CFK Weekly - December 5, 2005

NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG

Mix It Up
Nations may squabble about the precise locations of their borders, but in a secondary-school cafeteria everyone knows where the lines are drawn: the jocks here, the it-girls there, and the Goths as far from the rest as possible. Race, language, gender, clothes, music – kids slice and dice themselves along all kinds of lines. That’s where Mix It Up comes in. Tamekia Reece reports.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3754

What’s Wrong with Children’s Rights
In this book, Martin Guggenheim analyzes the most significant debates in the children's rights movement—from foster care to adoption to visitation rights and beyond. Guggenheim has worked for more than 30 years as a children’s rights lawyer. He joins Connect for Kids for an online chat from 1 to 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, December 7. Use our easy Web form to submit your pre-questions.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3631

Read the Connect for Kids review of this book.
http://www.connectforkids.org/node/3753

CFK Needs Your Help
Since we launched the re-designed ConnectforKids.org this past March, we’ve logged nearly 1.5 million views of our articles and online resources. The CFK Weekly newsletter sees an average of more than 1,200 clicks to the news and information it delivers to your in-box. If you’d like to support us in our work, you can make a tax-deductible year-end donation online.
http://www.connectforkids.org/donate

ACTION IDEAS

Building on Success: Providing Today's Youth with Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow
Sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), this national conference will examine trends in victimization, delinquency, and juvenile justice; family strengthening efforts; program accountability; and what’s working to help kids, families, and communities. The registration fee has been reduced from $450 to only $275 for a limited time only. To take advantage of this bargain rate, register by December 9, 2005.
http://www.juvenilecouncil.gov/2006NationalConference/

Coming Up Taller Awards
Sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, these awards honor exemplary programs that foster the creative and intellectual development of America's children and youth. Fifteen awards of $10,000 are presented each year, providing project recognition and contributing to continued work. All applications must be postmarked by January 30, 2006.
http://www.cominguptaller.org/awards.html

KIDS & POLITICS: THE FEDERAL BUDGET

Members of the House will return to their DC offices this week, and the Senate will return next week. Topping their “To Do” lists are finalizing the fiscal year 2006 budget reconciliation bills that cut back spending on fundamental domestic programs and finalizing a tax reconciliation bill. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) has indicated optimism about the ability to finish the budget before Congress adjourns -- sometime between December 16 and 20 -- but isn’t as sure that a final tax bill will get done by then. Unfinished business will be resumed in January.

Check out Connect for Kids’ Action Central for action alerts and details on the tax-cut and budget-cutting bills.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

Federal Budget Basics
The House and Senate have each passed their fiscal year 2006 budget reconciliation bills, both with unprecedented cuts in mandatory spending programs like Medicaid. The Senate’s budget reconciliation bill includes $35 billion in cuts while the House cuts more than $50 billion, including significant cuts to housing assistance, Medicaid, food stamps, child care, child support enforcement, and foster care. As Congress returns from its Thanksgiving recess, House and Senate negotiators will try to work out the differences and finalize a common budget. In addition to differences in Medicaid policy and cuts, the Senate bill makes no cuts to food stamps and does not include TANF reauthorization.

APHSA has sample letters to Congress opposing the budget cuts.
http://www.aphsa.org

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has good information about the budget and tax bills.
• Budget: http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/fedbud.htm
• Tax plans: http://www.cbpp.org/pubs/fedtax.htm

Jan’s Corner on the Connect for Kids site offers details and action steps.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

Food Stamp Program Goes Hungry in House Budget
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the House budget reconciliation bill would reduce federal spending for food stamps by $647 million over 2006 to 2010, and by $733 million by 2015. Eligibility changes in the bill would drop about 185,000 people from the program. A provision would extend the legal immigrant waiting period from five to seven years -- resulting in about 50,000 people losing benefits in 2006 and 2007, and 70,000 people by 2008.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/69xx/doc6910/NutritionLetter.pdf

The Food Stamp Program is the largest of the domestic food and nutrition assistance programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. A December 5 Wall Street Journal feature examines how states use food stamps to support the working poor (“States’ Food Stamp Fight Intensifies”).
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113374019166713634-cLxYXH6COV5vY97CGlB6IDJxEAg_20061204.html?mod=blogs

