Quality Matters: Developmental
Screening for Children
A review of efforts to encourage
developmental screening for young children as a routine part of preventive
care; a case study of how one pediatric practice implemented a standardized
screening tool; and more.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/quality-matters.php
Young children with OCD
benefit from family-based treatment
Although children as young
as 5 can be diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), few research
studies have looked at treatments specifically geared toward young children
with this disorder. Now, a new study from the Bradley Hasbro Children's Research Center provides some of the first evidence-based
data on a successful intervention for early childhood OCD.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/young-children-1.php
**************************************************************************
Have a Website? Place HandsNet Headlines
on your site – visit http://www.handsnet.org/addheadl.htm
************************************************************************
Military Child Care:
A Government Success Story
Within 15 years, the military
went from having centers that didn't even meet basic health codes to having
the highest quality child care in the United States. In the civilian world, only 10 percent
of all full-time employees have access to employer-provided child care centers,
a figure that falls to just 3 percent for men and women earning less than
$15.00 per hour.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/a-council-on-co.php
Building the Future of
Family Involvement
Examining family involvement
in policy, practice, and research, this issueof
the Evaluation Exchange explores where the field is today and where it needs
to go in the future.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/building-the-fu.php
Most ethnic minority
teens don't hang out with ethnic school crowds
As teens find their places
in the peer system in most high schools, crowds define most students' status
and reputation. A new study finds that ethnic minority teens tend not to
hang out with crowds made up of their ethnic peers.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/most-ethnic-min.php
Spillover effects of
family and school stress linger in adolescents' daily lives
Teenagers today face increasing
pressures and demands from school and home. New research has found that stress
at home affects adolescents' school life, and vice versa. What's more, that
stress lasts for two days and affects academic performance across the high
school years.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/spillover-effec.php
Teenage girls still experience
harassment
Girls and women have made
dramatic strides toward gender equality in the United States. In a survey, the vast majority (90%)
of girls said they had experienced sexual harassment at least once, with few
reporting that such experiences had taken place more than once or twice.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/teenage-girls-s.php
Culture affects how teen
girls see harassment
Teenage girls of all ethnic
and socioeconomic backgrounds still experience sexism and sexual harassment
-- but cultural factors may control whether they perceive sexism as an environmental
problem or as evidence of their own shortcomings.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/culture-affects.php
Adolescents' values can
serve as a buffer against behaving violently at school
Researchers in Israel have found that teenagers' values
helped determine whether or not they engaged in violent behavior at school,
especially in schools where violence was common.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/adolescents-val.php
Asthma Awareness Month
Reinforces Importance of Asthma Prevention and Management
Bringing much-needed attention
to a chronic disease that strikes one out of six kids in the state, the American
Lung Association of California marked Asthma Awareness Month by endorsing
the California Department of Public Health's new five-year Strategic Plan
for Asthma in California 2008-2012.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/american-lung-a.php
Link between Mothers'
Depression, Young Children's Injuries
Infants and toddlers whose
mothers are severely depressed are almost three times more likely to suffer
accidental injuries than other children in the same age group, according to
a new study.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/study-confirms-1.php
**Civic Engagement
New Voices Invests in
a New Regional News Model, Community and Niche Web Sites
Ten innovative citizen media
projects have been selected as this year's New Voices grant winners and will
each receive up to $17,000 in start-up funding.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/new-voices-inve.php
**Community Development
FHASecure Refinances 200,000th Mortgage for American Families
The U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development announced the FHASecure product
has helped 200,000 homeowners refinance their mortgages and avoid foreclosure.
Since September 2007, FHASecure has enabled struggling families - who are current
or past due on their mortgages - to refinance through HUD's Federal Housing
Administration (FHA).
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/bush-administra-1.php
**Economic Security
Foundation Support Grows
to Build Workforce Skills and Prosperity for Low-Wage Earners
The Council on Foundations’
2008 Philanthropy Summit highlighted programs of the National Fund for Workforce
Solutions (NFWS) as emblematic of successful approaches to workforce development.
The recognition came as new support was announced to broaden the impact of
NFWS programs in urban and rural communities nationwide.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/foundation-supp.php
More Older Americans are Poor than the Official Measure Suggests
The Census Bureaus official
poverty measure no longer reflects the true resources or needs of adults age
65 and older.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/more-older-amer.php
Who Is Helped by the
Child Tax Credit Provision in the House Tax "Extenders" Bill?
The tax "extenders"
bill scheduled for mark-up in the House Ways and Means Committee (H.R. 6049) would
temporarily expand the Child Tax Credit by lowering the earnings threshold
that families must meet to qualify for the refundable portion of the credit.
