CFK Weekly—June 5, 2000

We encourage distribution of this information! If reprinting in whole or part, please attribute it to Connect for Kids (www.connectforkids.org).

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS
**'Kids Will Be Kids' Is No Excuse
**The Incredible Expanding School
**Connect for Kids Discussion: Balancing Work and Family
**New Connect for Kids Partner: WorkingMomMall.com

CONNECT TODAY
**Thanks for Your Feedback!

WASHINGTON UPDATE
**Proposed Cuts in Social Services Block Grants (Title XX)
**Sign onto Hunger Relief
**Child Advocates Oppose Recall of Unspent CHIP Funds

KEY REPORTS AND DATA
**Fourth Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth" Released
**The Condition of Education, 2000
**America's Promise Report to the Nation

HEALTH POLICY MATTERS
**The Uninsured in America: A Chart Book
**Why Are Eligible Families Losing Public Health Insurance?
**Asthma Epidemic Requires Stronger Public Policy
**San Jose Poised to Make Child Health News
**Mathematica to Review CHIP

HEALTH REPORTS IN BRIEF
**First Nationwide Public Opinion Poll on Those Without Insurance
**Gaps in Prevention and Treatment: Dental Care for Low-Income Children
**Mental Health Parity Act
**Tobacco Tactics Still Target Kids
**USDA to Test Link Between Breakfast and Test Scores

NEW HEALTH RESOURCES FOR PARENTS
**Guide to Asthma and Allergies Now Available
**New Growth Charts Can Help Spot Early Danger Signs for Obesity

TOOLS FOR ADVOCATES
**School Board Member -- Who? Me?
**Help Spot Editorials on Head Start and Crime Prevention
**Voter Guide on Health Issues
**Advocating for Policies to Make Work Pay
**Holding States Accountable for Health Coverage for Kids
**Youth Called on to Help Draft National Youth Platform

WELFARE REFORM -- GOOD NEWS, AND BAD
**Manpower Reports Good News for Minnesota Welfare Reform Outcomes
**Welfare Reform Stalling in Some States, like Indiana

EDUCATION REPORTS IN BRIEF
**GAO Calls for Assessing Early Education and Child Care Overlap
**Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1998-1999
**Public School Student, Staff and Graduate Counts by State, School Year 1998-99
**Statistics in Brief: Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education: School Year 1997-98

FOCUS ON THE STATES
**Child Welfare Services Differ Among the States
**State by State Round-Up

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS

**'Kids Will Be Kids' Is No Excuse
column by Julee Newberger
Remember back in school, how your heart raced and your stomach turned inside-out when you had to walk past a group of taunting peers, or find a seat in the bus without attracting the attention of a bully? In our monthly column, Julee Newberger says adults need to play an active role in helping kids learn kindness.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**The Incredible Expanding School
by Julee Newberger
What's open up to 15 hours a day, six days a week, 52 weeks a year, and can combine all the best elements of a school, community center, public library and medical clinic? The answer is one of dozens of schools identified as Community Schools for Excellence in a new Ad Council campaign. Learn more about these innovative schools, and the Ad Council's efforts.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Connect for Kids Discussion: Balancing Work and Family
Lots of parents, employers, and communities have come up with innovative ways to create workplaces that support families. We'd love to hear yours.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**New Connect for Kids Partner: WorkingMomMall.com
WorkingMomMall.com is a virtual mall and online community for women juggling the joys and responsibilities of children, home, career and personal aspirations, while striving for daily life balance.  Ten percent of all profits from the Web site will go to the Working Mothers Fund, a charitable fund established by its founders. WorkingMomMall.com has also created a forum for quick advocacy called Working Mom Activist that allows members to take a cyber stand on issues of importance to families.
http://www.connectforkids.org

CONNECT TODAY

**Thanks for Your Feedback!
Thanks to all of you who responded to last week's survey! It was great to get personal feedback from so many of you, with your helpful comments and suggestions, and to find out how many of you forward information from the Weekly and our Connect for Kids Web site through cyberspace, multiplying our reach!

