot learn in a brick and mortar building, I think it's really important that this is accessible for them.
And once you accept the fact that this is really needed for some kids, It does seem very inequitable that it's only available to so few kids in the Commonwealth. So that's why I am in support of this, and I certainly hope that my legislators are as well. I think it's really important to reach some of those kids that we've talked about. I've heard many people speak about, you know, students who are sort of getting left out of education for a variety of reasons, for A disability or some other reason, and we definitely want to catch these kids who are falling through the cracks and who are, you13251 know, in these In these gaps where we're not reaching kids, I think that's the goal of education, for me at least, and I hope it is for others in this room. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Yes. Definitely for us as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Do we have Sandra and Owen Fife with us?
SPEAKER31 - Hi. Yes.
SPEAKER1 - Alright. Hi.
SPEAKER62 - My camera's being a little strange. I'm not sure why.
SANDRA FYFE - CONCERNED CITIZEN - HB 609 - Thank you, members of the state legislature. My name is Sandra Fyfe. I'm a resident of Salem, Massachusetts. I'm asking you to support expanding access to district virtual schools through school choice. Peabody PREP has had a profound impact on my son, Owen, who is in the 8th grade. His experience illustrates the necessity for a live remote learning option for Children and families of the commonwealth with unique needs. My son has several difficult health diagnoses, including a weakened immune system, Genetic connective tissue disease and autonomic dysfunction, as well as autism and ADHD. He has severe fatigue, weakness, pain, and other symptoms that make in school attendance, very difficult.
When school went to remote learning during the pandemic, it changed our lives for the better. He was able to attend and do well despite his challenges. We live in Salem, which did not opt to have a district virtual school. We tried everything once schools reopened during the pandemic. We tried the Commonwealth Virtual School, which wasn't a good fit for Owens' instructional needs. They only have an hour Her teacher that they meet with13340 during the week, it wasn't enough live instructional time, and he had a hard time bonding with the teachers. We tried in school where he was a lone masker due to his health until he became too sick to attend. The school tried to support him with tutoring at home, but it wasn't enough.
We even tried homeschooling, which was difficult for me as a single parent even though I work remotely. Finally, we were granted a waiver under my son's IEP to attend Peabody's virtual program, Peabody PREP, but only after my son missed an entire year of schooling and had to repeat the 7th grade. As an instructor in higher education here in the Commonwealth, I was trained to teach online long before the pandemic13377 due to my own chronic health issues. I have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities of online education. I witnessed firsthand the transformative power of remote learning in meeting the diverse needs of particular Students and in created creating inclusive learning environments in my own classes.
I can confidently attest to the value of District Virtual School in providing quality as I watch my son attend classes there. This program makes education accessible to students who would normally be left out or whose struggles are obstacles to additional education. The PREP program has provided13411 him with a safe and supportive learning environment that accommodates his physical and13415 mental health challenges. He loves school. The program has demonstrated that learning can be flexible, personalized, and effective regardless13422 of a student's location or health condition. Now Owen has Excellent attendance and A's and B's at Peabody PREP as well as a close relationship with his13430 outstanding teacher, Ms. Omasta Sorry.
He feels like he belongs to a community. When Owen cannot get out of bed due to his chronic conditions, he can still attend school with a live, caring teacher. He can learn in a safe environment while I attend to his health needs at home. This option should be available to students in all districts whether they have health needs or just learn better in Online environment. I would like to advocate for the13455 expansion of this program to school choice, particularly for children and teens who face health and13459 mental health challenges like my son. This would be a significant step towards ensuring all children and teens, regardless of their circumstances, have access to quality education.
By embracing live remote learning options, Students who face health and other challenges can learn and grow academically while also prioritizing their well-being. This expansion would contribute to a more inclusive and equitable Educational landscape where every child has the13482 opportunity to thrive regardless of their health13484 condition or geographical location in the Commonwealth. Thank you for your commitment to providing quality education and for considering the expansion of district virtual schools for school choice. This can make a significant difference in the lives of students who deserve equal access as to education. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
SPEAKER1 - Great. Thank you so much. Did Owen want to add anything?
OWEN FYFE - CONCERNED - HB 609 - Yes, please. Good afternoon. Well, technically, good evening now. State legislature, my name is Owen Fyfe, and me and my mom are here to support proposition H.869. I go13516 to Peabody PREP and I'm here because nothing else works for me. My physical body doesn't13520 usually cooperate with me, and that's part of the reason I love this place. It's accessible. When I was in 7th grade two years ago, I got sick to the point where often I couldn't attend, and that was just the start. At later points, I couldn't go to school at all.
I couldn't get out of bed. About a month before some letter break started, I came to the virtual school, BP Prep, And I've had almost perfect attendance since. Why? Because if I can't get out of bed, I can still attend, participate, and learn. In this place, I'm not as absent as much. I get good grades. At the end of the day, I ask you this. Why not let others who normally can't learn due to physical or mental illness comes to the haven of an online school, or even better, let anyone who wants to attend from different districts join. Thank you.
LEWIS - Wow. Thank you so much, and really glad to hear how this has been such a good fit for you, Owen, and very happy to hear you're thriving. And also very impressed that You're, taking this opportunity to advocate13578 on behalf of other students, you know, like yourself who may have could really benefit from a a virtual school like yours. Thank you.13586 SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Anyone else? Alright. Alright. Thank you. So we're going to close the hearing now on house bill 609, House bill 3570, senate bill 244. We're going to close the hearing on those two bills. House bill 584, we don't have any testimony. We'll close the hearing. House bill 472, we don't have anyone signed up. We're going to close that hearing. Senate bill two eight 3, we don't have anyone today, so we'll close that hearing. House bill 570, senate bill 330, Also don't have anyone else signed up, so we'll close that hearing. House bill 3568, we13628 don't have anyone signed up. We'll close that hearing. House bill 512, an act to allow for school districts to collect a fee associated with nonresident pupil transportation. We do have Carolyn Shores Nest signed up, and I know we called her earlier. Just giving her one more chance if she is there with us. Carolyn Ness? No? Alright. So, she'll have to submit written testimony, and we'll close the hearing on that bill. House bill 3943, enact ensuring language readiness in deaf, deaf, blind, and hard-of-hearing children entering kindergarten. I believe we've Heard the testimony from everyone. Thank you to our interpreters today. So we'll close13669 the hearing on that bill. And then lastly, house bill 466, senate13674 bill 338, an act to promote the inclusion of American sign language in the Commonwealth's public schools. We have heard from everyone who signed up on those two bills, so we'll close the hearing on those bills. And I think That brings us to the end of the hearing. I'd like to welcome representative Donahue to the hearing. Nice to see you. Alright. Without further ado, well, that concludes this hearing of the joint committee on education. Thank you, everybody.
SPEAKER6 - Thank you,
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