Scope and Content: The Joint Committee on Local Affairs, a standing committee of the General Court, considers all matters seeking enactment of special laws for a certain city or town; establishment of economic, district, and local planning commissions; rent control; zoning laws and rules; and other matters referred.  It drafts, reviews, and holds hearings on proposed legislation.  Legislative/hearing files are compiled to document legislation considered by the committee and hearings thereon, including preparation, hearing proper, and subsequent actions.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year, thereunder by chamber/bill number
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Scope and Content: The Executive Office of Consumer Affairs was established in 1969 as of 1971, and renamed Executive Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation in 1983.
Arrangement: Arranged by subject
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Scope and Content: The Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children conducted at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind from 1848 was incorporated by Massachusetts as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth in 1850.  It was renamed Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded in 1883 and Walter E. Fernald State School in 1925.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts Resolves 1846, c 117 appointed Commissioners on Idiocy to inquire on: the condition of idiots in the commonwealth and if anything can be done for them. The commission’s report, written by Samuel Gridley Howe of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, led to the establishment by Resolves 1848, c 65 of the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children, located at the Perkins Institution. The school was incorporated as the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth (St 1850, c 150), located near Perkins in South Boston, with Howe serving as president until his death in 1876. It was renamed the Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded by St 1883, c 239, reflecting the establishment of a separate asylum department for those beyond school age or not capable of being helped by the school’s instruction. Funds for the construction of a new facility in Waltham were provided by Resolves 1888, c 82, and occupation of the new site began in 1890, with the South Boston facility closing in 1892. St 1925, c 293 renamed the institution the Walter E. Fernald State School, in honor of the superintendent of the school, 1887-1924. A 2003 gubernatorial initiative to close the Fernald School (known as the Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center since 1993) by 2007 was contested during the subsequent decade, until the institution was shut down permanently in Nov. 2014.
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in the Commonwealth from 1854 to 1872.  The State Primary School, opened at the almshouse in 1866 and continuing after its closing until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  Per St 1852, c 275, c 7, almshouse inspectors could place minor inmates out on trial with families, where they were often subsequently indentured.  Later school inmates were similarly placed (originally by school inspectors–St 1866, c 209, s 7; then by school trustees–St 1880, c 208, s 1) and periodically monitored by the visiting agent of the Board of State Charities (St 1869, c 453, s 2; St 1870, c 359, s 2–in which called State Visiting Agency) and from 1879 by the Division of Visiting, Dept. of Indoor Poor, State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (State Board of Lunacy and Charity from 1886).  These offices (and the almshouse inspectors before them) also visited and approved homes before placement, requiring recommendations on behalf of applicants for placed inmates (St 1869, c 453, s 3; St 1870, c 359, s 4).  Series was created to administer this process.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as chief executive of the state, is responsible for administration of the executive departments and agencies; approval or rejection of all legislative enactments; preparation of the state budget; appointment of state officials; and coordination of affairs among federal government, state, and cities and towns.  Letters official consist of letterpress copies of outgoing correspondence of the governor, chiefly from terms of John Andrew (1861-1866), relating to the administration of state government.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year
Notes: Transferred to Adjutant General’s Office at unknown date.  Transferred by the office’s war records unit to State Library in 1960s and to Archives in 1981. Volumes numbered 1-417, with some irregularities. Files for 1871-1874 lacking
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985). Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission. Permit No. 42 is missing. Some licenses by the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners and by the Dept. of Public Works, Division of Waterways are missing
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Scope and Content: Middlesex County was incorporated on May 10, 1643 (Mass Recs 2:38), continuing under successive governments of Massachusetts, most recently the Commonwealth (1780), as outlined in MGLA c 34.  Administrative powers and duties previously exercised at various times under the laws of the Commonwealth by the county courts of general sessions of the peace, county courts of common pleas, and circuit courts of common pleas, were assigned to commissioners in Middlesex and other counties, per St 1827, c 77 (1828).  The government of Middlesex County in this and other respects was abolished as of the effective date of St 1997, c 48 (approved July 11, 1997)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: In its statutory role (MGLA c 28A) as advocate for services to children in Massachusetts, the Office for Children administered a task force on child care affordability established per St 1986, c 206, s 53, chaired by the office director, with membership from the legislature, Dept. of Social Services, Child Care Coalition, and agubernatorial appointee.  The task force, reauthorized by St 1987, c 199, s 77 and St 1989, c 244, s 54 and continuing to meet through 1991, documented the cost of child care relative to working family annual income.  The office’s Child Care Affordability Project consisted of a task force report, funded by the office and United Way of Massachusetts, and a pilot Affordability Scholarship Assistanco Program for families whose income exceeded eligibility requirements for state subsidy.  St 1990, c 521 (approved 1991) established a Child Care Affordability Scholarship Assistance Fund to be administered by the task force.  Series was maintained by the office’s licensing unit to administer task force proceedings and related office projects.
Notes: Some materials predate formal constituting of task force
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Scope and Content: In its statutory role as advocate for services to children in Massachusetts, the Office for Children establishes regulations for licensing or approval of day care and substitute care providers (MGLA c 28A, s 4(c)).  The office holds hearings prior to adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations as required by law (MGLA c 30A, s 2).  Series is created by the office’s licensing unit to administer hearings and collate resulting comment.
Arrangement: Arranged by program, thereunder chronologically
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