MAAP STARS Legislative Day

The goal of the MAAP STARS Legislative Day is for the students to visit their
legislators and “tell their stories”. By students meeting with their legislators, they will help
promote their schools and programs and give the students a better understanding of the
legislative process. Each year the Legislative Day is sometime in February or March. The 2018 date was February 28th. We had around 20 schools attend this year..

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Overview

As we said above, the goal is for your students to meet and discuss their needs with their legislator. Since you serve students from various locations, you will want to make finding out which
representatives to contact into a lesson for your students. You can simply have the students do a
web search "How to locate your Minnesota Legislators". The web address is: www.leg.state.mn.us.

At this site, your students will find all sorts of information about their Legislative and Congressional Members. There is a link "About the Legislature" with a lead to "Who Represents Me?" Students can type in their home address and it sends them directly to the names of the people they'll want to contact to set up appointments for the date the Legislative Day is scheduled. From this site, you can also get the representatives' phone number, email or direct mailing addresses.

If you prefer to call, the General Information phone number for the Capitol is: 651-296-8336. The House phone is: 651-296-2146. The Senate members can be reached by calling 651-296-0504.

What MAAP STARS Legislative Day Means to Me

Here is a testimonial from three students about what MAAP STARS Legislative Day meant to them.

Typical Agenda for the Day

The date for the 2018 Legislative Day was February 28, 2018. We will initially meet in the House Office Building in Room 500 South. (Watch for updates. This room will probably change.) Below is a typical agenda for the day.

Plan on a full day! This will be an excellent opportunity to do some public relations for your schools and programs. Bring a camera to get pictures for your school district and/or local paper. Make sure that you follow-up when you get back home with “thank you” letters to your Senators and Representatives. I would also encourage you to have your students write brief summary articles that we can submit to the MAAP newsletter.

Sample Letter

Here is this year's sample letter that you can use to think about what you may want to say to your legislator when you set up your appointment.

Legislative Day Letter and Registration Form

Here's the letter inviting programs to attend MAAP STARS Legislative Day at our State Capitol. it gives you the details of what's planned for that day. Please let Patti Haasch, MAAP STARS Chair, know by February 20, 2018 if your school/program plans to participate. Her email is:pjhaasch@yahoo.com