CFK Weekly - October 17, 2005

NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS

Mapping Paths Toward Health
In New York City's Harlem neighborhood and in Pinellas County, Florida, young people have been doing a lot of legwork to find barriers to good health care in their communities. Rob Capriccioso reports on how the practice of youth health mapping is helping researchers improve community health services. (October 17, 2005) read article
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3497

A Closer Look: In Their Own Words
"When you look at my generation, what do you see? Rude teenagers, druggies, teen pregnancy, shootings, death? Look closer," wrote Chastity Larimore, 17. Throughout the month of August, Connect for Kids posted the four winning essays from our Speak Out! Let Your Voice be Heard contest. But each of the 71 entries carried a message worth hearing. Here’s a summary of the themes and concerns that emerged.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3498

CFK Book Chat: School Choice
School choice is a popular idea, but choosing a school can be tough. Authors Bryan and Emily Hassel (Picky Parent Guide: Choose Your Child's School with Confidence) will be live online to help on Wednesday, Oct. 19th at 1 p.m. EDT. Submit advance questions using this form or send them to susan@connectforkids.org.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3303

Rob Capriccioso Moves On
Rob Capriccioso has been Connect for Kids’ staff writer for over two years. This week he leaves Connect for Kids and starts as a journalist for Inside Higher Ed. Read his goodbye blog!
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3492

Life Without Parole at Age 15
The majority of youth sentenced to life in prison without parole are first offenders, true or false? Answer the question and learn more with a visit to Action Central.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

RELATED STORY

Undertreating Pain in Minority Communities?
A recent Washington Post story supports the findings of the Harlem youth mappers, profiled in our feature article this week -- specifically, that differences in pain medication in stock at pharmacies in minority and low-income communities may indicate that minorities are “routinely undertreated for chronic pain.” (See the article, “Painkillers Understocked in Minority Areas, Study Says.” Free registration may be required.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/13/AR2005101301690.html

KIDS AND POLITICS

Congress Poised to Cut More Funding While Keeping Tax Cuts for Wealthy
Congress returns from its October recess this week, and will get back to work tackling the federal budget and hurricane recovery. The House has unveiled a new goal of cutting at least $50 billion – much of which will likely come from programs serving low-income and vulnerable families. Mandatory spending will also be cut, including Medicaid and Food Stamps.

The House has extended its budget reconciliation deadline to October 28, with the budget committee meeting to consider the cuts the week of October 31. The Senate remains on target for its October 26th deadline, and is still working from a $35 billion target.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

Budget Call-in Days – Oct. 17 and 18
Congress is weighing potential cuts to many programs for vulnerable Americans – a move that the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) calls “outrageous.” On the chopping block are programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and possibly the Earned Income Tax Credit, welfare, and child welfare services. At the same time, planned tax cuts benefiting the wealthiest Americans are likely to go through. Polls show Americans choose aiding Katrina victims over new tax cuts by a margin of 2 to 1. Concerned? Call 1-800-426-8073 (toll-free thanks to the American Friends Service Committee) and ask to speak to your Senator, to register your position on budget priorities.
http://www.chn.org/pdf/congresspriorities.pdf

For background about the cuts Congressional leaders are considering, see the CHN brief.
http://www.chn.org/pdf/congressprioritiesbackground.pdf

Advocates to FEMA: Extend the Deadline for Hurricane Assistance
The American Progress Action Fund and ACORN have launched a campaign to urge the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to extend their 60-day deadline for survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to apply for disaster assistance. Republican Senators Olympia J. Snowe (ME) and David Vitter (LA) recently fueled this effort by calling on FEMA to extend its aid application deadline, and asking the Small Business Administration to extend deadlines for emergency assistance loans. You can thank them for their support, and urge other Members of Congress to push for this extension on this easy-to-use Website.
http://www.ExtendTheDeadline.org

Find this and other action alerts in Connect for Kids’ Action Central.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

IDEAS FOR ACTION

Reading Rainbow Needs Your Help!
Every week, over 4.3 million children, teachers, parents and grandparents enjoy and learn from Reading Rainbow, as they have for 24 years. But the show needs corporate sponsors to continue. To generate interest and commitment from current and potential sponsors, Reading Rainbow is circulating a petition and requesting signatures.
http://savereadingrainbow.org/

October 18 Webcast: The Opening Doors Demonstration
The Opening Doors project involves six community colleges that are developing innovative financial aid, student services, and curricular and instructional activities to help nontraditional students earn college credentials and get on track for better jobs and further education. MDRC and the National Centers for Career and Technical Education are hosting a Webcast on the project on October 18, 2005, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm (EDT)
http://www.nccte.org/

12th Annual Universal Health Care Action Network Conference 2005
What’s happening with health care and health care funding? Find out at the 12th annual Universal Health Care Action Network Conference. Hear pollster Celinda Lake on the political landscape, Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution on affordable and attainable health care, TransAfrica's Bill Fletcher on movement building, and others on October 21-23 in Arlington, VA.
http://www.uhcan.org/files/2005conf/UHCANConfBrochure05.pdf

Lights On Afterschool
Lights On Afterschool! is celebrated nationwide to call attention to the importance of afterschool programs for America's children, families and communities. Afterschool programs keep kids safe, help working families and inspire learning. They provide opportunities to help young people develop into successful adults.
http://www.afterschoolalliance.org/

BIRTH DATA FROM THE CENSUS

American Community Survey: Marriage and Fertility
About 29 percent of all new mothers in the United States are unmarried and 15 percent are not American citizens, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which tracks state-specific data. Compared with the national average, most states in the South, and some states in the West, had a higher percentage of unmarried mothers with a birth in the last year who were below the poverty level. Overall, nearly 8 percent of those giving birth each year are teens. Approximately 12 percent of married mothers live in poverty, compared with about half of unmarried moms.
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/fertility/mar-fert-slides.html

