Senator Joyce Files Amendments to Ban Practices at Judge Rotenburg Center

(From the office of Senator Brian A. Joyce)

Senator Brian A. Joyce (D-Milton) has submitted his proposed amendments to the Senate’s FY 2014 budget. Joyce’s amendments further promote his longstanding legislative priorities of supporting children, offering protection to vulnerable and mentally ill residents and ensuring transparency in government.

“The budget recommended by Ways and Means was a good starting point, making targeted, balanced investments to protect our seniors and support our children without overburdening taxpayers,” said Joyce. “The amendment phase will give us the chance to give further voice to the issues facing our particular communities and publicly debate and shape next year’s budget.”

Joyce filed several amendments to further ban the abusive practice of administering aversives, or painful electric skin shocks, to disabled children at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC).

His previous efforts have helped shine a light on the use of harmful aversives and successfully prohibited the barbaric practice from being used on any newly-enrolled students. The latest amendments are part of his ongoing effort to ban the use of aversives once and for all.

Senator Joyce also sponsored an amendment to increase support for full day kindergarten ensuring more children will have access to a program that has been shown to increase reading and mathematical gains while decreasing grade retention and dropout rates. He also introduced a measure to create restitution mechanisms when a resident’s mental health insurance parity rights have been violated.

Additionally, Senator Joyce has sponsored an amendment building on work done during last year’s budget shining light on executive compensation at policyholder-owned mutual insurance companies. An amendment this session would extend similar rules to banks, co-ops and credit unions.

The amendments, along with the entire Senate budget, will be debated this week.