CFK Weekly—August 28, 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
**Re-Engaging the Electorate: Moms Vote Because it Matters!
**Lead Paint Lawsuits: A New Take on an Old Problem
**Connect for Kids in San Jose
**Engaging the Next Generation

CONNECT TODAY
**Cast Your Ballots for Kids!

BUILDING COMMUNITIES FOR FAMILIES
**Back to School -- A Time for Community
**Invite Your Legislator to School
**Bright Futures in Practice: Oral Health

BARRIERS TO BENEFITS ? IMPROVING THE SYSTEM
**Medicaid: Beyond Stigma
**Neighborhood ?Walkers and Talkers? Sign Up New Orleans Families
**Food Insecurity Still High for Mother-Headed Families
**The Red Tape Divide: State by State Review of Food Stamp Applications

JUST THE FACTS!
**A Back to School Special Report: Growing Pains
**Child Welfare Statistics Improving
**Health Status ?Snapshot? of Every U.S. County
**SCHIP Enrollment Strong Throughout 1999
**Births: Preliminary Data for 1999

TIPS FOR PARENTS, TUTORS AND MENTORS
**Reading Pathfinder
**Figure This! Match Challenges for Families
**Teaching Tolerance Grants Program
**How People Learn

TOBACCO NEWS
**Surgeon General Says We Can Reduce Tobacco Use
**Changes in Youth Cigarette Use and Intentions

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK
**Federal Dollars Help Students in Low-Income Districts

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

MOMS VOTE 2000 ? CAN WE COUNT ON YOU?

Everyone knows that parents do the lion's share of raising healthy children, but every day politicians make decisions that affect our kids ? whether they'll be able to see a doctor, have a hot lunch at school, get a summer job, learn to read on time or pay for college. Special interest lobbyists talk with policy makers on a regular basis, but ordinary people get only one opportunity to cast our vote for those who will make the decisions that matter to families and kids.

Decide which candidates ? including those running for state and local office -- will give you a better deal for families and youth in your community. Register to vote, and take a friend with you to vote in November.
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content.htm

**Get Informed
Find the basic facts on seven issues pertaining to kids and families -- child care, education, environment, families and work, financial security, health and safety. Learn ways to get past the campaign rhetoric to decide who's for kids and who's just kidding and obtain expert analyses of candidate positions.
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content_list.htm?attrib_id=300

**Get Involved
You'll find tough questions to pose to the candidates, and things you can do for kids leading up to Election Day. Don't miss the advocate's toolkit for action!
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content_list.htm?attrib_id=300

**National Campaigns
These nationwide efforts are working to make sure no children are left behind in the November elections.
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content_list.htm?attrib_id=302

**State Campaigns
Find out about the legislative priorities for kids in your state. http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content_list.htm?attrib_id=303

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS

**Re-Engaging the Electorate: Moms Vote Because It Matters!
by Cecilia Garcia
The majority of Americans say they are concerned about education, the economy and health care, but too few are motivated enough by their concerns to exercise their right and responsibility to vote. Cecilia Garcia discusses why it's so important to reverse a slide in voter turn-out and cast our ballots with children and families in mind on Election Day. Learn more about holding candidates accountable for kids in our new Moms Vote feature!
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Lead Paint Lawsuits: A New Take on an Old Problem
by Julee Newberger
Inspired by the recent tobacco industry settlement, Santa Clara County, California, has become the first U.S. county to sue the lead paint industry for medical and other costs associated with childhood lead poisoning. Advocates hope the lawsuit will pave the way for future legal efforts to recoup money spent on the damages caused by lead paint.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Connect for Kids in San Jose
Who's working for kids in San Jose, California, and what can we learn from their local initiatives for children and families? Find out in Connect for Kids' new San Jose community page.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Engaging the Next Generation
To reach young adults, nonprofits must rethink their message, recruiting methods and expectations for volunteers. Learn how best to benefit from their volunteerism, energy and creativity in this analysis by the Ad Council.
http://www.connectforkids.org

CONNECT TODAY

**Cast Your Ballots for Kids!
In a Connect for Kids column, Cecilia Garcia writes about the importance of re-engaging the electorate so that "we, the people" really do have a voice on Election Day. How can we make sure that adults ask candidates to put forth their views on children's issues? And how do we engage more adults who care about kids and families to turn their concerns into action on Election Day?
http://www.connectforkids.org/thread_msg2032/thread_msg_list.htm?thread_id=3448

BUILDING COMMUNITIES FOR FAMILIES

**Back to School -- A Time for Community
Local partnerships between families, schools, businesses and community and religious groups are a proven means for raising student achievement and creating safe communities. The U.S. Dept. of Education's America Goes Back to School initiative is designed to help promote local partnerships for learning in schools and communities across the nation. http://www.ed.gov/Family/agbts/

**Invite Your Legislator to School
On September 15, celebrate ?Back to School Day? by inviting your state legislator back to school. Remember, state legislatures spend a lot of money on schools and education, so you can help them spend it wisely by seeing what a real school looks like!
http://www.ncsl.org/public/backsch.htm

**Bright Futures in Practice: Oral Health
Find detailed help in meeting the preventive and primary oral health care needs of infants, children and adolescents, with these guidelines from the U.S. Maternal and Child Health Bureau. http://www.brightfutures.org/op/bf_oralhlth/ohpdfmenu.htm

