Connect for Kids.org: Better Policies for Kids

December 13, 2004

Table of Contents. Click on heading to jump to that section.

NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG
**Helping Foster Care Grads Move On to College
**TalkTime! Archive: Understanding and Preventing Obesity in Kids
**An Agenda for Youth
**Beyond Bilingual Education: Immigrant Students and the No Child Left Behind Act

MAKING HEADLINES: SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS IN THE FIELD
**UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children
**The Latest on Teen Sexuality
**Sixth Annual TANF Report to Congress
**Children of Hispanic Immigrants Continue to Favor English

HOLIDAY HEADS UP
**Reading Rockets Holiday Gift Guide
**Lead Hazards in Some Jewelry for Kids

GETTING THE NUMBERS -- AND GETTING THEM RIGHT
**Scant Public Data Sources on Rural Young Children
**Task Force Urges New System for High School Data
**Report Suggests Current School Accountability Measures Are Inadequate

WHAT’S NEW IN EDUCATION
**In a Global Test of Math Skills, U.S. Students Behind the Curve
**Elementary Student Suspensions Hit Record High
**No Child Left Behind is Taking Root
**Hands-On Learning Makes the Grade
**Illegal Immigrants Rarely Use Hard-Won Tuition Break

BOLSTERING YOUTH AND A SKILLED WORKFORCE
**Redesigning the American High School
**Investing in AfterSchool
**Multiple Work Supports and Services May Help Low-Wage Workers Climb the Economic Ladder
**What Can the U.S. Learn about Parental Leave from New Zealand?
**Choosing Child Poverty

KIDS IN THE PUBLIC’S CARE
**Serving Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
**Overlap Between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems?
**Foster Care: No Cure for Mental Illness
**December 22: “A Home for the Holidays”

MONEY MATTERS
**When Will States be Back in Black?
**The Nuts and Bolts of the Omnibus Bill

HEALTH NEWS
**One-third of U.S. Children Lack Quality Health Care
**HHS Announces National Plan for Action on Diabetes
**New Anti-Drug Resources for Parents

HEALTH AND NUTRITION
**Restoring Food Stamps to Legal Immigrants

FOCUS ON THE STATES
**State-by-State News

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NEW ON CONNECTFORKIDS.ORG

**Helping Foster Care Grads Move On to College
For young people who emerge from the foster care system hoping to succeed in college, there is a disjointed patchwork of financial assistance available. But it's not always easy for young people to take advantage of what's out there. The Orphan Foundation, working with several states to administer a key new federal grant program, is using computer technology to help.
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?doc_id=252692

**TalkTime! Archive: Understanding and Preventing Obesity in Kids
Learn what the experts had to say about childhood obesity.
http://www.connectforkids.org/usr_doc/onlinechat_understanding_obesity.html

**An Agenda for Youth
President Bush has said he will make sure high schools can educate every student. Virginia Governor Mark Warner, head of the National Governors Association, has identified high school reform as a 2005 priority. What will it take to really support youth? Jan Richter has some suggestions for the President and other leaders.
http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content_show.htm?attrib_id=300&doc_id=252697

**Beyond Bilingual Education: Immigrant Students and the No Child Left Behind Act
Connect for Kids reports from an Urban Institute policy briefing on the topic.
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?doc_id=252400
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MAKING HEADLINES: SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS IN THE FIELD

**UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children
This 2005 report finds that more than half of the world’s children – over a billion in all -- are suffering extreme deprivation as a result of war, poverty or AIDS. In an interview accompanying the report, UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy says giving children a good start in education and health is an investment with enormous returns as children grow to be adults, provide leadership in their communities and raise their own children.
http://www.unicef.org/sowc05/english/index.html

**The Latest on Teen Sexuality
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy reviews the new data from the National Center for Health Statistics on teen sexual activity. Surveys conducted in 2002 indicate that in teens are having sex less, starting later, and are slightly more likely to use contraception than they were in 1995. “Particularly impressive,” according to campaign organizers, were the declines among Hispanic females (from 56.4 percent to 40.4 percent) and non-Hispanic Black males (from 80.6 percent to 63.4 percent).
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04news/teens.htm