Child Support Faces Biggest Cut of all Children’s Programs in House Bill
If the cuts to child support enforcement included in the House reconciliation make it into the final FY 2006 budget, the program stands to lose 40 percent of its funding. Two-thirds of American families of all income levels and 17.3 million children benefit from the program. The CBO estimates that $24 billion in support will go uncollected in the next ten years; as a result “fewer non-custodial parents will support their children and more families will sign up for welfare,” according to the Center for Law and Social Policy.
http://www.clasp.org/publications/backing_away_on_child_support.pdf

Foster Care Takes a Hit
The House bill also includes a technical -- and less publicized – provision to cut foster care funding. The bottom line: there will be fewer federal funds to serve abused and neglected children. Grandparents and other relatives who care for children who would otherwise be in unsafe situations stand to lose significant funds they often rely on to care for their relative children.
http://www.cwla.org/advocacy/fostercare051109.htm

A Center for Law and Social Policy brief also examines the provisions, which, if implemented, would discourage the placement of abused and neglected children with relatives, impede efforts to reunify children with their parents, and make it more difficult to provide critical services to children and families.
http://www.clasp.org/publications.php?id=5#0

Advocates Gearing Up to Fight Budget Battle
Across the country, groups are coming together to oppose the House budget cuts which have been called “heartless,” “Draconian” and “boneheaded” in various op-eds and speeches. The Emergency Campaign for America’s Priorities (ECAP), the Coalition on Human Needs, Call to Renewal, and other groups are organizing events in local districts across the country and in DC. Connect for Kids’ Action Central serves as a portal to these and other grassroots efforts, campaigns, call-in events and other activities.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

ECAP is working on developing a National Day of Action on the reconciliation bills in December.
http://www.usaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=eiJPJ5OVF&b=1120013

Advocates are planning more budget call-in days the week of December 12, but don’t wait to make your calls!
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

President Bush Issues Tax Reform Proposal
The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform's Final Report recommended sweeping changes in the tax system. Yet any benefit of these changes would be more than outweighed by the very high cost of the Panel's proposals, which would substantially increase long-term deficits, according to a new Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis.
http://www.cbpp.org/11-30-05tax.htm

WELFARE CHANGES POSSIBLE

“Pay No Attention to the Bill Behind the Curtain”: TANF Reauthorization in Budget
The House spending bill includes reauthorization provisions for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill. Advocates say the bill contains all the elements that have held up separate reauthorization efforts for years -- imposing inflexible and expensive new mandates on states such as raising parents’ work requirements from 30 to 40 hours per week, narrowing the definition of the activities that counts toward this work participation rate, mandatory drug testing, and cuts to child care assistance.
http://www.cbpp.org/11-29-05tanf.htm

Child advocates oppose this “back-door reauthorization,” reminding Senators that they can invoke the Byrd rule, a measure under the Congressional Budget Act, that prevents inclusion of items that aren’t primarily budgetary issues in the federal budget legislation.
http://www.chn.org/pdf/TANFandByrd.pdf

Proposal TANF Corrective Action Plan if Child Poverty Increases
Debates over whether welfare-to-work has worked or not often focus on TANF’s role in decreasing or increasing child poverty rates. On November 23, the Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Administration for Children and Families proposed reinstating information collection requirements on the connection between TANF and state child poverty. States that experience an annual jump of 5 percent or more in their child poverty rate according to Census data (unless independent state estimates are deemed more reliable), will have to submit an assessment of the role TANF programs play in child poverty. If HHS determines that TANF is behind the increase, the state must come up with a corrective action plan.
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20051800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2005/05-23357.htm

KIDS & POLITICS: STATE NEWS

Legislative Report Card on Policies Affecting Kids (CA)
The Children’s Advocacy Institute at the University of San Diego law school has released its 2005 Children’s Legislative Report Card, which describes the year and examines several child-friendly bills in the areas of economic security, nutrition, health and safety, child care, and child protection. Legislators’ floor votes are detailed. Of the 20 child-friendly measures featured in the Report Card, 18 were sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk for his consideration; he ultimately vetoed over one-third of them.
http://www.caichildlaw.org

