Childrens' Advocate: Resources and reactions

September Children's Advocate online!

2009-09-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

The full September-October issue is online at http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/september_october/ -- for Spanish or Chinese, click the link at the top of any page.

Articles in this issue:

Grassroots snapshot: Oakland parents successfully push for school repairs
Hot topics: Parents design L.A. parent involvement model
Early care and education: Classroom projects offer rich learning opportunities
Raising kids: Families and parent educators share tips for stopping bullying
Parent Voices: Parents and providers call on legislators to protect child care
California Child Development CORPS: Riverside Corps participants build leadership
Children's Advocates Roundtable: call for parent input, Childhood Matters returns to KISS 98.1FM, new food stamps and nutrition laws, health care reform, state budget cuts services for families

Food stamps and nutrition: New Laws

2009-09-08T11:55:00.000-07:00

New state laws and policies went into effect July 1:

Food stamps eligibility change—families with children that receive food stamps no longer have to meet the “asset test” (which limits most households to $2000 in savings and other assets) to qualify for benefits
School trans-fat ban—schools can no longer sell foods outside the federal school meal program with trans fat to students
Menu labeling—large chain restaurants are required to disclose nutrition information to consumers and post this information by Jan 2011.

Read more news in the September-October Children's Advocates Roundtable report from the Children's Advocate (for Spanish or Chinese, click the link at the top of the page)

Call for parent input

2009-09-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Action: Parents are invited to give input on a new early care and education quality rating system.

Background: The Early Learning Quality Improvement System Advisory Committee wants your ideas on how to provide the information you need to make informed decisions about providers and programs. The committee is asking that you attend public meetings in various locations around the state.

The next meetings will be held on October 29 & December 2, 2009. In 2010, meetings are scheduled in March, May, August, & November. For more info, contact Margot Hunkins or Carolyn Loveridge, 916-322-4269 or visit www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/engagementsubc.asp

Health care reform

2009-08-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Tell Congress your views about health care reform.

In September, Congress will debate health reform legislation. There are a number of health care proposals in the House and Senate. Advocates are calling for reform that would:

Cover everyone, regardless of “preexisting conditions”
Be affordable
Provide all necessary health care
Have strong consumer protections
Include a realistic plan for limiting overall health care costs
Some advocates are calling for health care that wouldn’t be tied to a job, others want to expand and improve job-related coverage.

FOR MORE INFO, visit Kaiser Family Foundation, www.kff.org/healthreform/sidebyside.cfm or Commonwealth Fund, www.commonwealthfund.org

State budget cuts services to families

2009-08-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Services for children and families took a big hit in California’s budget—despite activism by people who care about children. The state’s $23 billion shortfall was mostly closed with $16 billion in cuts. The governor also used the line-item veto to cut an additional $500 million (legislators are protesting these cuts). He called on First 5 to fill the gap—and First 5 promised to help with funding. The budget will:

CalWORKs (effective 2011)

Limit adults to 48 months of cash assistance in any 60-month period
Require “self-sufficiency reviews” for adults without enough welfare-to-work activity hours. Cash assistance would be cut in half if adults didn’t attend without good cause.
Cut children’s grants up to 50% if adults do not meet work requirements
Count the time during which an adult is sanctioned toward the 60-month lifetime limit.

Additional CalWORKs changes

End COLAs for CalWORKs grants starting 2010-11
Cut $375 million from county funding
Exempt primary caregivers of young children from work requirements until July 2011
Stop the 60-month time clock when an adult has been excused from participation until July 2011

Health

Cut $323 million from Medi-Cal—plus $60 million from county funds
Cut $174 million from Healthy Families. Healthy Families stopped enrolling children in July and will have to drop children without alternative funding. If this happens, Health Access predicts the number of uninsured California children would double.
Cut $234 million from Department of Developmental Services programs, including regional centers for people with developmental disabilities ($100 million was cut in Feb and $50 million more was cut from young children’s services in line-item vetoes)
Cut state funds for several community clinic programs and also Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health programs; eliminate state funds for the Immunization Program and the Black Infant Health Program.
Create a plan to centralize (and likely privatize) eligibility and enrollment for Medi-Cal, food stamps, and CalWORKs.

