CFK Weekly—Dec. 17, 2001 (Special Edition: Look Back)

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

Access past issues in the Archives.

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS
**Safe on the School Bus?
**Parents Take On Toxic Schools
**Keeping Kids Safe
**Youth in Transition

CONNECT TODAY
**Speak Out on Parental Involvement in Schools!

KIDS AND POLITICS
**ESEA Poised for Passage
**Economic Recovery Package Stymied by Opposite Objectives
**Federal Spending: Are Children Losing Out?

FAVORITE QUOTES

FAVORITE BOOKS
**Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
**Low-Wage Workers in the New Economy
**The New World of Welfare: An Agenda for Reauthorization and Beyond

GOOD NEWS AND BAD
**U.S. Mayors Report Bad News on Hunger and Homelessness
**Hunger in America 2001
**Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000
**Out of Reach: America's Growing Wage-Rent Disparity
**State of the Air 2001
**Economic Status and Health in Childhood
**Child Poverty Rate High, but Dropping
**Schools More Separate after Decade of Resegregation
**Good News on Teen Pregnancy Rates

REALITY CHECK ? AWAY FROM THE IVORY TOWER
**As Welfare Comes to an End, so do the Jobs
**Running to Keep in Place
**Changing Welfare Offices
**Families Without a Phone
**Bullets Don't Got No Name: Consequences of Fear in the Ghetto
**Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families
**Living on Little: Case Studies of Iowa Families
**Welfare Reform: How Do We Define Success?
**Middle School Students Who Misbehave Can't Read
**Safe Schools and Suspension
**Moldy Buildings: Troubling Trend for Many Districts
**Low Wages Mean High Turnover in Child Care Staffs
**Massachusetts Workers Ill-Equipped for Changing Economy
**Take the 2-Minute Poverty Tour

TIPS FOR PARENTING
**Magic Moments for Babies
**Dads at a Distance
**Reading Tips for Parents in English and Spanish
**Choosing a Good Youth Program
**Put Reading First: Helping Your Child Learn to Read
**A Parent's Guide to the Internet

RESOURCES AND IDEAS FOR COMMUNITIES
**Toward Better Baby Care
**Rethinking School Security
**Violence Touches the Lives of Too Many Children
**Need Help with Census Data Analysis

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOLS
**What, Me Back In School?
**Enhancing Transition into Kindergarten: Linking Children, Families and Schools
**A Sense of Community in Middle Schools
**Action for All: The Public's Responsibility for Public Education
**Toolkit for Service Learning
**Bullying: What Parents and Schools Can Do
**Strengthening Partnerships: Community School Assessment Checklist

FAVORITE COMMENTARIES
**Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment
**The Unified Family Court
**Reducing Non-Marital Births
**A Hand Up for the Bottom Third
**From New Deal to New Opportunity
**Catholic Charities Says to Keep Our Priorities Straight

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON WELFARE REFORM
**How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Children
**Ways to Work: Off Welfare and Out of Poverty
**Families in Transition Report
**How Children Fare in Welfare Experiments Hinges on Income
**Welfare Reform's Negative Impact on Teens

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON LEARNING
**Beating the Odds
**Reducing Truancy
**Let Sleeping Teens Sleep
**Raising Minority Academic Achievement
**Malignant Neglect: Substance Abuse and America's Schools

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
**Benefits of Quality Early Care Last through Primary Grades
**Chicago Child Parent Center Program Shows Positive Results
**Early Speech Struggles Can Hamper Children in Poor Families
**Best Strategies for School Readiness

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
**High Risk Behavior in Youth
**Community Programs to Promote Youth Development
**Powerful Pathways
**Improve Child Protection to Prevent Delinquency
**What Works (and What Doesn't) to Solve Social Problems

