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**Children, Youth & Families
Millions of Children at Developmental Risk Because
of Poverty in Early Childhood
A new report from the National
Center for Children in Poverty
finds that that the first years of life are more important than had been
thought for children's emotional and intellectual development. This research
significantly increases the urgency of addressing one of the most important
risk factors that can impede young children's development: poverty.
http://cpmcnet.columbia.edu/dept/nccp/ecp302.html.
Public Housing Can Have Positive Impacts on Children
Public housing projects are
commonly regarded as breeding grounds for drugs and crime, not positive places
in which to grow up. But a new study, by researchers at the Johns Hopkins
Institute for Policy Studies, showed that poor children who spent at least some
of their pre-teen or teenage years in public housing were better off than had
they not lived in public housing.
http://www.jhu.edu/ips/whatsnew/paper.html
National Youth Summit
On June 26-28, HHS and other
federal agencies will cosponsor the National Youth Summit,
bringing together youth, community and government representatives to discuss
what America's young people need to grow into healthy, responsible adults.
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/fysb/additional.htm
**Civic Engagement
President Unveils Principles to
Strengthen National Service
The President released a 17-page
"Principles and Reforms for a Citizen Service Act" to guide the
reauthorization of the Corporation and its programs AmeriCorps,
Senior Corps, and Learn and Serve America. These programs engage 2 million
Americans in service to meet critical community needs each year. The proposed
5-year extension would be the first since the Corporation's creation in 1993.
Earlier this year, the President proposed increasing AmeriCorps
by 25,000 members and Senior Corps by 100,000 in his 2003 budget.
http://www.nationalservice.org.
**Disabilities
National Council on Disability
to Brief Civil Rights Commission on the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act
National Council on Disability is an independent federal agency
making recommendations to the President and Congress on disability policy. In
1986, NCD first proposed and then drafted the original Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA). Currently, NCD is coordinating a multi-year study on
the implementation and enforcement of ADA,
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and other civil rights
laws. During the course of five studies on
IDEA and one on transition issues, from 1989 to 2000, NCD consistently found
that parents of children with disabilities are enthusiastic supporters of the
law. They think it is a good law. Those studies include:
Back to School on Civil Rights
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/backtoschool_1.html)
Transition and Post-School Outcomes
for Youth with Disabilities: Closing the Gaps to Post-Secondary Education and
Employment
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/00publications.html)
Improving the Implementation of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Making Schools Work for All of America's
Children
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/95school.html)
and its
supplement
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/96school.html)
Inclusionary
Education for Students with Disabilities: Keeping the Promise
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/inclusion.html)
Serving the Nation's Students with
Disabilities: Progress and Prospects
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/progress.html)
The Education of Students with
Disabilities: Where Do We Stand?
(http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/stand.html)
**Education
NABSE to Issue Publication on
Over-Representation of African American Students in Special Education
The National Alliance of Black
School Educators (NABSE) and the 100 Black Men of America, Inc. are jointly
launching an initiative to raise consciousness about the disproportionate
number of students of color in special education, and the accompanying
under-representation of students of color in programs for the gifted and
talented. The initiative is designed to share the most effective practices, and
to take the lead in sustained efforts to reduce this disparity. NABSE has developed a guide for
administrators that will provide a general understanding of the issue, and
contains strategies for reducing and preventing further
over-representation. The NABSE
publication, "Preventing the Over-Representation of African American
Students in Special Education: The Pre-Referral Intervention Process.”
http://www.nabse.com
Family Involvement in Early
Childhood Education - Resources
To commemorate the Week of the Young Child (April 7-13) the Harvard
Family Research Project has added new early childhood education resources to
its Website. The fourth issue of
the "FINE Forum" e-newsletter covers family involvement in early
childhood education. http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/fineforum/forum4/director.html
"The Transition to Kindergarten: A
Review of Current Research and Promising Practices to Involve Families"
Priscilla Little and Marielle Bohan-Baker
of HFRP conducted a review of current research on the transition to
kindergarten, focusing on promising transition practices and the role that
schools might play in their implementation. This brief offers a synthesis of
the findings, focusing on the important role that families play in transition
to kindergarten.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/research/bohan.html
"Getting Parents 'Ready' for
Kindergarten: The Role of Early Childhood Education" This research brief,
by Holly Kreider of HFRP, presents preliminary
evidence that family involvement in young children's education may contribute
to a smooth transition to elementary school for children, and also helps
parents remain involved in their children's learning in school.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/research/kreider.html
HFRP
has also added a new bibliography on family involvement in early childhood
education covering the years 1999 to 2001.
