Status: Law!!!!!!

Hot off the press...  September 18, 2008

 

Governor Patrick signed House Bill 469 into law late last night!  The law goes into effect in 90 days.  What this means is that it will be effective for the school year 2009 - 2010 as the law indicates that "The provisions of this act shall be effective 30 days prior to the beginning of the school year, subsequent to the year this act becomes law."  Here is a link to the text of the bill (now law):  http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht00pdf/ht00469.pdf

 

If you are currently experiencing issues with placement of your twins during the current school year, you may want to let your schools know that this is now a law, as they may be more agreeable to working with you knowing that they can no longer separate against the parents' wishes next year. 

 

Again, we want to extend our thanks to everyone who took time to make phone calls, write letters, and spread the word.  This was truly a grass-roots effort, and we learned so much through this process.  If it were not for the tremendous amount of support we've received from all of you through this endeavor, we would not have this LAW!

 

Although we've asked so much already, we do have one last, small, request.  At your convenience, we would appreciate it if you could send a note to Representative Bradley H. Jones, Jr., (address below) thanking him for his work sponsoring this important bill, as well as any other legislators who you have contacted personally, who have helped with this effort. 

 

Representative Bradley H. Jones, Jr.

State House

Room 124

Boston, MA   02133

rep.bradley.jones@hou.state.ma.us

 

 

Thank you again,

 

Janna and Rachel 

September 8, 2008

 

We are delighted to report that House Bill 469 is now awaiting the Governor’s signature to become law!  Over the last month, during this informal summer session, our bill has moved out of the Senate Ethics and Rules Committee, was voted on favorably by the Senate, and was enacted by the House and, today, by the Senate!  This movement is a direct result of the heavy pressure each one of you put on your legislators with phone calls and letters.  We asked for your help, and we bombarded our legislators to make our voices heard.  We cannot thank you enough for your support of this important piece of legislation. 

 

We are now in the very last step of the process and need to ask you to do one last thing.  Please contact Governor Deval Patrick's office and request that he sign House Bill 469 into law!  The Governor's office number is:  617-725-4005 or 888-870-7770 (in state).  Please note that the Governor has 10 days in which to take action on this bill (September 18). 

 

Twincerely,

 

Janna and Rachel

 Our MA Twin Bill campaign has taken an interesting turn.  After letter writing and making various telephone calls to the offices of the members of the House Committee on Rules, we learned of two other twin bills in Massachusetts that we were unaware of and were not informed of.  House Bill No. 469, sponsored by Representative Bradley Jones, is almost identical to our bill and full text can be viewed here http: //www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht00pdf/ht00469.pdf  and House Bill 460, sponsored by Frank M. Hynes is a bill which would give Principals of the schools the final say in the placement of multiples http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/185/ht00pdf/ht00460.pdf ! .

 Both House Bill 469 and House Bill 460 are before the Joint Committee on Education and had a public hearing on June 26, 2007.   The result of that hearing is that no one presented testimony on either side, except for a letter of support from Representative Hynes for his own bill, so the bill still sits in committee.  We have been informed that it is not too late to write to the Joint Committee on Education in support of House Bill No. 469.

Our strategy is to throw our support behind BOTH House Bill No. 469 and our bill, which does not yet have a bill number, and which is before the House Committee on Rules waiting to be referred to the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities.  We should also write to OPPOSE House Bill No. 460.

We have written to Senator Frederick Berry, the sponsor of our bill, asking him to write a letter of support of House Bill 469 and to include opposition to House Bill No. 460.  We have written a similar letter to Representative Bradley Jones, the sponsor of House Bill No. 469.

We have sent a packet of information, including research and articles supporting flexible placement policies for multiples to Senator Robert Antonioni and Representative Patricia Haddad, the Chairs of the Joint Committee on Education, in support of House Bill 469.

What we need you to do to help:

1.                   The Joint Committee on Education is in need of testimonials as to why this bill is important to families with multiples.  Please forward your letters of support containing comments, concerns and share your personal experiences to any member(s) of the Joint Committee on Education (http://mass.gov/legis/comm/j14.htm).  Include in your letter, opposition to House Bill No. 460.  Personal experiences, rather than template letters will be more effective in this situation, however, we have included a template letter to assist.  Also attached, is an address list for the members of the Joint Committee on Education (note:  emails are not effective).

2.                   In addition, please continue to send letters to the House Committe on Rules, in support of our bill and asking that they concur with the Senate Committee on Rules and Ethics and send this bill to the Joint Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities (http://www.mass.gov/legis/comm/j13.htm).  

