Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Fy25 Goals Workforce topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Subcommittee frames FY25 goals: Medicaid uncertainty, data needs, convening role for disability workforce supports
Summary
The subcommittee reviewed its FY25 goals, prioritizing tracking Medicaid-related risks to the disability workforce, improving data-driven planning, and convening stakeholders to raise lived-experience perspectives for legislators and state agencies.
The Workforce Support Subcommittee of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities used part of its virtual meeting (date not specified) to discuss fiscal 2025 goals, focusing on workforce shortages, looming federal Medicaid uncertainty, and the subcommittee’s role as a convener for disability-service providers and lived-experience speakers.
Angela Ortiz said the group needs to track national and state-level developments tied to Medicaid and workforce: “I think what's going to be important ... is to have an understanding of how the potential implication and impact whatever is gonna be coming has on an already very fragile, fractured workforce and the population needing those services.” Members discussed coordinating with unions, advocacy coalitions and provider networks to gather real-time information about how any federal changes would affect direct support workers and organizations that serve people with disabilities.
Staff and members outlined specific follow-ups: Iman agreed to reconnect with Dr. Patricia Wu at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to set a future meeting; Andrew LaVarte said he would reach out to Undersecretary Cutler contacts for immigration- and workforce-related pipeline work; and members volunteered to contact the Attorney General’s office about resources for workforce communities facing transition. The subcommittee also confirmed plans to invite the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) to present its 2023–2024 human services survey findings at the next meeting.
Members emphasized elevating lived-experience voices in future programming. Representative Kate Khan suggested inviting a young job seeker with disabilities who recently graduated college to speak about job search barriers; other members proposed a panel that would include people with disabilities alongside organizational leaders and legislative staff to brief new legislators and their aides. The subcommittee discussed coordinating events and materials with the Massachusetts Developmental Disability Council’s upcoming bill-sharing event and with the Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities to identify relevant legislation for the session.
No formal policy endorsements were made; members noted the commission’s bylaws restrict endorsing legislation. Instead, the subcommittee agreed to use convenings and informational panels to educate legislators and stakeholders as bills are filed and to surface data and lived experience to inform potential policy responses.