Child care and development

Eliminate the school-age community child care program (latchkey)
Increase Community Care Licensing fees by 10%.
Train former CalWORKs recipients as child care teachers ($4 million)
Train license-exempt child care providers ($2.5 million)

Child welfare

Cut some foster care provider rates by 10%
Cut $80 million from child welfare services.

Schools

Fund K-14 spending at the minimum Prop-98 level ($1.4 billion less for 2008-09 and $4.5 billion less for 2009-10 compared with Feb budget levels)—but eventually restore 2008-09 reductions
Count $402 million from funds for districts with the lowest academic achievement levels toward Prop 98 funding
Allow districts to reduce the school year by up to five days through 2012-13
Allow districts to sell surplus property to pay for General Fund purposes through 2011.

Sources: California Budget Project, Child Care Law Center, Child Development Policy Institute, Health Access

Bills in the legislature

2009-07-13T09:29:00.000-07:00

Early care and education

CPR in family child care. AB 1368 (Adams) would require small family child care programs to have at least one person trained in CPR on site at all times. Now this rule applies to large family child care and center-based programs.

Child care subsidy priorities. SB 244 (Wright) would give priority for child care subsidies to children in relative care or foster care. Also to children who were recently adopted from foster care, are homeless, or have a parent in foster care or prison.

Alternative payment program rules. AB 315 (DeLeon) would require the agencies that run child care voucher programs to promptly pay child care providers and notify providers when a child is no longer eligible for subsidies, and also set up systems for dealing with complaints and late payments. Sponsored by Child Care Providers United of California (CCPU), 866-336-9333 (NorCal), 866-574-8907 (SoCal)

Direct deposit of child care vouchers. AB 304 would enable child care providers to receive subsidy reimbursements by direct deposit. Sponsored by CCPU, 866-336-9333 (NorCal), 866-574-8907 (SoCal)

Education

End testing of second-graders. SB 800 (Hancock) would remove second-graders from the state’s annual testing program—federal law does not require testing until third grade. Sponsored by California Teachers Association, 650-697-1400, http://www.cta.org/

Community facilities at schools. AB 346 (Torlakson) would make it easier for schools to get grants to develop community facilities such as clinics, educational programs, and safe places for physical activity.

Preschool special education. AB 1124 (Yamada) would require school districts to serve preschoolers with special needs if federal funds are available.

Family policy

Paid sick leave. AB 1000 (Ma) would guarantee California workers a certain number of paid sick days a year, making California the first state in the nation with a paid sick leave policy. Sponsored by California Work and Family Coalition, 510-643-7088, http://www.paidsickdaysca.org/

Health

Health care for all children. SB 32 (Steinberg) would provide health coverage through Medi-Cal and Health Families for all children in California regardless of immigration status in families with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level, if funds are appropriated. It would also simplify enrollment and would allow families with higher incomes to buy into Health Families. Sponsored by 100 Percent Campaign, 510-763-2444 x 122, http://www.100percentcampaign.org/

Expand Medi-Cal and Healthy Families. SB 311 (Alquist) would require the state to take advantage of federal funds for enrolling more children in Medi-Cal and Healthy Families and keeping them enrolled. It would streamline enrollment, increase outreach funds, and provide dental insurance to eligible children with private health insurance. Sponsored by 100 Percent Campaign, 510-763-2444 x 122, http://www.100percentcampaign.org/

Ban toxic chemical in baby products. SB 797 (Pavley) would ban bisphenol A, a chemical linked to obesity, breast cancer, and other health problems.

State-run health insurance. SB 810 (Leno) would create a single, nonprofit, state-run health insurance program with comprehensive benefits that would cover all California residents. It would be funded by a payroll tax.

Maternity care insurance. AB 98 would require most individual health insurance plans to cover maternity services.

Doctors for underserved communities. AB 646 (Swanson) would allow public and health agencies, and public and nonprofit hospitals, and clinics to directly hire doctors in underserved urban and rural communities—this is now prohibited by state law.