IDEAS FOR ADVOCATES
**The Economic Impact of the Child Care Industry in California
**California's Prop. 10 Improving Services for Young Children
**Extending Health Coverage for Foster Care Graduates
**Washington Advocates Get Poverty Reduction in Welfare Reform
**Lawmakers See Head Start Up Close
**Now Hear This: The Nine Laws of Successful Advocacy Communications
**Why are Early Education and Care Wages So Low?
**A Guide for the Powerless (and Those Who Don't Know Their Own Power)

FOCUS ON THE STATES
**Kids Count
**Education in Crisis: The State Budget Crunch and Our Nation's Schools
**Children in the States 2001

ON THE AGENDA
**From Caseload Reduction to Poverty Reduction
**Linking Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment
**Going to School Without a Home
**Leave No Child Behind
**AFT Calls for National Commitment to Universal Pre-School
**Younger Americans Act
**Untapped Potential: State EITCs and Child Poverty Reduction

SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS

**Safe on the School Bus?
Many parents remember childhood car-rides spent standing up in the back of the car, or sitting in a grown-up's lap. Today, we take the need to restrain our children in motor vehicles as a given. But as Lisa Schulman reports, there's one place where safety restraints remain rare: the school bus.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Parents Take On Toxic Schools
Despite the passage of important laws to protect children's health from environmental hazards, students in some schools are still exposed to conditions that could affect their health. Deborah Prussel and Jean Tepperman report on four continuing parent-led campaigns to make Los Angeles schools safer for students. This article originally appeared in the September-October 2001 issue of the The Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Keeping Kids Safe
Injuries kill more kids than any disease. Accurate information, product safety alerts, and public health initiatives are important tools in the effort to protect kids. Connect for Kids offers resources.
http://www.connectforkids.org

**Youth in Transition
AdvoCasey, the Annie E. Casey Foundation's policy magazine, devotes its new issue to youth in transition from foster care to adulthood and the problems they face. Feature stories examine both model programs and gaps in services for this vulnerable population.
http://www.connectforkids.org

CONNECT TODAY

**Speak Out on Parental Involvement in Schools!
Parents are children's first and most important teachers, but all adults have a stake in raising a generation of well-educated children. Watch for our discussion on Jan. 14!

SPECIAL LOOKING BACK EDITION

This has not been an easy year for our families, our children, and our communities. And we are all hoping that next year will restore peace and prosperity. But before we look ahead to what we might accomplish in 2002, it may help, painful as it is in some cases, to take stock of 2001.

Here are some of the compelling, surprising or useful resources we learned about and reported on over the course of 2001.  If we missed something you found especially valuable, let us know (jan@benton.org). Or take a look at past Weeklies in the Connect for Kids News Archives.
http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1557/index.htm

KIDS AND POLITICS

**ESEA Poised for Passage
The Senate is expected to vote this week on the House-approved Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) legislation, establishing a larger federal role than ever in leading states to set academic performance standards, accountability measures for all students and extra resources and sanctions for schools whose students don't improve. While the funding level was increased, many caution the increased funding is far from adequate to support these sweeping changes.
http://www.educationweek.org/ew/

**Economic Recovery Package Stymied by Opposite Objectives
President Bush used his Saturday radio address to urge Congress to pass a stimulus package that would speed up permanent tax cuts for affluent households. Senate leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) responded with a call for a stimulus package that would target benefits for laid-off workers. Both sides say passing a stimulus package is important, but serious differences over what kind of package would help or hurt the economy and the workforce is creating an impasse.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011215.html
http://www.senate.gov/~daschle/front_121401.html

As Congress continues to debate federal economic stimulus legislation, state fiscal conditions across the country are worsening, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
http://www.cbpp.org/12-11-01sfp.htm

**Federal Spending: Are Children Losing Out?
Federal spending on kids has increased since 1960, but it has declined as a share of domestic spending because overall federal domestic spending has increased even more. This trend may accelerate in the future, as spending on programs like education, child protection and nutrition programs for kids, unlike Social Security and Medicare, have few built-in mechanisms to ensure growth.
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/op45/occa45.html

