Executive Order  No. 68: Establishing a Governor's Advisory Committee on Child Development

WHEREAS, it is the responsibility of the Commonwealth, acting through its appropriate agencies, to protect and educate its children, and to insure their health and welfare and the stability of their families; and

WHEREAS, the Commonwealth, as a means of fulfilling these responsibilities, is committed to effective implementation of day care programs and other family related services for children; and

WHEREAS, numerous agencies of the Commonwealth, including the Departments of Education, Health, Public Safety, Public Welfare, Community Affairs, Mental Health, Administration and Finance, and Commerce and Development, and the Board of Higher Education, the Division of Employment Security, the Rehabilitation Commission, the Commission for the Blind, and the Massachusetts Commission on Children and Youth, are each concerned with the care of children; and

WHEREAS, the proper services for children require the cooperation of public and private agencies concerned with child care so as to insure maximum use of our resources;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FRANCIS W. SARGENT, Governor of the Commonwealth, by virtue of the authority vested in me as the Supreme Executive Magistrate, do hereby order as follows:

1. There is hereby created a Committee to be known as the Governor's Advisory Committee on Child Development. The Governor shall from time to time designate a member of the Committee to serve as Chairman. The members of the Committee who are not officials of the state agencies herein enumerated shall be appointed from time to time by the Governor and shall serve at his pleasure. The membership shall consist of the following:

(a) The Commissioners and Directors, or their designees, of the following state agencies: the Department of Education, Health, Public Safety, Public Welfare, Community Affairs, Mental Health, Administration and Finance, Commerce and Development, and the Board of Higher Education, the Division of Employment Security, the Rehabilitation Commission, the Commission for the Blind, and the Massachusetts Committee on Children and Youth, shall serve on the Committee.

(b) One third of the Committee shall consist of representatives from private agencies and professional groups interested in the development of services for children and families, and

(c) One third of the Committee shall consist of parents and representatives of parents whose children participate in child care programs or need child care programs.

2. The Committee shall have the following functions and responsibilities:

(a) To encourage the development of joint interdepartmental planning for state child care programs in cooperation with private agencies.

(b) To develop criteria for state recognition of local Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C) planning committees, and to review local proposals for recognition of 4-C programs; and to serve as a channel for local committees seeking to coordinate state and federal funds.

(c) To recommend allocation of state resources on a geographic basis according to priority needs.

(d) To assure distribution of information and technical assistance impartially across the state.

(e) To advise and make recommendations to the Governor generally in matters pertaining to child care and development in both the public and private sectors.

Given at the Executive Chamber in Boston this twenty-sixth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine and of the Independence of the United States of America, one hundred and ninety-fourth.

FRANCIS W. SARGENT
Governor
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

JOHN F. X. DAVOREN
Secretary of the Commonwealth