CFK Weekly—July 3, 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
**How Do We Heal a "Broken Child"?
**Helping Families Leave Poverty, Not Just Welfare, Behind
**Ideas for Summer Reading: Connect for Kids Book Reviews
**All Kids Grieve

CONNECT TODAY
**Participate in a Connect for Kids Discussion on Protecting Our Children

ELECTION 2000 -- GET READY
**What's at Stake for Kids in the November Elections: Tell Us Your Thoughts

IMPROVING SCHOOLS
**"It Takes a City" and More to Implement Effective School Reform
**Condition of America's Public School Facilities 1999
**Building America's Schools: State Efforts to Address School Facility Needs
**GAO Recommends Better Accountability for Title I Programs
**Take a Stand

FOR THE ADVOCATES' TOOLKIT
**Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers
**The Free Market: Is Privatization The Best Choice for Children?

REPORTS IN BRIEF
**Monitoring the Future 1999 Overview of Key Findings
**Foster Care: HHS Should Ensure That Juvenile Justice Placements Are Reviewed
**Rural Families and Welfare Reform

WHAT YOUTH CAN TELL US ABOUT WHAT WORKS
**Juvenile Justice -- A Springboard to Success!
**Community Counts: How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development
**Teens Talk About Sex, Regret and Outside Influence

FOCUS ON THE  STATES
**State by State Round-Up
 

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS

Every week you'll find new things on the Connect for Kids home page. http://www.connectforkids.org

Here's our line-up for July 3.

**Can A Broken Child Be Made Whole?
"Broken Child," a powerful documentary that traces the full range of long-lasting emotional and physiological consequences from serious abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence on children well into adulthood premieres July 6 on HBO.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Helping Families Leave Poverty, Not Just Welfare, Behind
by Caitlin Johnson
For states looking to help families move out of poverty, Minnesota may have some lessons to offer. A new study of the state's pilot welfare initiative finds that allowing working parents a more gradual transition off of the rolls increases employment, reduces poverty and improves the well-being of children and families.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Ideas for Summer Reading: Connect for Kids Book Reviews
Looking for a good summer read? Our Book Review section covers books for adults who care about issues facing kids and families. Check out these reviews by staff and readers.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**All Kids Grieve
All kids experience loss. The key is to help them channel their grief into personal growth, not violence or destructive behavior. AllKidsGrieve.org offers books, classroom strategies and information on how to start support groups for kids so that they grow up learning how to handle life's ups and downs.
http://www.connectforkids.org
 

CONNECT TODAY

**Participate in a Connect for Kids Discussion on Protecting Our Children
Starting Monday July 3, Connect for Kids is holding an online discussion to explore community solutions to the cycle of abuse and neglect that threaten our children. We're using the upcoming HBO documentary, "Broken Child" (see above) as a starting point -- but please join us, even if you haven't seen the movie. We need your input on how we can help our communities better support vulnerable children and families.
http://www.connectforkids.org
 

ELECTION 2000 -- GET READY

**What's at Stake for Kids in the November Elections: Tell Us Your Thoughts
Ask the typical American what Washington, DC has to do with daily living, and most likely you'll get a "ho-hum, not much" reply. But ask about specifics -- gun safety and gun control, paid family leave, better health coverage and protections for parents and children, government support for working families earning below-poverty wages, repairing school facilities -- and you're likely to get a different response.

Much is at stake for kids and families in choosing our elected representatives in the November local, state, and federal elections. Let us know what you would include in a list of what's at stake in the November elections. E-mail suggestions to jan@benton.org

Your questions for candidates and your "what's at stake" lists will help us as we update our Moms Vote Election 2000 feature on the Connect for Kids Web site http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content.htm
 

IMPROVING SCHOOLS

**"It Takes a City" and More to Implement Effective School Reform
Distilling lessons learned from failed attempts and successes to implement school reforms, Paul Hill looks at what it takes to successfully improve schools in troubled districts. Hill finds that even the best-laid strategic plans can be undermined by insufficient financial, managerial, intellectual and political resources.
http://www.brookings.edu/press/review/summer2000/hill.htm

**Condition of America's Public School Facilities 1999
The National Center for Education Statistics finds that cost is the major barrier for schools to improve their facilities to correct inadequate conditions, reduce overcrowding, or improve ventilation, plumbing, and other systems. One in four schools report less than adequate building conditions and half report at least one in nine key building features is in less than adequate condition.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000032

**Building America's Schools: State Efforts to Address School Facility Needs
Facing school shortages, states are focusing more attention on school construction and modernization than ever before, according to a National Governors' Association Issue Brief which examines state funding mechanisms and current state activities to support K-12 school construction and renovation. http://www.nga.org/Pubs/IssueBriefs/2000/Sum000620SchoolNeeds.asp

**GAO Recommends Better Accountability for Title I Programs
The General Accounting Office analyzed the impact on accountability data of recent trends in Title I programs to provide schoolwide services and reforms in low-income schools. "Title I Program: Stronger Accountability Needed for Performance" recommends that states' criteria for progress include measurements of the performance of specific populations of disadvantaged students targeted by the Title I program in addition to overall student population measures.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00089.pdf

**Take a Stand
Congressional legislation could make a difference in improving school modernization and repair, according to the National PTA and the National Education Association.
http://www.pta.org/programs/washup.asp?x=1&q=School+Facilities
http://www.nea.org/lac/modern
 

FOR THE ADVOCATES' TOOLKIT

**Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers
We know a lot about the importance of children's early development and about the promise of high-quality preschool programs, but our growing knowledge "stands in stark contract to practice in many -- perhaps most -- early childhood settings," according to an upcoming text from the Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy of the National Research Council. The executive summary includes recommendations for improving professional development, teaching materials, public policies and public knowledge about the promise of the early years.
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309068363/html/