Nutrition

Better nutrition and limited “screen time.” AB 627 (Brownley) would create new nutrition requirements for the federal food program, but only if reimbursements increase. The requirements would limit sugars, fats, processed meats and increase whole grains and vegetables. For all programs, the bill would limit each child’s “screen time” (TV, computer, video game) to one hour per day. Sponsored by California Food Policy Advocates (CFPA), 510-433-1122 (NorCal), 213-482-8200 (SoCal)

Easier access to food stamps. AB 1057 (Beall) would remove the current requirement for fingerprinting for food stamp applicants who are not on CalWORKs. It would require families on food stamps to renew their eligibility just twice a year—now it’s four times a year. Sponsored by CFPA, 510-433-1122 (NorCal), 213-482-8200 (SoCal)

Read more news in the July-August Children's Advocates Roundtable report from the Children's Advocate, http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/july_august/
childrens_advocate_roundtable/(for Spanish or Chinese, click the link at the top of the page)

Combating the Cradle to Prison Pipeline

2009-07-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

Action: Find out about this campaign and how you can participate

Background:
1 in 3: That’s the chance that an African American boy born in 2001 will go to prison in his lifetime
1 in 7: That’s the odds for a Latino boy

Black and Latina girls also have a much higher chance of going to prison than white girls.Children of color, says the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), are caught in a Cradle to Prison Pipeline, caused by
* Poverty
* Racial disparities
* A culture of punishment rather than prevention and early intervention.

As part of its national campaign to dismantle this Cradle to Prison Pipeline, CDF held a two-day “National/California Summit.” The first day, young people from around the country discussed ways they could act against this pipeline. The second day the youth were joined by adults from all over California sharing ideas and promising practices.

Summit chair Angela Glover Blackwell, executive director of PolicyLink, declared the mass incarceration of people of color “the biggest scandal since slavery.” Connie Rice of the Advancement Project quoted an Oakland youth who told her, “This jail s*** is our Jim Crow.” And NAACP President Benjamin Jealous told the crowd, “It’s movement time again.”

For more information including facts on the Cradle to Prison Pipeline in California: www.childrensdefense.org/helping-americas-children/cradle-to-prison-pipeline-campaign/

For information on the campaign in California: Children’s Defense Fund California, 510-663-3224, 213-355-8787, http://www.cdfca.org/

Read more news like this in the Jul-Aug Children's Advocates Roundtable report from the Children's Advocate, http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/july_august/
childrens_advocate_roundtable/
(for Spanish or Chinese, click the link at the top of the page)

July Children's Advocate now online!

2009-07-01T12:56:00.000-07:00

The full issue is online at http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/july_august/. For Spanish or Chinese, click the link at the top of any page.

Articles in this issue:

Grassroots snapshot: Parents win change in school lunch policy
Hot topics: A statewide quality improvement system for California?
Early care and education: Teachers can help English learners build skills in two languages
Raising kids: A parent shares how she helped her children cope with divorce
California Child Development Corps participant speaks out—and is heard—at budget hearing
Parent Voices: Parents rally for child care
Children's Advocates Roundtable: bills in the legislature, combating the Cradle to Prison Pipeline, stimulus funds, state budget

Resources for advocates

2009-06-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

Crisis in the Kindergarten, from Alliance for Childhood, finds that many kindergarten programs allow very little time for play -- even as children's behavioral problems worsen. Also finds that children in play-based kindergartens do better in school and have better social and emotional skills compared with their peers. Includes policy recommendations.
Early Experiences Matter Policy Guide, from Zero to Three, offers tools for taking action on issues affecting infants, toddlers, and families, including health, strong families, early learning experiences, and early childhood programs and services.
Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Its Association With Mental Health, a study in the May 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, found that fifth-graders who feel they have been mistreated because of their skin color were two to four times more likely to have symptoms of depression, ADHD, or oppositional defiant disorder.
Summary online from USA Today.
Policy for Results, from the Center for the Study of Social Policy, offers online tools and
policy strategies for achieving measurable results for children and families. Topics include priorities and indicators, trends and targets, strategies and success stories.
Indoor Environmental Factors and Parental-Reported Autistic Spectrum Disorders, a study in Neurotoxicology, found a correlation between autism and indoor air quality in young children in Sweden -- particularly when maternal smoking, low ventilation, and PVC flooring were present. Summary online from Science Direct.
Swine Flu Fact Sheets, from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, provide information on the swine flu in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian,
and Tagalog.

