Recent State Efforts
in Medical Child Support
According to the Center
for Law and Social Policy in August of 2000, the Medical Child Support
Working Group issued a report recommending over 70 changes in medical child
support that would facilitate the enrollment of more children being raised
in single-parent families in public and private health care coverage. While
efforts to implement the recommendations at the federal level have been slow,
many states have moved ahead and developed innovative approaches to medical
support establishment and enforcement. This memo updates state developments
over the last two years.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/medical_supp_updated081205.pdf
Immigrant Children Misdiagnosed
as Language-Impaired
Immigrant children still
mastering the English language risk being shuffled into special education
services they don't need, because of errors in assessment for speech problems,
according to a new University of
Alberta study.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/uoa-icm082405.php
Study Finds that School-Funding
Loopholes Leave Poor Children Behind
Research from the University of Washington's Evans School of Public Affairs finds that federal funds
subsidize the rich. The nation's main program for educating the disadvantaged,
Title I, is hampered by loopholes that prevent it from fulfilling its mission,
according to a new study. The $13 billion Title I program, now the major funding
arm of President Bush's No Child Left Behind act, must close the loopholes
if it is to ensure that school districts channel the money to needy schools.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/uow-sft081705.php
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Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage
Program's Funds Suspended by HHS
The Sexuality Information
and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS) is pleased by the decision of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to suspend federal taxpayer
dollars to the Silver Ring Thing (SRT), an abstinence-only-until-marriage
program operated by the John Guest Evangelistic Team, a Christian missionary
organization. Earlier this year, the ACLU of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit
challenging HHS' use of taxpayer dollars to fund the organization which overtly
promotes religion.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=52014
**Civic Participation &
Engagement
J-Learning.org: J-Lab
Launches 'How-to' Site for Community Publishing
J-Learning.org, a how-to
digital handbook for designing, launching and sustaining an online community
news site was launched today by J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism
at the University of Maryland. The Web site offers 20 chapters and more than 60 subsections
of basic skills training on how to plan a site, build it, use the latest off-the-shelf
software to add online features, and then market it and track users. "J-Learning
is designed to be a comprehensive tool that any layman, student or fledgling
new media person could use to launch a local news Web site."
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050824.091138&time=12%2037%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
Trauma of War Hits Troops
Years Later
New Scientist has pieced
together evidence showing that war veterans will be paying the price for decades
to come. It is well recognized that soldiers returning home from combat with
post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, suffer psychological problems such
as insomnia and anxiety. What's less well known is that PTSD can also trigger
poorer physical health. Recent and soon-to-be published research reveals that
soldiers suffering from PTSD are more likely to develop heart disease, diabetes
and even cancer later in life.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-08/ns-tow082405.php
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Get more information on
these issues at http://www.ecommunityissues.com.
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**Community Development
FHLBank San Francisco Work With Nevada Churches to Increase
Affordable Housing
The Federal Home Loan Bank
of San Francisco
sponsored a Las Vegas Symposium that discussed how to increase affordable
housing for senior citizens, immigrants and low-income residents of Nevada.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=52064
High Stakes for the Housing
Voucher Program in the 2006 Appropriations Bill
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities since 2002, Congress and HUD have implemented
a series of substantial changes in funding policy for the Section 8 Housing
Choice Voucher Program. These changes have been driven in part by concerns
over the rising costs of the program. Those concerns have been overblown,
according to an analysis of HUD’s recent voucher cost data. Moreover, the
year-to-year changes in funding policy, along with a funding shortfall in
2005 and, at times, poor implementation by HUD, have produced a series of
troublesome effects: funding instability and shortages among state and local
housing agencies, a decline in the number of vouchers leased, and growing
fears among landlords that the program is unreliable. The results have been
damaging to the voucher program, as well as to the two million low-income
families that rely on voucher assistance.
http://www.cbpp.org/8-24-05hous.htm
HUD Data Show Housing
Voucher Costs Leveled Off Starting In 2003 As Rental Market Cooled
According to the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities the Administration has pointed to “spiraling”
costs for the Housing Choice Voucher program to justify radical changes in
the program’s funding structure and the elimination of many key protections
for low-income families. HUD and Treasury data indicate, however, that far
from spiraling, growth both in the average cost of a voucher and overall expenditures
under the Section 8 program (which includes the voucher program and a separate
“project-based” assistance program) have eased considerably since peaking
in 2003. The housing voucher program helps about two million low-income households
- most of them senior citizens, people with disabilities, and working families
- to rent modest housing in the private market.
