Melissa Drew: Lang exhibited his persistence in getting special needs bill passed

To The Daily Sun,

Tenacious — a weird way to start a letter supporting Tim Lang for state Senate, but that's who he is once he agrees to help: persistent and relentless. See, about five years ago, House Bill 1353 was submitted to help schools with implementation of Unified Sports programs. Unified Sports is a partnership between schools, NHIAA and Special Olympics New Hampshire. That bill sadly died, and the sponsor wasn't reelected to the House, but Tim was, and he agreed to file the bill again.

He worked with school members, Special Olympic Athletes, staff and state school boards to craft a new, better bill in 2020. That passed the House education committee unanimously and was sent to the House finance committee. Sadly, due to what they called “mechanical issues,” they killed it.

In 2020 he was reelected and worked on the issues and filed the revised bill HB 1624. Unified co-curricular programs match and engage neurotypical students with special needs students to provide a program that benefits everyone. Tim worked hard, not taking no for an answer, amending to satisfy House and Senate and it finally passed, then went to the governor for signature.

Tim continued advocating and asked Gov. Chris Sununu to sign the bill into law at Laconia High School this summer. Parents of special needs students and Special Olympians from around the state were in attendance and it meant so much to see this state support Unified Sports programs.

As a parent of a special needs child and a coach of some amazing Special Olympians, I appreciated Tim not giving up, working this bill until it became law. Having an elected official so dedicated to helping is what we need more of. I urge all voters in Senate District 2 to vote Tim Lang for State Senate.

Melissa Drew

Tilton