**Sixth Annual TANF Report to Congress
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has posted its sixth annual report on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The report includes national and state-by-state data on, among other measures: caseloads, benefit levels, work participation and earnings, performance bonus awards, child support collections, and child poverty. State-by-state information on sanction policies is also available.
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ofa/annualreport6/ar6index.htm

**Children of Hispanic Immigrants Continue to Favor English
Is English losing ground to Spanish in the United States? Not according to a new analysis of 2000 census data by the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at SUNY-Albany. English remains the language of choice among the children and grandchildren of Hispanic immigrants -- just as it did with European immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. According to this study, 72 percent of third-generation or later Hispanic children spoke English exclusively.
http://mumford.albany.edu/children/researchbriefs.htm
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HOLIDAY HEADS UP

**Reading Rockets Holiday Gift Guide
To children, books can be pure magic. Reading Rockets has created a holiday gift guide to nurture a year-round love of reading in children from birth to age 9.
http://www.readingrockets.org/books/booksasgifts/index.php

**Lead Hazards in Some Jewelry for Kids
A new University of North Carolina at Asheville study found high levels of lead in a majority of bracelets, rings, necklaces and earrings -- most designed for kids -- bought at big chain stores. The jewelry leeched enough lead to cause minor brain and nerve damage with just 20 seconds of daily contact. The study will be published next month in the Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology.
http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm1754_20041211.htm

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GETTING THE NUMBERS -- AND GETTING THEM RIGHT

**Scant Public Data Sources on Rural Young Children
Rural young children and their families are too often left out of national surveys and studies, according to the National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives. Collecting adequate samples from remote and far-flung communities can be challenging, but child advocates can encourage state and federal agencies -- including the U.S. Census Bureau -- to produce reports specifically addressing the needs and strengths of rural young children and families.
http://www.ruralec.msstate.edu/news/12-05-04_infogap.htm

**Task Force Urges New System for High School Data
The Task Force on Graduation, Completion and Dropout Indicators examined the current methods to calculate graduation, completion and dropout rates and found that an alternative approach -- one that tracks individual students throughout their high school years – would provide more accurate and comprehensive results. The task force recommends that states and federal statisticians work together to devise such a data-collection system. Federal officials and independent experts say this is a tall order. Fewer than a dozen states have systems in place to track students, and establishing them could take several years and cost millions of dollars.
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005105.pdf

**Report Suggests Current School Accountability Measures Are Inadequate
Neither of the two competing approaches to assessing school quality and improvement -- measuring average proficiency or measuring gains in proficiency -- provides direct evidence of quality or improvement, according to a new report from the Educational Testing Service. In particular, Researcher Stephen W. Raudenbush calls high-stakes accountability decisions based on school-mean proficiency levels "scientifically indefensible."
http://www.ets.org/news/04111101.html

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WHAT’S NEW IN EDUCATION

**In a Global Test of Math Skills, U.S. Students Behind the Curve
American high school students have a poorer mastery of basic math concepts than their counterparts in most other leading industrialized nations, according to the latest Program for International Student Assessment study -- and the gap may be widening. The United States ranked 24th out of 29 countries in this study, which measured the ability of 15-year-olds to solve real-life math problems.
http://www.ecs.org/00CL5785

**Elementary Student Suspensions Hit Record High
Elementary schools are cracking down on discipline problems by suspending a record number of students, most of whom are African American. The number of students suspended more than doubled between 1994 and 2003. Schools say they need more resources and parental support to handle such students, and that teachers need training in proper discipline techniques.
http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/12-04/1204main.htm

**No Child Left Behind is Taking Root
According to surveys of state education departments, states are meeting NCLB requirements and making slightly more progress on nearly every indicator this current school year. (The report includes charts and state data tables.)
http://www.ecs.org/00CL5781

**Hands-On Learning Makes the Grade
Two new policy briefs from the National Center for Learning and Citizenship explore the benefits and challenges of involving youth in education governance and policymaking, and of incorporating service learning into high school seniors’ final projects. (See, “Involving Students in Governance” and “Senior and Culminating Projects.”)
http://www.ecs.org/html/ProjectsPartners/nclc/NCLC_Publications.asp