FAVORITE QUOTES

"We pay attention to the families earning less than $35,000 a year because that's where most of the kids are."
--David Ellwood, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, at an Urban Institute Panel on Tax Policy

?Although the poverty rate has declined, young children are more likely to be poor today than they were 25 years ago and poverty has more damaging effects on young children than on older children or adolescents. So when a politician asks me what is the most important step we could take to foster good early child development, I answer ? ?end poverty.'?
-- Ross Thompson, co-author of ?From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development,? personal communication

 ?If we believe that children need services that aren't directly tied to education, then we better pay a great deal of attention to what the federal government does.?
-- Jack Jennings, Director of the Center on Education Policy, at a Forum for Youth Investment conference
http://www.ctredpol.org/pubs/newsletter.v10.n3.html

 ?The good news is that welfare rolls shrank and work rates soared. The bad news is that most families went from being welfare poor to working poor.?
Ellen Goodman, columnist
http://www.sfgate.com:80/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=chronicle/archive/2001/01/04/ED151077.DTL

FAVORITE BOOKS

**Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
Barbara Ehrenreich set out to see what it's like to try to make ends meet at the low end of the wage ladder. What she describes is the hard work, out-of-sight housing costs and daily sacrifices by minimum wage workers to keep consumer costs down and a service economy strong.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/e/ehrenreich-01nickel.html

**Low-Wage Workers in the New Economy
Welfare reform meant a major focus on pushing unskilled mothers into the workforce, but researchers and analysts are finding that a job alone does not guarantee financial stability and self-sufficiency.
http://www.urban.org/pubs/low_wage/index.html

**The New World of Welfare: An Agenda for Reauthorization and Beyond
Conservatives and liberals alike say Congress should consider the findings of social scientists when it addresses welfare reauthorization in 2002. Key issues include the question of full funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, what states should do to encourage marriage, and whether reduction child poverty should be an official goal of welfare policy.
http://www.brookings.edu/wrb/publications/books/newworld.htm

GOOD NEWS AND BAD

**U.S. Mayors Report Bad News on Hunger and Homelessness
Reflecting the economic downturn's impact on urban areas, the U.S. mayors report that hunger and homelessness rose sharply in major American cities over the last year. Requests for emergency food assistance climbed an average of 23 percent and requests for emergency shelter assistance increased an average of 13 percent in the 27 cities surveyed.
http://www.usmayors.org/uscm/news/press_releases/documents/hunger_121101.asp

**Hunger in America 2001
More than a quarter of a million children lined up in a soup kitchen to get food this year, according to an America's Second Harvest report.
http://www.secondharvest.org/whoshungry/hunger_study_intro.html

**Dropout Rates in the United States: 2000
From the early 1970s into the late 80s, dropout rates declined and the gap between whites and blacks narrowed, but since 1990 both dropout rates and differences between whites and blacks have remained fairly constant.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002114

**Out of Reach: America's Growing Wage-Rent Disparity
Housing continues to be a household ?budget-buster? for low- and moderate-income families. A minimum wage worker would need to work 108 hours a week to afford the average Fair Market Rent in communities across America.
http://www.nlihc.org/oor2001/index.htm

**State of the Air 2001
More than 30 million children under age 14 live in counties that received an ?F? for air quality in the American Lung Association's, ?The State of the Air 2001.?
http://www.lungusa.org/air2001/index.html

**Economic Status and Health in Childhood
The Joint Center for Poverty Research reports that health gaps between affluent and poor children, even with the same chronic conditions, becomes more pronounced over time as the children age and enter adulthood.
http://www.jcpr.org/newsletters/vol5_no5/

**Child Poverty Rate High, but Dropping
The child poverty rate dropped for the third straight year in 2000, but children and youth under 18 still have the highest poverty rate of any age group in the United States.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-158.html

