CFK Weekly—September 11, 2000

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

CONNECT TODAY
**Adolescents in Adult Prisons

DEVOLUTION: REALITY CHECK
**States Don't Monitor Care of Children on Medicaid
**Medicaid: State Financing Schemes Again Drive Up Federal Payments
**Review of State Help for Dental Care
**Growth of State Government Budgets in the 1990s
**Devolution: the Good and the Bad

PARENTS IN PRISON
**Where's Mommy? Where's Daddy?
**The Children Prisoners Must Leave Behind

READY TO LEARN
**"A Good Beginning": Socially and Emotionally Ready to Learn?
**Into Adulthood: A Study of the Effects of Head Start
**Child Care Arrangements Analyzed by Urban Institute

PRODUCING BETTER SCHOOLS, BETTER STUDENTS
**Where the Presidential Candidates Stand on Public Schools
**Moms Vote Offers Analysis of Ed Tech Proposals
**Federal Support for Education Fiscal Years 1980-2000
**Rural Schools -- Why Rural Matters
**Minority Students Discouraged in Math

KEEPING KIDS SAFE
**America's Environmental Health Gap
**Do You Know How Your Gun is Stored?
**Community Resource Kit for Choosing Safety Programs for Kids
**More Research on Sleeping Circumstances and SIDS

IMPROVING THE LIVES OF LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
**Welfare Reform: Next Steps Offer New Opportunities
** The Importance of Family-Based Insurance Expansions
**The Skills Crisis: Building a Jobs System that Works
**Addressing the Needs of Domestic Violence Victims within the TANF Program

WASHINGTON WATCH
**Changing Priorities in Child Support Distribution to Low-income Families
**Fight Hunger Call-In Day
**House Expected to Consider Literacy Act

SPOTLIGHT ON SAN JOSE
**San Jose Poised to Make Child Health Care History
**Is Silicon Valley Shifting its Values?

FOCUS ON THE STATES
**Handgun Control Hands Out Failing Grades to Many States
**State by State News

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS http://www.connectforkids.org

**Family Ties
When children are removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, their worlds change overnight. But that doesn't mean that their bonds with their birth parents disappear. Keeping those connections alive through face-to-face visits can be difficult -- but can be the key to successfully bringing families back together. Julee Newberger explores the practice of family visitation.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**The Nature and Nurture of the Male Character
As a pediatrician specializing in the treatment of family violence, Dr. Eli Newberger studies the character of boys and the ways we -- parents, caregivers, communities -- can help them develop into emotionally strong and healthy men. Guest reviewer Julie Ann Moylan reviews his new book, The Men They Will Become.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Children and Foster Care
Who is in foster care, and what kinds of support do these children need most? From programs to help children "aging out" of care, to initiatives led by foster children themselves and efforts to help foster parents succeed at a difficult job, our Children and Foster Care feature is the place to go for information and links to programs and organizations in your state and across the country.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**We Belong Together
Amber and Heidi Peterson are 12- and 13-year-old sisters living with a foster care family in Wisconsin, who spoke to Julee Newberger for her article, above. In their own column for New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams, Amber and Heidi write about what it's like to be separated from their older brothers, and how "Camp to Belong" brought the Petersons -- and other kids in foster care -- together last summer.
http://www.connectforkids.org

CONNECT TODAY

**Adolescents in Adult Prisons
The juvenile justice system, founded on the idea that childhood is a distinct stage of life, is being dismantled, according to this New York Times Magazine article by Margaret Talbot.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/home/20000910mag-juvenile.html

Read the article online and then share your thoughts with Connect for Kids about more and more teenagers being imprisoned alongside adults.
http://www.connectforkids.org/thread_msg2034/thread_msg_list.htm?thread_id=3492

DEVOLUTION: REALITY CHECK

**States Don't Monitor Care of Children on Medicaid
Many states have turned to managed care models for containing costs and delivering Medicaid health services to low-income children. A review from the ?Health and Health Care in the Schools? finds that states monitor preventive services under these plans, but do little to assess how well the plans are meeting children's health care needs.
http://www.gwu.edu/~mtg/ejournal/september_4.htm

