CFK Weekly - July 17, 2006

Editor’s Note: Several new studies — with findings ranging from welcome declines in infant mortality and teen parenthood rates to the disconcerting news that uninsured children now top 9 million — make the case for effective public interventions. But recent tax cuts, new Medicaid rules, and pending SCHIP and school nutrition bills threaten important programs for kids and families. In this issue, get the latest on crafting a kid-friendly budget and tapping community power, as well as developments in foster care, e-learning, mental health services, and more. We invite you to send news, reports, and other content ideas to Caitlin Johnson at weekly@connectforkids.org.

NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG

A World of Opportunity Welcomes All Comers
Low-income students who drop out – or are pushed out – of school without a high school diploma face long odds in their search for a path to a successful and stable adult life. In Birmingham, Ala., a former public school teacher is waging a fierce campaign to give such students a second chance. Gin Phillips reports on the World of Opportunity School.

Looking for Balance in Foster Care Views
When you learn that a teen is in foster care, what is your reaction? Empathy? Curiosity? Apprehension? News stories and popular media portrayals of young people involved with the child welfare system, paired with selective statistics about how this population is faring, can feed apprehension at the expense of a more positive view of the strength that can come from overcoming adversity. La Terra Cole, an intern with Connect For Kids, reflects on some recent “mainstream media” portrayals of foster care.

STATE OF AMERICA’S CHILDREN

America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-being 2006
Every year, the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics compiles the latest data from 21 federal agencies and other key data on children's economic security, health, behavior, social environment, and education. This year’s report looks at 2004 data. Among the key findings: the teen birth rate fell to the lowest level ever recorded (22.1 per every 1,000 girls ages 15-17, down from 22.4 in 2003), and fewer high school students smoke. The infant mortality rate returned to its lowest-ever level, after a rise in 2003. However, the proportion of infants with low birthweight rose between 2003 and 2004, and there was no significant change in the proportion of overweight kids ages 6-17 (17 percent in 2001-2002, and 18 percent in 2003-2004). The online version includes data tables, figures, and links to other resources.

TOOLS FOR COMMUNITIES

Serving All Youth: A Guide
Some 20 percent of children growing up in the United States have at least one immigrant parent. The latest edition of Youth Worker News, from the National Collaboration for Youth focuses on how community organizations can reach and serve these youth. The newsletter includes promising practices, tips for outreach, grant ideas, and tools to understand the social worlds of these young people.

The National Collaboration is collecting information on preparing staff to recruit and retain immigrant youth. If you have ideas to share from your organization, contact Pam Garza at pam@nassembly.org. Please include organization name, contact information and details about your program.

Adding it Up: A Guide to Developing a Children, Youth and Families Budget
What’s a children, youth and families (CYF) budget and why does it matter? For starters, it can help policymakers understand what’s really being spent on kids, families, and communities across the board, and it goes beyond the numbers to real people. For more, and for great tools to create or revamp a CFY budget, check out this guide from the Forum for Youth Investment and the Finance Project.

Discovering Community Power: A Guide to Mobilizing Local Assets and Your Organization's Capacity
You’ve got to “accentuate the positive,” as the song goes, and a new Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute guide agrees. Nonprofits and community organizations are more effective when they tap local resources and assets (including people, buildings and infrastructure, groups, and businesses) rather than focusing solely on deficits, needs, and problems; the guide offers ideas and examples.

KIDS & POLITICS

President's Claim that Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves Refuted by Administration's Own Analysis
In a July 11 speech, President Bush claimed that the Administration’s tax cuts "pay for themselves" by generating revenues, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). The CBPP’s findings— based on a new Department of Treasury analysis — observes that even if the tax cuts succeed in meeting the small projected economic increase, it will offset only a tiny fraction of the cost of tax cuts. Thus, CBPP concludes, the “tax cuts do not come remotely close to paying for themselves.”

Moving in Congress: Budget Bill, WIA, Foster Care
The budget process bill (S. 3521) passed by the Senate Budget Committee last month, may reach the Senate floor in July. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that the bill would drastically change how federal spending is decided, including setting a cap for discretionary programs, changes to Medicare and Medicaid, spur entitlement cuts, and allow fast-tracking of cuts or elimination of programs. Connect for Kids will keep tracking its progress.

As we reported last week, we’re also watching the Workforce Investment Act Reauthorization, which passed in the House in early 2005 and the Senate in the summer of 2005, and was reintroduced and passed in the Senate in late June.

Also, at the end of June, the House Ways and Means Committee approved the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, (HR 5640) to reauthorize child welfare programs including the federal Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program. The bill reauthorizes PSSF for five years, increases funding by $40 million a year (to $345 million annually), and extends the Mentoring Children of Prisoners and the Court Improvement programs. CFK will track this bill as it moves in the House, as well as the Senate bill, S. 3525.