**Illegal Immigrants Rarely Use Hard-Won Tuition Break
Eight states offer in-state tuition benefits to high school graduates who are undocumented or are not legal residents, and other states are debating doing the same. But few students who qualify for the lower tuition rates are actually taking advantage of them. Some lack the necessary academic preparation; other undocumented students -- who are typically cut off from financial aid -- find even in-state tuition rates too high. Still others remain unaware of the programs. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports.
http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i16/16a01901.htm

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BOLSTERING YOUTH AND A SKILLED WORKFORCE

**Redesigning the American High School
The National Governors Association has declared high school reform a key focus for 2004-2005.
http://www.nga.org/chairman04/

**Investing in AfterSchool
The Afterschool Investments project -- supported by the Child Care Bureau – has developed state profiles of before-school, after-school and summer programs in every state. These and other resources for policymakers, administrators, and program providers are available online.
http://www.nccic.org/afterschool

**Multiple Work Supports and Services May Help Low-Wage Workers Climb the Economic Ladder
Are welfare-to-work families moving out of poverty, or just off the rolls? A new federal demonstration project tested eight states’ approaches to promoting employment retention and advancement among welfare participants. Overall, the results were mixed—but the study identified challenges and opportunities for the future. In particular, success depends on access to a system of community supports, including access to transportation, mental and physical health care, child care and job training and mentoring.
http://www.researchforum.org/media/forum73.pdf

**What Can the U.S. Learn about Parental Leave from New Zealand?
This brief -- the first in the Center for Law and Social Policy’s Work-Life Balance Series -- examines New Zealand’s experience with paid parental leave and includes qualitative data from 17 New Zealand small businesses on their experiences with their new law. Researcher Jodie Levin-Epstein concludes with policy implications and some next steps for the United States.
http://www.clasp.org/publications/work_life_brf1.pdf

**Choosing Child Poverty
Why are so many U.S. children poor? By some measures, we have the highest childhood poverty rate of any wealthy nation. In their book Poor Kids in a Rich Country, economists Timothy Smeeding and Lee Rainwater conclude it doesn’t have to be so. Smeeding spoke in May with Connect for Kids Editor Susan Phillips.
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?doc_id=227267
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KIDS IN THE PUBLIC’S CARE

**Serving Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
What works to help youth aging out of foster care successfully transition to independent adulthood? In addition to improving supports and programs, communities can combine the available programs and funding streams to provide more comprehensive and seamless services for these youth. This issue brief offers an overview of the challenges and promising practices.
http://www.financeprojectinfo.org/publications/servingyouthagingoutIN.pdf

**Overlap Between Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems?
A new Arizona study finds that three-fourths of teenagers in the child welfare system have run into trouble with the law, and half wound up in detention. Substance abuse, mental health problems, truancy and sexual abuse permeated the lives of abused and neglected children who were delinquent during 2001-02. It’s unclear whether these data are indicative of a national trend.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=32599

**Foster Care: No Cure for Mental Illness
For parents of children with serious mental health needs, the high cost of treatment and gaping holes in insurance coverage create agonizing choices—including deciding to give up custody of their children to make them eligible for services through the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. Robert Capriccioso spoke with parents and advocates on the issue in May.
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?doc_id=224824

**December 22: “A Home for the Holidays”
The Children’s Action Network’s sixth annual television special celebrating adoption and family will air on CBS on December 22 (check guides for local listings). Celebrities and musicians will perform and adoptive families and children will share special stories about adoption.
http://www.childrensactionnetwork.org

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MONEY MATTERS

**When Will States be Back in Black?
According to a nationwide survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures, most states have gotten their revenues on target and are narrowing budget gaps. Still, health and education costs are likely to leave most states struggling to fully fund programs in FY2005.
http://www.ncsl.org/programs/press/2004/pr041209.htm

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ analysis finds that at least 22 states are projecting FY2005 budget shortfalls, and more are likely to do so. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the gaps are generally smaller than those of the last several years – when nearly every state cut spending, raised taxes, and/or drew down reserve funds to bring budgets into balance.
http://www.cbpp.org/12-8-04sfp.htm

