Home›Write the Letter That Lands
Copy it, fill it in, send it
Write the Letter That Lands
Massachusetts asks you to do a civics project. This is the part where it stops being an assignment and becomes a letter with your name on it.
Every letter below is built on the same four things: it is short, it asks for one specific thing, it carries a fact you went and found yourself, and it can be sent again if nobody answers. You fill in the blanks. Email is the usual way in. A phone call is faster when something is urgent. Standing up at a meeting is the one that happens in public.
On This Page
Start here. Who decides your issue?
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it is the one that decides whether your letter works. A good letter to the wrong board does nothing, because the people reading it cannot say yes. Find your issue below, and it will tell you who can. Two of the doors below are not letters at all: one is a phone call and one is a room you walk into.
Your schools
School Committee. Start times, the school calendar, bus routes and stops, the phone policy, athletics and activity fees, and anything in the student handbook. It sets district policy, and the total size of the school budget is voted by Town Meeting, or by your Mayor and Council in a city.
Your principal and your superintendent. The principal for how a school rule works day to day in your building. The superintendent for how the whole district runs. The School Committee hires exactly one employee, the superintendent, so a question about any other staff member goes to the district, not to the board.
Your city or town
Select Board. Streets and sidewalks, licenses, a crosswalk or a speed limit, and how something gets onto the Town Meeting warrant. Ask the engineering department who owns the road before you write: a numbered state route is MassDOT's rather than your town's, and your State Representative is who can ask them. It runs the town day to day, or hires the Town Manager or Town Administrator who does, and new bylaws are voted by Town Meeting rather than by the board.
Town or City Council. A local ordinance, the city or town budget, or a problem in your own ward or district. The real testimony happens at committee hearings rather than at the full council meeting.
Your town's executive. A department that is not answering you, a service that stopped, and how the budget gets built before anyone votes on it. Some of these seats are elected and some are appointed by the board or council that hires them, so your town's own roster is what settles which. A bylaw or an ordinance is still voted by your Council or by Town Meeting, so that is where a rule change goes.
Town Meeting. Every town bylaw, and any part of the town budget, schools included. It is the town's legislative body, and ten registered voters can put an article on the warrant of the annual town meeting. A special town meeting is different: there it takes one hundred registered voters, or ten per cent of the town's registered voters, whichever number is the lesser. There is no letter for this one: you go.
Your Clerk. When a board meets, who sits on it, when the Town Meeting warrant closes, and how to file a citizen petition. This is the most useful phone number in local government, and the Clerk's office answers these questions all day. There is no letter for this one: you call.
The police department. Its budget and its department policy go to your Select Board or Council. Officer certification and discipline are handled statewide, by the POST Commission.
Your other boards
Board of Health. Tobacco and nicotine sales, flavored products, food permits, and housing conditions. It can pass a binding regulation on its own without a Town Meeting vote, which makes it the fastest lever in Massachusetts.
Planning Board. Where housing or businesses can be built, height limits, and a specific development. It holds the public hearing, and the zoning change itself is voted by Town Meeting or the Council and needs two thirds.
Conservation Commission. A stream, a wetland, a marsh, or a pond.
Library Trustees. Library hours, programs, and policy. The library's money comes from Town Meeting.
Parks and Recreation Commission. A field, a court, a playground, or a park. The money for building one usually comes from Town Meeting.
Historical Commission. An old building, and whether it can be torn down or saved.
A document you want
Meeting minutes, a budget line, a contract, or a report. Under the Public Records Law they have ten business days to answer you, which makes this the one letter on this page that is owed a reply.
The state and federal seats
Your State Representative and your State Senator. State law: the driving age, the minimum wage, the bottle deposit, and Chapter 70, the formula that decides how much state money your schools get. They also carry a home rule petition to the State House when your town votes for something state law does not yet allow it to do.
Your member of Congress and your two US Senators. Federal law and federal money, and help with a federal agency like Social Security, the VA, or immigration when someone in your family needs it. They also nominate candidates to the US service academies.
Your local paper
The people who will actually vote on this at Town Meeting, and the neighbors who will show up to the hearing. In most Massachusetts towns the legislature is the voters in the room, so this is not just an opinion, it is how you reach them.
Now the letter.
Four letters cover almost everything a student needs to send. Each one is short on purpose. The parts in brackets are the parts only you can write, and they are the parts that make an official read it twice.
Every filled-in example below is set in a made-up town called Alderbrook, and the people in them are made up too, so nothing in them is a claim about a real place or a real official. The letters are otherwise exactly what a good one looks like.
You want a board to change something
Use this for your School Committee, your Select Board, your Council, whoever runs your city or town day to day, or any of the boards above. The name of the board or office is a blank you fill in.
Subject: [your ask, in six words]
Dear [their name],
I am a [your grade and your school].
I am asking the [board or office] to do one thing:
[The one specific change you want. Put the street, the time, or the room number in it.]
Here is what I found.
[The count you took yourself, the date you took it, and how many people it affects.]
To do it, they would need to [the one thing they would have to do].
How do I get this onto an agenda, and is public comment open that night?
