This legislation mandates all law enforcement agencies shall create a program to support officers who were involved in a critical incident, which include line of duty death or injury of an officer, suicide of an officer, multiple casualty incidents, incidents involving children, or any incident that elicits a strong emotional response.

The programs shall include pre-incident preparation, protocols to ensure physical and mental well-being at the scene and after, provision of post-incident services, to both the officer and the family, guidelines for temporary leave or duty re-assignment, guidelines for an officer’s return to duty, including a reintegration plan, and ongoing supportive services.

This legislation will ensure that all law enforcement agencies properly handle officer involvement in critical incidents and ensure that officers who are involved in traumatic events do not return to the line of duty before dealing and working through the trauma. As I always say, “hurt people, hurt people”

I have advocated strongly for our public schools during my three sessions on Beacon Hill. I have supported fully funding the Student Opportunity Act each budget session since its passage, and will continue to do so until it is fully funded in the year 2026. I was proud to support increasing per pupil funding to $60, up from $30, and to fully fund universal school meals, with the understanding that students cannot learn effectively on an empty stomach. I will continue to advocate for our schools to receive all the resources they need, which includes ensuring that the extra revenue received from the Fair Share Amendment goes towards making our schools the best they can be.

Additionally, we need to ensure that our schools always remain safe. I support state funding for School Resource Officer programs to keep our schools free of drugs and violence. Our children deserve the chance to focus on learning to their highest potential and should not have to worry about their safety in school. 

Effectively preparing our students for the future starts before they even enter elementary school. Unfortunately, the rising costs of childcare and pre-school make these crucial years of child development financially out of reach for too many families. In high school, our students must have opportunities to prepare for jobs in a changing world. Technological developments—from automation to green technology—signal big changes to come in the global economy and we must prepare our students for the jobs of tomorrow.

The legislation increases the penalty of a hit and run with a recreational vehicle that causes bodily injury from a fine between $500 and $1,000 to a jail sentence of one year, a fine between $500 and $1,000, or both. The legislation also creates penalties for a hit and run with a recreational vehicle that results in the death of the other party, which are a fine of no more than $5,000, a jail sentence of up to two and a half years, or both. 

This legislation creates a new limited video gaming license, which allows veterans organizations to purchase and utilize 5 limited video gaming terminals at their establishment. The bets are limited to $2.00 and the maximum win is $599. The State Gaming Commission will have oversight of the entire program, including background checks, connection to a central communication system controlled by the SGC, the number of terminals, a video monitoring system and much more.

Veterans organizations provide so much good to the community, through sponsorship of sports teams, scholarships, services to veterans returning home and much more. Allowing veterans organizations to have 5 gaming terminals on site will create another source of revenue for them, allowing them to continue the good work they do.

This law would update the definition of attempted murder in the General Laws to include stabbing as a form of attempted murder.

This bill would give LMHCs the authority to Section 12 a consumer/patient wherein that consumer/patient of mental health services is deemed by the LMHC to be in imminent danger, as well as making other updates.

Ensures that Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs) and Licensed Supervised Mental Health Counselors (LSMHCs) are included in state Job Classification Specifications so they are eligible for relevant job postings.

This legislation would allow school nurses to combine their work as a school nurse and their work as a nurse outside of the school, into the same retirement fund. The nurse must be a member in service of the teacher’s retirement system, of either a municipality, city or the State, for at least ten years. The Maximum creditable service for outside nursing work is three years.

This legislation mandates that all trains or light engines used to move freight must have a minimum crew of 2 people. Any company that violates will be subject to fines based on number of offenses.

This legislation protects the environmental health of Furnace Pond, Monponsett Pond and Silver Lake by giving DAR the ability to stop the diversion of waters from these three ponds if they are at risk of environmental degradation. The three ponds shall also be managed to ensure the continuous flow of water to all out-flowing rivers, such as the Jones River, Stump Brook or Herring Brook. Ensuring the continuous flow protects the water quality of the water and maintains the health of the ecosystems within them.

This legislation mandates the installation of hot box detectors every 20 miles on railroad tracks that passenger trains operate. Hot box detectors detect abnormalities in heat coming from the wheels of the train and thus, can prevent damage to the wheels that can cause accidents or derailments.

