Massachusetts Education:
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released new guidance for school districts across the state to only use so-called “timeout rooms” in “emergency circumstances.”
The new guidance continues to allow staff at schools to place students in these rooms against their will. Students can be placed in these rooms for up to an hour at a time in some cases. Advocates have called on the state to ban the use of these timeout rooms, citing their ability to inflict lasting trauma on students, according to the Boston Globe.
There is currently a proposed bill in the United States Congress that would ban the use of seclusion rooms in schools across the country, but it has yet to leave committee. The federal Department of Education says that seclusion should be avoided whenever possible, with the only exception being when a student poses a risk of harm to themselves or others.
Advocates have stressed over the years that these rooms are used disproportionately on students with disabilities.
Olivia Rodgers, the parent of a 5-year-old son with autism and vision impairments, told the Boston Globe that she is still left with a lot of questions about the usage of such rooms in schools.
The Globe noted that Roger’s son was placed in one of these rooms for 28 minutes due to disruptive classroom behavior. The Globe noted that the district’s policy was to use non-locking handles on these rooms, but her son was unable to open the door.
A Gloucester Public Schools incident report notes that when he “attempted to open the door and when he realized it would not open, he banged his fist on the window,” according to the Boston Globe.
The new guidance from the state still allows the use of timeout rooms but says that the rooms must not be locked and that students should be permitted to leave. The guidance also says that staff must be continuously present to monitor the student and that the room must be well lit, ventilated and devoid of objects that can hurt the student.
“There’s this power dynamic between adult teachers and a young child. Just because they’re technically allowed to leave doesn’t mean that they actually know they are allowed to leave,” said special education attorney Collins Fay-Martin to the Boston Globe.
This new guidance from the state will go into effect at the start of the 2026-27 school year.
The T’s Troubles:
The MBTA has faced perennial budget issues for as long as anyone can remember. The state is stepping in with another one-year solution.
Gov. Maura Healey announced her fiscal year 2027 budget, which included just $470 million for the MBTA, the same amount dedicated in the final FY2026 budget.
The governor’s plan is to fund the MBTA through a separate bill dedicating surplus “Fair Share” revenue to the agency. The revenue was left over from FY2025 because state officials underestimated the earnings from the new tax by roughly half.
The MBTA will receive $523 million in FY27 to ensure its needs are fulfilled, in addition to $122 million to refill its reserve fund, which will be nearly depleted after FY2026’s budget shortfalls. MBTA officials project the agency will end this year’s budget with a $239 million deficit.
If the legislature approves the bills as written, the MBTA would receive over $1.1 billion in state funding.
“If it’s implemented as she drew it up, it would solve the T’s budgetary challenges.” Brian Kane, MBTA Advisory Board executive director, told StreetsblogMASS.
The agency is looking at a budget deficit of $531 million in FY27 and $837 million in FY28 if nothing changes. The agency has warned for years about its dire financial situation, but Beacon Hill has not fully funded the agency in decades.
Healey convened a Transportation Funding Task Force in an attempt to solve the issues of T funding long-term, but the report generated gave little in the way of detail on long-term funding opportunities.
One option was to reallocate and raise gas tax and motor vehicle registration funds and another was to pass more of “Fare Share” revenue onto the T. These solutions have all been cast aside as both short-term thinking and unreliable by critics.
The state budget is in a very different place than it has been in recent years. Massachusetts business groups have been pushing ballot questions that could lower state income tax rates by one percent. Another proposed ballot question would limit the amount that the state is allowed to bring in each year through income tax.
These proposed ballot questions could gut state revenue to the tune of $4.8 billion in the coming years.
Those proposals, combined with federal funding cuts, could see the state have to slash funding across the board in the coming budget cycles, which would have far-reaching implications for not just the MBTA, but many other programs people rely on, including healthcare and public education.
These ballot questions, along with nine others, have gathered enough signatures to move to the legislature for further action. If they are not enacted by the legislature, those behind the proposals will need to gather further signatures to qualify to be placed on November’s ballot.
The Auditor:
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has announced that she is running for reelection this fall.
DiZoglio has long been on a mission to audit the state legislature. The Methuen Democrat has been in the news recently for announcing last week that she is taking the leaders of the House and Senate to court seeking documents to carry out her efforts.
DiZoglio is trying to have the lawsuit heard by the Supreme Judicial Court, but it has not been approved by Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
DiZoglio is a former member of the Massachusetts House and Senate and has been accused of not being impartial on issues relating to the legislature.
Just before a hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee to fund her state office, DiZoglio said many legislators do not like her and haven’t for years and that they have been trying to retaliate against her.
As of writing, the Massachusetts Republican Party does not have a candidate for the Auditor’s office, according to WBUR.
MassGOP Executive Director Haley Jones told WBUR that many republicans across Massachusetts are happy with the work DiZoglio is doing, but they want to see more accountability on Beacon Hill.
The Blizzard of ‘26:
Massachusetts has seen at least 30 inches of snowfall since late Sunday night. The blizzard of 2026, as it has been dubbed, brought winds of up to 80 miles per hour and power outages across New England.
Poor road conditions in Bristol, Plymouth and Barnstable counties prompted Gov. Healey to institute a travel ban on all non-essential motor vehicle travel. The speed limit on the Massachusetts Turnpike was also reduced to 40 miles per hour. The governor’s office said in a statement that this was an effort to allow for faster snow cleanup and emergency response.
In Rhode Island all but emergency vehicles had been banned from roads statewide since late Sunday evening. At T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick, officials counted 37.9 inches of snowfall.
Both travel bans were lifted as of noon on Tuesday.
The blizzard also prompted the closure of most school and university campuses around Massachusetts, with Suffolk closing Monday and instituting a remote-only day on Tuesday.
The MBTA reduced service and instituted snow routes on many bus routes around metro Boston. Many buses were operating with severe delays. Commuter Rail service was forced onto a storm schedule for all of Monday and Tuesday. The subway saw reduced services both days.
The MBTA has said that normal service will resume Wednesday, but the agency officials are warning riders that parking may be reduced in the coming days while the agency continues cleanup efforts after the blizzard.
MBTA officials are warning riders that services and parking may be reduced in the coming days while the agency continues cleanup efforts after the blizzard.
The Boston Globe reported that more than 250,000 customers were still without power as of Tuesday morning. An additional result of the blizzard was that the Boston Globe was unable to publish a print edition for the first time in 153 years.
Boston city officials warned on Monday that storm cleanup could take up to a week. That same message was echoed in other cities and towns across New England.
Read All About It:
- Last week Gov. Healey called on New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte to block the construction of a proposed Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
Ayotte announced on Twitter Tuesday that the project would not be moving forward. Ayotte said that the decision came from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, following a meeting Ayotte had last week with Noem.
