Message From Co-Chairs

Children and youth across the Commonwealth need our help and support to become caring and productive members of our society. As Co-Chairs of this Special Commission, we welcome your input as we work together with our 36 members to craft recommendations on how best to support the healthy development of children and youth when they are in and out of school. In addition to the Commission meetings about this critical issue, we intend to hold at least nine public hearings across the Commonwealth. We are aware that not everyone will be able to attend and and invite you to use this blog to communicate with us about your issues and concerns. We look forward to your comments.

Posting Rules and Etiquette

We welcome and value your feedback and ask that you do the following in order to post your comments to this blog. 1. To provide your first and last name and the town or city in which you live to help us track the feedback statewide. 2. To label your comments so we can direct your feedback to the right Commission Work Group. The Commission's three Work Groups are: 1) Information and Access; 2) Quality, Workforce and Professional Development and 3) Sustainability. If your comments cut across all three Work Groups, please label that as "Crosscutting Issue". 3. To add constructive and professional comments - rude or profane comments will be deleted. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Special Commission Completes Public Hearings


Lynn Public Hearing, September 20, 2007 at North Shore Community College


Senator Tom McGee, Co-Chair of the Massachusetts After School and Out of School Time Commission, and Senator Susan Tucker listened to testimony at Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence.


The Massachusetts Special Commission on Afterschool and Out of School Time has completed its 10 public hearings as of September 25, 2007. Its tenth and final hearing was held in Boston at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School. Kicked off by testimony by Mayor Menino, the hearing was attended by over 100 people.

The other hearings were held at North Shore Community College in Lynn on September 20 and at Northern Essex Community College on September 18. The Lynn hearing was attended by over 100 people andSpecial Commission members heard testimony from a range of people until 10 PM. The Lawrence hearing also heard compelling testimony.

Prior to this, Special Commission members were on Cape Cod on September 11 at Barnstable Town Hall to listen to testimony from a variety of individuals.

All in all, nearly 250 attended the last four public hearings of the Special Commission. While much testimony was submitted during this process, members of the public have until Friday, October 19, 2007 to submit final testimony. Click here to submit testimony electronically.

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