School Nutrition Bill Needs Your Help, Says NEA
Healthy kids make better learners. Under a bipartisan bill in Congress — the Child Nutrition Promotion and School Lunch Protection Act (S. 2592 and H.R. 5167) — all food and drinks sold in school lunch lines and vending machines would have to meet “up-to-date nutritional standards.” But the bill needs more support to come to a floor vote. This National Education Association action alert is designed to urge members of Congress to schedule a vote.

PTA Member Alert: Save PIRCs and Arts in Education Programs!
When it comes to arts education, the big news is in the Senate Appropriations Committee, says the National PTA. The Committee plans to cut (1) Parent Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs) and (2) the Arts in Education programs in its Labor-HHS-Education bill.

Subcommittee mark-up of the bill is slated for July 18, with full committee consideration on July 20. The PTA has sent a letter to Committee members < http://www.pta.org/documents/senate-71106.pdf> and has an action alert for concerned adults.

HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE

Campaign for Children’s Health Care Launched July 11
Do more than 9 million American children deserve to go without health care? Or millions more suffer from inadequate coverage, as rates rise? Not according to the Campaign for Children's Health Care, a new national public education campaign that’s working to raise awareness and promote solutions. Among top target issues: next year’s Congressional reauthorization of the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which insures millions of U.S. kids. Concerned adults are encouraged to join the campaign.

Combating Child Obesity
Over the past 30 years, the obesity rate for children ages 2 to 5 has doubled, according to the Society for Research in Child Development. Obese children face significant medical and psychological risks. This report recommends several steps for parents, schools, policymakers, and others —from encouraging walkable communities, amping up local access to fitness and nutrition classes, and increasing preventative health care to curbing TV time and regulating junk food ads.

Connect for Kids has a comprehensive Obesity Resource to help as well.

Children and Air Pollution: The Low-Down
Despite improvements in urban air quality, “children are often exposed to particularly dangerous levels of air contamination in schools built near busy roadways or other sources of pollution,” according to Health in Schools, which offers a summary of a July 6 report and editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine that finds evidence of carbon particles in kids’ lungs.

MEDICAID CHANGES AND KIDS

The Medicaid Citizenship Requirement and Foster Care
The new rules requiring Medicaid applicants and those renewing coverage to offer proof of citizenship will likely place the health of some foster care children at risk, according to this Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report. Nearly all children in foster care are enrolled in Medicaid in one form or another. On July 6, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an interim final regulation clarifying the requirements.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have the lowdown on the interim final regulation – which includes provisions exempting “presumptively eligible” pregnant women and children.

Alleging that approximately 2 million eligible people stand to lose coverage, and that such denial is unconstitutional, the Chicago-based Shriver National Center on Poverty Law has filed suit challenging the Medicaid citizenship rules.

Easy Listening: Medicaid Citizenship Requirements
The Kaiser Family Foundation and Washington Post Radio have launched a Friday-morning collaboration to bring listeners the latest on health care issues. The July 14 edition covers the impacts of the Medicaid citizenship requirement. All segments can be listened to online.

EDUCATION NEWS

MDRC: Graduation Really Achieves Dreams (GRAD) Evaluation
High school problems — including the poor performance, drop out, and disconnection targeted by recent reforms — typically start in earlier grades. Project GRAD targets elementary, middle, and high schools to improve high school success and college readiness. Earning a scholarship to attend college is the “cornerstone” of Project GRAD. But does it work? Two new MDRC studies are mixed. There were many positive findings, particularly in the flagship school in Houston, TX, but less evidence of lasting positive impacts in other high schools; some impacts were not statistically significant. MDRC analysts caution that the program’s complexity and limited study time creates some challenges for this evaluation.

New Grants for Low-Income College Students
As the interest rates on student loans rise, governors are urging low-income students eligible for Pell grants to take advantage of two modest new grants (which, of course, are not loans): Academic Competitiveness grants and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) grants.

The Department of Education has more on and applications for both new grants online.

State NCLB Assessment Plans
To avoid an “apples and oranges” situation when it comes to public school evaluation and improvement, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires states to submit assessment plans to ensure consistency of data across states. The Department of Education reports that all 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico have now been told whether their standards and assessment systems are acceptable — 14 states received approval or “approval expected,” while most of the rest must submit plans for changes or additions within 25 days. Two states were not approved for the coming school year.

State letters on fiscal assessments are online.

Virtual Learning a Reality?
This Stateline.org article, “School Just a Click Away,” looks at how the Internet is changing high school, and making it possible to earn a diploma online in several states.

Column: “Target At-Risk Freshmen to Prevent Dropping Out”
The recent Annie E. Casey Foundation KIDS COUNT Databook ranked Indiana’s high school graduation rate as the worst in the nation. In this July 12 Indianapolis Star opinion piece, Teacher Andrea Neal argues that it’s time for real intervention — and it has to start before sophomore year.

SPOTLIGHT ON AFTER- SCHOOL

Now Online: After-School Evaluation Resources
When the rubber hits the road, what do the best after-school programs and policies really look like? The Harvard Family Research Project has expanded its evaluation resources, based on a groundbreaking conference last fall. Check out the multi-media additions, which capture the ideas of various stakeholders on access, quality, professional development, policy, and more.

