Sarah Betancourt

Freelance reporter, Formerly worked for CommonWealth

About Sarah Betancourt

Sarah Betancourt is a long-time Latina reporter in Massachusetts. Prior to joining Commonwealth, Sarah was a breaking news reporter for The Associated Press in Boston, and a correspondent with The Boston Globe and The Guardian. She has written about immigration, incarceration, and health policy for outlets like NBC, The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and the New York Law Journal. Sarah has reported stories such as a national look at teacher shortages, how databases are used by police departments to procure information on immigrants, and uncovered the spread of an infectious disease in children at a family detention center. She has covered the State House, local and national politics, crime and general assignment.

Sarah received a 2018 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for her role in the ProPublica/NPR story, “They Got Hurt at Work and Then They Got Deported,” which explored how Florida employers and insurance companies were getting out of paying workers compensation benefits by using a state law to ensure injured undocumented workers were arrested or deported. Sarah attended Emerson College for a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Communication, and Columbia University for a fellowship and Master’s degree with the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.

About Sarah Betancourt

Sarah Betancourt is a long-time Latina reporter in Massachusetts. Prior to joining Commonwealth, Sarah was a breaking news reporter for The Associated Press in Boston, and a correspondent with The Boston Globe and The Guardian. She has written about immigration, incarceration, and health policy for outlets like NBC, The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and the New York Law Journal. Sarah has reported stories such as a national look at teacher shortages, how databases are used by police departments to procure information on immigrants, and uncovered the spread of an infectious disease in children at a family detention center. She has covered the State House, local and national politics, crime and general assignment.

Sarah received a 2018 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for her role in the ProPublica/NPR story, “They Got Hurt at Work and Then They Got Deported,” which explored how Florida employers and insurance companies were getting out of paying workers compensation benefits by using a state law to ensure injured undocumented workers were arrested or deported. Sarah attended Emerson College for a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Communication, and Columbia University for a fellowship and Master’s degree with the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism.

Stories by Sarah Betancourt

Getting out the prisoner vote

Healey, sheriffs joining forces to get ballots to inmates

Judge allows prisoners to pursue stimulus checks

IRS had blocked inmates from receiving the funds

Baker names Poppe secretary of vet services

Had been filling role for 4 months on interim basis

Courts gear up for eviction crush

More judges, more translators, and Zoom rooms

Walsh, Gross pledge to implement police reforms

New watchdog office, diversity staff among recommendations

Pence-Harris debate more traditional

Candidates often ignored the questions they were asked

Higher immigration fees put on hold

Court cites process issues, impact on low-income immigrants

Boston delays return to school classrooms

Citywide COVID-19 positive test rate reaches 4.1 percent

Baker not calling a halt to Halloween

Says outdoor trick or treating tops indoor parties

Campbell says Boston is primed for change

On race, mayoral candidate has lived the problem

COVID-19 outbreak at Plymouth substance abuse center

28 of 97 civilly committed men test positive, quarantined

Trump contracts COVID-19

Diagnosis upends final weeks of campaign

Court rules unauthorized tenant can be evicted

Subleasing called gray area of eviction moratorium

Rollins’s ‘Brady List’ not factoring in Boston police reform report

Database of officers accused of misconduct released late in task force process

Blacks, Latinos migrating from Boston to Gateway Cities

Seek lower-cost housing, often in unstable neighborhoods, report says

136 police officers on Suffolk County Brady list

Rollins identifies police with possible credibility issues

Trump calls Baker a RINO

Claims governor is unsuccessfully defending mail-in ballots

Baker rebukes Trump power transfer remarks

Calls president’s comments ‘appalling and outrageous’

Campbell run in sync with racial reckoning

Councilor’s long-standing concerns are now national focus

Bill would bar state, county law officers at polls

Sheriff Hodgson, in tweet, calls legislation 'outrageous'

Groups urge ROE Act passage to honor Ginsburg

Abortion rights advocates seize on justice’s death to push bill

Districts coming up short on reporting school-based arrests

Major discrepancies arise between reported and actual data

COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to be a silver bullet

Experts rein in expectations; long process ahead

Role of school nurses expands during pandemic

Oversee medical waiting rooms for those with symptoms