**The Nuts and Bolts of the Omnibus Bill
Confused about the 3,000-page omnibus spending bill passed in Congress and signed into law by President Bush last week? Here are two easy-to-read resources to help you make sense of the numbers:

The Department of Education (DOE) offers a table showing the amounts allocated to DOE programs and activities (including an across-the-board reduction of 0.8 percent). http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget05/05action.pdf

A guide to the spending bill, "Nuts and Bolts of Bill: A Look at How Government Agencies Will Fare," is available from the Washington Post. (Free registration required.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41379-2004Dec6.html

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HEALTH NEWS

**One-third of U.S. Children Lack Quality Health Care
A study in the journal Pediatrics reports that 34 percent of U.S. children age 4 months to 35 months do not receive high-quality, preventative health care. About 66 percent of children surveyed received "excellent" or "good" preventative care. The study found that race, ethnicity, income and insurance were not factors.
http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=27135

**HHS Announces National Plan for Action on Diabetes
Outgoing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has announced a step-by-step plan to channel resources and activities toward combating diabetes, which affects more than 18 million Americans.
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/NDAP/Final_NDAP_12_01_04.pdf

**New Anti-Drug Resources for Parents
Last month, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) kicked off its new outreach campaign with the release of an “Open Letter to Parents” on the negative impact marijuana can have on teen learning and academic success.
http://www.TheAntiDrug.com.

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HEALTH AND NUTRITION

**Restoring Food Stamps to Legal Immigrants
The 2002 federal Farm Bill restored food stamp benefits to legal immigrants. But has it made a difference? According to the Urban Institute, over 150,000 legal immigrants were added to the Food Stamp Program in eight states, but most had been participating in state-funded food assistance programs or lived in households with other food stamp participants. Numerous barriers are preventing more immigrants from participating -- including budget cuts, caseloads of up to 1,000 per worker, and fears among immigrants of consequences to their naturalization applications and ability to sponsor relatives.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/oane/MENU/Published/FSP/FILES/ImmigrantFSPRestoration.pdf

See the related Food Research Action Council article, "Low Income Legal Immigrant Children Regain Eligibility for Food Stamp Program Benefits.”
http://www.frac.org/html/news/100103immigrants.htm

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FOCUS ON THE STATES

Across the country, Governor-elects are beginning to set their priorities for the upcoming legislative year -- creating jobs typically ranks as number one, and improving education is seen as a big part of this strategy. Connect for Kids will continue to cover major state initiatives. If you have big news from your state, please send it to weekly@connectforkids.org for consideration.

**State-by-State News

Arkansas
The percentage of uninsured children in Arkansas dropped from 19.4 percent to 11 percent between 1996 and 2002, according to a report released last week. (see, “State’s number of uninsured kids dips to 11%.”)
http://www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=adg&section=News&storyid=101448

California
New regulations will require parents on welfare to spend more hours at work each week, cutting time recipients can devote to classes, counseling and training. But some parents enrolled in college will have more time to finish, a shift cheered by advocates as a better long-term solution to family poverty. The new rules also expand the prior time limit on welfare-to-work services from 18-24 months to five years. http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/living/education/10310777.htm?1c

District of Columbia
District young people could be eligible for Fostering a Future, a scholarship sponsored by Capital One Financial Corp. The financial services company will give $450,000 to two national foster care organizations that will administer the scholarship. (See, “D.C. Foster Children Get a Boost.”)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41311-2004Dec6.html

Maine
An advisory panel hopes services to people served by the new Department of Health and Human Services would improve with a radically different structure. (See, “DHHS taking shape, slowly.”)
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1208293.shtml

New Hampshire
The state Board of Education will accept public input on its educational reform plan at hearings scheduled over the next three months. (See, “State will hold public hearings on reform plan.”)
http://www.concordmonitor.com/

New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson has announced a plan to put more health centers in schools.
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/120904_news_health.shtml

Washington
Seattle Times writer John Bancroft says most of our elected representatives do not prioritize services to children -- but a recent Every Child Matters Education Fund poll found that Washington voters placed children's issues second only to the economy, ahead of homeland security, the elderly and taxes. (See, “Lawmakers ignore children because voters let them.”)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002114776_bancroft10.html

Keep in touch, everyone!
Jan
jan@connectforkids.org

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