**Schools More Separate after Decade of Resegregation
A study from The Civil Rights Project of Harvard University reports that America's schools became increasingly separate and unequal in the 1990s, contributing to a growing gap in quality between schools attended by white students and those serving a large minority population.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/nv/features/orfield07172001.html

**Good News on Teen Pregnancy Rates
The National Center for Health Statistics reports that America's teens were less likely to become pregnant in 1997 than at any time since 1976.
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r010612.htm

REALITY CHECK ? AWAY FROM THE IVORY TOWER

**As Welfare Comes to an End, so do the Jobs
Parents working hard in New York City's workfare program who had hoped to be rewarded with a job, find themselves facing time limits, a fractured safety net, and fewer job opportunities than ever.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/17/nyregion/17WELF.html

**Running to Keep in Place
According to this Urban Institute report, most child welfare systems lack sufficient resources to protect and serve children and families adequately, and workers report spending more time on documentation than with children and families.
http://newfederalism.urban.org/html/op54/occa54.html

**Changing Welfare Offices
The Brookings Institution reports that although welfare offices are on the frontlines of helping welfare recipients find jobs, few have effective mechanisms for informing recipients of income support benefits to which they are entitled.
http://www.brookings.edu/wrb/publications/pb/pb09.htm

**Families Without a Phone
What does poverty look like? KIDS COUNT profiles families living in remote rural areas or tough urban neighborhoods without a phone.
http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/snapshot.pdf

**Bullets Don't Got No Name: Consequences of Fear in the Ghetto
According to this Joint Center for Poverty Research brief, mothers in violent neighborhoods organize their entire lives around protecting their children, at the expense of impeding their opportunities for improving their own education or finding work.
http://www.jcpr.org/policybriefs/vol3_num10.html

**Hardships in America: The Real Story of Working Families
The Economic Policy Institute reports that twenty-nine percent of working families with one to three children under age 12 earn too little to afford basic necessities, like not having enough food, unsafe and unstable housing and unreliable access to health care.
http://www.epinet.org/press%20releases/hardships.html

**Living on Little: Case Studies of Iowa Families
What is it like to live in severe poverty, on $500 a month or less? In Iowa case studies, families cope by babysitting or cleaning for cash, collecting recyclables, pawning goods, shopping for bargains and prioritizing which bills not to pay in full.
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/PDFs/redirect.asp?strSite=liveonlittle.pdf

**Welfare Reform: How Do We Define Success?
Many welfare ?success stories? say they go hungry and suffer from a lack of adequate health care and other necessities for themselves and their children.
http://www.networklobby.org/wrwp.htm#welfare

**Middle School Students Who Misbehave Can't Read
When Orange County Florida set out to find out why middle school students misbehave, they found that most of the students who got suspended couldn't read.
http://www.nsdc.org/library/jsd/taylor224.html

**Safe Schools and Suspension
According to the Justice Policy Institute, the number of youth suspended annually has nearly doubled since the 1970s, yet kids are reporting the same rates of crime. Does this mean zero tolerance policies aren't worth the price we pay?
http://www.cjcj.org/sss/

**Moldy Buildings: Troubling Trend for Many Districts
Cheap construction materials, poor ventilation and sloppy maintenance lead to mold, causing asthma attacks and breathing problems severe enough to close schools. Read the full story in the Sept. 26, 2001 edition of Education Week.
http://www.edweek.com/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=04mold.h21

**Low Wages Mean High Turnover in Child Care Staffs
Low wages are pushing well-educated teaching staff out of child care, according to the Center for the Child Care Workforce. High turnover is affecting how well child care centers can do their work.
http://www.ccw.org/then&now.html

**Massachusetts Workers Ill-Equipped for Changing Economy
MassINC reports that more than a third of Massachusetts' 3.2 million workers are ill-equipped to meet the demands of the state's rapidly changing economy, threatening not only their well-being and that of their families, but also the economic future of the state.
http://www.massinc.org/research/index.html