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/bibliography/ece.html
**Health
Prescription Drug Benefits Debate - The reaction to the
new "Together Rx Card"
from FamiliesUSA
The following is a statement by Ron Pollack, executive director of
Families USA, regarding several drug companies' announcement about a new
discount card program - "Together Rx Card" - for Medicare
beneficiaries:
"The drug companies' joint discount program is the clearest
admission to date from the industry that prescription drug costs are
unaffordable for many millions of seniors. As seniors learn what the General
Accounting Office has already found - namely, that private drug discount card
programs typically result in merely 10 percent, not 20 to 40 percent, savings -
seniors' demands for a prescription drug benefit in Medicare will continue to
intensify.
http://www.familiesusa.org/togetherRXCard.htm
For more on the
“Together Rx Card” announcement:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/04/10/financial0733EDT0016.DTL&type=health
http://www.togetherrx.com/
Cracks Opening in Health Insurance Coverage,
Health Affairs Article Says
While enrollment in employer-sponsored health insurance plans surged by
nearly 16 million during the economic boom of the 1990s, the percentage of
uninsured Americans remained the same. That's a trend that should worry
policymakers because so many Americans have lost their jobs during the current
economic downturn, according to the article in Health Affairs by Urban
Institute scholars John Holahan and Mary Beth Pohl.
How much the number of uninsured will rise will also depend on how employers
respond to rising health insurance premiums, how much individual-market
insurance premiums rise and how governors respond to state Medicaid shortfalls.
This press release accompanies the report Changes In Insurance Coverage: 1994–2000 And
Beyond.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=PressReleases&NavMenuID=4&PublicationID=7625&Template=/TaggedContent/PressReleases.cfm
Providing Health Insurance to All
Could Save Billions on Health Costs; Lewin Study of California
Finds Single Payer Saves Money, Protects Doctor-Patient Relationship
A study of nine options for covering
California's seven million
uninsured by the conservative D.C.-based consulting firm of Lewin,
Inc. finds that a single payer system of government financing of health care in
California would actually reduce
health spending while protecting the doctor-patient relationship. "This study shows single payer is the
only system that guarantees that every one of the 34 million Californians would
get the health care they need when they really need it -- and does so at a
savings to us all," said Don McCanne, MD, President
of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). "The findings apply
equally to other states as to California."
www.healthcareoptions.ca.gov
**Hunger
Food Stamps and Working Families
This report from the Food Resource and Action Center finds that though low-income families are
typically eligible for food stamps, which provide a safety net for families
which cannot earn enough to feed themselves, far too few participate in the
food stamp program. The proportion
declined rapidly throughout the second half of the 1990’s.
http://www.frac.org/html/publications/workingFamilies040402.PDF
Food Stamp
Participation Increases in January 2002 for Tenth Straight Month
Participation in the Food Stamp Program increased in January 2002 (the
latest data available) by 186,899 persons from the previous month, to
18,873,285 persons, according to FRAC's analysis of
preliminary data from USDA. The January 2002 number represented a growth of
nearly 2 million persons compared to 11 months earlier - February 2001. Recent trends likely reflect weakening
economy as well as growing efforts to connect eligible people with benefits.
http://www.frac.org/html/news/fsp/02january.html
**Technology and Nonprofits
Database
Issues Nonprofits Should Consider
Dot Org Media has teamed up with TechSoup.org
to publish a large set of articles and case studies on 'Nonprofits and
Databases'. There are many articles
covering a wide range of topics that any nonprofit or technology support
provider may find useful. Technology
support providers from around the country contributed articles. During the week of April 22, TechSoup will hold an online event in the Community
Software Forum about these database issues.
A sample of the articles:
Tom Battin
(CompassPoint) - 'Should Nonprofit Agencies Build or Buy a Database?', will help any nonprofit carefully consider their options
and also deals with training and ongoing maintenance issues.
Barbara Chang (NPower New York) - 'Information Management is the
Cornerstone of Nonprofit Effectiveness', makes a powerful case for simpler and
smoother database design and implementation.
Marshall Mayer (TechRocks)
- 'Data Disintegration: The Next Technology Challenge for Nonprofits',
is a stark reminder that relationship management must be supported through
database technology.
You can find all the articles and more online
at: http://www.techsoup.org/content_adopting.cfm
**Welfare Reform
The Center for Community Change
Responds to House TANF Bill
The National Campaign for Jobs and
Income Support (NCJIS), a project of the Center for Community Change, a
coalition of more than 1000 grassroots anti-poverty groups, finds that
"The House Republican bill is very similar to the Bush plan that has been
under fire from governors, state public service providers, and grassroots
community groups. It runs counter to everything we have learned in the past
five years about what helps poor families climb a ladder of opportunity and it
represents a huge step backwards.”
http://www.maketanfwork.org
Catholic Charities USA Calls On
Congress to Improve Work Supports to Help Families
Catholic Charities USA urged Congress to improve the support systems that
allow mothers to make the successful transition from welfare to work-rather
than imposing costly and impractical work requirements on the states. As Congress begins work on reauthorizing the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), there have been calls
to substantially increase the work requirements and to drastically shorten the
time for recipients to find jobs, day care, and transportation so they can
work. Arlene McNamee executive director of Catholic Social Services in Fall
River, MA, called these
proposals misguided.
 Mothers and Young Children Move through
Welfare Reform
A project team followed an initial sample of 948 mothers and
preschool-age children for two to four years after the women entered new
welfare programs in California, Connecticut, and Florida to discover how state
welfare-to-work programs have touched the lives of young children since 1996
and perhaps altered the home and child care settings in which they are now
being raised. The full report will be available on 4/15/02.
http://www.tc.edu/new-lives/
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