BOSTON- Last week, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed Senator Sal DiDomenico’s bill to fight childhood hunger and boost participation rates in school breakfast programs in the Commonwealth’s high-poverty schools. S.2626, An Act regarding breakfast after the bell, would require all public K-12 schools with 60% or more students eligible for free or reduced-price meals under the federal National School Lunch Program to offer breakfast after the instructional day begins.

Massachusetts currently requires all high-poverty schools to provide breakfast to every eligible student. However, because breakfast is typically offered before the bell and in the cafeteria, participation levels are low— at less than 40%— compared to 80-90% participation for free and reduced lunch. Consequently, children are showing up to school hungry and unprepared to learn. Moving breakfast from before the bell to after the bell is a proven, simple, and effective strategy to boost breakfast participation in an effort to ensure that all students are fed and show up ready to learn every day.

 “No child who shows up to school hungry can possibly be ready to learn,” said Senator Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett), Assistant Majority Leader of the Massachusetts Senate. “I have seen the success of breakfast after the bell in my own district, and I am confident that this legislation will help to ensure that every child in the Commonwealth has access to a stigma-free and nutritious breakfast. Thank you to Senate President Karen Spilka for her commitment to making this a priority for the Massachusetts Senate and the Rise and Shine Coalition for their dedicated advocacy and tireless work to ensure that all children of the Commonwealth are able to start their days ready to learn.”

 “We have spent the last two years building a strong coalition of support, which includes school stakeholders, hunger advocates and legislators,” said Catherine Drennan, senior manager of public affairs at The Greater Boston Food Bank and the Rise and Shine Massachusetts coalition. “This is the moment we have been waiting for and we are looking forward to passing a bill that will assist with increasing access to school breakfast to over 150,000 low-income students across Massachusetts.”

This legislation would require approximately 600 Massachusetts schools serving low-income students to offer breakfast after the tardy bell through a variety of delivery models, including breakfast in the classroom, grab-and-go and second-chance breakfast. This flexibility allows school districts to select the model that best fits their students’ needs

As a federally reimbursed program, Breakfast After the Bell has the potential to provide up to $30 million statewide to Massachusetts school districts that increase participation rates to 80% and above. These payments are made directly to school nutrition departments, helping to support jobs, update kitchen equipment, and provide healthier menu options.

The bill has moved to the House of Representatives.

###

BOSTON – Senator Sal DiDomenico and his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed legislation to help thousands of students in the commonwealth who suffer from dyslexia. Dyslexia affects one in five children in the Commonwealth. However, learning disability screening procedures are inconsistent from district to district, and sometimes even within districts themselves. Consequently, many families struggle to get a proper diagnosis of dyslexia and cannot advocate for the appropriate services needed to ensure their child can learn to read and succeed in school.

An Act relative to students with dyslexia puts in place the systems to create early screening protocols critically necessary to improving early literacy and achieving reading proficiency by 3rd grade for all students statewide. Senator DiDomenico, a co-sponsor of this legislation, urged his colleagues to support this bill and spoke passionately on the Senate floor on the need for this piece of legislation.

“This bill is important to so many children and families across our Commonwealth,” said Senator DiDomenico, Assistant Majority Leader of the Massachusetts Senate. “No student should ever fall behind in school or be challenged by self-doubt due to dyslexia, and yet this is far too often the case for children with dyslexia, largely due to a lack of proper screening and diagnosis. Early screening and proper diagnosis is a game-changer for our kids to ensure they get the services they need and deserve to thrive in our schools and achieve the success they are truly capable of.”

When caught early and at the appropriate time, students with dyslexia can receive specialized instruction and learn reading strategies so they do not fall behind their peers. The longer a student has to wait for a diagnosis and try to learn to read without these interventions, however, the harder it will be for them to catch up. This often results in longer-term self-esteem and other issues.

Once students with dyslexia learn strategies to read with their dyslexia, they can go on to succeed independently without future supports, saving the commonwealth millions of dollars in special education costs. 

An Act relative to students with dyslexia sets up laws, regulations, and a system to support all students with dyslexia by:

• requiring the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation with the Department of Early Education and Care, to issue guidelines to assist districts to develop screening protocols for students who have at least one indicator for dyslexia or another neurological learning disability;

• adding identification of dyslexia and other neurological learning disabilities to the goals of the early literacy panel; and

• tasking the early education panel with creating action steps to implement research-based recommendations from experts in early language and literacy development for student screening and teacher preparation for students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities.

###

BOSTON – Last week, Senator Sal DiDomenico (D-Everett) and his colleagues in the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed An Act automatically registering eligible voters and enhancing safeguards against fraud. This legislation, which Senator DiDomenico was a co-sponsor of, creates a framework in which eligible voters will be automatically registered to vote when receiving services from the Registry of Motor vehicles, MassHealth, and other participating state agencies. The framework will be overseen and implemented by the Secretary of State.

“Now more than ever, it is critical that we engage all eligible citizens in the political process and remove barriers to participation in our elections,” said Senator DiDomenico, Assistant Majority Leader of the Massachusetts Senate. “This legislation will not only help to ensure the integrity of our elections, but also help to expand voting opportunities by making the process more fair and accessible for all. I am very proud that automatic voter registration will be one of the next steps that Massachusetts takes in an effort to increase voter turnout, and I am looking forward to seeing this bill signed into law.”

“It should be the state’s burden to register voters – not yours,” said Senate President Harriette L. Chandler (D-Worcester). “Long work hours and confusion about the registration process are barriers for many citizens. Thousands of Massachusetts citizens are eligible to vote today, but aren’t registered. Registering to vote must be as simple as possible, and this legislation implements a process where any eligible citizen receiving certain state services is automatically registered. Today is a major victory for voting rights and social justice.”

The legislation also bolsters voter-data security. It updates the requirements for transmission of voter registration affidavits and requires the Secretary of State to promulgate regulations to ensure registration is done through electronic transmission, with data security protocols and integration with the online portals.

“This bill seeks to advance our common goal of increasing voter registration, but it must also protect the integrity of the electoral process, said Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester).  “Importantly, it does so by increasing the sharing of information and cross-referencing that information to combat voter fraud.”

The legislation also increases penalties associated with voter fraud. It orders that whoever knowingly provides false information in connection with automatic voter registration shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for up to 5 years or both.

###