State budget update

2009-06-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

Where are We? Where are We Going?, from the California Budget Project, summarizes the Governor's recent proposals for closing the state budget gap. Proposed cuts include:

Eliminating Healthy Families (which provides low-cost state health insurance for children)
Cutting $1 billion from Medi-Cal -- which could include cuts to eligibility, benefits, and provider paymentsLimiting Medi-Cal for certain immigrants to emergency services
Eliminating CalWORKs (support for poor families) and CalWORKs child care assistance
Cutting funds for schools (spending per pupil would drop to $6918 from $8257)

Advocates are taking action and protesting the proposed cuts. For more information, contact:

California Partnership, 213-385-8010
Health Access, 213-413-3587 or 510-873-8787, also has a budget factsheet
Western Center on Law and Poverty, 213-487-7211 or 707-373-4572

Stimulus fund resources

2009-05-26T11:02:00.000-07:00

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides stimulus funds to states, including additional funding for a range of programs that benefit young children. Advocates can use the following policy options and tools to make sure California uses these funds to better support
children and families.

Official resources:

Early childhood:

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, from NAEYC
Making Use of Economic Recovery Funds: Child Care Policy Options for States,
from the Center for Law and Social Policy and National Women’s
Law Center
Navigating the Opportunities for Families with Young Children in the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act, from Zero to Three (an interactive
tool)
Federal Stimulus Funding Available for Children's Programs in California, from Children Now, is organized by area—after school, early care and education, health, K-12 education, media, obesity

Health:

Recommendations for the Prevention and Wellness Funds, from Prevention Institute
and PolicyLink
Federal Stimulus Funding Available for Children's Programs in California, from Children Now, is organized by area—after school, early care and education, health, K-12 education, media, obesity

Schools:

Federal Stimulus Funding Available for Children's Programs in California, from Children Now, is organized by area—after school, early care and education, health, K-12 education, media, obesity
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Recommendations for Addressing
the Needs of English Language Learners, from the English Language Learner Working Group
Using ARRA Funds to Drive School Reform and Improvement, from the US
Department of Education

General:

What does the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act mean for California?
from the California Budget Project

California Budget Gridlock: Grandma Tells the Story

2009-05-13T11:19:00.000-07:00

A Children's Advocate comic book

Now available!

Grandma talks with her grandson, Tony, about the state budget crisis, including

how the budget crisis started
its continuing negative effects on services for children and families
some ideas for creating change.

In an easy-to-read, accessible, comic book format.

Download the pdf
Spanish pdf version
Chinese pdf version (download each page separately)

On the ballot May 19

2009-05-12T11:19:00.000-07:00

With the May 19th election fast approaching, here are some nonpartisan election resources that can help you get the word out to colleagues, parents, and students:

Children's Advocate election coverage of Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E includes summaries of the measures along with pro and con arguments.
Easy Voter Guide is available from the California League of Women Voters in six languages.
Smart Voter, also from the League of Women Voters, provides nonpartisan information on state and local ballot measures, searchable by address or zip code.
California Budget Project offers in-depth, nonpartisan analyses of Propositions 1A, 1C, 1D, and 1E.

May Children's Advocate now online!

2009-05-01T10:52:00.000-07:00

This issue includes our election coverage for the May election and a special easy-to-read comic book about California's budget gridlock. Teachers and providers will be interested in our professional development article -- learning social skills through play, as well as an article about how the Water Cooler is bringing children's advocates together. Articles of interest to parents include our parent advice article on raising boys and two articles about parent activism. Here's a full list of articles:

On the Ballot May 19: Nonpartisan election coverage of Propositions 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, and 1E
Grassroots snapshot: San Francisco parents get an advocate on the school board
Hot topics: “I don’t want more kids to get asthma”
Parents and advocates take action against pollution to prevent asthma in their communities
Early care and education--Learning through play: “A recipe for life success”
Children develop social skills through play
Raising kids: Overcoming Stereotypes, Part 2: “We’re encouraging ourson to be happy and expressive”
Families and educators share tips for raising boys
“A coalition that’s broad enough to make it happen”
The Water Cooler brings advocates for young children together
News from the California Child Development CORPS: “I wanted to be part of it!”
News from Parent Voices: Members get involved in federal advocacy campaigns
California Budget Gridlock: Grandma Tells the Story
A Children's Advocate comic book (available in PDF format only)
Children's Advocate Roundtable: Spring into action: Sacramento lobby days

Read these articles in English and Spanish (Chinese will be up next week), or download the pdfs to share with colleagues, parents, and students. Online at http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/may_june/

Tools for advocates

2009-04-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a round-up of recent reports, websites, and other resources that you might find useful in your work on behalf children and families:

