Grandparents, guardians and advocates urged the Joint Committee on Higher Education Friday to extend existing tuition-and-fee waivers so they explicitly cover young adults raised by kinship guardians or grandparents, not only those who were formerly in the custody of the Department of Children and Families.

Why it matters: Several witnesses said tens of thousands of Massachusetts children live with grandparents or relatives; many caregivers are on fixed incomes and cannot afford college for those children. Advocates called the proposed change an equity fix that would align the law with what local guardians and family advocates described as an already functioning reality.

Representative Anthony Donato told the committee that thousands of grandchildren are raised by grandparents, often on Social Security or small pensions, and asked the panel to revisit the law to equalize access to public higher-education waivers. Joseph O'Leary, chair of the Commonwealth's Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, told the committee that "Chapter 15A section 19 of the general laws provides tuition and fee waivers at Massachusetts institutions of higher education for those young adults with a history of legal guardianship under the authority of the Department of Children and Families" and urged that the statute be amended so the same benefit covers kinship guardianship outside DCF custody.

Grandparents described financial strain. Sandra Vecchio, who leads a kinship support group, said many grandparents "are on fixed incomes" and face costs such as denied orthodontia and routine household expenses; Karen Gardner, a guardian from Orange, said her household relies on Social Security, SSI and limited supports and that her granddaughter's dream of attending college would be impossible without tuition relief.

Commission and advocacy leaders said the legal fix is narrow. O'Leary characterized the proposed bills (H.1428 / S.924) as amending the statutory language to include youth in legal guardianship outside of DCF custody, so the same waiver that currently serves youth who were in DCF custody would also apply to adopted youth and those in probate-ordered guardianship.

What the committee heard on scope and numbers: Witnesses cited a cohort of roughly 1,600'1,700 young adults currently in DCF care aged 18'23 as one measurable population that benefits from existing waivers; advocates asked the committee to estimate how many additional young people would be covered by the kinship amendment and offered help pulling that data from DCF and probate records.

Outlook: The committee did not vote. Members asked for follow-up data on the number of adopted youth and youth in kinship guardianship outside DCF custody and requested written material from the Commission on the Status of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren.

Ending: Advocates framed the bills as an equity correction to ensure youth raised by family guardians have the same pathway to higher education as youth who entered care through DCF. Lawmakers asked advocates and agency staff to provide clarifying numbers and technical statutory language for committee consideration.