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This page will be used to update you on legislation filed, sponsored, co-sponsored or voted in by Representative Ehrlich. If you have any questions please feel free to call us anytime at 617-722-2090.
LOCAL VETERANS BENEFITS
Bill #2324 (Lead sponsors, Senator McGee and Representative Ehrlich) was engrossed by the House on March 17, 2007, enacted by the Senate on March 22, 2007, and finally signed by the Governor on March 28, 2007. As voted on by the town of Swampscott, this bill permits one year of real estate tax exemption for the two families of fallen Iraqi soldiers who reside in Swampscott, MA.
EDUCATION HIGHLIGHTS FROM HOUSE BUDGET FY09
Despite difficult fiscal challenges, the House made it a point to protect key areas of education funding. Below are some of the highlights from the House’s FY09 education budget.
EARLY EDUCATION
UNIVERSAL PRE-KINDERGARTEN PROGRAM (3000-5075)
The House demonstrated its continued commitment for the care and development of our young children by supporting its goal of moving toward universal access to high quality early childhood and care in the Commonwealth. The MA UPK program is funded at $12.1 million in order to provide access to quality pre-kindergarten education and related services for three and four year old children in the Commonwealth. This reflects an increase of $5 million over last year’s budget for the Massachusetts Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program.
RATE RESERVE FOR EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE PROVIDERS (1599-0042)
The House budget provides a total of $5 million for the provider rate reserve. This subsidized child care rate will help child care providers attract and retain high-quality staff, effectively contributing to the overall improvement of our state’s child care system.
EARLY EDUCATOR SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM (7070-0065)
Provides $4 million for the early educator scholarship. These funds will provide opportunity and resources for our early education teachers and child care providers to obtain college level education in the area of child development. Scholarships will cover the cost of tuition, fees and expenses for eligible candidates working in the field of early education and care while pursuing associates, bachelors, or masters degrees.
CHILD CARE VOUCHERS (3000-4050)
Provides $197.7 million for child care vouchers and contracts, reflecting an increase of $30 million in order to ensure adequate childcare slots are in place for welfare recipients.
SUPPORTIVE CARE (3000-3050)
Provides $79.09 million for supportive early education and care. This line item ensures all children in the Commonwealth with active DSS cases receive child care services.
MENTAL HEALTH CONSULTATION SERVICES (3000-6075)
A total of $2.4 million for the provision of mental health consultation services designed to address mental health issues at an early age and limit the unnecessary suspension and expulsion of pre-school aged children in the Commonwealth.
REACH OUT AND READ PROGRAM (3000-7050)
Earmarks $1 million for the Reach Out and Read program. This program promotes early literacy by providing families with new books and training doctors and nurses to give advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud to their children.
PARENTING SKILLS (3000-7050)
Earmarks $3.05 million to provide continued support for the Parent Child Home Program. This scientifically proven parental education program fosters quality parent-child educational interaction, and teaches parents how to encourage the development of their child’s early literacy skills. Also earmarks $5.4 million for Mass Family Networks program.
HEAD START GRANTS (3000-5000)
Provides $10 million for grants to Head Start programs, reflecting a $1 million increase. This invaluable program provides services to needy children from 0-5 years of age. Since 1964, this federal-to-local school-readiness program has provided comprehensive services to families in the Commonwealth who are living at or below the poverty level
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (3000-6050)
Provides $4.6 million for professional development opportunities for early education and care providers in the Commonwealth.
QUALITY RATING SYSTEM (3000-1000)
Earmarks $250,000 for the development of a quality rating system designed to provide parents and consumers better access to data about the quality of their early education and care providers.
K-12 EDUCATION FUNDING
CHAPTER 70
The House budget reflects the amount agreed upon in the local aid resolution adopted on March 12th. This resolution was adopted in order to assist cities, towns and regional school districts in their budget planning process. It includes an additional $223 million for Chapter 70 funding, making the total now $3.9 Billion. The local aid resolution reflects our continued commitment to address long-standing concerns over the equity of the formula by phasing in the 3rd year of an anticipated 5 year process.