**Medicaid: State Financing Schemes Again Drive Up Federal Payments
In Congressional testimony, the U.S. General Accounting Office describes a new scheme that states are using to improperly increase federal Medicaid dollars, driving up the costs to the federal government of Medicaid and generating ?extra? money for state treasuries.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00193t.pdf

**Review of State Help for Dental Care
For many low-income kids, inadequate dental care can be a nightmare, and a serious threat to health and learning. The Dallas News offers a review of the problem and some state lawsuits aimed at increasing the number of dental care service providers for low-income children.
http://dallasnews.com/national/159754_dentalsuits_31.html

**Growth of State Government Budgets in the 1990s
Throughout the 1990s, states acquired more spending responsibilities and gained revenues, according to this Urban Institute analysis. States increased their emphasis on health care and education spending, while federal government revenues and individual income taxes grew more important.
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/anf_a39.html

**Devolution: the Good and the Bad
Finding the right balance of authority and accountability between the states and the federal government has emerged as a major election 2000 issue. Proponents of ?devolution? -- giving more power to the states -- argue that the states should have more flexibility to fashion social services for families in their states. Opponents argue that more power to the states does not necessarily mean greater accountability or more advantages for families. See ?Devolution: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? in the January 3, 2000 Connect for Kids Weekly.
http://www.connectforkids.org/newsletter-url1571/newsletter-url_show.htm?doc_id=22752

PARENTS IN PRISON

**Where's Mommy? Where's Daddy?
When we expand our ?lock ?em up? policies to more and more nonviolent offenders, where do we leave the kids? The Justice Department reports that 1.5 million U.S. children have a parent in prison. This is a 60 percent increase since 1991, in step with the 62 percent growth in the prison population since 1991.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/iptc.htm

**The Children Prisoners Must Leave Behind
When a parent goes to jail, there is little guarantee that attention will be paid to the children left behind, according to the Child Welfare League of America. Police often ignore the children when arresting a parent and courts often pay little attention to care-taking arrangements when sentencing mothers, or fathers, to prison.
http://www.cwla.org/cwla/prison/parentsinprison.html

Read about incarcerated mothers trying to improve their literacy skills and maintain contact with their children in Connect for Kids' Julee Newberger's ?Parenting From Behind the Walls.? http://www.connectforkids.org/benton_topics1544/benton_topics_show.htm?doc_id=27534

READY TO LEARN

**"A Good Beginning": Socially and Emotionally Ready to Learn?
Almost four million kids started kindergarten this fall, and kindergarten teachers warn that many enter their classrooms without the social and emotional competence to succeed. ?A Good Beginning? summarizes scientific research on the importance of stable, caring relationships with adults, the factors that predict early school outcomes and the federal policies and programs that can improve them.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/childhp/fdnconsb.htm

**Into Adulthood: A Study of the Effects of Head Start
A 17-year follow-up study by the National Education Goals Panel found that the Head Start programs in Colorado and Florida helped children avoid crime and achieve greater school success as they grew up. Head Start programs using the High/Scope educational curriculum were especially successful.
http://www.highscope.org/research/HeadStartStudy.htm

**Child Care Arrangements Analyzed by Urban Institute
The Urban Institute's series on ?Assessing the New Federalism? has published three briefs on child care patterns focusing on several states: ?Child Care Arrangements for Children Under Five,? ?Hours Children Under Five Spend in Child Care? and ?The Number of Child Care Arrangements for Children Under Five.?
http://newfederalism.urban.org/income_support.html#care

PRODUCING BETTER SCHOOLS, BETTER STUDENTS

**Where the Presidential Candidates Stand on Public Schools
The big news may be that Governor Bush and Vice President Gore, the leading Presidential contenders, are talking a lot about their ideas for improving schools, reflecting a major shift toward greater federal involvement in public education. But there are significant differences in emphasis and specifics in the candidates' proposals. Education Week's review of the presidential candidates' education agendas gives voters some background to help you choose.
http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=01election.h20

Bush's education agenda is posted at http://www.georgewbush.com/issues.asp?FormMode=FullText&ID=2
Gore's education agenda is detailed at http://www.algore.com/education/ and summarized in a chart at http://www.algore2000.com/agenda/education_agenda.html