Better Schools Manual, from the Education Equity Project, is an easy-to-use guide for filing and following up on Williams complaints (a tool that helps parents and other advocates get problems fixed at schools).
A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States, from the Pew Hispanic Center, finds that about 10% of California K-12 students are the children of undocumented immigrants. Also finds that nearly three-fourths of the children of undocumented immigrants are U.S.-born citizens -- and a third of the children of undocumented immigrants live in poverty.
Foreclosure-Response.org, from the Center for Housing Policy and other organizations, provides information on state and local policy solutions related to foreclosure prevention and neighborhood stabilization.
Unemployment LifeLine, from Working America, is a guide that links workers to the resources in their area, from unemployment offices to veterans' services to child care. It also offers the opportunity to talk to others and share support.
LEARN WorkFamily, from the Labor Project for Working Families, is an online labor education and resource network to help unions build a family friendly workplace culture.

March-April Children's Advocate

2009-03-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

Check out our latest Children's Advocate issue -- now available and online in English, Spanish, and Chinese! In this issue:

Grassroots snapshot: Fresno families push for healthy food and safer streets
Hot topic: “The very last thing that should be cut!”
Early care and education--Learning through play: “Forget about the facts and remember the wonder”
Raising kids: “I don’t want my daughter to feel like she has to sacrifice something”
Hot topic: “I need money for my family”
News from the California Child Development CORPS: “We’re in the trenches”
News from Parent Voices: “We wanted to be someone to be reckoned with”
Bookbasket: Beyond sugar and spice, snakes and snails

In English at http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/march_april/
(for Spanish or Chinese, click on the link at the top of that page)

Push for paid sick leave

2009-03-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

Action: Let your state legislators know your views on whether California should guarantee all workers a certain number of paid sick days.

Background: The bill to guarantee paid sick days got stuck in the legislature last year, but the Work and Family Coalition is back with an energetic campaign to make California the first state in the nation with paid sick days for all workers to use to take care of themselves or sick family members. (Now almost 40% of California workers have no paid sick days). The coalition promoting paid sick days includes the Labor Project for Working Families, ACORN, Parent Voices, the California Labor Federation, the Family Caregiver Alliance, 9to5 National Association of Working Women, and more. Coalition members will be visiting legislators and collecting endorsements and letters of support.

More info: 510-643-7088, http://www.paidsickdaysca.org/

Read more news like this in the Mar-Apr Children's Advocate's Roundtable report, http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/
march_april/childrens_advocate_roundtable/ (for Spanish or Chinese, click on the link at the top of the page)

Upcoming advocacy days

2009-03-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

May 6: Stand for Children Day is an opportunity to rally with hundreds of other parents in support of affordable, quality child care. Sacramento. For more info, contact Parent Voices, 415-882-0234

May 20: Hunger Action Day is an opportunity to join anti-hunger advocates in educating legislators about hunger issues. Sacramento. For more info, contact the Hunger Action Coalition, Steve Diaz, 213-388-8228 or Betsy Edwards, 510-635-3663 x307

State budget update

2009-03-11T14:11:00.000-07:00

Governor Signs Budget Plan, from the California Budget Project, reports on the Feb 20th spending bill signed by the governor, which includes tax cuts, new revenues, and steep spending cuts to state programs.

May 19 special election: As part of the budget process, the legislature put several propositions on the ballot, including:

Prop 1A, which would establish a state spending cap
Prop 1B, which would send more funds to school districts and community colleges
Prop 1C, which would authorize the sale of $5 billion in bonds backed by lottery proceeds
Props 1D and 1E, which would divert funds from First 5 (Prop 10) and mental health (Prop 63) to fund existing state programs.

(Stay tuned for our coverage of the ballot measures in the May-June Children's Advocate!)

Preschool for All in your county?

2009-02-23T11:28:00.001-08:00

How are counties that are implementing Preschool for All dealing with professional development, financing, and program quality?

The Children’s Collabrium, with funding from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, is offering free, 90-minute workshops (through April 2009) on these and other topics, for both center- and home-based early care and education professionals.