Kids, Give the Governor your Ideas: Essay Contest (NJ)
Calling all fourth-graders in New Jersey! The Association for Children of New Jersey wants you to write a letter to Governor-Elect Jon Corzine with your ideas for improving programs like health care, housing, personal safety, schools and after-school programs -- and everything in between. Letters should be 500 words or fewer and must be received by Friday, December 16, 2005. Winners will have their letters read at the upcoming launch of the 2006 NJ Kids Count report, and will receive $50 in cash. Their teachers will get a $50 Staples gift card. Contact Cynthia Rice at 973-643-3876 or crice@acnj.org.
http://www.acnj.org

FUNDING -- AND GIVING -- IDEAS THIS SEASON

New Tax Deductions for Charitable Giving
The Katrina Emergency Relief Act of 2005 lets you claim up to 100 percent of adjusted gross income as a tax deduction when you make qualified charitable contributions of cash from Aug. 28, 2005, to Dec. 31, 2005. Eligible gifts are not limited to Katrina-related charitable causes.
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=147085,00.html

Federal Funds for Organizations Helping Those in Need
USDA's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is offering this online grants catalog to help faith-based and community organizations find suitable federal grant opportunities. And here’s a tip – contact the contact person to learn more about each program and its application process.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/fbci/grants-catalog-additional.html

National Teach-In Grants for Civic Learning and Leadership
The Youth for Justice consortium funded by OJJDP invites 100 middle and high school classes across the United States to teach others about the fundamental ideas of American democracy through the Third Annual National Teach-In celebration of National & Global Youth Service Day and National Law Day. The first 100 classes to register will receive a mini-grant of $200 which may be used to buy materials to conduct their teach-in, provide law-related education resources for their class or school library, host a teach-in conference with another school, or donate to a school club or charity. The deadline to register is January 31, 2006.
http://www.crfc.org/yfj_teachin2006.html

Gift Idea: Nutrition Newsletter
The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action Healthletter – the largest-circulation nutrition newsletter in North America – offers food and health news people can use. Subscribers receive ten issues for only $10 for a new subscriber; current subscribers can give a holiday gift for $15 for one subscription and $10 for additional ones (the regular price is $20).
http://cspinet.org/nah/campaign1.html

EDUCATION: GRADUATING AND GETTING GOOD JOBS

A Majority of States Are Way Off on Graduation Rate Calculations
Based on the averaged freshman graduation rate, a new measure the U.S. Dept. of Education is using to assess more accurately and comprehensively how many students are graduating from high school, 11 states drastically overestimate the number of students who graduate from their high schools. The biggest offenders include North Carolina, New Mexico, Mississippi, Indiana and South Dakota, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education summary. New Jersey, North Dakota and Wisconsin graduated the highest percentages of their high school students on time, while Washington, DC, South Carolina and Georgia had the lowest graduation rates.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006601.pdf

December 13 Conference Call on the Dropout Crisis
The National Education Association and Connect for Kids are hosting a conference call on the dropout crisis on December 13 at 1:00 pm (Eastern). Presenters will cover the ethnic/racial composition of the dropout population, promising moves forward for addressing the dropout crisis in the states, and tips for talking about the dropout crisis based on polling and focus group findings.
http://www.connectforkids.org/action_central

Philadelphia Newspaper Focuses on Out-of-School Youth
The Fall 2005 issue of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook includes in-depth coverage of the situation of out-of-school youth in the city. Through interviews with 50 out-of-school youth and articles in English and Spanish, the issue covers topics like data shortfalls, zero tolerance, financial incentive structures, early intervention strategies, and the special circumstances affecting young people aging out of foster care and those who are pregnant and parenting.
http://www.thenotebook.org

Link between High School Reform and College Access and Success
A new report from the American Youth Policy Forum and the Pathways to College Network updates a 2002 study examining how well school reform models address known predictors of college-going behavior. The report makes seven recommendations to help high school change efforts improve their impact on the college access and success of underserved students – among them: implementing a rigorous core curriculum, creating a system to identify and support academically unprepared high school freshman, and better aligning K-12 curricula with college requirements.
http://www.aypf.org/publications/HSReformCollegeAccessandSuccess.pdf

