The Disability Law Center’s Strategy for Tracking Legislation

Since 1995, the Massachusetts Legislature has cumulatively introduced over 60 bills mentioning the Disability Law Center (DLC). For the DLC, it’s critical to know what actions the legislature is taking regarding disabilities that affect more than 787,000 Massachusetts residents. 

Before the 2021-2022 legislative session, the DLC was responsible for staying updated on bill statuses, amendments, and hearings. A few employees followed along with the legislature, but bills were at risk of falling through the cracks. “It was always chaotic to write and submit testimony on time because hearings were always announced so late.”

"My policy colleague was trying to track all this and  create his own system,using information from   the state website. I explained that with MassTrac,we're gonna plug in all our bills and you're gonna know when they're coming," said Barbara L'Italien, Executive Director and CEO at the DLC.

The DLC knew it needed an automated process for tracking bills and other legislative movements, so it turned to InstaTrac’s MassTrac tracking software to improve its efficiency.

MassTrac has allowed L’Italien to organize bill and amendment tracking and research historical data from other sessions. L’Italien was able to shift more of the bill tracking to InstaTrac so she and her team could focus on identifying trends and providing resources to their community.

At the beginning of a legislative session L’Italien said she finds it so helpful “to be able to plug in…a bill that you care about and track it, be it for or against.

All her policy colleagues are able to collaborate on the MassTrac platform too, working from the same tracking dashboard so they can observe trends in all matters relating to disability law as it works its way through the legislature. She also sets search terms for key issues the DLC will track during the session so email notifications go out anytime a new bill or action is introduced that matches one of the terms.

With MassTrac, L’Italien and the policy team at the DLC are able to collaborate on bill tracking, and as a result, have been able to expand the DLC’s impact across the Commonwealth. 

“I had used MassTrac previously  and when I came to the Disability Law Center getting InstaTrac was one of the first things we did,” L’Italien said.” My colleagues with policy experience were excited to use it, and it upped their game.”

InstaTrac has made it faster and easier for the DLC to track legislation without bills or important dialogue on their mission slipping through the cracks. Using the MassTrac software has allowed the DLC to keep an ear to the ground while focusing on the overall impact of their advocacy.