Out-of-School Time Tools: Costs and Funding Guide
The Finance Project has two great new resources on after-school programs:

• The Costs of Out-of-School Time Programs: A Review of the Available Evidence , a report on costs and components, designed to support sound investment and decision-making; and

• Online Federal Funding Catalog: Out-of-School Time Resources Updated for 2006, the famous federal funding guide, now updated and searchable.

CHILD CARE AND EARLY LEARNING

Calculating the Cost of Quality Early Care and Education
Here’s a step-by-step guide from the Finance Project, designed to help states and policymakers accurately estimate the cost of high-quality early care and education.

Child Care Waivers for States Recovering from Hurricanes
When they access federal child care funds, states must also provide their own money to programs, called a “state match.” On July 11, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) waived this state match for Louisiana , Mississippi, and Texas, to help them recover from last year’s hurricanes. Louisiana will receive $27 million, Mississippi will receive $2 million, and Texas will receive $31 million in Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), according to HHS.

MENTAL HEALTH: CHILDREN AND TEENS

Challenges and Opportunities in Children’s Mental Health: A View from Families and Youth
Nearly 25 years after its original landmark study, Unclaimed Children, the National Center for Children in Poverty has released an updated examination of mental health services for children and teens in the U.S. The new report looks at policy and services, and offers specific recommendations for improvement – including earlier intervention, and a fresh look at harmful practices and solutions that give families and youth a stronger voice in policies and practices.

Children's Mental Health Bill in Senate Committee
On June 6, Senator Dodd (D-CT) introduced the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Resiliency Act of 2006 <>
(S. 3449), which provides new funds and technical assistance to improve mental health services for kids and teens. It was introduced in Committee and may or may not make it further. CFK will track this and other bills affecting kids, families, and communities.

Funding for School-Based Mental Health Services
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Caring Across Communities initiative supports school-connected mental health services for under-served children and youth. The Foundation has particular interest in efforts to help children of immigrant and refugee families. Proposal deadline: July 28, 2006.

THINGS TO DO — VIRTUALLY

National Indian Education Association (NIEA) Seeks Grad Photos
NIEA congratulates and honors all graduates, and seeks digital photos of Indian Country graduates for their next newsletter. They particularly request photos of individuals and groups who wore traditional garments, feathers and plumes, or other culturally significant items during their graduation ceremony. Send digital photos in a JPEG format to jsoto@niea.org. Please include the name of the graduate in your email.

CHAT: Path to Preserving HUD Housing (July 18)
This online chat will introduce the challenges and opportunities in preserving HUD-assisted multifamily housing and protecting families from displacement when preservation fails. Presented by KnowledgePlex and the National Housing Law Project, the chat takes place Tuesday, July 18, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Webcast: Paths to Success for Young African-American Men (July 18)
On Tuesday, July 18, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon ET, Kaiser will offer a live webcast of this discussion of a major new national survey conducted by The Washington Post, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and Harvard University. Bill Cosby, national leaders and young people will examine strategies to enable young black men to succeed. Send questions in advance to converstations@kff.org.

Engaging City Governments in Supporting Foster Youth Transition Issues (July 27)
The Institute for Youth, Education, and Families is beginning a quarterly audio conference series that will feature disconnected youth issues in collaboration with other national organizations. The first audio conference will take place on Thursday, July 27, at 1:00 p.m. ET. Register online.

Covering Kids and Families: Back-to-School Campaign Kickoff (August 9)
Now in its seventh year, this annual Robert Wood Johnson Foundation campaign runs from August through September to let parents know that low-cost or free health care coverage may be available for their uninsured children. Check the site for resources to help you get involved and start learning and planning now.

Book Relief for Hurricane Evacuees
This initiative aims to distribute at least five million new books to organizations, schools, libraries, supporting evacuees affected by the 2005 hurricanes You can register your organization online.

THINGS TO DO – REAL TIME

DC Screening: Maxed Out (July 19)
Americans’ personal savings are actually negative, according to the Center for American Progress (CAP), and personal debt has risen by 262 percent since 1980. One of the leading drivers behind this rise: credit cards—to which Americans owe some $813 billion in debt. The recent documentary, Maxed Out, looks at the pain and profits in the modern financial industry. CAP is hosting a free screening and a follow-up discussion in Washington, DC at the Landmark E Street Cinema on July 19 at 6:30 pm. Please RSVP.

Adolescent Health Care Services and Models of Care for Treatment, Prevention, and Healthy Development (July 20-21)
What are the main issues in teen health, and what needs to be improved? Washington, DC, readers can attend this event at the National Academies' Keck Building on 500 Fifth St., N.W. Many of the sessions are open to the public.

NEXT WEEK: Next week, in addition to emerging political, health, and education developments, we’ll cover the latest in marriage promotion, Colorado Kids Count, work and family income, food stamps, rural families, Native American lit, and a teen perspective on the impact of the rise in methamphetamine usage. Send your news, reports, and other information to Caitlin Johnson at weekly@connectforkids.org

Keep cool, everyone!

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