GREENFIELD — Jen Audley, Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) coordinator for the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), shared updates last week on bills that are priorities for local officials, including proposals to create cell phone-free schools and offer record sealing for those convicted of qualifying misdemeanors.
If passed, Audley said these bills would address environmental factors that can impact a person’s health, much like improving the soil around a tree’s roots benefits a tree’s health.
“We use this model of a tree to explain to ourselves that you think of health as being a system that’s grounded in environmental factors. Some of them are very hard to change, and health grows out of that environment, like a tree,” Audley explained. “We as a coalition focus on making change at the level where the watering can is intersecting with the ground, and the reason why we’re doing that is that we’re really trying to change both the environment that the tree is growing in, the soil, so they can change through the roots, and we’re also trying to change the outcomes.”
As part of the Community Health Improvement Plan, FRCOG has been advocating for 13 bills on various public health topics. Director of Community Health Phoebe Walker said that most of the bills FRCOG is supporting have moved from the first committee they were sent to be reviewed by, to either a secondary committee or to the full House and Senate for a vote. Some bills have been sent to study, which Walker noted is how legislators politely kill a bill for that session. Others are still being considered and voted on.
On FRCOG’s legislative priority list, state senators have passed “An Act Fostering Agricultural Resilience in Massachusetts, also known as the FARM bill, which is now before the House Committee on Ways and Means for review.
“This bill has been filed in different versions for quite a while, and the version that was filed this session passed in the Senate, so that’s big news,” Audley said. “It would help farmers in Massachusetts compete with farmers in other places, despite facing higher input costs, more restrictive regulations and fewer supportive resources than farmers in other states do. It establishes a $3 million Next Generation Farmers Fund to provide education grants. It directs [the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency] to incorporate food production capacity into disaster planning. … It will create stability and support for farmers and farming, and it will create more access to locally grown food for people who live here, especially low-income people.”
Jim Simon, program manager with the South Deerfield-based Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA), said the FARM bill has been in the works for years, but given recent changes to federal funding and policies to support farmers and food chains, he is hopeful it will cross the finish line and be signed into law.
“We were hearing from legislators that things that meet multiple needs, like addressing food security in agriculture, are more likely to pass,” Simon said. “A lot of this, I think, is motivated by disruptions at the federal level, so cuts to [U.S. Department of Agriculture] programs and grants, cuts to [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] and changes in SNAP restrictions.”
Another bill that is a priority for local officials is “An Act to Promote Student Learning and Mental Health,” which was passed by both the Senate and the House in different versions.
FRCOG Prevention Strategies Coordinator Ilana Gerjuoy said the bill was designed to create cell phone-free school environments that would allow students to focus on learning and engaging with their peers, while also preventing anxiety around social media.
“The bill requires all Massachusetts public schools to adopt policies that require students’ phones and other personal devices like smart watches and things like that that connect to the internet be locked up during the day so students can’t use them,” Gerjuoy said. “Constant phone access makes it a lot harder for students to focus, to connect with peers and engage in class. And we’ve heard this from both youth and from educators.”
The bill was passed by the Senate, and in the House, it was passed with an amendment banning social media for kids under the age of 14, and requiring that teenagers between the ages of 14 and 15 receive parental permission prior to creating a social media account. With the bill being passed in different versions, Gerjuoy said a conference committee with both House and Senate representatives will have to reconcile the versions.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen when it gets reconciled with the House version,” Gerjuoy noted. “The two bills are actually pretty different at this point, and we’re waiting to see whatever happens next, but whatever does, it will be a huge milestone.”
Other bills being supported by FRCOG and CHIP network partners have seen some progress, but have not been passed by either chamber. Andrea Freeman, policy director with the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, said “An Act Requiring Clean Slate Automated Record Sealing” has been reported out favorably by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, and sent to study in the House version. She said she is hopeful for the bill’s future, as questions about the concept have shifted this legislative session.
“What was really cool is that this session, instead of us being asked, ‘Why do we need to do this? Is this important? What’s the urgency?’ This session, it’s shifted. It’s been, ‘So, how do we implement this? How much does it cost?'” Freeman said. “The House, again, they ended up sending it to study, which we knew they were going to, but then the Senate had reported the bill favorably to Senate Ways and Means.”
Freeman said that if passed, the bill would seal eligible misdemeanor convictions after a three-year conviction-free waiting period and seal eligible felony convictions after a seven-year conviction-free waiting period. Sex and weapon-related offenses are not eligible.
She gave the example of a woman who wrote a bad check for groceries, and the conviction on her record made it impossible for her to pass a CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) check and volunteer in her kids’ school. It also created challenges for her to get a job. Sealing these types of offenses after people pass a period without reoffending could help them rebuild and improve their lives.
Freeman said that while the bill has been sent to study and killed for this session, there is still hope it could become law through an economic bond bill.
“It’s not a sure thing,” Freeman said, “but the hope is that it’ll get attached because it’s related to workforce development.”
For more information about FRCOG’s priority legislation or the CHIP plan, visit frcog.org/project/the-2025-2026-community-health-legislative-agenda.