For more information or to schedule a workshop in your community: 415-362-4880, mailto:info@thechildrenscollabrium

Read more news like this in the Jan-Feb Children's Advocate's Roundtable report, http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/
january_february/childrens_advocate_roundtable/ (for Spanish or Chinese, click on the link at the top of the page)

Resources and tools

2009-02-18T13:26:00.000-08:00

Advocacy for flexible work schedules

MomsRising is an internet-based campaign “to bring together millions of people who share a common concern about the need to build a more family-friendly America.” They’ve collected many great tools to help people advocate for more family-friendly work schedules, including part time, flex time, and more. www.momsrising.org/work

Health and safety information in Spanish

Nuestros Niños radio program (http://www.nuestrosninos.org/) has published a Spanish-language booklet of culturally appropriate child health and safety information, advice, and resources. This is the first in a series, ¡Adelante con Nuestros Niños! Agencies that would like to buy copies for distribution ($2 each for orders up to 250, discounts for larger orders) can contact Interactive Parenting Media, PO Box 1212, Berkeley, CA 94701 or info@interactiveparentingmedia.org

Building a child care business

Building Child Care is new collaborative of child care organizations that offers help with:

Capital financing ideas
Developing a business plan
Locating grant and loan resources
Finding local child care resources

The collaborative includes Insight Center for Community Economic Development, the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, the Low Income Investment Fund, and The Children’s Collabrium. For info: 888-411-3535, http://www.buildingchildcare.org/

Read more news like this in the Jan-Feb Children's Advocate's Roundtable report, http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/january_february/childrens_advocate_roundtable/ (for Spanish or Chinese, click on the link at the top of the page)

The budget and the recession

2009-02-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

The California Budget Project has produced a report called Budget Cuts or Tax Increases: Which Are Preferable during an Economic Downturn? (www.cbp.org/pdfs/2008/0807_pp_cutsortaxes.pdf).

According to CBP Executive Director Jean Ross, “If you look at the overwhelming body of economic research, it tells you that cutting spending is absolutely the worst thing you can do in a down economy. Why? Because public dollars that go out through state budgets, county budgets, school district budgets...immediately recycle through local economies.”

Read more news like this in the Jan-Feb Children's Advocate's Roundtable report, http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/
january_february/childrens_advocate_roundtable/ (for Spanish or Chinese, click on the link at the top of the page)

Newly redesigned website!

2009-01-23T10:35:00.000-08:00

Check out our newly redesigned Children's Advocate website.

Multilingual: Navigate and read articles in English, Spanish, and Chinese (for Spanish and Chinese, just click the language link at the top of any page!)
Easier to use: New, easy-to-use search feature helps you quickly find the articles you're interested in -- and tags at the end of each article help you find more articles on that topic.
Read online and share with others: Read our archive of articles online and download pdfs to share with colleagues and families.

Now online at www.4children.org!

Governor's budget: Deep cuts proposed for children's programs

2009-01-23T10:27:00.000-08:00

Governor Releases 2009-10 Budget Proposals, from the California Budget Project, reports on the governor's proposed budget. The governor plans to close the predicted $39 billion budget shortfall (which includes last year's budget shortfall) by cutting spending ($17 billion), raising revenues ($14 billion), and borrowing ($10 billion). The governor proposes to:

Revenues

Temporarily increase the sales tax by 1.5% and charge sales tax on some services, such as car repair, amusement parks, and sporting events
Reduce the tax credit claimed for children and other dependents
Impose a 9.9% oil severance tax
Increase alcoholic beverage taxes by a nickel a drink

Changes to First 5 and Prop 63 funds (would require voter approval)

Eliminate the First 5 California Commission and redirect state funds and 50% of county funds to children's programs under the Department of Social Services
Divert Prop 63 mental health funds to reduce state's costs for mental health managed care

Health

Eliminate Medi-Cal dental and other benefits for adults
Restrict Medi-Cal eligibility for low-income adults with children, keeping an estimated 429,000 low-income parents off of Medi-Cal
Reduce health services provided to some legal immigrants
Restrict access to health care services for undocumented immigrants
Eliminate the California Food Assistance Program, which provides food assistance for some legal immigrants who are not eligible for federal food stamps
Cut funding for Regional Centers, which coordinate services for people with developmental disabilities

CalWORKs

Suspend the July cost-of-living increase
Cut CalWORKs grants by 10%
Eliminate cash assistance
--> for children in CalWORKs "safety net" program if their parents don't work enough hours.
--> after 60 months for some children whose caregivers are ineligible for CalWORKs
--> for some CalWORKs families if an adult fails to attend a "self-sufficiency review"