**Take the 2-Minute Poverty Tour
How far does $17,184 go for a family of four in America today? Far enough to cover rent, food, transportation, health and child care? Find out in this multimedia presentation from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
http://www.nccbuscc.org/cchd/povertyusa/tour2.htm

TIPS FOR PARENTING

**Magic Moments for Babies
If you are a harried parent with too little time to spend with your baby, Zero to Three offers practical tips on how to make the most of the time you have.
http://www.zerotothree.org/magic/

**Dads at a Distance
If you're a dad who has to be far away from your family, the National Long Distance Relationship Building Institute offers tips like sending bedtime story tapes or a pillowcase with your picture on it.
http://www.daads.com/fathering.html

**Reading Tips for Parents in English and Spanish
If you want to help your child prepare to read, this free brochure from the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education can help.
1-877-4-ED-PUBS

**Choosing a Good Youth Program
After-school programs can offer kids a safe place, enjoyable activities and a trained staff ? but how do you know a good program when you see it? The PTA explains.
http://www.pta.org/aboutpta/store/ocfree/21_afterschool.asp

**Put Reading First: Helping Your Child Learn to Read
On average children need about two years of instruction in letter-sound relationships to become good readers and spellers. The National Institute for Family Literacy offers activities for parents and things to look for in a high-quality reading program.
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/partnershipforreading/publications/PFRbrochure.html

**A Parent's Guide to the Internet
This resource offers parents hands-on projects to do with kids that help parents and kids better understand how to make the most of the Internet safely. Cost: $19.95. 800-549-6646.
http://www.marspub.com/strat/inter/internet.htm

RESOURCES AND IDEAS FOR COMMUNITIES

**Toward Better Baby Care
If you're trying to promote safe, healthy and developmentally appropriate child care in your community, Better Baby Care offers facts, resources and allies.
http://www.betterbabycare.org/

**Rethinking School Security
How can schools update their safety and security plans in the post-Sept. 11 world? Learn how from National School Safety and Security Services.
http://www.schoolsecurity.org/terrorist_response.html

**Violence Touches the Lives of Too Many Children
From youth and school violence to domestic violence and child abuse, violence is a part of the lives of too many children, The Children's Defense Fund provides things you can do to protect children in your community.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/ss_violence_brochure.htm

**Need Help with Census Data Analysis
If you want to know how many kindergartners to expect next year, or how many teens will be living in your community in five years, you can analyze U.S. Census data. For help answering your questions, e-mail Kurt Metzger (aa3400@wayne.edu), research director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOLS

**What, Me Back In School?
When's the last time you spent time in your local school? Did you wonder if you were really welcome, or why your help was needed? The California Teachers' Association offers some answers.
http://www.cta.org/family_tips/get_involved.html

**Enhancing Transition into Kindergarten: Linking Children, Families and Schools
Will you or your neighbors have a new kindergartner next year? Here's what communities are doing to help kids and families make a smooth transition into kindergarten.
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~ncedl/PAGES/prdcts.htm#Anchor

**A Sense of Community in Middle Schools
The National Association of Secondary School Principals says that schools can do a lot to strengthen parents' involvement through the middle school years.
http://www.principals.org/news/bltn_prac_cond1001.html

**Action for All: The Public's Responsibility for Public Education
Want to start a successful conversation between community leaders, concerned parents and the school board? The National Association of Secondary School Principals offers tips.
http://www.publiceducation.org/resources/public_conversation.htm

**Toolkit for Service Learning
Here's a step-by-step guide to help students, parents and teachers get the most out of service learning projects.
http://www.graduationprojecthelp.org

**Bullying: What Parents and Schools Can Do
The National Education Association explores how parents and schools can work together to create positive school environments.
http://www.nea.org/issues/safescho/bullying

**Strengthening Partnerships: Community School Assessment Checklist
These checklists will help you map your community/school partnership and plan for cost-effective programs, funding and improved programs.
http://www.financeproject.org/osthome.htm