The High Schools Hispanics Attend
Hispanic youths are much more likely than white or black youths to attend public high schools that are large, that have a high student-to-teacher ratio, and that have a substantial proportion of students who come from relatively poor families, all characteristics associated with lower student performance, reports the Pew Hispanic Center.
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=54

Updated College Readiness for All Toolbox
This Toolbox provides strategies, tools, and resources for increasing college readiness for all students. The revisions include new tools for reaching and informing key opinion leaders and community members, as well as resources to help policymakers and others make policy changes that advance college preparation, enrollment, and completion for underserved students.
http://www.pathwaystocollege.net/collegereadiness/toolbox/

WORK, WAGES, AND FAMILIES

2005 State of Opportunity Report
The Bell Policy Center in Colorado has a “Cycle of Opportunity” concept that goes something like this: if someone gets a good education, he or she is more likely to get a job that pays well. Getting a job that pays well means he or she is likely to be economically self-sufficient, which in turn makes this person more likely to own a home and provide for children. These children are thus more likely to be born healthy and get a good education themselves -- and the cycle repeats.

For this reason, self-sufficiency should be the underlying goal of public policy, according to the Bell Policy Center. So what can be done to encourage these conditions? This report looks at the Colorado Standard and presents state-based recommendations for numerous policy areas.
http://www.thebell.org

A Just Minimum Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future
Arguing that giving low-wage workers a long-overdue pay raise is a moral imperative, this new report commissioned by American Friends Service Committee and the National Council of Churches calls on Congress to raise the minimum wage.
http://www.afsc.org/economic-justice/a-just-minimum-wage.htm

Results of Jobs-Plus Evaluation: in Video Form!
This streaming video from MDRC summarizes (in 7 minutes) the impressive results from over 8 years of research into the Jobs-Plus program for people in poor urban public housing developments in six cities.
http://www.mdrc.org

“Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth”
This report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research refutes the common belief that women are increasingly quitting their jobs when they have children. Rather than opting out to have children, women have been pushed out of the labor market since 2001 because of the recession and slow recovery. The early 2000s recession led to sustained job losses for all women - with and without children at home - and the labor market only just returned to its 2000 employment level in January 2005, nearly four years after the recession began. http://www.cepr.net/publications/opt_out_2005_11.pdf

Pathways to Construction Employment Initiative
Vulnerable workers in the hurricane-ravaged states of Louisiana and in Mississippi may get a boost from a new U.S. Department of Labor initiative that establishes partnerships between the state workforce agency and community college system. In each state, the workforce agency and community college system will use their respective $5 million grants to establish and operate two construction career pathways -- registered apprenticeships or courses in skills ranging from maintenance to electrical or plumbing.
http://www.doleta.gov

CHILD CARE AND EARLY LEARNING

Votes Count: Legislative Action on Pre-K Fiscal Year 2006
More than a million three and four-year-olds now attend state funded pre-kindergarten programs, as state pre-K spending has shown the largest increase in five years, according to this Pre-K Now national report. Nationwide total pre-K funding nearly doubled over last year, as 30 states moved to increase funding for pre-K access, twice the number of states over FY05.
http://www.preknow.org/


Child Care Assistance in 2004: States Have Fewer Funds for Child Care
States’ increasing investment in pre-K contrasts with a decline in state spending on child-care assistance. Such spending declined in 2004 for the first time since the 1996 passage of welfare reform. Child care assistance helps low-income families find and retain the jobs they need to support their families. This policy brief, which examines national expenditure data for the Child Care and Development Block Grant and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), finds that 30 states made cuts to their child care programs and fewer families received the child care help they needed to work and succeed.
http://www.clasp.org/publications/childcareassistance2004.pdf

The House budget reconciliation contains TANF provisions that would cut funding for child care – see the Kids & Politics section, above.

