Family Child Care in
the United States
At some point during their
first five years, nearly one-quarter of all children spend about 30 hours
per week in family child care (FCC). While there is no universally recognized
definition, FCC is typically characterized as nonparental,
paid care for nonrelative children that generally
takes place in the provider's home and is regulated by the state. This Child
Care & Early Education Research Connections Review of Research package
from the National Center for Children
in Poverty, which includes a Literature Review, a Research Brief, and
a Table of Methods and Findings, synthesizes the current research on family
child care providers, parental use of family child care, and quality of this
type of care.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/family-child-ca.php
Research Shows Developmental
Problems for Siblings of Autistic Children
Younger siblings of children
with autism are at risk to suffer from delayed verbal, cognitive and motor
development in their early childhood years. This finding is the result of
a research project carried out by a staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and University of California, Los Angeles. After the age of four and a half,
most of those children were able to close the gap between their development
and that of other children of the same age who had siblings with normal development,
except for some small delays in verbal abilities.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/hebrew-universi.php
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TV Food Ads Increase
Obese Children's Appetite
Obese and overweight children
increase their food intake by more than 100% after watching food advertisements
on television; a study by the University of Liverpool psychologists has shown. Food intake
following the food adverts was significantly higher compared with the toy
adverts in all weight groups, with the obese children increasing their consumption
by 134%; overweight children by 101% and normal weight children by 84%.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/tv-food-adverts.php
Playgrounds and Athletic
Facilities - Untapped Resource in Fight Against Childhood
Obesity
A RAND Corporation study
says school playgrounds and athletic facilities can be important tools in
the fight against childhood obesity, but many are locked and inaccessible
to children on weekends -- especially in poor and minority neighborhoods.
Although the RAND Health study didn't find a relationship between school accessibility
and increased weekend physical activity rates, the number of locked schools
was associated with significantly higher body mass index for the girls.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/playgrounds-and.php
Doubt Cast on Routine
Screening For Overweight and Obese Schoolchildren
Childhood obesity: should
primary school children be routinely screened? Primary schoolchildren should
not be routinely screened for obesity and overweight in the absence of effective
treatment, finds research in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. But there
is little evidence to show that preventive approaches or current treatments
actually drive down children's obesity in the long term, say the authors.
When they systematically assessed the published and unpublished evidence on
the effectiveness of either weight monitoring or screening for picking up
and treating obesity, they found none.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/doubt-cast-on-r.php
Panic and Outpatient
Status Explain High Emergency Care Levels Among Poor Urban Asthmatic Kids
Inner city children from
poor families are much more likely to seek emergency care for asthma than
their more affluent peers, finds research published ahead of print in Thorax.
But the reasons are not the expected culprits of damp housing, overcrowding,
or living with a smoker, finds the study. Rather, parents feeling panicky,
previous outpatient visits, and a belief that emergency care would mean faster
treatment, explain the figures, say the authors.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/panic-and-outpa.php
**Civic Engagement
Final Report on Former
Prisoners in Ohio Details First Year Out, Offers Policy
Implications
The final report in an Urban
Institute research series on men leaving Ohio prisons details the first year
of their release, offering an overview of their post-prison lives and a slate
of policy options that could smooth reentry. Among the policy recommendations
for ex-prisoners: -- Services that enable former prisoners to secure positive
and stable housing immediately after release. "The study's findings
point to important policy opportunities for change---both in prison and in
the community---that would reduce recidivism, reduce illegal drug use, and increase public safety in Cleveland's neighborhoods."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/final-report-on.php
**Community Development
Housing Assistance Extended
for Gulf Coast Hurricane Victims for Another 18 Months
HUD and FEMA are also working
on a plan whereby HUD would take over management of the rental housing program
on behalf of FEMA beginning on September
1, 2007. Beginning
in March 2008, individuals in both the rental housing and travel trailer and
mobile home programs will pay a portion of the cost, which will begin at $50
per month and incrementally increase each month thereafter until the program
concludes on March
1, 2009. In addition,
beginning immediately, FEMA will allow residents of its mobile homes and travel
trailers to purchase their dwellings at a fair and equitable price.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/housing-assista.php
Affordable Housing Goes
Green at Last
While green building techniques
are becoming mainstream for government and commercial
developers, as well as a growing number of well-to-do homeowners, residents
of affordable housing have not yet shared in the benefits. Because it often
costs developers more to build affordable housing than they can recoup in
rental or sales income, the developers work with razor-thin margins. But
now, two large community development organizations - the Local Initiatives
Support Corporation (LISC) and Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise), formerly the Enterprise Foundation
- are on board with the greening of affordable housing, and the early projects
are exciting.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/affordable-hous.php
Mortgage Market Complexity
Foils Consumers and Undermines Fair Lending
The recent rise in foreclosures
suggests that some borrowers are taking on debt that they have little or no