http://www.cbpp.org/3-16-05hous.htm
**Disabilities
Community Technology
Foundation of California Grants Awarded to Benefit California Service Organizations Serving People
with Disabilities
The Community Technology
Foundation of California (CTFC) awarded grants to increase awareness and participation
in the Ticket to Work Program. The grants are intended to increase health
care access and employment for people with disabilities in California. Approximately 275,000 beneficiaries
in Northern California,
Central Valley, Southern California and Inland empire regions are eligible
to participate in the program.
http://www.cbpp.org/3-16-05hous.htm
**Economic Security
Improving TANF for Teens
A report from the Teens
& TANF Project, National Center for Youth examines the capacity of
the nation's welfare program to assist adolescents, delineates the special
rules of TANF for teen parents, and offers recommendations related to both
populations. Tips on ways that Legal Aid organizations can work with teens
who need help - and are often overlooked - are also provided.
PDF: http://www.clasp.org/publications/tanf_for_teens.pdf
The Distributional Consequences
of Federal Assistance for Higher Education: The Intersection of Tax and Spending
Programs
According to the Urban
Institute for nearly a decade, federal higher education subsidies have
increasingly been delivered through the tax code rather than through direct
spending programs such as grants, loan subsidies, and work study. This paper
reviews the results of using new modules in the TRIM and Tax Policy Center microsimulation models to estimate the distributional impacts
and expenditure and revenue effects of major federal higher education tax
and spending policies.
http://www.urban.org/Template.cfm?Section=Home&NavMenuID=3&Template=/TaggedContent/ViewPublication.cfm&PublicationID=9365
**Education
States Face Challenges
in Expanding Preschool Programs
According to RAND, high-quality early childhood programs
have been shown to produce broad societal benefits. States will need to overcome
challenges in access, training, and funding if they are to successfully make
these pre-K programs universally available.
http://www.rand.org/news/press.05/08.23.html
Department of Education
Launches "Teachers Ask the Secretary"
U.S. Department of Education
announced the launch new Internet feature, "Teachers Ask the Secretary."
This easy-to-use page will help teachers learn answers on a wide range of
subjects: teacher quality, professional development, state academic standards
and more. The Department will share best practices and success stories under
the No Child Left Behind Act. And will listen to participants’ concerns.
http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/08/08242005.html
New University of Virginia
Book Shows How Schools Can Safely Deal With Student Threats of Violence
In the first comprehensive
manual of its kind clinical psychologists from the Curry School of Education,
present a field-tested model approach that gives school officials a step-by-step
decision-tree for assessing and resolving student threats. The threat-assessment
approach represents a radical departure from profiling and zero-tolerance
approaches, which are the most widely used practices in the nation's schools.
Contrary to these approaches, the FBI and U.S. Secret Service have advocated
the use of threat assessment.
http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050824.100416&time=13%2015%20PDT&year=2005&public=1
**Health
Caregivers Provide Crucial
Services Yet Receive Little Support
According to a new Commonwealth
Fund study, informal caregivers are playing an increasingly important role
in the U.S.
health care system. But many caregivers have health problems of their own,
and many cope with severe financial stress.
http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=293045
Improved 50 State Medicaid
Benefits Database Includes 2004 Data
A newly enhanced interactive
database from The Kaiser Family Foundation
based on 50-state survey data provides easy access to information on health
services provided by each state's Medicaid program. You can search the database
by state or Medicaid benefit and compare benefit packages from 2003 and 2004.
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/benefits/index.jsp
AMA Urges Congress to
Halt Medicare Cuts, Avert Medicare Access Problem for Seniors
The American Medical Association
made a house call to Ohio to draw attention to an imminent access to care problem
for Ohio's 1.7 million Medicare patients. If
Congress does not act, payments to physicians are scheduled to be cut well
below the cost of providing care, forcing physicians to make difficult decisions
about limiting the number of new Medicare patients.
http://press.arrivenet.com/pol/article.php/684411.html
Death Rates Drop In Prisons,
Jails
Inmate death rates for suicide,
homicide and AIDS are showing substantial declines in jails and state prisons,
the government says. The trend reflects improved medical care and closer attention
to separating violent criminals from other offenders.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/21/AR2005082101063.html?nav=rss_nation
**Substance Abuse
More Drugs in Schools,
CASA Survey Says
A survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse finds that 28 percent of
middle-school students say that drugs are available in their schools, up 47
percent since 2002.
http://www.jointogether.org/saredirect/?Object_ID=578094&Type=sa