FAVORITE COMMENTARIES

**Rebuilding the Unity of Health and the Environment
The elimination of lead from gasoline and paint may be ?one of the most significant educational advances of the 20th century,? argues President of the United Nations Foundation Tim Wirth, but policymakers must pay more attention to the connections between education, health and environmental hazards like neurotoxins.
http://books.nap.edu/books/030907259X/html/7.html#pagetop

**The Unified Family Court
A Hawaii Circuit Court judge argues that a family court system that has no commitment to preventive, therapeutic or restorative justice can inadvertently cause harm to families experiencing custody disputes, domestic violence, juvenile delinquency or other legal problems.
http://www.preventivelawyer.org/main/default.asp?pid=essays/town.htm

**Reducing Non-Marital Births
Paul Offner of the Brookings Institution says that to reduce non-marital births, Congress should fix the considerable financial disincentives to single mothers who marry, which, due to reductions in their Earned Income Tax Credit, could cost up to $8000.
http://www.brookings.edu/wrb/publications/pb/pb05.htm

**A Hand Up for the Bottom Third
Expanding work supports ? the Earned Income Tax Credit, the minimum wage and subsidies for child care expenses -- can be an efficient use of public dollars to bolster the earnings of low-income families and lift 1.9 million children out of poverty, according to the Brookings Institution's Isabel Sawhill and Andy Thomas.
http://www.brookings.edu/views/papers/sawhill/20010522.htm

**From New Deal to New Opportunity
Government policies that help low-income families build assets for financial self-sufficiency can join the liberal objective of poverty reduction with the conservative dream of individual wealth-building to achieve a shared goal of economic opportunity.
http://prospect.org/print/V12/3/brown-j.html

**Catholic Charities Says to Keep Our Priorities Straight
The public commitment to protect vulnerable families and children in these times of growing need must remain strong, says Catholic Charities USA President Hehir.
http://www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/media/opinion/2001/1025crisis.htm

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON WELFARE REFORM

**How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Children
The findings are mixed on the impact of welfare reform on children, but one thing is clear ? mandatory work alone does not improve outcomes. Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation reports that when family earnings are supplemented with income supports, we can improve children's outcomes.
http://www.mdrc.org/Reports2001/NGChildSynth/ng-childsynEX.htm

**Ways to Work: Off Welfare and Out of Poverty
Today's ?one-size-fits-all? work-first approach in welfare doesn't fit everyone. For many training and education first or during work are essential for advancement beyond poverty wages. The National Results Council has been evaluating the outcomes of two welfare-to-work strategies -- work-first and customized training.
http://www.nationalresultscouncil.org/ways2.htm

**Families in Transition Report
Intensive, individualized case management for families moving from welfare to work can help families overcome serious and multiple barriers to stable employment and financial security.
http://www.bpacal.com/expertise/PolicyBrief.pdf

**How Children Fare in Welfare Experiments Hinges on Income
According to research by the Children's Defense Fund, the amount of a family's income is more important for their children's well-being than whether or not the parents have jobs. Every welfare-to-work program that lifted families' average incomes by at least 5 percent had mostly good effects on the children, but every program that reduced family income by 5 percent or more had mostly bad effects on the children.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/release010822.htm

**Welfare Reform's Negative Impact on Teens
Child Trends reports that when women go off welfare to work, their teenage children may end up worse off.
http://www.childtrends.org/AdolescentsRelease.asp

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON LEARNING

**Beating the Odds
Don't write off inner city schools just yet! The Council of Great City Schools reports that although inner city schools have per-pupil expenditures that are below the national average to serve students with greater educational needs, many are posting significant gains in reading and math.
http://www.cgcs.org/reports/beat_the_odds.html

**Reducing Truancy
This Juvenile Justice Bulletin reports that promising programs to keep kids in school use a reward and punishment approach.
http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/jjbul2001_9_1/contents.html

