SENATE DOCKET, NO. 861        FILED ON: 2/9/2021

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 378

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Patrick M. O'Connor

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to reduce paperwork within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

_______________

PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 861        FILED ON: 2/9/2021

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 378

[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE SENATE, NO. 316 OF 2019-2020.]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

_______________

An Act to reduce paperwork within the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 15 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2014 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after Section 66, the following new section:-

Section 67. Section 1. The commissioner of Department of Elementary and Secondary Education shall increase the efficiency of government through:

(1) Reducing the use of paper through maximizing the available uses of information technology, including alternative information technologies to substitute for paper and increasing the use of electronic methods for the maintenance, submission, or disclosure of information, to improve data quality, agency efficiency and responsiveness to the public;

(2) Eliminating costly and wasteful government publications through the expanded use of electronic methods for distribution of documentation throughout state government, where feasible and appropriate;

(3) Eliminating duplicative permitting and paperwork requirements through implementing inter-agency file sharing technologies in order that electronically stored data can be viewed and routed, where appropriate, by multiple agencies.

Section 2. The commissioner shall investigate any current statutory impediments for the reduction of the use of paper by state government and any impediments both statutory and technological, for more efficient electronic data storage and dissemination. The commissioner shall submit his findings, along with any legislative recommendations to address those findings, to the house and senate clerks, and the joint committee on education no later than August 31, 2021.

Section 3. The department of education shall, no later than July 1, 2022 and biannually thereafter, inventory all state and federal planning, reporting, and data gathering required of public education administrators to assess whether requirements for filing paperwork are still necessary and shall develop a single master reporting form to prevent duplicate information from being reported more than once yearly per school district. Commencing July 1, 2022, notwithstanding any special or general law to the contrary, no public school district shall be required to report the same information more than once yearly to any agency or department of the commonwealth except to provide the master reporting form as requested.