State Plan Reported Activities to Support
Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Communities
This paper from the Center for Law and Social Policy provides examples of activities that
states reported within the Child Care and Development Block Grant program
to better serve immigrant and LEP communities. CLASP reviewed FY 2006-2007
CCDBG state plans for references to initiatives that would support immigrant
families and/or providers, Limited English Proficient (LEP) families and/or
providers, English Language Learners, or linguistic and cultural diversity.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/ccdbg-state-pla.php
Variety of Approaches Help Children
Overcome Auditory Processing and Language Problems
A study comparing four intervention strategies in children
who have unusual difficulty understanding and using language found that all
four methods resulted in significant, long-term improvements in the children's
language abilities. The aim of the study was to assess whether children who
used commercially available language software program Fast ForWord-Language had greater improvement in language skills
than children using other methods.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/study-shows-var.php
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Child Support: Ripple Effects throughout
the Community
According to the Center for Law and Social Policy, the child support program helps families
become stronger and more self-sufficient. The program has other bridges into
the community as well---to employers, financial institutions, property owners,
health insurers, and many other sectors. For example, the Milwaukee County child
support program answered over 8,000 employer questions between January and
September 2007.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/child-support-r-1.php
Child Support: Restored Federal Funding
Needed to Implement to Implement New Child Support Pass-Through Options
According to the Center for Law and Social Policy effective next year, new state options
included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) will allow states to pay
up to 100 percent of collected child support to current and former TANF families
- up to $2 billion more money for families every year. States and advocates
alike support the new DRA distribution options. However, a cut in federal
funding for child support enforcement also included in the DRA threatens state
implementation of these new options.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/child-support-r.php
**Civic Engagement
Presidential Oratory Can Trump Ideology
for Voters
To influence voters, especially those without strong
ideological beliefs, presidential candidates should pay as much attention
to their oratorical skills as to their stances on issues, according to research
by a Vanderbilt
University
political scientist. Sometimes, however, voters can be convinced to vote
contrary to their issue preferences if a candidate's rhetoric is impressive
enough. The findings also show that highly educated voters are more likely
than those with fewer years of schooling to be influenced by complex speech.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/presidential-or.php
**Community Development
The Debenture Small Business Investment
Company Program
According to the Urban
Institute, the
SBIC program provides venture capital and mezzanine finance to start-up and
expanding small businesses through SBICs, and is
intended to fill the gap in smaller debt/equity financings, and to expand
the reach of venture capital into underserved urban and rural markets.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/the-debenture-s.php
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America Applauds Resolution Naming Feb. 11-16 National Drug Prevention & Education
Week
As the national voice for 5,000 drug prevention organizations
around the country, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) applauds
Senators Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and Chuck Grassley
(R-IA) for introducing a resolution today designating February 11-16 as National
Drug Prevention and Education Week. National Drug Prevention and Education
Week encourages parents, youth, schools and communities to carry
out prevention and education activities to reduce and stop drug use.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/community-antid.php
**Economic Security
Time to Apply for the Sector
Skills
Academy!
There's still time to submit applications for the Sector Skills Academy, an initiative
sponsored by the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative and Public/Private
Ventures. The Academy is a year-long program involving three 3-day workshops,
as well as mentoring, technical assistance, and peer support, designed to
support and help grow sectoral workforce development
strategies. As an integral part of the Academy, each participant will have
the opportunity to reflect on and refine his/her vision, strategy and implementation
plan for a specific sectoral initiative, compatible with his/her own organization's
vision and goals.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/time-to-apply-f.php
Are Employers Willing to Hire and Retain
Older Workers?