EDUCATION NEWS

Looking to the Future: Voluntary K-12 School Integration Manual
Here’s a clear, accurate and easy-to-use manual for parents, teachers, and advocates working to eliminate persistent vestiges of racial discrimination in American schools, fifty years after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/resources/manual/deseg_manual.php

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WORKING FAMILIES

Rural Poverty: Is There Truly a Rural Effect?
The most urban and most rural areas of the United States both suffer from high levels of poverty – but only one-fifth of the nation’s 35 million poor people live in non-metropolitan areas, so rural poverty typically receives less attention. This new brief from the Institute for Research on Poverty looks at the literature on factors affecting poverty in rural areas. In particular, it asks whether there’s something about rural places beyond just demographic characteristics and local economic context that makes poverty more likely.
http://www.irp.wisc.edu/publications/dps/dpabs2005.htm#DP1309-05

The Status of Working Families in Indiana: 2005 Update
Overall, Indiana has had a dramatic increase in the number of people in poverty during the past few years. Kids have been particularly hard-hit: poverty rate for children in Indiana jumped sharply from 10.5 percent in 2002 to 18.5 percent in 2004, greater than the national average of 17.8 percent. And the number of families struggling to pay for basic needs like as food, housing and child care is even higher than the poverty rate indicates. The Indiana Coalition on Housing and Homeless Issues and the Indiana Institute for Working Families have issued a new report on jobs, wages, incomes, and poverty in the state – with information that advocates and concerned adults in other states may find useful.
http://www.ichhi.org/downloads/contentDocuments/final_status_of_working_families_2005_update.pdf

MEDICAID, MEDICAL CARE, AND KATRINA

Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment Services
A new Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured (KCMU) fact sheet examines the early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment services (EPSDT) Medicaid benefit for children, describing how it works and the current policy issues surrounding it.
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/7397.cfm

Connect for Kids has a backgrounder on EPSDT.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3326

California Initiative Expands Health Care for Kids
A new report from Mathematica examines the Santa Clara County Healthy Kids Program, an ambitious effort to close gaps in health insurance coverage for children. Researchers identified many significant improvements in medical, dental, and vision care among children who participated in Healthy Kids.
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/redirect_pubsdb.asp?strSite=PDFs/santaclara.pdf

Illinois Governor Proposes First-in-Nation Plan for Health Coverage for All Kids
Voices for America’s Children says this plan could provide health insurance to all 253,000 Illinois children. Read about it in Jan’s Corner.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

Extending Medicaid for Individuals Affected by Katrina
Another new KCMU issue brief compares various proposals to extend Medicaid coverage to Hurricane Katrina survivors -- including a bill sponsored by Senators Grassley and Baucus, the Administration’s Medicaid waiver initiative, and a waiver granted to the state of Texas.
http://cme.kff.org/Key=9401.J5n.D.C.CV8FWX

Child advocates urge passage of the bipartisan temporary extension of Medicaid coverage to hurricane survivors.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

Pediatricians Caution about Returning Children to the Flood Areas
Children are especially vulnerable to environmental hazards, and that means care should be taken in returning them to areas that have been flooded by the recent hurricanes, says the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). While many advocates urge youth involvement in middle- and longer-term rebuilding efforts, the AAP cautions against the involvement of kids and teens involved in clean-up activities.
http://www.healthinschools.org/2005/oct12b_alert.asp

KATRINA, JUVENILE JUSTICE, AND CHILD WELFARE

Children in Care in Impacted Areas
What’s happening to children in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems in Louisiana and Mississippi? The two are already among the nation’s poorest states, and the recent chaos has disrupted or destroyed facilities, group homes, and foster care arrangements. Children in the juvenile justice system are more likely to get stuck in facilities far from home and the systems themselves are vulnerable. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, which has long targeted reform efforts in these areas, has the story.
http://www.aecf.org/publications/connects_fall05.htm#children

CHILD CARE AND THE EARLY YEARS

The “Early Child Care Report”: The Debate Goes On
Four years ago, this controversial report offered evidence that children in child care were more aggressive than those whose mothers stay home. An update to the study finds that some of the apparent effects on children’s behavior disappear by the third grade, but other socialization problems may remain. It also appears that high-quality child care may boost math and reading scores in the third grade. The study has tracked 1,300 children in nine states since 1991.
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/od/secc/index.htm

Informal Care Not the Best Option, Study Finds
Another new study finds that informal care – using family, friends, or other arrangements --- was associated with lower cognitive-ability test scores in kids ages 3 to 6. By contrast, formal, center-based child care had no negative impact compared with remaining in mothers’ care. The study examined data from 1,519 single mothers involved in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth in the States. Household income did not seem to have any significant impact on children’s scores, particularly when mothers’ educational levels were taken into consideration.
http://eswc2005.econ.ucl.ac.uk/papers/ESWC/2005/1405/Bernal_Keane_Maternal%20Time_01_2005.pdf

Improving Maternal and Infant Mental Health: Focus on Maternal Depression
This policy paper, written by Zero to Three and UCLA, examines the impact of maternal depression on the social and emotional health of young children, and recommends specific steps that family support programs, early childhood programs, and public health officials can take to address the unmet mental health needs of mothers, ultimately promoting the social and emotional health, school readiness, and future functioning of very young children.
http://www.zerotothree.org/policy/policybriefs/maternaldep.pdf

Keep up the good work, everyone!
Caitlin

Caitlin Johnson, senior writer, and the Connect for Kids team