The Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care did not implement any recommendations from the state's Commission on LGBTQ Youth, according to a report from the state auditor.
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio's office found department officials didn't have a plan to implement the commission's recommendations from 2021 to 2022, the period covered by the audit.
DiZoglio said she hopes the department takes these recommendations seriously in the coming year.
"The children in the care of early education and care are already, generally speaking, high-risk populations," DiZoglio said.
DiZoglio said it's time for the state to take action.
"We didn't see the level of concern that they should have had regarding these matters,” DiZoglio said. “So we are recommending an increased sense of urgency, and we are calling on the administration to take meaningful action to ensure that our recommendations are implemented in a very timely and expedient fashion."
The Department of Early Education and Care said it's looking to create an online training module on best practices for supporting LGBTQ+ children and their families, which is one of the recommendations from the commission.
The department said it is allocating resources for the 2025 fiscal year to implement the rest of the commission’s recommendations.
The director of the state’s Commission on LGBTQ Youth, Shaplaie Brooks, said in a statement the report showed there’s more work to be done. Brooks said commission members are currently in conversation with the Department of Early Education and Care to check on progress made since the audit period.
“We believe EEC is motivated to address our concerns on behalf of all youth in care — but especially for LGBTQ youth. While this is not unique to EEC, we are working with all state agencies that we provide recommendations to — to truly develop and implement intersectional policy changes and practices for the most marginalized youth which are black and brown queer and transgender youth — especially in the wake of what may be a challenging time ahead in this country,” Brooks said.
The auditor’s report also found ECC did not conduct background checks on Family Child Care program providers, including their household members, and has not been updating its language access plan.
