Fighting For Families
As House Chair of the Committee on Children, and member of the Education Committee, much of my work has been focused on families and kids. The following legislation is just a snippet of laws I've passed to protect our kids:
* Authored bills to protect kids from sexual predators, lengthen punishments for convicted offenders, and even exposed and changed a regulation loophole which had allowed school bus drivers to continue to work with kids after an arrest for a crime against a child. I've also held numerous events designed to empower parents to protect their kids online, keep them off drugs, and how to find help for our kids who need it.
*Created training for our police, firefighters, and EMTs to help them communicate and help kids and adults on the Autism Spectrum, to save lives of both our family and friends on the spectrum, but also for the safety of first responders. Also created CT's Blue Envelope program for drivers with Autism, which is being emulated across the country.
* Passed a law which requires suicide screening for kids as early as third grade, in response to the tragic death of an 11 year old girl in Cheshire. Named for her, Anjelita's Law also created a Collaborative whose purpose is to support the social emotional well-being of our children, and provide trauma-informed practice training to schools to help our kids.