This bill expands the definition of public employee under Section 13D, Chapter 265 of the General Laws to include employees of private railroads performing a public service. The commuter rail is operated by Keolis, a private company who is contracted by the MBTA. This would protect them from assault while operating the commuter rail and allow an officer to make an arrest on probably cause.

This legislation requires the Rail and Transit division of MassDOT to require that any vehicle transporting railroad crew has the proper insurance to do so, which includes commercial insurance. Currently, the MBTA is contracted with Uber and most drivers do not have the proper insurance to protect railroad crews because they do not have commercial coverage. This bill will ensure, that in case of an accident, the railroad crew member is protected.

This legislation would increase the percent of annual net spending a district is allowed to put away in a reserve fund to pay for future unanticipated costs related to special education from 2 percent to 5 percent.

This bill allows municipalities to create a regional school assessment reserve fund, to be utilized in the future if a regional assessment increases by more than 3.5%. The fund cannot exceed 10% of the annual regional assessment for the municipality. This legislation protects towns within a regional school district if their assessment increases, essentially allowing them to create a rainy day fund to help pay for their assessments.

This legislation mandates that all private railroad companies as well as the rail and transit division of MassDOT must comply with the minimum earned sick leave established in Chapter 149, Section 148c of the General Laws. Currently, railroad companies do not provide minimum sick leave, and only provide leave after 2 weeks. These practices were upheld in a lawsuit. This bill would ensure that these companies are compliant with MA law.

What is the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM)? 

The psychiatric Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) is an evidence based approach to behavioral health and primary care integration that has been demonstrated to improve quality of care and reduce health care spending. 

How does it work? 

A primary care provider (PCP) leads the CoCM team, which also includes behavioral health care managers, consulting psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals. The team works together to provide care and monitor a patient’s progress and uses measurement-based treatment to target the patient's goals. 

What is the problem this bill is trying to solve? 

There are long delays between the onset of behavioral health conditions and treatment. And for people with both behavioral health conditions and other chronic health conditions, fragmented care is more costly, less effective, and has worse outcomes for patients. 

• There is a 11-year delay between onset of behavioral health symptoms and treatment. 

• Collaborative Care is a proven model of integration with the best clinical, quality, and cost outcomes, which is so important as we are hoping to moderate the costs of care in Massachusetts while improving access and clinical results. 

• The primary care setting is ideal for early identification of mental health and substance use treatment needs. However, uptake of the Collaborative Care Model needs to be accelerated in Massachusetts for more people to have access to this service. Primary Care providers and practices need to know that the reimbursement is adequate to support the investment they would make for practice transformation. 

How would this bill help? 

To advance access to the psychiatric collaborative care model in the Commonwealth, this bill would: 

• Increase payment for the collaborative care codes to at least Medicare levels for MassHealth, the GIC, and all private plans regulated by the MA Division of Insurance – we note that five other states have now worked to raise rates to the Medicare level and several have raised rates to 120% of Medicare rates, which are the standard for healthcare reimbursement rate setting; and 

• Allow for providers to bill for the collaborative care codes outside of the MassHealth ACO primary care sub-cap. There wasn’t adequate time or uptake of the collaborative care codes for the primary care sub-cap calculations. Likewise, there is precedent for allowance of other services to be billed outside the sub-cap. 

This bill would protect patient safety regarding weight-loss medications and compounded medications. Weight loss medications are FDA approved products.  Typically, compounded medications are designed for a specific patient and then delivered/ sold to that patient.   

But now some compounders are making ‘knock-off’s’ of FDA approved weight-loss/ obesity medications and selling them to patients. Again, compounded medications are designed/built for an individual patient. 

Millions of Americans are prescribed these drugs for obesity and diabetes, but many more want them for ‘vanity’ reasons and the producers can’t keep up with demand. This is driving consumers to compounded medications. These compounded drugs have the same active ingredient, but are not tested by the FDA and can have harmful side effects. Novo was made aware of 14 deaths and 144 hospitalizations from a compounded semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic. This bill will protect patient safety while demand outpaces supply of the popular weight loss drugs. 

