Not
a subscriber?
|
|
Editor's
Note
"It's time for a new social contract," one
that invests more in the young but asks more in return,
one that serves both children and the growing ranks of
retirees without bankrupting the country -- so argues
economist Isabelle Sawhill. Our Voices & Views section
outlines her approach to getting there without creating
a showdown between the old and the young.
While we're on the topic of showdowns, Congress
may not have been able to resurrect its expansion of
SCHIP, but policymakers continue to work on it. Perhaps
Congress will have better luck with a new bill introduced
last week to support child care providers: the Quality
Child Care for America Act.
There's plenty of news on the after-school front,
including a look at how black parents feel about the
impact of after-school initiatives on their children,
and tools to help replicate effective programs.
When it comes to in-school time, there's a fresh
look at how well schools are supporting students with
mental health needs and barriers to learning. Also the
National Governors Association is hosting a conference
on improving educational outcomes for children in foster
care.
Keep up the great work for kids and families!
Caitlin Johnson
weekly@connectforkids.org
 To
read PDF files, download the free Adobe
Reader.
|
 Voices
& Views
Each
week, our partner, Child Advocacy 360, highlights innovative
work and perspectives from the child and youth field in
Who's Doing What That Works and in Voices & Views.
A
New "Social Contract" to Balance the Needs of
Children and Seniors
 "America
must revise its social contract with the nation's
children and seniors to meet the needs of both generations
without bankrupting the country," economist Isabel
Sawhill noted in an October 17 speech.
The speech was Child Trends' first annual Kristin
Anderson Moore Lecture, and Sawhill, a senior fellow at
The Brookings Institution, spoke on "The Intergenerational
Balancing Act: Where Children Fit in an Aging Society."
She proposed rethinking the nation's social contract
between the old and the young to include:
- Investing more resources in today's children
to make them more productive adults -- but also expecting
these future adults to save more of their income to
pay for their own retirement;
- Investing more in people's health and in encouraging
healthy lifestyles at a young age in return for expecting
Americans to pay a larger share of their own health
care costs later in life; and
- Asking more affluent Americans to save more for
their own retirement, so that social insurance programs
could tilt more toward assisting the elderly who experience
a catastrophic event or who worked in lower-wage jobs
for most of their lives -- and using the resulting
savings to pay for greater investment in the young
and to reduce the national debt.
In a commentary on Sawhill's remarks, Kristin Moore,
senior scholar at Child Trends, called the budget crisis
coupled with America's aging baby boomers "the
single biggest children's issue on the nation's
horizon."
The presentations are available on Child
Trends.
Related
Article: Baby boomer priorities - Will there be
any oxygen left for children?
Earlier this year, Child Advocacy 360 profiled a wake-up
call from Jeffrey Bormaster, senior consultant to Child
Welfare League of America, during CWLA's 2007 Annual
Conference. A key challenge for the child and youth field,
he argued, is helping baby boomers understand what their
legacy will be for their children if the boomer agenda
continues to focus on "my social security, my health
coverage, and my personal safety" instead of children.
|
|
After-School
News and Tools
After-School
Programs an Oasis of Hope for Black Parents in Four Cities
New from the Black Alliance for Educational Options: a
landmark study of how black parents in low-income and
working-class neighborhoods rate the importance of public
after-school programs. These parents, according to the
study, have a deep understanding of the need for quality
after-school programs and a belief that such programs
can "help us bring our kids out of poverty."
The findings are based on 46 focus groups in Detroit,
Milwaukee, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.
 New
Resources for Launching and Replicating Out-of-School
Programs
Child Trends has issued two new briefs in its series on
fostering the adoption of evidence-based practices in
out-of-school time programs:
- Implementing
Evidence-Based Practices: Six "Drivers"
of Success. The implementation of a new program
or practice can be a major challenge for program providers.
This brief highlights why the effective implementation
of evidence-based practices is critical to achieving
outcomes and outlines six core components or "drivers"
of successful program implementation.
