SENATOR SONIA CHANG-DÍAZ

WGBH

Reform Advocates Cautiously Praise New Police Oversight Bill, Say More Changes Needed To Dismantle Systematic Racism

By Tori Bedford | Jan 01, 2021

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, who was one of the bills sponsors, said the law is a “mile-marker,” but not an end to an ongoing fight against racism in policing.

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Baker signs police reform bill into law

By Sarah Betancourt | Jan 01, 2021

Gov. Charlie Baker signed sweeping police reform legislation on Thursday that will create a mandatory certification process for law enforcement and launch the nation’s first civilian-led police oversight board with subpoena power and decertification authority.

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Massachusetts Senate agrees to Baker’s demands for key changes in policing bill

By Matt Stout | Dec 22, 2020

Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, lamented that many things “over-policed communities pleaded for” are not in the bill, including binding definitions of use of force. But she said there was much for advocates to celebrate.

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Rep. Russell Holmes & Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz On Passage Of Long-Awaited Police Reform Bill And What Comes Next

By Greater Boston | Dec 02, 2020

State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, who served on the police reform conference committee, and state Representative Russell Holmes, who has long pushed for many of the changes included in the bill, join Jim Braude to discuss the long-awaited police reform bill.

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Mass. legislators reach compromise on police reform; officer certification a key component

By Chris Lisinski and Sam Doran | Dec 02, 2020

"I'm really satisfied with the total product of this bill," Sen. Chang-Diaz said. "...It is a final package that strikes a lot of wins for accountability, for community voice at the table of power, for changing our vision for what public safety is and means from one of force and punishment to one of de-escalation and helping and prevention."

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Lawmakers Push DOC To Reduce Prisoners, Increase Testing Amid Pandemic

By Deborah Becker | Nov 20, 2020

The lawmakers say the Department of Correction will expand testing and take steps to release prisoners to home confinement.

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Pandemic Pushes Debate Over Driver’s Licenses

By Chris Burrell | Nov 17, 2020

With immigrant communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, the debate about whether to allow unauthorized immigrants in the state to get driver’s licenses is heating up.

State House News Service

Mass. Senate Leaders Propose Sweeping Police Reforms

By Katie Lannan | Jul 06, 2020

The Massachusetts Senate plans to vote Thursday on a wide-ranging bill that would create a process for certifying and de-certifying officers and impose new limits on use of force, including a ban on chokeholds and restrictions on the use of tear gas.

The Boston Globe

‘I have wounds that I’ll never lose.’ The state’s top political leaders of color press for change across all levels of government

By Matt Stout and Dasia Moore | Jun 02, 2020

Mobilized by the social unrest gripping the country, the state’s top political leaders of color gathered Tuesday to urge action across all levels of government, their words underwritten by a docket of resolutions, policies, and legislation they say are designed to transmute anger into change, increasing police accountability and chipping away at structural racism.

Jamaica Plain News

State Law Puts Moratorium on Evictions, Foreclosures During COVID-19 Emergency

By David Ertischek | Apr 23, 2020

“Ensuring people have safe, reliable housing throughout this crisis is one of the most important things we can do to flatten the curve and save lives right now,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz (D-2nd Suffolk).

WGBH

How Are People Who Don't Primarily Speak English Getting Information About Coronavirus?

By Esteban Bustillos | Mar 20, 2020

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz’s Twitter feed has been filled with information about local resources in both English and Spanish.

MassLive

Bill that calls for no-interest loans for Mass. marijuana social equity and economic empowerment applicants reported favorably by committee

By Melissa Hanson | Mar 05, 2020

“This is both a critical and efficient step in delivering on the requirement that money from marijuana tax revenues be spent on restorative economic development for communities harmed by the War on Drugs,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, the chair of the joint committee.

State House News Service

Baker Signs Landmark Student Opportunity Act

By Chris Lisinski | Nov 27, 2019

Massachusetts will invest an additional $1.5 billion in K-12 public education over the next seven years after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a funding reform bill, touted by supporters as a generational change, into law Tuesday.

Lowell Sun

Gateway Cities beneficiaries of ed-funding bill

By Editorial | Nov 22, 2019

The bill, dubbed the Student Opportunity Act, represents the most significant update to the funding formula since it was established as part of the 1993 Education Reform Act.

WWLP

Lawmakers work on changes to prison visitation policies

By Jodi Reed | Nov 16, 2019

Senator Chang-Diaz said the current policies in place make it hard for inmates to return to civilian life once they are released.

MassLive

Massachusetts Senate passes $1.5 billion education funding bill after lengthy debate

By Shira Schoenberg | Oct 03, 2019

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, a former Education Committee chair and a leader on education funding reform, said, “This bill stands as our commitment that, in Massachusetts, zip code must not be destiny.”

Boston Globe

School funding bill will change the game for disadvantaged students

By Sonia Chang-Díaz | Sep 30, 2019

Fulfilling the promise of public education as the great equalizer is our next big goal. Bay Staters believe in it. It’s a goal our constitution anchors us to. Now, that collective effort in advocating, crafting policy, and working together has given us a chance to deliver on it.

MassLive

Massachusetts lawmakers consider bills to update state gun laws

By Shira Schoenberg | Aug 28, 2019

Chang-Diaz noted that mass shootings, especially those involving middle-class white children, make headlines. But she asked fellow lawmakers to have that same “sense of horror, unacceptance, urgency when shootings happen in Dorchester or Roxbury or Springfield or Holyoke or other urban communities, when the child’s riddled body is black or brown and their family is low-income, doing their best to make ends meet.”

Dorchester Reporter

Weekend shut-downs set on MBTA subway lines

By Katie Trojano | Aug 14, 2019

“There’s no reason it had to be this way, the situation we find ourself in now is due to years of deferred maintenance. Deferring maintenance is a habit that State leaders need to break,” Chang-Diaz said.

MassLive

Massachusetts lawmakers will leave for August break with major unfinished business: education funding

By Shira Schoenberg | Jul 31, 2019

“At what point does ‘we’re working on it’ become justice delayed and denied?” Chang-Diaz said the Senate has passed the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission multiple times. “The Legislature has had nearly four years to consider the recommendations — that’s half a kid’s elementary school years,” she said. “There’s no good reason that students will go back to school with no foundation funding plan in place.”