capacity to repay, selecting products that are not suitable for their needs,
or signing up for mortgages that they don't understand. Two reports by Harvard University researchers contend that these are
just some of the inevitable consequences of an increasingly complex mortgage
market and a regulatory system that has failed to adapt to the dramatic changes
that have transformed the mortgage lending landscape in recent years.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/mortgage-market.php
**Economic Security
Measuring Income and
Poverty in the United States
This fact sheet from the
National Center
for Children in Poverty discusses how the U.S. government measures poverty, why the
current measure is inadequate, and what alternative ways exist to measure
economic hardship. Most measures of poverty, in the U.S. and elsewhere, focus narrowly on income
rather than including other aspects of economic status, such as assets or
debt. In addition, the current poverty measure is a national standard that
does not adjust for the substantial variation in the cost of living from state
to state and between urban and rural areas.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/measuring-incom.php
Catholic Charities USA Goes to Congress to Urge Action to
Address Poverty
Catholic Charities USA took
its Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America directly to Congress, with a briefing
on the struggles of 35 million Americans who experience hunger, testimony
before a House Ways and Means subcommittee on poverty,
and visits to Hill offices by local Catholic Charities agency leaders. The
four main areas of the Campaign are improving food and nutrition programs,
increasing access to health care, enabling more people to get affordable housing,
and promoting greater economic security for the poor and vulnerable through
programs that support work and strengthen families.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/catholic-charit.php
**Education
Recommendations for Improving
Education Outcomes for Children and Youth in Foster Care
With no federal law to ensure
school stability and access to supportive services for children in foster
care there is often as much movement among schools as there is in living arrangements.
The reauthorization of Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act provides an opportunity to do
both and to better address the needs of children and youth in foster care.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/recommendations.php
Quality Time After
School: What Instructors Can Do to Enhance Learning
Improving the quality of
out-of-school time activities and creating effective learning environments
is of keen interest to practitioners, funders and
policymakers. Funded by The William Penn Foundation, Quality Time After School identifies characteristics of after-school activities
that are linked to youth engagement and learning across a rich diversity of
out-of-school-time activity areas. Building on analyses of over 50 detailed
activity observations, as well as key lessons from past research, the report
also suggests a road map for program operators and policymakers to create
engaging learning environments in after-school programs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/quality-time-af.php
**Health
SCHIP Has Been Successful
Overall, Should Be Expanded
As the debate over reauthorization
of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) heats up in Washington,
a new survey of leaders in health policy and health care finds that large
majorities feel the program has been successful in increasing access to health
care for low income children (71%) and in reducing the rate of uninsured,
low-income children (65%). Across the board, leaders feel that coverage should
be expanded.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/schip-has-been.php
Families USA Statement: Medicare Trustees’ Report
Will Trigger a Correction That Could Do Serious Harm to Medicare Beneficiaries
This year marks the second
consecutive year that the Trustees Report has predicted that more than 45
percent of Medicare's total funding will come from general revenues by the
year 2013. Under the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, this means that the
President will now be required to propose policies in next year's budget to
reduce general revenues as a share of Medicare's overall costs. This 45 percent
threshold is completely arbitrary, but correcting this so-called 'problem'
risks doing serious harm to Medicare beneficiaries.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/medicare-truste.php
A Woman's Age at First
Menstruation Influences Risk of Obesity for Her Children
A new study published in
PLoS Medicine suggests that the age when a woman's
periods start may affect her children's growth rate during childhood, final
height and risk of obesity in later life. Researchers from the Medical Research
Council and University of Cambridge, led by Dr Ken Ong,
studied the association between mother's age at first menstruation, mother's
adult body size and obesity risk, and children's growth and obesity risk.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/a-womans-age-at.php
**Hunger and Nutrition
FRAC Statement on the
IOM Report on Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools
The Institute of Medicine's (IOM) release of nutrition standards
for "competitive foods" in schools will help ensure that the options
offered to America's schoolchildren will promote healthy
food choices and positive life-long eating habits. "FRAC sees the Institute of Medicine's nutrition standards as a vital contribution
to the growing local and national efforts to make our schools into models
of good nutrition for all children. These standards, if implemented, have
the capacity to improve children's nutrition and help prevent obesity.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/frac-statement.php
**Substance Abuse
Study Shows Smoking Common
During Pregnancy
While pregnancy may be considered
an effective motivator for smoking cessation, results of a new study by researchers
at the Mailman School of Public Health indicate that pregnant U.S. women commonly
smoke, placing themselves and their unborn children at risk for health and
developmental complications. The results also indicate that approximately
30 percent of pregnant women who used cigarettes had a mental disorder, with
personality disorders, major depressive disorder, and specific phobia among
the most common psychological ailments.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2007/04/mailman-school.php