 Using
Assessment Tools to Evaluate After-School Programs: A
Look at the Youth Program Quality Assessment (November
2)
No one need tell you, dear Weekly reader, that evaluation
matters. This American Youth Policy Forum lunchtime panel
in washington, D.C. will examine policy issues, challenges
and specific tools to quantify the impact of programs
on the youth they serve -- specifically, the Youth Program
Quality Assessment tool from the High/Scope Educational
Research Foundation. |
Foster
Care and Child Welfare
Improving
Educational Outcomes for Children in Foster Care: What
State Policymakers Can Do (November 2)
Children in foster care face numerous challenges to school
success. This National Governors Association Center for
Best Practices Webcast will bring together national and
state experts to discuss educational outcomes for children
in foster care and what state policymakers can do to improve
these outcomes. Time: 3:00-4:15
p.m. Eastern. Submit your questions in advance
online.
A
Good Read: Cross-National Perspectives on Child Welfare
Policy
A new book, Research for
Action: Cross-National Perspectives on Connecting Knowledge,
Policy, and Practice for Children, tells the stories
of six child welfare case studies from the United Kingdom,
Ireland, Israel, South Africa and the United States --
and explores promising approaches for putting research
into practice. It includes a chapter on using administrative
data for child welfare system reform. Co-edited by Chapin
Hall Research Fellow Robert J. Chaskin (Oxford University
Press, $39.95). |
Reconnecting
Youth: Upcoming Events
 Development
and Implementation of Multiple Pathways to Graduation
in New York City (October 26)
Since 2005, the Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation
has focused on increasing the graduation rates and college
readiness for marginalized high school students. The data
gathered to inform this work represent an unprecedented
examination of students' experience within the school
system and has been critical in the creating of new pathways.
This American Youth Policy Forum lunch panel in Washington,
D.C. will examine the findings.
Engaging
Marginalized Youth (October 29 and 31)
This Web training from the National Center for Victims
of Crime will explore strategies for outreach, communication
and engagement of underserved, marginalized young people
and their families. It will be held online on October
29 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern and again on
October 31 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern.
|
Child
Care and Early Learning
Title
I and Early Childhood Programs: A Look at Investments
in the NCLB Era
This new Center for Law and Social Policy report reviews
how school districts currently use Title I to support
early education. Since PK-3 is one of the only evidence-based
interventions, CLASP calls on Congress to amend Title
I to expand PK-3. Among the recommendations: better aligning
community early childhood programs with schools and ensuring
professional development to early childhood teachers.
Quality
Child Care for America Act Introduced in Congress
On October 18, Senator Clinton (D-NY) and Representative
DeLauro (D-Conn) announced the introduction of a bill
to support child care providers. It would create a $200
million set-aside fund in the Child Care and Development
Block Grant Act to provide benefits and training for child
care centers and home-based providers. The Act has been
endorsed by many in the field, including the National
Women's Law Center and the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees.
This funding is important -- a recent National Women's
Law Center report, State
Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward,
More Progress Needed, found that despite modest progress
in some areas, states continue to fall far short of providing
low-income parents the support they need to access good
quality child care. |
Health
and Health Care
Reacting to the Veto
Last week, the House failed to override the president's
veto of the State Children's Health Insurance (SCHIP)
expansion.
- Poor
Children First - Or Last? This Center on Budget
and Policy Priorities (CBPP) brief says the SCHIP
bill would have put poor children first, unlike several
recent policy changes from the administration.
Filling
in the Cracks: Public and Private
Strategies to Extend Health Insurance to Children and
Families (October 31)
This Webinar will feature presentations describing the
current status of national and state reform as well as
private sector programs aimed at improving coverage for
children and families, including SCHIP and profiles of
state reforms. It's hosted by the National Institute
for Health Care Management Foundation. Time: 1
to 2 p.m. Eastern. Contact Kathryn Kushner, kkushner@nihcm.org
for info.
Be
a Judge or Enter and Win: Ruckus Nation - An Idea Competition
to Get Kids Moving!
 HopeLab,
a nonprofit that assists young people with chronic illness,
is sponsoring an online competition of innovative and
inventive ideas for games, toys and tech devices that
increase physical activity among kids ages 11 to 14. It's
open to people of all ages. HopeLab is also looking for
online judges; register online.
|
|
| |
Caitlin Johnson and Thaddeus Ferber
Connect for Kids and the Forum for Youth Investment
|
|
|