An expanded CTC would provide assistance to these families in which parents
struggle to maintain jobs and meet the health and other expenses they incur
due to the disability.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/who-is-helped-b.php
Trends in Income Volatility
and Risk, 1970-2004
Public concern about economic
insecurity has increased markedly over the last several decades. This paper
assesses the extent to which this increase in concern has in fact coincided
with increased risk to family income.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/trends-in-incom.php
**Education
Pre-K students benefit
when teachers are supportive
A new study finds that the
quality of interactions between teachers and children plays a key role in
accounting for gains in children's development when compared to typical quality
indicators such as teachers' education, class size, and child-to-teacher ratio.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/prek-students-b.php
Separation from mom,
dad linked with learning trouble in kids
In the wake of divorce,
illness, violence and other problems that can unsettle homes, countless young
children are liable to experience temporary separations from one or both parents
before packing their knapsack for kindergarten.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/separation-from.php
Reading First Impact
Study
The U.S. Department of Education's
Institute of Education Sciences has released the interim report from
the Reading First Impact Study, a Congressionally-mandated evaluation of the
federal government's $1.0-billion-per-year initiative to help all children
read at or above grade level by the end of third grade.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/reading-first-i.php
New Study Reveals Short
and Long-Term Outcomes of Smaller Learning Communities
The Smaller Learning Communities
(SLC) program was established in response to growing national concerns about
students too often lost and alienated in large, impersonal high schools, as
well as concerns about school safety and low levels of achievement and graduation
for many students.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/new-study-revea.php
The Learning Communities
Demonstration
With their open admissions,
low cost, and convenient locations, community colleges have taken great strides
in recent decades in providing access to college for millions of students
with diverse ethnic and academic backgrounds. Now, however, community colleges
must tackle an even more formidable challenge: how to help increasingly large
numbers of academically underprepared students succeed
in college.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/the-learning-co.php
Top grades not always
needed to become a doctor
Students with average grades,
who come from economically and educationally deprived areas, can do well at
medical school provided they have extra academic and pastoral support during
their first two years.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/top-grades-not.php
Special Interest Groups
'Win' Case to Pull Kids with Special Needs, Foster Students Out of Better
Schools
The Alliance for School Choice strongly condemned
the decision by an Arizona appellate court to overturn Arizona's school choice programs for foster
children and students with special needs.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/shame-in-court.php
Education Department
Names 44 Jacob K. Javits Fellows
U.S. Secretary of Education
Margaret Spellings today named 44 Jacob K. Javits fellows to pursue graduate study in selected fields
within the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Selected from 899 applicants,
fellows are chosen on the basis of superior academic achievement, financial
need, and exceptional promise.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/secretary-spell-14.php
**Health
Dr. Anthony Fauci
reflects on 25 years of HIV
Outlining the peaks and
valleys of the scientific community's journey so far, the NIAID Director writes,
"...we must learn from our mis-steps, build
on our successes in treatment and prevention, and renew our commitment to
developing the truly transforming tools that will one day put this scourge
behind us."
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/dr-anthony-fauc.php
A Blueprint for Tax Reform
and Health Reform : Before the Senate Committee on
Finance
This testimony outlines
a plan for tax reform that would maintain progressivity, raise enough revenues to finance the government,
and dovetail with plans to provide universal access to health insurance.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/a-blueprint-for.php
The North Dakota Experience: Achieving High-Performance
Health Care Through Rural Innovation and Cooperation
North Dakota faces health care challenges common
to many rural areas of the U.S., but the state's health care system
appears to be performing better than that in many other states--rural or urban.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/the-north-dakot.php
Health Savings Accounts
and High Deductible Health Insurance Plans: Implications for those with High
Medical Costs, the Low-Income, and the Uninsured
HSAs are
highly tax-advantaged savings vehicles that are most attractive to the high
income and those with low health service use. They are
unlikely to significantly decrease the number of uninsured, who often
have low incomes, do not benefit significantly from the tax advantages, nor
have assets to cover the large deductibles associated with the plans. Their
ability to reduce system wide spending is also limited.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/health-savings.php
Achieving Universal Coverage
and Health System Savings
This issue brief sets forth
a framework for expanding health coverage that offers Americans a choice of
a product modeled on Medicare to those under age 65, made available through
a national insurance connector.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/the-building-bl.php
Achieving Universal Coverage
with Private and Public Group Health Insurance
Despite a handful of statewide
reform initiatives, the nation is losing ground on coverage and families are
feeling the strain on their wallets and their health. The two core components
of the "Building Blocks" framework, developed by The Commonwealth Fund,---expanding
Medicare and maintaining the current role of employer-sponsored insurance---are
both in line with public opinion.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/building-blocks.php
***Homelessness
Homeless youth need more
than treatment for substance abuse, study says
A study of 180 homeless
youth in New Mexico found that those with the most social
stability, such as those who attended school more often or those who had a
job, were most likely to reduce their homeless days over a six-month period.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/homeless-youth.php
**Nutrition and Healthy
Living
Expanded food and nutrition
program shows $10 benefit for each $1 spent
A program to teach low-income
adults about healthy food choices is a good bargain in terms of the health
and economic benefits achieved, reports a cost-effectiveness study in the
May/June issue of Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior (http://www.jneb.org/).
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/expanded-food-a.php
Obesity and unhealthy
lifestyles linked to more complex urinary problems
According to the Boston
Area Community Health Survey (BACH), other health issues that increase the
risk of multiple lower urinary tract symptoms include diabetes, high blood
pressure and heart disease.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/obesity-and-unh.php
**Substance Abuse
Think before you drink,
says university research
A team of health psychologists
at The University of Nottingham plan to discover whether using the workplace
to supply information on the health effects of binge drinking and asking employees
for a small commitment to reducing the amount they drink in a single session
could change people's binge drinking behaviour in the long term.
http://webclipper.handsnet.org/2008/05/think-before-yo.php