In case you didn't know, you can always visit the current Weekly online in the News section of our Web site, where it may be easier to click through to the links. All past Weeklies are archived as well!
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1557/index.htm

WASHINGTON UPDATE

**Proposed Cuts in Social Services Block Grants (Title XX)
Governors rely on federal dollars to fund programs that protect and support vulnerable families, but these federal moneys are under attack. Find out more from the National Governors Association.
http://www.nga.org/PressRoom.asp

For updated information on Title XX funding, including a table charting potential losses to each of the states, check out the Children's Defense Fund.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/takeaction/title_xx.html

**Sign onto Hunger Relief
The Food Research and Action Center is taking the lead in sending a sign-on letter to Congress in support of new hunger relief legislation. E-mail Ellen Teller eteller@frac.org for more information.

**Child Advocates Oppose Recall of Unspent CHIP Funds
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to stay within the Budget Resolution parameters of increased defense spending and reserving the federal budget surplus for tax cuts by taking back unspent state Children's Health Insurance Program funds saved from FY 1998 to pay for other domestic spending programs. The Senate is expected to take action on this decision soon. For more information, e-mail the Children's Defense Fund field team at CDFfieldteam@childrensdefense.org

KEY REPORTS AND DATA

**Fourth "Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth" Released
The fourth edition of the annual comprehensive federal report on the well-being of children and youth, produced by Child Trends, presents the most recent and reliable data on more than 90 indicators. A limited number of free copies are available by faxing Joyce Marshall (202-690-5514) at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. The Government Printing Office offers the report for $45. 202-512-1800.
Watch for it to be posted online at http://aspe.hhs.gov.

**The Condition of Education, 2000
The Condition of Education, 2000 is an indicator report published by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) that summarizes the health of education. This year's report, with 65 indicators, shows changes over time; compares or contrasts sub-populations, regions, or countries; and assesses characteristics of students from different backgrounds and types of schools. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000062

**America's Promise Report to the Nation
America's Promise has published its Report to the Nation 2000. Find out what America's Promise has been doing in your own back yard, -- or review the updated list of corporate commitments to see if you can find a suitable partner for your efforts to bring nurturing, skill-building, and health and safety within reach of every child in your community.
http://www.americaspromise.org

Find a menu of key reports and landmark studies in the Connect for Kids Reference Room. http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1543/index.htm

HEALTH POLICY MATTERS

**The Uninsured in America: A Chart Book
Who are the 44 million Americans who are uninsured? How many are children? Why are they uninsured, and what impact does this have on their lives? The Kaiser Family Foundation ?Chart Book? has the answers. Order a copy by calling 800-656-4KFF.

Fact sheet summaries are available from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
http://www.kff.org/docs/sections/kcmu/uninsuredmay2000.html

A pie chart, prepared by the Urban Institute, shows the big picture. http://www.urban.org/news/quotes/5-16-00.html

**Why Are Eligible Families Losing Public Health Insurance?
Marilyn Ellwood, senior investigator at Mathematica, visited five states -- California, Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, and Wisconsin -- to find out why families are losing their Medicaid coverage for their children when they leave welfare. In recent testimony before Congress, she summarized her findings: ?incredibly complicated? eligibility rules, burdensome application and renewal procedures, and administrative difficulties from de-linking welfare and Medicaid. http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/healthcover.pdf

**Asthma Epidemic Requires Stronger Public Policy
The asthma rate among children under four increased by 160 percent between 1980 and 1994. Asthma is the leading cause of school absence, calculated at more than 10 million missed school days. ?Attack Asthma,? a report by the Pew Environmental Health Commission, urges a much stronger national response to fight the asthma epidemic.
http://pewenvirohealth.jhsph.edu/html/news/may2000.pdf

**San Jose Poised to Make Child Health News
According to the Associated Press, the San Jose City Council is poised to approve a plan to use the city's tobacco settlement money to finance health insurance for each of the city's 36,692 uninsured children. Under the proposal, San Jose would set aside $2 million each year, matched by $2 million from Santa Clara County's tobacco settlement (expected to be $18.5 million a year), with another $2 million from foundations and private donors and a half million from cigarette tax revenue.