The legislation would change the composition, from the current makeup of 8 members, employee representatives and a retiree representative (appointed by management) to the makeup of the Public Employee Committee. That committee is a representative of each of the bargaining units and a retiree representative appointed by the Association.  

The intent is to provide continuity across the committees that are dealing with municipal health insurance, which has become increasingly complex and costly.  There would be no change to the purpose of the committee, which is advisory in nature. The change would also provide accountability for the purpose of the IAC. Over the past 18 months we have seen many municipalities making unilateral changes or "bargaining" with the IAC, neither of which is the intent of that committee. 

 This legislation would ensure that regional planning agencies do not have to pay into the state retirement system for any pay outs they made the year prior. The bill also ensures that RPA’s don’t have to retroactively pay any contributions. 

RPA’s are in between local and state government. Their employees are paid by the state retirement board, but unlike state agencies, the RPA’s are annually charged for the retirement payouts. RPA’s are paid partly by town assessments, state funding, federal funding and grants. Having to pay into this system would bankrupt and close the doors of many RPA’s, as they are funded at the margins and have very little revenue raising ability. 

This legislation would ensure that police reports involving railroad fatalities are kept private except for those who need to access them. The goal is to keep the names and identities of railroad crew private. 

In the past, railroad crew members who have been involved in a fatal accident have been harrassed by family and others of the deceased, despite their names being cleared of any wrongdoing. Often, these accidents are suicide attempts or accidents. One example was a few years ago, a young woman was intoxicated and making a tiktok on the train tracks. The train was unable to stop and the young woman was killed. Despite the engineer being cleared, she was harassed, her home and car vandalized, and was forced to move to temporary housing before finding a permanent home elsewhere. This bill would prevent this form of harassment when an engineer is cleared of wrong doing. 

Public Access Board/Division of Fishing and Boating Access: The Public Access Board (PAB) was created by the legislature in 1962 with authority to designate locations of public access and related facilities to great ponds and the coastal waters. M.G.L. c. 21A, § 11B provides the PAB jurisdiction for access to all public waters, both inland and marine, and the authority to designate locations of trails and paths for snowmobiling, hiking, skiing, and other uses. The PAB has not met for several years. Today, the Office of Fishing and Boating Access provides public access facilities at over 300 locations at public waters for fishing and boating. This amendment codifies the current operations of OFBA and renames OFBA as the Division of Fishing and Boating Access. 

Division of Ecological Restoration: DFG no longer has a “riverways program” designated as such. Rather, in 2009, the riverways program was merged with the wetlands restoration program in CZM to become the current Division of Ecological Resources (DER). This amendment authorizes and codifies the current operations of DER. 

Shellfish Constable Training: The Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) has periodically offered a shellfish constable training program. Pursuant to M.G.L. c. 130, section 98, anyone who successfully completes the MMA program is considered eligible for appointment as a shellfish constable or deputy shellfish constable. MMA has had waning interest in offering this program in recent years. To fill the void, DMF has provided this training without any statutory authorization. This amendment reflects DMF’s current training activities. 

This legislation requires the state waste system plan to reflect the priority of the Commonwealth’s transitions to a circular economy, defined as one which keeps products, and materials in circulation for as long as possible. DEP shall also create a circular economy education program to inform the public and businesses on what the circular economy is and how they can best participate. 

This legislation establishes two grant programs and a new education fund: 

1. It creates a grant for small businesses to transition to a circular economy, defined as an economy which circulates material and products to reduce waste.   

2. The Secretary of EEA will create a grant program for non-profits, academic institutions, and businesses to study and develop new technology to improve ocean health and its responsible use. The Secretary should prioritize projects with the most measurable benefits to the ocean or marine communities. 

3. DESE shall create a Blue Economy Education Fund to provide high schools with funding to expand educational development, workforce training and job placement programs in blue-STEAM industries. 

This bill would expand the current crisis intervention statute (Ch.233, Sect. 20O) to include police dispatchers and 911 operators, expanding those that are eligible for CISM services. 

This legislation would add alterations made to a home to accommodate a disabled individual who is not an owner of the house to the property tax exemptions for home alterations made for a person over the age of 60. Currently, only alterations made to a house for someone over the age of sixty and not the owner of the house is included in this property tax exemption.