**Moms Vote Offers Analysis of Ed Tech Proposals
Andy Carvin, policy analyst for the Benton Foundation's Communications Policy Program, analyzes the leading presidential candidates' proposals for improving educational technology resources in the schools, beginning with an analysis of Governor Bush's agenda. Check out the other new analyses, too!
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content_show.htm?attrib_id=300&doc_id=33536

**Federal Support for Education Fiscal Years 1980-2000
You can track the ups and downs of the federal financial commitment to public education since 1980 in this report reviewing federal financial support for education over the last two decades.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000068

**Rural Schools -- Why Rural Matters
We hear a lot about challenges facing students in urban schools, but the Rural School and Community Trust reminds us that children attending school in the rural areas of many states face poverty and scarce resources that call for urgent action.
http://www.ruraledu.org/streport.html

**Minority Students Discouraged in Math
Almost a third of minority students in high school say math is their favorite subject compared with 17 percent of non-minority students, but minority students find little teacher encouragement and lack access to higher math courses, according to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME). For information on NACME's ?Math is Power? campaign, call 800-97NACME.
http://www.mathispower.org and http://www.figurethis.org

KEEPING KIDS SAFE

**America's Environmental Health Gap
The Pew Environmental Health Commission has issued a call to protect Americans from chronic diseases with possible environmental etiologies -- asthma, birth defects, developmental disabilities and childhood cancers -- by establishing a Nationwide Health Tracking Network.
http://health-track.org/news/releases/090600.php3

**Do You Know How Your Gun is Stored?
Most women married to men who own guns do not have a clear idea of whether the guns in their home are locked, loaded or stored in a manner that experts agree is unsafe, according to research published in the September issue of Pediatrics.
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/abstract/106/3/e31

**Community Resource Kit for Choosing Safety Programs for Kids
We can warn our kindergartners not to take candy from strangers, but do we know what safety advice to give older kids? The National Center on Missing and Exploited Children can help your community choose an effective curriculum to teach kids about personal safety. http://www.missingkids.com

**More Research on Sleeping Circumstances and SIDS
Researchers report finding similar unsafe sleeping practices in the large majority of infant fatalities diagnosed as SIDS, accidental suffocation, and cause undetermined. Their findings reinforce the importance of putting babies to sleep on their backs on firm sleep surfaces without covers that could cover their heads. A shared sleep surface (adult bed, sofa or chair) was the site of death in almost half the cases.
http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/abstract/106/3/e41

IMPROVING THE LIVES OF LOW-INCOME FAMILIES

**Welfare Reform: Next Steps Offer New Opportunities
The Annie E. Casey Foundation says the philanthropic community should help low-income families by joining in the debate over how to make changes when federal welfare reform/TANF legislation is due for reauthorization in 2001. Reauthorization offers an opportunity to draft public policies that help working families who remain poor and to reach out to those families with serious obstacles to employment.
http://www.aecf.org/jobsinitiative/welreform.htm

**The Importance of Family-Based Insurance Expansions
More than nine out of 10 children from low-income families are now eligible for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program, but 7.9 million of them (25 percent) were uninsured as of the end of 1998. Expanding state Medicaid programs to include coverage for parents can increase the number of low-income children protected by health insurance. It can also improve health care access for both parents and children, according to new research by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
http://www.cbpp.org/9-5-00health.htm

**The Skills Crisis: Building a Jobs System that Works
New York City businesses are starved for qualified help and low-income residents are searching for programs that will help place them in living wage jobs. The Center for an Urban Future recommends steps for New York to address the skills gap and looks at success stories in job training efforts in Indiana, Texas and Washington.
http://www.nycfuture.org/econdev/skills.htm

**Addressing the Needs of Domestic Violence Victims within the TANF Program
Looking at promising county approaches in Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Oregon and Maryland, this Urban Institute report found that the programs most successful at identifying domestic violence issues were those designed to identify all major barriers --including domestic violence issues -- to self-sufficiency, with a strong orientation to use rewards instead of punitive sanctions. Programs that focused more on immediate employment rather than on longer-term self-sufficiency were not able identify any type of barrier. http://www.urban.org/welfare/dv_tanf.html

WASHINGTON WATCH

**Changing Priorities in Child Support Distribution to Low-Income Families
Legislation to change the rules for distributing child support payments -- moving the emphasis from reimbursing states to supporting low-income children  -- has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and will be considered by the Senate. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Center on Law and Social Policy offer research and analysis in support of this concept.
http://www.cbpp.org/9-5-00wel.htm
http://www.clasp.org/pubs/childenforce/Testimonies/Test_Vicki_518.htm

