Round-up of some recent studies and reports

• Implementing Policies to Reduce the Likelihood of Preschool Expulsion
  * Preschool teachers are more likely to expel children with behavior problems when teachers are highly stressed at work, teach in classes with high teacher-child ratios, or teach in extended-day classes.
  * Teachers' education and years of experience played little role in the percentage of children expelled -- though, of course, these play an important role in positive interactions with children and learning opportunities.
  * Report includes policy recommendations.



• Gaps seen in communities' student autism services
  * Children are more likely to be diagnosed with autism when they are in higher-income, mostly white New York school districts than when they are in poorer districts with a high percentage of children of color.
  * Advocates point to several factors -- poor people have less access to health care and aren't getting as much special-education help from the state, white parents push for a diagnosis while parents of color are more wary of "special education" labels. And, though the article doesn't address it, no doubt racism and language barriers (for parents who speak a language other than English) play a role, as well.
  * We're planning an article in the Children's Advocate about this issue in California -- stay tuned!



• A Mother’s Oral Health Profoundly Impacts the Health of Her Child
  * Pregnant women with poor oral health are seven times more likely to have a premature and/or low birthweight delivery -- and 18% of premature births are attributed to mothers' poor oral health.
  * Children of mothers with poor oral health are five times more likely to have oral health problems.
  * Report includes policy recommendations.



• Young Boys Watching Violent TV at Risk of Anti-Social Behavior Later (study -- summary)
  * Boys under five in the study who watched violent TV programs were much more likely to have aggressive and anti-social behavior when they were seven to nine years old.
  * No association between violent TV and aggression was found for girls in the study.