**Let Sleeping Teens Sleep
University of Minnesota reports schools that start later than the crack of dawn can improve high school attendance and behavior.
http://education.umn.edu/carei/Programs/start_time/2001exec_sum.html

**Raising Minority Academic Achievement
Minority children who attend early childhood development programs are more likely to remain in school, complete more years of education and require less special education. Learn more from American Youth Policy Forum.
http://www.aypf.org/publicatons/index.html

**Malignant Neglect: Substance Abuse and America's Schools
Schools that rely exclusively on punitive zero-tolerance policies and didactic substance abuse classes are missing out on the power of engaging parents, students and others in efforts to prevent substance abuse.
http://www.casacolumbia.org/newsletter1457/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=80623

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

**Benefits of Quality Early Care Last through Primary Grades
According to the Center for the Advancement of Health, the benefits of high-quality early care show up well into second grade, with kids paying attention better, showing better language and math skills and better social skills and behaviors, especially among those most at risk for having difficulty in school.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-09/cfta-boq092101.php

**Chicago Child Parent Center Program Shows Positive Results
Findings from an evaluation of the Chicago program offers some of the strongest evidence yet that large-scale, public early learning programs can promote children's long-term success.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v285n18/abs/joc01444.html

**Early Speech Struggles Can Hamper Children in Poor Families
Penn State reports that even though children from impoverished backgrounds learn at the same rate as their peers when they are in first grade, they can't close the gaps to catch up to their language-rich peers.
http://www.psu.edu/ur/2001/childrenvocabulary.html

**Best Strategies for School Readiness
Giving parents books for their children may be one of our ?best bets? for improving school readiness while tolerating child care settings that only meet children's minimal developmental needs is not.
http://www.childtrends.org/schoolreadiness.asp

LESSONS LEARNED ? ON YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

**High Risk Behavior in Youth
Give girls good job opportunities and you can reduce teen child-bearing, according to the Joint Center for Poverty Research. Keep state college tuitions low and you can encourage more high school students to finish high school.
http://www.jcpr.org/newsletters/vol5_no5/index.html

**Community Programs to Promote Youth Development
This National Research Council report examines what we know about community-based programs that promote positive development for youth.
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10022.html

**Powerful Pathways
Everything we know about development suggests that vulnerable youth ? even those who carry with them a decade of inadequate services and poor behavior -- can transform their lives when they get support that respects and builds on their strengths. Learn more in this report from the Youth Transition Funders Group.
http://www.ydrf.com/ytfg

**Improve Child Protection to Prevent Delinquency
This Juvenile Justice Bulletin reports that reducing childhood maltreatment is a potentially powerful, yet often overlooked, delinquency prevention strategy.
http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/jjbul2001_7_1/contents.html

**What Works (and What Doesn't) to Solve Social Problems
According to the Pew Partnership, community strategies that ensure healthy families and children, thriving neighborhoods, living-wage jobs and viable economies, need time, money and a comprehensive approach to be successful.
http://www.pew-partnership.org/whats_new_reports/whatWorks.html

IDEAS FOR ADVOCATES

**The Economic Impact of the Child Care Industry in California
If you can't sway policy makers to invest in child care as the right thing to do for kids, try documenting the importance of the child care industry for the state's economy. The National Economic Development and Law Center does just this in a new publication.
http://www.nedlc.org

**California's Prop. 10 Improving Services for Young Children
California's Prop. 10 referendum funneled special tobacco tax dollars to counties to develop comprehensive services for children under five. Counties are turning the victory at the polls into programs benefiting families ? from helping to finance child care facilities to offering stipends for child care training.
http://www.4children.org/news/pr10intr.htm

**Extending Health Coverage for Foster Care Graduates
Arizona child advocates helped the state become one of the first to extend Medicaid coverage to teens aging out of foster care.
http://www.childadvocacy.org/camad0601.pdf