Older adults' employment is attracting attention as
many baby boomers approach traditional retirement ages. This fact sheet from
the Urban
Institute examines
employers' current attitudes toward older workers and the likely future demand
for their services. They view older white-collar workers as more productive
than younger white-collar workers. Yet, employers express concern that older
workers may be less creative, less willing to take initiative, less willing
to learn new things, and less able to perform physically demanding jobs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/are-employers-w.php
Final TANF Rules Include Modest Improvements;
Further Action Needed to Restore the Safety Net
According to the Center for Law and Social Policy this week, the Department of Health
and Human Services placed on public display the final rules implementing the
changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program made
by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The rule includes several modest but
positive changes affecting the work participation rate requirements, but does
not change the overall focus on documenting participation.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/final-tanf-rule.php
Summary of TANF Rules
According to the Center for Law and Social Policy the final rules implementing changes
in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program made by the
Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 are scheduled for publication in the Federal
Register on February
5, 2008; this summary is based on the pre-publication
version made available for public inspection.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/summary-of-tanf.php
**Education
California Lags Nation in Tracking Students' Educational Progress, RAND Study Finds
While California has
basic tracking system architecture in place to allow the state's educators
to closely follow the progress of students from kindergarten to post-secondary
education, officials must overcome political and financial barriers, according
to a RAND Corporation study. The study shows that by developing such a data
system -- known as a "student unit record" data system -- California policymakers
and educators will be better equipped to create policies and adopt changes
that decrease student dropout rates, encourage a smoother transition from
secondary to post-secondary education and increase student retention in college.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/california-lags.php
State Education Spending: Current Pressures
and Future Trends
Education expenditures are one of the largest spending
areas for state and local governments, and per-pupil expenditures have been
growing over time. The Urban
Institute examines
trends in state aid for education and overall education spending and decompose
the existing drivers behind growing state costs. They then explore how predicted
future demographic trends will affect education spending levels, as the percent
of the population that is of school age falls.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/state-education.php
The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study
This report from MDRC presents early findings from a demonstration
and random assignment evaluation of two supplemental literacy programs that
aim to improve the reading comprehension skills and school performance of
struggling ninth-grade readers. On average, the programs produced a positive,
statistically significant impact on reading comprehension among students.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/the-enhanced-re.php
Two-Thirds of Illinois Public Schools
Provide Comprehensive Sex Education
A study of sex education in Illinois public schools
found that one out of three teachers did not meet a very forgiving definition
of comprehensive instruction, researchers from the University of Chicago Medical
Center report in the February 2008 issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Only 65 percent of teachers who responded to the survey covered the four basic
topics required to be rated "comprehensive:" abstinence until marriage
or older, HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases, and contraception.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/survey-twothird.php
**Health
Underserved Children to Benefit from
Annual Give Kids a Smile Events
February is National Children's Dental Health Month
and on Feb. 1, more than 51,000 dental professionals will provide free dental
services to more than 500,000 children from low-income families, at more than
2,000 sites nationwide. Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease affecting
American children, five times more common than asthma according to a report
by the U.S. Surgeon General. "The ADA and dentists
across the nation are engaged in creating public awareness of this critical
need and trying to extend access to dental care to more low-income children.”
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/open-wide-natio.php
Achieving a US Health Care System 'Second to None'
All candidates running for office in 2008 should commit
to an agenda to create a health-care system for the United States
that is second to none the American College of Physicians
said in its annual report on The State of the Nation's Health Care. In its
report, ACP offers a five-point Candidate's Pledge designed to gain candidate
commitments to support a series of recommendations.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/achieving-a-us.php
A Prescription for Our Nation's Ailing
Health Care System
The last time health care reform was on the national
agenda, a fictional couple named Harry and Louise helped ensure its demise
with the refrain, "There has to be a better way." The couple, who
appeared in advertisements sponsored by the Health Insurance Association of
America, decried what some viewed as the bureaucratic nature of the 1993 health
care reform proposal and urged viewers to contact their congressional representatives
to vote against it. Nearly 15 years later, the U.S.
health care system---despite some incremental reforms---is, if anything, worse
off. Today, Harry and Louise might very well be among the 47 million uninsured
Americans who are struggling to pay for needed medical care, possibly bankrupting
themselves in the process.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/a-prescription.php
Health Care Opinion Leaders' Views
on the Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Plans
When asked to consider the health reform proposals of
the 2008 presidential candidates, most leaders in the fields of health care
and health policy favor plans that build on the nation's current mixed system
of public and private group insurance, according to the latest Commonwealth
Fund/Modern Healthcare Health Care Opinion Leaders Survey. 
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/health-care-opi-1.php
**Homelessness
HUD Delivers $49 Million to Support
Homeless Programs in Chicago
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson presented Chicago Mayor Richard Daley with
$49 million in grants to support more than 150 homeless programs in the city.
The grants will support the full spectrum or "continuum of care"
for homeless individuals and families - from street outreach and emergency
shelter to transitional and permanent housing.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/jackson-deliver.php
**Substance Abuse
New CDC Study: Well-Funded Tobacco
Control Programs Can Reduce Number of Smokers by Millions
As state legislatures across the country convene their
2008 sessions, an important new study provides powerful evidence of the direct
relationship between increased funding for state tobacco prevention and cessation
programs and declines in adult smoking. The study, being published in the
February 2008 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, examined state
tobacco prevention and cessation funding levels from 1995 to 2003 and found
that the more states spent on these programs, the larger the declines they
achieved in adult smoking, even when controlling for other factors such as
increased tobacco prices.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/new-cdc-study-w.php
Marijuana Withdrawal as Bad as Withdrawal
from Cigarettes
Research by a group of scientists studying the effects
of heavy marijuana use suggests that withdrawal from the use of marijuana
is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes.
Admissions in substance abuse treatment facilities in which marijuana was
the primary problem substance have more than doubled since the early 1990s and
now rank similar to cocaine and heroin with respect to total number of yearly
treatment episodes in the United States.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/01/marijuana-withd.php