According to the Silicon Valley Children's Report Card 2000, released June 1 by Kids in Common, Silicon Valley may be the epicenter of the new economy, but many of its children are cut off from the benefits of the region's prosperity.
http://www.kidsincommon.org/News_Release/News_%22Recieves%22C%22grade%22.html

**Mathematica to Review CHIP
Mathematica Policy Research is conducting a five-year national evaluation of states' Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). If you have recently completed studies (published or unpublished) to share, e-mail Jill Eden (jeden@mathematica-mpr.com; 202-484-4225).

HEALTH REPORTS IN BRIEF

**First Nationwide Public Opinion Poll on Those Without Insurance
Americans understand that families without health insurance face major problems, but the public is divided over what to do about it, according to a May, 2000 poll. Most Americans think families are uninsured due to joblessness, while in fact most uninsured families are in the workforce.
http://www.kff.org/content/2000/3013/NewsHourPR.pdf

**Gaps in Prevention and Treatment: Dental Care for Low-Income Children
Data from the Urban Institute's 1997 National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) indicates that almost 10 percent of low-income children had an unmet need for dental care - twice the level experienced by higher-income children.
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/series_b/b15/b15.html

**Mental Health Parity Act
Most employers are complying with the new requirements to put mental health benefit dollar limits on a par with those relating to physical health, but many have added new measures restricting mental health benefits, according to the GAO. The issue of parity for mental health benefits, especially for children, is becoming a campaign 2000 issue. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00095.pdf

**Tobacco Tactics Still Target Kids
Has the tobacco industry really changed its strategy for recruiting new smokers among youth? Tobacco watchdog groups argue that tobacco companies have merely changed their tactics -- from billboards to magazines -- to reach large numbers of kids with their advertising.
http://tobaccofreekids.org/reports/addicting/

**USDA to Test Link Between Breakfast and Test Scores
The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) has announced it will provide free school breakfasts to elementary school children in six school districts across the country, as part of a comprehensive study examining the critical link between nutrition and learning. http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2000/05/0165

NEW HEALTH RESOURCES FOR PARENTS

**Guide to Asthma and Allergies Now Available
The new parents' guidebook to allergies and asthma from the American Academy of Pediatrics helps parents learn more about what they can do to prevent attacks, minimize allergens, and more. Cost: $12.95.  https://www.aap.org/sforms/allergyasthma.htm

**New Growth Charts Can Help Spot Early Danger Signs for Obesity
The number of overweight children and adolescents has doubled in the last two decades. New pediatric growth charts, which include a body mass index, may help families and pediatricians take appropriate actions to prevent obesity by spotting the risk for becoming overweight as early as age two. http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts

Check out ?Topics A to Z? in the Connect for Kids Reference Room for more information on health care, health insurance, and keeping kids healthy.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1543/index.htm

TOOLS FOR ADVOCATES

**School Board Member -- Who? Me?
Ready for a leadership position in your community? How about the school board? The Metropolitan Nashville Public Education Foundation guide explains what it takes to be a good school board member, in anticipation of the August 3, 2000 Nashville school board elections. You don't have to be from Nashville to find some useful information here about what goes into being a good School Board member. http://www.nashville.k12.tn.us/general_info_folder/SchBdReq.html

**Help Spot Editorials on Head Start and Crime Prevention
Grass-roots activists across the country have been meeting with local editorial boards to publicize the link between quality early childhood education programs, like Head Start, and future crime prevention. If you spot such an editorial, you can help with the accurate tally by e-mailing Jess Humphrey at humphrey@action.org.