**Fight Hunger Call-In Day
The annual U.S. Dept. of Agriculture report on hunger in America reports that the number of households experiencing hunger declined by about 24 percent between 1995 and 1999, but nearly 8 million people still live in such households, over a third of them children. Visit the Hunger Report online:http://www.usda.gov/news/releases/2000/09/0301.htm The Fight Hunger -- Invest in America coalition is sponsoring a ?call-in? to your Congress day on September 12 to speak up on the anti-hunger legislation still pending in Congress. For more information on the National Call-In Day, contact Scott Hendrick at 202-986-2200, ext 3017;  or shendrick@frac.org.

**House Expected to Consider Literacy Act
Tony Peyton, policy specialist at the National Center for Family Literacy, expects the U.S. House of Representatives to consider H.R. 3222, the Literacy Involves Families Together (LIFT) Act, during the week of September 11. LIFT reauthorizes the Even Start Family Literacy Program. http://edworkforce.house.gov/hottopics/literacy/index.htm

SPOTLIGHT ON SAN JOSE

**San Jose Poised to Make Child Health Care History
Three months after a divided San Jose City Council declined to set aside tobacco settlement money for children's health insurance, council members took steps that could make the city the first in the nation to guarantee coverage for uninsured children.
http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/tobacco06.htm

**Is Silicon Valley Shifting its Values?
National Public Radio commentator Jeff Goodell sees a subtle shift in attitudes in his hometown ? perhaps some signs of ?prosperity fatigue? and more attention to those not profiting in the current boom.
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnps05fm.cfm?SegID=81715

Keep up to date with the effects of the new economy on kids and families, and what community leaders are doing, via the Connect for Kids community page on San Jose, at the heart of Silicon Valley. Sign up for the Connect for Kids San Jose listserv.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=1661

FOCUS ON THE STATES

**Handgun Control Gives Failing Grades to Many States
Wyoming flunked every category of Handgun Control, Inc.'s report card on state gun control measures, while three states -- New Hampshire, New York and Maryland -- improved their grades, in most cases with tough new gun laws that mandate gun industry and gun owner responsibility. The fourth annual analysis of state laws protecting children from gun violence gave 25 states grades of "D" or "F" for the 1999-2000 school year.
http://www.handguncontrol.org/press/release.asp?Record=2

**State by State News
Check out news about kids and elections 2000 in your state in the ?state by state? section of the Connect for Kids Web site.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1576/index.htm

Washington, DC.
The Urban Institute reports on DC's 21st Century Community Learning Center After-School program.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=385

Kansas.
Many Kansas families are worse off now than they were before welfare reform, says a report from the United Way Association of Kansas and Kansas Action for Children.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=393

Louisiana.
The public has until September 22 to comment on the recent settlement agreement effectively ending a 17-year-old juvenile justice lawsuit that alleged teen-age inmates were subjected to physical and mental abuse, inadequate medical care and a poor educational system.
http://www.nola.com/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/t-p/frontpage/0009080002.html

Massachusetts.
Massachusetts' Early Education for All campaign seeks to meet the child care and early education needs of the state's children and families.
 http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=398

Michigan.
Register online for the Ready to Succeed Dialogue with Michigan Second Summit on September 21 and 22 in Lansing.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=399

New York.
Rusty Keeler of Planet Earth Playscapes (profiled on Connect for Kids) won second place in the International Play Association International Playground Design Competition 2000.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=409

North Carolina.
Covenant with North Carolina's Children to guest star on "Tarheel Talk" on September 17.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=410

Texas.
A Federal judge has ruled that the state has not lived up to the terms of a 1996 consent decree or provided appropriate health care under federal law.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=421

Virginia.
The Virginia PTA reports that PTA members from across the commonwealth attended the 2000 Legislation/Education Conference, featuring advocacy training and a candidates' forum.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=424

Wisconsin.
"An Overview of Research Related to Wisconsin Works" reviews the research on Wisconsin's much-studied welfare reform program.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1667/index.htm?state_id=427

Keep up your good work, everyone!

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