State officials have pumped nearly $400,000 into a program to review the vaccine records of families entering the emergency shelter system, including migrants from other countries who may have foreign documentation, according to the Healey administration.

Officials at Boston-based John Snow, Inc., which has long worked with the state, have been contracted to review immunization documents. Since January, more than 1,200 children in state-run shelters have had their records checked, according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, or HHS.

Vaccine record checks have occurred since September 2023 but the cost surfaced in a biweekly report on the shelter system released Monday, which said $381,000 has been shuttled to the program.

Concerns about families’ vaccination status were most recently aired at a local meeting in Norfolk where residents heatedly debated Gov. Maura Healey’s decision to designate a former prison in the town as an overflow shelter for up to 450 people.

Many families entering shelters arrive with vaccine documentation received in other countries, according to the HHS.

Staff with John Snow, Inc. review the records families have with them and enter the information into a state database so clinicians can plan for and provide children with the vaccines they need, according to the state.

A spokesperson for John Snow, Inc. did not provide a comment in response to a Boston Herald inquiry.

The Department of Public Health has run “catch-up vaccination clinics” through the winter and spring for families to receive vaccinations. State officials have handed out more than 4,000 vaccinations at the clinics since January, according to the state.

Massachusetts requires children and students to have various vaccinations before entering school.

An HHS spokesperson said compliance with school immunization requirements is a “priority” but vaccine record reviews and catch-up shots include all shots recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

The disclosure of the dollars spent on vaccine record reviews offer yet another look at the hundreds of millions the Healey administration is spending on shelters that house local residents and migrants.

Spending this fiscal year is up to $591 million, with $107.5 million used to pay shelter providers, $20.5 million shuttled to clinical assessment sites, $8.9 million on emergency per-pupil student aid, $6.2 million to cover National Guard deployments to shelters, and $1.2 million for municipal reimbursements, according to the report.

Healey’s budget writing office still expects to spend $932 million this fiscal year and $915 million in the next on the shelter system, according to a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Administration and Finance.

The Healey administration has received a total of $826 million this fiscal year from the Legislature to pay for the emergency shelter system and the governor appears poised to receive at least $500 million in the next based on yearly budgets the House and Senate have produced.

The state reported 7,431 families were enrolled in the emergency shelter system as of May 23, according to a dashboard that was once updated daily but is now refreshed on a weekly basis.

About half of the families, or 3,731, entered the shelter system as migrants, refugees, or asylum seekers as of May 16, according to the report released Monday. Another 514 families applied for shelter and 338 were in overflow sites in the two weeks preceding May 16, the report said.

Another 778 families were on the wait list for shelter placement as of May 16 , according to the report.

Provided by
Boston Herald

BOSTON, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) – The Massachusetts Senate Has unanimously approved a nearly 58-billion-dollar budget for Fiscal Year 2025.

As the commonwealth faces challenges of inflation, and economic uncertainty, the Senate is committed to help build long-term economic growth of the state.

The senate budget focuses on the following areas:

Education, public, safety, public health and social services, tourism, community support, and much more.

So far, the following allocations have been secured:

$200k for Berkshire County Sheriff opioid task force $100k for Berkshire education resources k-12 $50k for Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness $25k for It Takes a Village Foundation and $12.5k for Southwick fire equipment

For a full list of budgets landmarks you can visit the Senate budget website.

Copyright 2024. Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.

May 26 (UPI) — A suspect in a Massachusetts stabbing spree is facing charges of assault with intent to murder and two counts of battery with a dangerous weapon after police say he stabbed two people in a Plymouth restaurant Saturday.

Twenty-six-year-old Jared Ravizza was arrested at 7:15 p.m. Saturday night but is in the hospital receiving treatment for non-life threatening injuries, District Attorney Tim cruz of Plymouth County said in a statement.

Ravizza is also believed to be connected to the stabbing attack of four girls in a nearby AMC movie theater about an hour earlier, as well as a murder that took place in Connecticut.

Ravizza allegedly stabbed a 21-year-old female and a 28-year-old male, both employees of a McDonald’s in a highway rest area in Plymouth, Mass., at about 7 p.m. Saturday, shortly before being arrested in the town of Sandwich, according to the District Attorney’s office. Both victims were both transported to the hospital for treatment of their injuries.

Security footage showed a person thought to be Ravizza stabbing the male employee through the drive-thru window before parking his car, entering the McDonald’s and stabbing the female victim, prosecutors said. They said he left in the car he was driving following the attacks.

About an hour before the attacks at McDonald’s, the suspect, believed to Ravizza, entered an AMC movie theater in Braintree and allegedly stabbed four girls between the ages 9 and 17 years old, police said.

Braintree police Department in a statement said the suspected entered the theater without paying.

“Without saying anything and without any warning, he suddenly attacked and stabbed the four young females,” the department said in a statement. “The attack appeared to be unprovoked. After the attack, the man ran out of the theater and left in a vehicle.”

The four victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to Boston hospitals for treatment, it said.

Police said they arrested Ravizza at about 7:15 pm Saturday after he fled the theater in a black Porsche SUV. Police tracked him down using a license plate number they could see in video surveillance footage, which they shared with other law enforcement agencies.

Police linked the vehicle to both stabbing incidents and were able to arrest Ravizza.

Ravizza could also be linked to a murder investigation at a home in Deep River, Connecticut.

Connecticut State Police said in a statement that officers responded to a report of a disturbance at a Deep River address. Upon arrival, they located a dead body.

Though Ravizza was not identified by name, Connecticut State Police said “a suspect in this investigation has been taken into custody in the State of Massachusetts.”