3.                   Follow up with a telephone call to be sure your letter was received and to voice your concern  (note:  our experience with this is that legislators prefer to hear from people from their own districts).

 

Depending on whathappens with these bills, it is entirely possible that they could be merged into one bill along this process.  Thank you all for your continued support of this important issue.

Janna and Rachel

Click both links for our templates

Joint_Committee_on_Education_Address_List.doc

Template_-_Letter_to_the_Education_Committee.doc

Please contact us to join our Yahoo! Group regarding the Massachusetts Twin Bill effort. The following update was just posted on our Yahoo! Group page:

There has been a flurry of activity in the last few weeks. We were interviewed for an article which appeared in the July issue of Parents & Kids newspaper, have been interviewed for the upcoming "back to school" issue of The Bay State Parent (due out in August), and there was a recent segment on The Early Show which aired on June 29 (http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_vi...ml?id=2996883). The Parents & Kids article has been uploaded to the Yahoo! Group for downloading and can also be viewed here: Here is the link for the Parents and Kids article.  Please note that Janna was misquoted.  She had said she was not for or against twins being together or separate, and they said she was not "for or against the bill".

 

http://www.townonline.com/parentsandkids/news/x20719740

Please note, Janna was misquoted in this article. She had said she was not for or against twins being together or separate. The article reads, she was not "for or against the bill".

 

Due to the recent publicity, we have been receiving a lot of interest and some testimonials from individuals who have been having difficulties with forcible separation of their twins in the school system. Senator Berry's office has advised us that as this is considered a "late file" bill, the bill must go through both the Senate and House Ethics Committees before it can be assigned a bill number and it starts over again. The bill is before the Senate Committee on Ethics and Rules right now. The next step is to write to Senator Joan Menard the Chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Rules, and ask for the bill reported from committee so that it has a chance to be assigned a bill number and go through the legislative process. Senator Joan Menard's address is as follows:

STATE SENATOR

Joan M. Menard

State House

Room 109B

Boston, MA 02133

Phone number: 617-722-1520

State House E-Mail: joan.menard@state.ma.u

In addition, it would also be helpful to contact the other five members of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Rules as follows:

SENATE PRESIDENT

THERESE MURRAY

State House

Room 330

Boston, MA 02133

Tel: (617) 722-1500

State House E-Mail Address: Therese.Murray@state.ma.us

STATE SENATOR

FREDERICK E. BERRY

State House

Room 333

Boston, MA 02133

Telephone: (617) 722-1410

Fax: (617) 722-1347

State House E-Mail Address: Frederick.Berry@state.ma.us

STATE SENATOR

STEVEN C. PANAGIOTAKOS

State House

Room 218

Boston, MA 02133

Telephone: (617) 722-1630

State House E-Mail Address: Steven.Panagiotakos@state.ma.us

STATE SENATOR

RICHARD R. TISEI

State House

Room 308

Boston, MA 02133

Telephone: (617) 722-1206

Fax: (617) 722-1063

State House E-Mail Address: Richard.Tisei@state.ma.us

STATE SENATOR

MICHAEL R. KNAPIK

State House

Room 421

Boston, MA 02133

Tel: (617) 722-1415

State House E-Mail Address: Michael.Knapik@state.ma.us

I have included a sample letter that you may use and modify. Time is of the essence as the legislature breaks from July 31 through Labor Day. It would be helpful if we could get through the first step of this process before they break for the rest of the summer.

In the meantime, if you or anyone you know has been having difficulty with this issue, we need to hear from you. Information can be taken in a confidential manner, if you so choose. We will need to arm ourselves with testimonials prior to a hearing date. Thank you for continued support.

Janna Knight (jannaknight@comcast.net)

Rachel DellaCroce (twinmom@comcast.net)

March 26, 2006

Great news!  We just learned today that Senator Frederick Berry has agreed to file our bill with the Massachusetts State Senate.  Senator Berry’s office has requested testimonials from individuals who have experienced issues with school placement of their twins.  If you have experienced or know anyone who has had or is currently having issues, please contact us immediately.  

 

March 12, 2007

We are looking for anyone who has had a negative experience regarding twins or multiples being separated in school within the state of Massachusetts.  We are in need of people who are willing to share their experiences with us (it can be done without using names) so that we can best represent this wide-spread issue to our legislators.

We also are looking for volunteers we may call on who may be able to assist during our letter-writing and telephone campaign to our state legislators. 

Please email us for further information or to join our Yahoo! Group.

Campaign Directors:

Rachel Dellacroce:  twinmom@comcast.net

Janna Knight:  jannaknight@comcast.net

Click on the map to view the law!!!!