SPECIAL EDUCATION CIRCUIT BREAKER (7061-0012)
The House budget provides full funding for the special education circuit breaker for FY09 estimated costs. The House funds the circuit breaker at $220,139,000. This program provides state financial assistance to school districts for high-cost special education students.
SPECIAL EDUCATION TRANSPORTATION PILOT (7061-0012)
For the fourth consecutive year, the budget includes funding for the statewide pilot program testing a model of delivery for special education transportation services. The cost of these services has considerably outpaced the rise in regular education transportation in recent years and the quality of service needs improvement. The goal of the pilots is to demonstrate how service and efficiency can be enhanced with more collaboration in out-of-district transportation. Over the next fiscal year, the pilot program will be rolled out to ten collaborative districts which will serve the entire state. Additionally, the House budget provides for $2 million for SPED transportation costs for participating school districts.
SUPPORT OF BLIND AND DYSLEXIC STUDENTS
The House budget included $800,000 for audio taped textbooks for special needs children.
REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION (7035-0006)
The House budget increases spending on regional transportation by $3 million. The addition brings such funding to $61.3 million - decreasing the gap to full funding of this program. These funds are critically important to regional school districts for which transportation costs are often a significant portion of their overall operating budgets.
REIMBURSEMENT FOR TRANSPORTATION OF NONRESIDENT PUPILS TO ANY APPROVED VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL PROGRAM (7035-0007)
This line item is increased by $130,000, providing a total of $2.1 million, continuing the House’s commitment to funding this line item at 75% of projected costs.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Tuition Reimbursements to Districts and Capital Reimbursements
The House budget provides $78.1 million for reimbursements to cities, towns and regional school districts for charter school tuition and the per-pupil capital needs component included in the charter school tuition amount for commonwealth charter schools. For fiscal year 2009, the per-pupil capital needs component is set at $893 per student.
DATA WAREHOUSE AND REPORTING SYSTEM
The House budget continues to show support for the process of consolidating the Department's student, assessment, educator, program, and financial data into a single system for analysis and reporting. The House has continued to support this important effort and dedicated $5.4 Million to it for FY09.
EXPANDED LEARNING TIME GRANTS (7061-9412)
The House provides $17.5 million, providing a $4.5 million increase over FY08 funding, for expanded learning time grants. . This groundbreaking initiative has allowed underperforming public schools to implement a dramatically redesigned school day to allow schools additional time on task to meet the rigorous demands of the state curriculum guidelines
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS (7061-9611)
The House budget supports after-school initiatives at $5 million, reflecting an increase of $3 million over last year. This funding will help preserve proven, successful after school programs and will also support important summer month programming.
METCO (7010-0012)
The House budget, for the fifth year in a row increases the appropriation for the METCO program. The program is increased by $1,000,000 increasing funding to $21.6 million. This program provides quality integrated educational opportunities for students in the urban areas.
FULL-DAY KINDERGARTEN (7030-1002)
The House recognizes the importance of supporting the Commonwealth’s full-day kindergarten system by providing a total of $33.8 million. In addition, new language allows the Department to address Chapter 70 “lag year” funding issues that have impeded expansion for some districts.
LOW-CLASS SIZE GRANTS (7061-0222)
The House includes in the FY09 budget a $400,000 grant program for lowering the size of classrooms in grades K-3 to improve performance and reduce the achievement gap.
STEM FUNDING (Section 57)
The House has committed $4 million to the pipeline fund supporting Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) fields. Additionally, the House has earmarked $1 million of these funds be used specifically for teacher content training in the STEM fields.
GIFTED AND TALENTED PROGRAM (7061-9621)
The House continued its commitment to funding programs for the Commonwealth’s highest achieving students, appropriating $750,000 for Gifted and Talented education.
SAFE SCHOOLS FOR GAY AND LESBIAN STUDENTS
For the third consecutive year, the House budget supports programs relative to the safety of gay and lesbian students, increasing this earmark in the Department of Education to $300,000.
YOUTH-BUILD (7061-9626)
The House budget provides $2.52 million, reflecting an increase of $250,000 over last year, for Youth Build programs which help 16 to 24 year olds learn valuable vocational skills while earning a diploma or GED.
