Amendment #1058 to H4200

Alternative Education

Representatives O'Day of West Boylston, Balser of Newton, Benson of Lunenburg, Sannicandro of Ashland, Mahoney of Worcester, Malia of Boston, Khan of Newton, Cariddi of North Adams, Decker of Cambridge, Donahue of Worcester, Ashe of Longmeadow, Gonzalez of Springfield, Honan of Boston, Keefe of Worcester, Hecht of Watertown, McMurtry of Dedham, Toomey of Cambridge, Mom of Lowell, Smizik of Brookline and Ultrino of Malden move to amend the bill in section 2, by inserting after line item 7061-9614 the following item:

"xxxx-xxxx  For the alternative education grant program established in section 1N of chapter 69 of the General Laws; provided, that the commissioner shall allocate funds for both subsections (a) and (b) of said section 1N of said chapter 69; and provided further, that funds shall be provided for a grant program to districts, education collaboratives or other inter-district partnerships to implement alternative education programs to provide educational services required under chapter 222 of the acts of 2012; And provided further, that funds shall be allocated for grants to 3 school districts serving “high needs” students, as defined by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education,  to pilot a program that, in a deliberative way, identifies and implements a school/classroom strategy to reduce the need for school exclusions, potential  strategies to include, but not limited to restorative justice, other Social and Emotional Learning techniques (e.g., mediation, conflict resolution), other appropriate behavioral approaches, or targeted professional development; provided further that the process for selecting and implementing these strategies within each pilot shall be well-documented and evaluated, such that successful processes could be replicated in the future either within the same district or by other comparable districts; and, provided further that the Department shall assure that at least one of the pilot programs to receive a grant is targeted to the early school years……….$500,000

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #1058 to H4200

Alternative Education