Senator Thomas McGee and Representative Marie St. Fleur, Co-Chairs of the Special Commission on After School and Out of School Time, convened the second meeting of the full commission on Wednesday, May 9 from 4 PM - 6 PM at the State House.
Special Commission members had the opportunity to hear from Priscilla Little, the Associate Director of the Harvard Family Research Project and Dr. Beth Miller of Miller Midzik Research Associates. Both Ms. Little and Dr. Miller talked about the latest research which shows how participation in quality after school programs promotes positive outcomes in children and youth both academically as well as in social/emotional domains.
Their excellent presentations were follwed by an in-depth overview of the investments into afterschool made by the Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) and the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). Commissioner Ann Reale of EEC and Associate Commissioner Carole Thomson of DOE and her staff Karen Vigue, Donna Traynham, Karyl Resnick and Allison Ward provided a detailed briefing that allowed Special Commission members to better understand how these two state agencies are supporting a range of afterschool programs statewide and coordinating their efforts to serve the most high-need, at-risk children and youth.
The Special Commission has also scheduled the first meetings of their three work groups to be held later this month.
To-date, the Special Commission has held three public hearings. They have been in Springfield, Pittsfield and Worcester. A public hearing will be held in Framingham on May 29 at a location yet to be determined.
It is hoped that the Commission's blog, as well as its website, will serve as additional places for interested parties to provide comments and testimony regarding afterschool and out of school time opportunities.
Please contact me with any questions regarding the above information.
Thanks.
Debra McLaughlin, Consultant to the Commission
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.
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