CITIZENS SCHOOLS (7061-9610)
The House funds matching grants for Citizens Schools at $600,000. The Citizens Schools initiative mobilizes adult volunteers to help improve middle school student achievement.
READING RECOVERY (7030-1005)
Provides $2.9 million for the Reading Recovery Program. This valuable early literacy program, which improves the performance of children throughout the Commonwealth who are at-risk of failing to read by the end of 1st grade.
ENVIRONMENTAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FY09 HOUSE BUDGET
The House directed funding to several key areas of the environmental budget. In total, the amended House budget includes over $227M for the environment, natural resources and agriculture; this totals $10M more for the environment than last year’s budget, and nearly $3M more than was proposed by Governor Patrick in H2.
$36.3 M for the Department of Environmental Protection, a valuable state agency that enforces our environmental laws and regulations, including additional funding to implement the Mercury Management Act which we passed into law last session.
$200K increase in funding for stormwater management. This additional funding will assist DCR in complying with its responsibilities under the Clean Water Act, and further the department’s ability to conduct regular street sweeping and catch basin cleaning. Stormwater management is an important tool in maintaining the integrity of our water supply.
$4.25 M for maintenance and staffing of Beaches. Additional funding for Massachusetts’ 14 public beaches will help to improve maintenance, upkeep, landscaping and safety at some of the Commonwealth’s most valuable recreational areas.
$1.17 M for the Office of Dam Safety. There are over 3,000 public and private dams in the Commonwealth that are under the supervision of the Office of Dam Safety. Currently, there are 338 dams in the Commonwealth that need to be repaired or removed in order to keep the public safe and the environment healthy.
$650K for the Riverways Protection Program. The mission of the Riverways Program is to promote the restoration, protection, and ecological integrity of the Commonwealth’s rivers, streams, and adjacent lands.
Finally, $200,000 was earmarked for the Buy Local Campaign, a marketing strategy that promotes consumption of locally grown agricultural products. This earmark is not only good for agriculture, but good for Massachusetts’ economy as well.
Autism, Asperger's and Special Education FY09
Representative Barbara L'Italien is the lead sponsor of all of these amendments, all of which I was glad to co-sponsor with several of my colleagues. Through these amendments we were able to secure an additional $2.4M in the Division on Autism line item totaling $5,321,753. Highlights of this item include:
- $4M for the autism medicaid waiver in order to support children with autism at risk of institutionalization in their home and communities ($2M of this will be reimbursed by Medicaid);
- $921,753 in funding for the Division on Autism to enable the division to provide much-needed services to autistic children;
- $200,000 for Melmark New England to provide training and support to families, educational collaboratives, and public school districts on methods for coping with behavioral challenges associated with children who have autism
- $100,000 for New England Center for Children, Inc. to provide training and support to public school districts and families for the establishment of in district partner classrooms to serve children with autism
- $100,000 for Asperger's Association of New England to provide support services to individuals with high functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome.
Autism is a developmental disability that affects verbal and nonverbal communication, social interaction, and educational performance with some of the following characteristics: engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements; resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines; and unusual responses to sensory experiences. Reports from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder ranges from 1 per 122 to 1 per 150 births, and that boys with the disorder outnumber girls three or four to one.
Children with autism often require specialized and intensive services to address their complex learning needs. It has been shown that children who receive these services, which will be provided under the line item, have made substantial progress, and in some instances acquired skills within typically developing ranges, in areas of social skills, language acquisition, nonverbal communication, and reductions in challenging behaviors. Cost-benefit analysis has shown that if children with autism receive intensive services at a young age, the savings are significant. Recent studies have found that the provision of intensive services (such as Applied Behavioral Analysis), at early ages can result in estimated cost savings ranging from $187,000 to $203,000 per child ages 3-22 years, and a total lifetime savings range of 1 to 2 million dollars.
School systems throughout the Commonwealth are facing substantial, rapid increases in the number of young children with autism served by the public schools. Recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Education indicate over a 500% increase in the number of children ages 6-21 with Autism from 1993-2003.
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