BARRIERS TO BENEFITS ? IMPROVING THE SYSTEM

**Medicaid: Beyond Stigma
When eligible families miss out on signing up for Medicaid, is it stigma -- or other barriers -- which deter them? A new report identifies barriers including unfair personal questions, physicians' unequal treatment of Medicaid recipients, misperceptions about eligibility and application procedures and inconvenient application hours.
http://www.hfni.gsehd.gwu.edu/~chsrp/

**Neighborhood ?Walkers and Talkers? Sign Up New Orleans Families
When parents apply for Medicaid or CHIP, their attempts to enroll are too often unsuccessful because of complicated, confusing procedures. Read about a community outreach strategy, along with a good overview of the barriers, in ?Health Care for All: Medicaid and CHIP Outreach in New Orleans? in the summer issue of ?Advocasey,? from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
http://www.aecf.org/publications/advocasey/summer2000/

**Food Insecurity Still High for Mother-Headed Families
Despite the strength of the American economy in the past few years, food insecurity and hunger continue to affect millions of American families, according to this devolution report on four cities from the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. More than 15 percent of mother-headed families living in highly disadvantaged urban neighborhoods and who had received or were currently receiving cash welfare benefits reported food insecurity or hunger.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2000/UrbanChange/FoodSecurityHunger.htm

**The Red Tape Divide: State by State Review of Food Stamp Applications
Complicated, confusing and offensive application forms may deter eligible families from signing up for food stamps, according to the Second Harvest anti-hunger organization. Some state applications ask how much the parent earns from panhandling or plasma donations, or how much is in a child's bank account. http://www.secondharvest.org/policy/food_stamp_study.html

JUST THE FACTS!

**A Back to School Special Report: Growing Pains
Already in some Los Angeles classrooms, there are twice as many children as there are desks. Some 15,000 schoolchildren must commute each day because there is no room at the school nearest to their home. According to U.S. Dept. of Education figures, this may be just the beginning of school overcrowding as the ?baby boom echo? begins to drive up school enrollments in urban and suburban districts across the country this fall, next year and for the first quarter of the new century.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/bbecho00/index.html

**Characteristics of the 100 Largest U.S. Public Elementary and Secondary School Districts: 1998-1999
The National Center for Education Statistics describes the 100 school districts where almost one in every four public school students goes to school.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000345

**Child Welfare Statistics Improving
State statistics on child abuse and neglect show a decline, with the incidence of child abuse and neglect has declined in recent years (according to 1997 data). According to 1998 data, the number of adoptions of children in foster care has increased, but there are still about 100,000 children in foster care waiting for a permanent adoptive home.
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/news/cwreport.htm

**Health Status ?Snapshot? of Every U.S. County
You may think you know all about your county, but do you? Now you can get the health data specific to your county -- causes of death, infectious diseases, teen mothers and more.
http://www.communityhealth.hrsa.gov

**SCHIP Enrollment Strong Throughout 1999
The number of children enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Programs has grown to 1.8 million in December 1999, a 112 percent increase from December 1998.
http://www.kff.org/content/2000/2195/

**Births: Preliminary Data for 1999
The birth rate for teenagers declined 3 percent between 1998 and 1999, reaching a rate of 49.6 births per 1,000 women ages 15-19. This is the lowest rate in 60 years, according to a new report from Center for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics, dropping 20 percent from the most recent high in 1991. Other findings include a drop in the number of births to unmarried teens and record high levels of women receiving early prenatal care, yet no improvement in the percent of infants born at low birthweight. The report presents data for the nation as well as key indicators by state.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases/00news/00news/newbirth.htm

TIPS FOR PARENTS, TUTORS AND MENTORS

**Reading Pathfinder
If you are tutoring a child or helping your own child learn to read, you might find the answers to your questions in the Reading Pathfinder, a gateway web site organized by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary & Early Childhood Education (available in Spanish & English).
http://readingpath.org

**Figure This! Match Challenges for Families
Find learning activities geared toward middle school students from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Dept. of Education.
http://www.figurethis.org

**Teaching Tolerance Grants Program
The Southern Poverty Law Center offers grants of up to $2,000 to K-12 classroom teachers for implementing tolerance projects in their schools and communities.
http://www.splcenter.org/cgi-bin/goframe.pl?refname=/teachingtolerance/tt-5.html

**How People Learn
The expanded edition of ?How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School? is now available from the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9853.html

TOBACCO NEWS

**Surgeon General Says We Can Reduce Tobacco Use
?Reducing Tobacco Use,? the first-ever report to provide an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of various methods to reduce tobacco use -- educational, clinical, regulatory, economic and social ? provides evidence for the effectiveness of a number of approaches. These include school-based prevention programs combined with community and media-based activities; physician engagement and insurance coverage to encourage people to quit or seek treatment of nicotine addiction; strong clean indoor air regulations; improved tobacco warning labels; increased tobacco prices and excise taxes and reducing the broad cultural acceptance of tobacco use.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr_tobacco_use.htm

**Changes in Youth Cigarette Use and Intentions
The hard-hitting Florida anti-tobacco campaign may have become a political football in the state legislature, but it was effective, according to this research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v284n6/abs/joc00237.html

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

**Federal Dollars Help Students in Low-Income Districts
Federal funding is significantly helping to level the playing field between high- and low-poverty schools, but per pupil spending in high-poverty districts still lags behind more affluent districts by more than 10 percent, according to this U.S. Dept. of Education report. The findings show that more high-poverty schools than before are receiving targeted federal funds. Federal revenues added $692 per pupil in the highest-poverty districts, or 11 percent of total revenue.
http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/08-2000/0811.html

Happy Labor Day, everyone!
Jan Richter, Outreach Specialist, and the Connect for Kids team
jan@benton.org