**Voter Guide on Health Issues
It's not too early to get informed about the issues that may decide your vote when you vote with kids in mind in November. The League of Women Voters and the Kaiser Family Foundation have put together the ?Join the Debate? Voter Guide, a briefing book on health care policy options up for grabs in the fall election. The first section covers the issues on America's uninsured.
http://www.kff.org/content/2000/1574/

**Advocating for Policies to Make Work Pay
The Urban Institute's long-time tax analyst and activist Eugene Steuerle argues that advocates striving for policies to ?make work pay? could work together with those who have favored changing welfare's policies that discourage marriage and work. He briefly offers historical background and his ideas in "Combining Child Credits, the EITC, and the Dependent Exemption.? http://www.urban.org/tax/04-24-00.htm

**Holding States Accountable for Health Coverage for Kids
When eligible children and families have lost or been inappropriately denied health coverage, states must take steps to make it right. In ?What States Must Do to Delink Medicaid and Welfare Programs? Families USA explains these April 7, 2000 guidelines from HCFA (Health Care Financing Administration) so advocates can be prepared to monitor their state's compliance. http://www.familiesusa.org/pubs/hcfagde.htm

**Youth Called on to Help Draft National Youth Platform
If you are 18 to 24, you can contribute to the National Youth Platform being developed for Campaign 2000 by Youth in Action.
http://www.YouthLink.org

WELFARE REFORM -- GOOD NEWS, AND BAD

**Manpower Reports Good News for Minnesota Welfare Reform Outcomes
Manpower's final report on the successes of the Minnesota welfare reform program. The state's continuing financial incentives were critical in raising families out of poverty that joined the low-wage workforce.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2000/MFIP/MFIPSummary.htm

**Welfare Reform Stalling in Some States, like Indiana
So far candidates on the campaign trail are uniformly touting welfare reform as a success. But what about the families who are unlikely to make it under the new work requirement rules -- parents with untreated mental health or substance abuse problems, families tending disabled or ?high-maintenance? children, families caught in geographical pockets of poverty and unemployment? The Washington Post took a closer look at what is stalling welfare gains in Indiana in its ?OnPolitics? series.
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13355-2000May26.html

Follow the welfare reform debate as an informed citizen. Check out the research and information collected under ?Welfare? in Topics A to Z in the Connect for Kids Reference Room. http://www.connectforkids.org

EDUCATION REPORTS IN BRIEF

**GAO Calls for Assessing Early Education and Child Care Overlap
Early Education and Care: Overlap Indicates Need to Assess Crosscutting Programs.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00078.pdf

**Overview of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools and Districts: School Year 1998-1999
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000333

**Public School Student, Staff and Graduate Counts by State, School Year 1998-99
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000330

**Statistics in Brief: Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and
Secondary Education: School Year 1997-98
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000348

FOCUS ON THE STATES

**Child Welfare Services Differ Among the States
"The Decision to Investigate: Understanding State Child Welfare Screening Policies and Practices,? an Urban Institute publication, describes results from a 1997 baseline survey of child welfare agencies.
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/anf_a38.html

**State by State Round-Up
California. A report documents how a state supplement to the federal Earned Income Credit (EIC) would benefit children in two million low-income working families in California.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=381

Colorado. Colorado's Child Health Plan (CCHP) appears to be delivering care services of comparable quantity and quality to those received by children with Medicaid or private insurance.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=382

Connecticut. Connecticut Voice for Children recommends the review of recent legislative action on education.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=383

District of Columbia. DC ACT is hosting a community dialogue on current approaches to reducing poverty in DC on June 7.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=385

Georgia. The June, 2000 issue of Pediatrics reviews Georgia's Breastfeeding promotion program for low-income mothers.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=387

Michigan. ?The Right Start in Michigan's Largest Cities? documents eight risk indicators for healthy births in the 28 largest cities in Michigan.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=399

New Hampshire. "Children's Agenda 2000" is a child-centered plan of action to focus attention on finding solutions to meet the needs of children in New Hampshire.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=406

New York. Youth Caucus Events at Beijing +5 Intergenerational Roundtables between young women from around the world and UN, government and NGO representatives have been scheduled for early June.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=409

Rhode Island. The ?Ideas that Work! To achieve school readiness and student success? series by KidsCount covers bilingual education, school-based dental services, and more.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=417

Virginia. "The Facts of Life for Children of Color in Washington State," from Washington KIDS COUNT and the Children's Alliance, reports that while most children of color in Washington state are healthy and succeeding, far too many lag in academic achievement, live in dangerous neighborhoods and lack economic support.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=425
 

Keep up the good work, everyone!

Jan Richter, Outreach Specialist, and the Connect for Kids Team
Jan@benton.org