[your name, your street, and your town]
Subject: A crosswalk at Quarry and Harrow Dear Ms. Whitcomb, I am an 11th grader at Alderbrook High School. I am asking the Select Board to do one thing: Paint a marked crosswalk at the corner of Quarry Street and Harrow Street, where the sidewalk ends and we cross to school. Here is what I found. I stood at that corner on four mornings in October and counted 41 students crossing where there is no marked crossing. The nearest one is about two hundred feet away. I asked the Engineering Department and Quarry is a town road, not a state route. To do it, they would need to ask the Engineering Department what a marked crossing there would cost. How do I get this onto an agenda, and is public comment open that night? Imani OkonkwoSee it filled in
Quarry Street, Alderbrook
Write the subject line last, once you know your ask. If you are writing to a board, address the chair. Get the name from your town's own roster page and spell it the way they spell it. Your street is what makes this a letter from a constituent rather than an email from a stranger. Add your phone if you would rather they called than wrote. The last line is the one that gets answered, because a question about process is cheap to answer and costs nobody anything to say yes to.
You need a document, and they have ten business days to send it
Use this for any record your town already holds: minutes, a budget line, a contract, a study, a report.
Subject: Public records request, [what you want, in five words]
To the Records Access Officer,
Under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, chapter 66, section 10, I am requesting a copy of the following:
[The exact record, named the way the town would name it. The minutes of the School Committee meeting of March 4, 2026. The traffic study for Washington Street. The FY2026 line item for athletic transportation.]
An electronic copy sent to this address is fine.
If any part is withheld, please tell me which exemption applies.
[your name, if you want to give it]
Subject: Public records request, Quarry Street crossing To the Records Access Officer, Under the Massachusetts Public Records Law, chapter 66, section 10, I am requesting a copy of the following: Any traffic or pedestrian study of the Quarry Street and Harrow Street intersection prepared for or by the Engineering Department since January 2024, and the minutes of any Select Board meeting at which that intersection was discussed. An electronic copy sent to this address is fine. If any part is withheld, please tell me which exemption applies. Imani OkonkwoSee it filled in
Notice what this letter does not ask for. Your representative needs your street, because that is what makes you theirs. The records officer is not allowed to care: the Public Records Law is purpose-blind, so who you are and why you want it cannot change the answer you get. Your name is yours to give or to keep, and your email is already in the From line. They have ten business days to respond, so write down the date you sent it. If you cannot find your Records Access Officer, call your Clerk and ask who it is.
It is not your town's to decide, so it is your Rep or your Senator
Use this for the State House, and for Congress. Every legislator's address is verified and on the legislator lookup.
Subject: [the bill number, if you have one], from a constituent in [your town]
Dear [their title and last name],
I am a [your grade and your school], and I live in your district.
I am writing about [the bill's short title].
I am asking you to [support it, oppose it, or say where it stands].
It matters where I live, and here is why:
[One sentence about your town, your school, or your street, and one fact with where you got it. Not about the state. Here.]
I know that [the best argument against you].
Could you tell me where you stand on it? I will be following the committee.
[your name, your street, and your town]
Subject: Chapter 70, from a constituent in Alderbrook Dear Representative Nakamura, I am an 11th grader at Alderbrook High School, and I live in your district. I am writing about Chapter 70, the formula that decides how much state money our schools get. I am asking you to say where it stands. It matters where I live, and here is why: Our School Committee told us in April that it could not fund a late activity bus, and the reason it gave was the size of our Chapter 70 number. That number is set on Beacon Hill, not here. I know that changing the formula moves money between districts, and the districts that would get less will say so. Could you tell me where you stand on it? I will be following the committee. Imani OkonkwoSee it filled in
Quarry Street, Alderbrook
An aide sorts mail by bill number and by district, and both of those are in your subject line before the letter is opened. Some towns are split between two districts, so your street is what settles which seat is yours. Most bills die in committee, which is exactly why asking where someone stands is worth more than asking them to agree with you. A state bill and its short title are on malegislature.gov. A federal one is on congress.gov.
You want the people who will vote on it to know
Use this for your local paper. In most Massachusetts towns the legislature is the voters in the room, so this is how you reach them.
Subject: Letter to the editor, [your town]
To the editor,
I am a [your grade and your school].
On [date], the [board] will decide [the thing it will decide].
Here is what I have seen.
[Your count, the date you took it, and where you were standing.]
I am asking them to [the one change].
I know that [the best argument against you].
Anyone can go to that meeting. I plan to be there. My parent or guardian knows I am sending this.
[your name and your town]
[your email or phone]
Subject: Letter to the editor, Alderbrook To the editor, I am an 11th grader at Alderbrook High School. On November 12, the Select Board will decide whether to mark a crosswalk at Quarry and Harrow. Here is what I have seen. I stood at that corner on four mornings in October and counted 41 students crossing where there is no marked crossing. I am asking them to paint the crossing before winter, when it is already dark at dismissal. I know that every crossing costs money the town has not budgeted, and that the Engineering Department’s list is longer than this one corner. Anyone can go to that meeting. I plan to be there. My parent or guardian knows I am sending this. Imani Okonkwo, AlderbrookSee it filled in
555 0148
Your name and your town get printed. Your phone number does not: it is only how the paper checks that you are a real person, and papers do check. Most papers publish a word limit on their letters page, so find yours and stay under it.
Before you hit send.
- Search your draft for a [ character. If you find one, you are not finished.
- Read it out loud once. If you run out of breath, cut a sentence.
- Send it from an address you will actually check.
- Most first emails do not get answered. That is not a verdict on you or on your ask. It is a full inbox, and sending the same letter again two weeks later is normal.
- Send a copy to yourself. That copy, with the date on it, is what you show your teacher.
An email to a public office may become part of the public record, the same way speaking at a meeting is on the record. Write it like something you would be glad to have on the record, because that is the same thing as writing it well.
Your project is finished when you send it, not when they answer. Massachusetts asks you to pick an issue, research it, take a position and act on it. It does not ask you to win.
Every legislator’s address, verified, for all 351 cities and towns.