FOOD AND NUTRITION

Are Food Stamps Reaching Those in Need? State Participation Rates 2003
While just over half -- 56 percent -- of eligible people in the United States received food stamp benefits in 2003, a new policy brief from Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., finds that participation rates varied widely from state to state. In fact, 22 states had rates that were significantly higher than the national rate and 16 had rates that were significantly lower.

Between 2002 and 2003, Oregon, Tennessee, Missouri, DC, Maine, Louisiana, West Virginia, Hawaii, and Kentucky had significantly higher participation rates than two-thirds of the states, and Maryland, Texas, Florida, Colorado, Utah, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Nevada, and Massachusetts had significantly lower rates than two-thirds of the states. During fiscal year 2005, the program served over 25 million people in an average month at a total annual cost of over $28 billion in benefits, excluding disaster assistance provided as a result of hurricanes in September 2005.
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com/publications/redirect_pubsdb.asp?strSite=pdfs/fns03rates.pdf.

Many Eligible Families Fail to Claim Food Stamp Benefits
This article from the National League of Cities examines a FRAC report on food stamps and hunger that found that only 62 percent of eligible urban households take advantage of the Food Stamp program. Barriers include language skills and lack of awareness about how to get food stamps benefits, along with concerns about the stigma.
http://www.nlc.org/Newsroom/Nation_s_Cities_Weekly/Weekly_NCW/2005/11/21/7109.cfm

Understanding the Paradox of Hunger and Obesity: A Roundtable
The Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) has released a summary of discussions from this 2004 roundtable, during which attendees exchanged information and strategies for making the connection between food insecurity and obesity and addressing the needs of low-income people. They discussed effective and sensitive national, state, and local solutions and identified promising areas for additional research.
http://www.frac.org/pdf/proceedings05.pdf

JUVENILE JUSTICE

Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2005
Although the rate of violent crime in the nation's schools was essentially unchanged between 2002 and 2003, its half the rate recorded in 1992. This report, from the Department of Education and the Justice Department, shows that the rate of violent crime declined from 48 per 1,000 students in 1992 to 28 per 1,000 students in 2003 (ages 12-18). On the other hand, 9 percent of students said they were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property (up from seven percent in 1993); and seven percent reported that they had been bullied (up from five percent in 1999).
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006001

Videoconference on Youth Gangs
On January 11, 2006, at 11 a.m. ET, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) will air the 2-hour videoconference “Communities Respond to Youth Gangs in America.” The broadcast is designed for anyone interested in addressing youth gangs, including school personnel, school resource officers/G.R.E.A.T officers, law enforcement professionals, local Boys & Girls Club staff, youth development professionals, probation and corrections officers, prosecutors and court personnel, researchers, elected officials, and youth leaders.
http://www.trc.eku.edu/jj/

FOSTER CARE AND CHILD WELFARE

Check our Kids & Politics section above for important news about cuts to federal foster care funds included in the House budget reconciliation.

Adoption and State Recruitment Strategies
On any given day in the United States, more than 100,000 foster children are waiting to be adopted by someone who can provide a permanent, loving home. This report from the Urban Institute builds on a report issued last year that identified primary barriers and promising approaches to move foster children into adoptive homes. It provides a first-time national look at the state of adoption recruitment by describing: levels of interest in adoption, who takes steps toward adopting, and how interest might be channeled toward foster care adoption.
http://www.urban.org/publications/411254.html

Oral and Dental Aspects of Child Abuse and Neglect
This revised American Academy of Pediatrics report reviews the oral and dental aspects of physical and sexual abuse, and the role of physicians and dentists in evaluating such conditions – including bite marks, injuries in and around the mouth, and infections and diseases that may cause suspicion for child abuse and neglect. Physicians and dentists are encouraged to collaborate in order to increase the prevention, detection and treatment of these conditions.
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;104/2/348

CASA Connection: Helping Older Teens
This month’s CASA Connection has two articles with good information on how CASA volunteers can help middle and older teens prepare for independent living when they age out of the foster care support system.
http://www.casanet.org/download/ncasa_publications/0511_connection_fall05_0036.pdf

Keep working for kids, everyone – and let us know about your progress!

Caitlin
Caitlin Johnson, sr. writer, and the Connect for Kids team