**The Free Market: Is Privatization the Best Choice for Children?
The trend of contracting out more and more services for families and children to the private sector raises serious questions. Does privatization of human services provide the benefits of market competition? Is it possible to craft a contract where the economic incentive for the private provider is specifically tied to providing good services? Learn what child advocates should consider when analyzing a privatization proposal from these three fact sheets from the National Association of Child Advocates. Contact Lyn Elbi (elbi@childadvocacy.org; 202-289-0777, ext. 201) for hard copies. http://www.childadvocacy.org/publicat.html
 

REPORTS IN BRIEF

**Monitoring the Future 1999 Overview of Key Findings
The highlights of the data-rich 1999 Monitoring the Future study of trends in tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use among youth show a wide divergence in use and attitudes specific to certain drugs, a continued leveling off on illicit drug use overall and continued widespread use of alcohol and tobacco. http://www.monitoringthefuture.org

**Foster Care: HHS Should Ensure That Juvenile Justice Placements Are Reviewed
Each year, the federal government spends over $3 billion to finance foster care placements for about half a million children. The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services approves the use of these funds for foster care placements for children in the juvenile justice system. However, the act prohibits using foster care funds for placements in facilities operated primarily for detention. This report by the General Accounting Office recommends closer oversight to ensure that detention facilities are not receiving these funds and to ensure that procedural requirements intended to protect children are being met in juvenile justice placements. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00042.pdf

**Rural Families and Welfare Reform
Although much of the welfare policy debate focuses on the urban poor, poverty rates are higher in rural areas than in cities. Unemployment and underemployment rates are higher for rural families, and their earnings growth is slower. Families also struggle with transportation and child care options in areas that typically have fewer "safety net" services. "Welfare Reform and Food Assistance in Rural America," a series of reports from the Joint center for Poverty Research looks at what states can and are doing to address the needs of rural families living in poverty.
http://www.jcpr.org/conferences/rural-summary.pdf

Find the report you're looking for in the Connect for Kids Reference Room.
http://www.connectforkids.org
 

WHAT YOUTH CAN TELL US ABOUT WHAT WORKS

**Juvenile Justice -- A Springboard to Success!
Carol Gabbard is a success, and you can read her story among the success stories profiling adults who passed through the juvenile justice system during a troubled youth from the Children's Court Centennial Communications Project. Trying to escape an abusive father landed Gabbard in a tough juvenile detention center in Atlanta, where a sympathetic probation officer mentored Gabbard and gave her emotional support. Gabbard, along with her husband, is now giving back, leading Reconciliation ministries, a church-based group that helps families work through the juvenile court process. http://www.cjcj.org/centennial

**Community Counts: How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development
You can learn from what youth have to say about the organizations that give them safe haven and worthwhile activities and what effective youth-based organizations look like from the point of view of those who use them. From a dozen years of conversations with youth in challenging urban and rural settings, Milbrey W. McLaughlin and colleagues have learned what motivates youth to participate in community-based organizations that serve them. http://www.publiceducation.org/pubs/

**Teens Talk About Sex, Regret and Outside Influence
Nearly two-thirds of teens who have had sexual intecourse wish they had waited, according to a poll released by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. And when it comes to their decisions about sex, teens say parents matter more than they might think. Read the poll and "What Teens Want," a collection of advice for parents, the media, government and their communities.
http://www.teenpregnancy.org/today.htm

FOCUS ON THE  STATES

**State by State Round-Up
Arizona.
According to the Public Education Network, Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull has called a special legislative session to discuss a plan that would raise $320 million a year for school funding specifically to meet student needs -- by raising the state sales tax.  http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=379

California.
California has moved thousands off its welfare rolls, but a new study from the Public Policy Institute finds a more troubling trend in the state's welfare-to-work results -- an 11 percent jump in welfare cases involving only children -- and not their parents.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=381

Colorado.
The Family Action Consortium is working to propose alternatives to the Tabor Law, which severely hinders public funding options to meet the needs of government funded programs for families and children with disabilities in the state. Contact Lorri Park (Lparkpris@aol.com; 303-447-8447) for more information.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=382

Connecticut.
The Counnecticut Council on Philanthropy invites nonprofit institutions and funders focusing on education to ?Meet the Grantmakers: Funding Education in CT? set for 9:30 am, July 12, in Middletown. E-mail RSVP to Deb Battit at ccp@Ctphilanthropy.org by July 10.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=383

Illinois.
If Illinois reduces its gas tax to accommodate public outcries against high pump prices, kids' programs may be the losers, as the state gas tax is earmarked for health, education and human services. Contact Brian Matakis at Voices for Illinois Children (312-516-5556 or bmatakis@voices4kids.org) for details.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=390

Maryland.
A new report from the National Center for Children in Poverty says that regulated child care, whether a child care center or family care home, is much scarcer in neighborhoods with high concentrations of low-income families than in more affluent neighborhoods, and the picture has not changed much since 1996 when welfare reform began requiring women with young children to work.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=397

New York.
Two reports released by the New York Office of the Attorney General, claim schools and parks in New York routinely overuse pesticides, often without notifying parents, students and school staff; New York State became the first state to sue gun manufacturers, claiming gun makers and wholesalers violated the state's public-nuisance law.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=409

Pennsylvania.
"Fiscal Facts: A guide to major federal programs affecting children" shows the ways that funding decisions in Washington affect real children in Pennsylvania.
 http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=415

Have a Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

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