**Washington Advocates Get Poverty Reduction in Welfare Reform
Child advocates in Washington state changed the way the state measures its own success in welfare reform to include poverty reduction, improving welfare-to-work families' access to Medicaid and other benefit programs.
http://www.childadvocacy.org/camad0701.pdf

**Lawmakers See Head Start Up Close
When the National Head Start Association temporarily set up its Arlington, Virginia Head Start program in the Rayburn House Office Building, members of Congress and their staffs dropped by to view a day-in-the-the-life of a Head Start preschool program for disadvantaged children.
http://www.educationweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=27fedfil.h20&keywords=rayburn

**Now Hear This: The Nine Laws of Successful Advocacy Communications
Whether you are looking for better funding for youth services in your community or seeking to shift policy in favor of strengthening family supports, you will quickly realize the importance of having policy makers and the public at large on your side. Fenton Communications offers a good strategy.
http://www.fenton.com/resources/nht_report.asp

**Why are Early Education and Care Wages So Low?
If you've ever found yourself tongue-tied in trying to respond to arguments justifying poverty wages for child care workers, this primer from the Foundation for Child Development is for you. It argues that low wages for care-giving jobs are neither desirable nor justifiable, nor the logical result of inevitable economic forces.
http://www.ffcd.org/nelson.pdf

**A Guide for the Powerless (and Those Who Don't Know Their Own Power)
Not just another handbook on how to write your Senator, this primer on the American political process gives an insider's view on how to gain the attention of elected officials. Available in hard copy only.
http://www.aypf.org/pubs.htm

FOCUS ON THE STATES

**Kids Count
Find out how your state ranks, and what the trends are for kids in this annual charting of outcome measures on children's well-being.
http://www.kidscount.org

**Education in Crisis: The State Budget Crunch and Our Nation's Schools
States are facing the worst budget crunch in over a decade. The outlook for next year is bleak, jeopardizing state funding for education and services for families and children.
http://www.senate.gov/~kennedy/stateproject.doc

**Children in the States 2001
This report from the Children's Defense Fund says that states vary widely on measures of children' health coverage, infant mortality, on-time immunizations, child poverty rates and per-pupil spending.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/statesdata.htm

ON THE AGENDA

**From Caseload Reduction to Poverty Reduction
The National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support calls for transforming welfare from a punitive system into one that would give low-wage parents access to the income, training and supports they need to make ends meet for their families.
http://www.nationalcampaign.org/Download/tanfvision.doc

**Linking Substance Abuse and Child Maltreatment
The Child Welfare League of America says the unavailability of adequate, comprehensive treatment for substance abusing parents poses a major barrier to breaking the cycle of addiction and abuse.
http://www.cwla.org/articles/cv0109sacm.htm

**Going to School Without a Home
The National Coalition for the Homeless says there is no reason for children who are homeless to have their lives disrupted by having to go to a different school, leaving their friends, teachers and learning behind.
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/truth.html

**Leave No Child Behind
The Children's Defense Fund has begun a campaign to translate its slogan into federal policy and funding decisions.
http://www.cdfactioncouncil.org/new_page_9.htm

**AFT Calls for National Commitment to Universal Pre-School
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Sandra Feldman has called for a national commitment to give parents universal access to high quality pre-school education for their 3 and 4-year-olds.
http://www.aft.org/press/2001/071201.html

**Younger Americans Act
The United Way, the National Youth Development Information Center, America's Promise and others are working to provide federal support for community resources for safe places, caring adult supervision, health care, training for marketable skills and opportunities for youth to serve their communities.
http://www.nydic.org/nydic/yaa.html

**Untapped Potential: State EITCs and Child Poverty Reduction
One million more children could be lifted from poverty if the twelve most populous states offered refundable state earned income tax credits (EITCs) set at 25 or 50 percent of the federal level.
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/cpr/cp3release.html

Hope you find joy this holiday season, everyone! Connect for Kids Weekly will return on January 7, 2002 with Jan's annual ?crystal ball? look ahead to the issues for children in 2002.

Jan

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