Early care and education

Increase child care fees for families up to a maximum of 10% of their income
Reduce reimbursement rates for providers in voucher-based programs
Suspend the 2009-10 cost-of-living increase

Schools

Reduce Prop 98 funds to the minimum required
Reduce "revenue limit funding" for districts and county offices of education as well as funds for a number of educational programs
Use some public transit funds to pay for transporting kids to and from school
Eliminate cost-of-living increases for K-12 educational programs
Allow districts to cut the school year by five days
Eliminate the High Priority Schools Grant Program
Suspend almost all education mandates

For more info

Summary of cuts to schools, health, and human services from the California Budget Project
More on child care from the Child Care Law Center
More on health from Health Access (scroll down to Dec 31)
More on poverty and CalWORKs from the California Partnership
More on schools from Parents and Students for Great Schools

January-February Children's Advocate

2009-01-23T10:16:00.000-08:00

Check out our January-February Children's Advocate issue -- now available and online in English, Spanish, and Chinese! This issue includes our annual multicultural calendar with dates for key 2009 multicultural holidays as well as anniversaries of significant events. In this issue:

2009 multicultural calendar (online only!)
Grassroots Snapshot: Families win pesticide buffer zone
Hot topics: LIFETIME helps parents get their CalWORKs benefits
Early Care and Education: Learning through play: Ways children can bump into numbers
Hot topics: Union? Family child care association? Family child care providers debate the benefits
Raising kids: Parents talk with kids about their family's tough times
Community resources: Resources for families going through tough times
California Child Development CORPS: The CARES stipend is a strong motivator
Parent Voices: "Now everything I do incorporates Parent Voices"

In English at http://www.4children.org/issues/2009/january_february
(for Spanish or Chinese, click on the link at the top of that page)

One-third of toys contain harmful chemicals!

2008-12-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

I just got this in my email from a great organization, MomsRising.org (I recommend getting on their list!) and thought it was so important I wanted to share it as widely as possible. Have a wonderful, safe, and healthy holiday season!

Dear MomsRising.org Member,
Starting your holiday shopping this week? The LAST thing you want to be giving the children and babies on your list is dangerous chemicals like lead and arsenic. Yet, when the Ecology Center, a Michigan-based nonprofit, tested over 1,500 popular children's toys for lead, cadmium, arsenic, PVC and other harmful chemicals, they found that one in three toys tested were found to contain "medium" or "high" levels of chemicals of concern.

Scary, right? But knowledge truly is power in this case. Before you give a child a toy this holiday season, search the HealthyToys database for its chemical test results:
http://www.momsrising.org/healthytoys

When you're at the store, you can search the HealthyToys database from your cell phone. Simply text "healthytoys [name of toy]" -- for example "healthytoys Elmo" or "healthytoys Wii" -- to 41411.

Then help other parents protect their kids. Print out this information and post it at work, school, the grocery, wherever you go.

From MomsRising, http://www.momsrising.org/

P.S. According to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, toys containing toxic phthalates are supposed to be banned starting on February 10, 2009. But the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is saying that stores can continue to sell down their inventories as long as they were manufactured before the February deadline. If you haven't already, please sign our letter to the CPSC to tell them to stop monkeying around with our kids' health! (Already 6,443 people have signed.) Go to http://www.momsrising.org/really_ban_phthalates to add your name.

Tools for advocates

2008-12-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Early care and education

Supporting a Diverse and Culturally Competent Workforce, from the Center for Law and Social Policy, discusses research on how cultural identity and language skills relate to healthy development, as well as how a diverse and culturally competent early care and education workforce can support children's development.

Developing America's Potential: An Agenda for High-Quality Child Care, from the National Women's Law Center, offers a framework for federal reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant. Organizations and individuals can sign on in support of the agenda.

Impacts of Early Childhood Programs, from the Brookings Institute, is a set of user-friendly research briefs on the positive effects of state preschool, Head Start, Early Head Start, model child care programs, and nurse home visiting on children and families.

Health

Communities in Action for Asthma-Friendly Environments offers a searchable, online resource bank of hundreds of asthma-related tools and materials.

Where We Live Matters for Our Health: the Links Between Housing and Health, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, discusses strategies to improve health by ensuring that everyone in the US lives in healthy homes and neighborhoods.

November-December Children's Advocate

2008-11-19T11:19:00.000-08:00

Check out our November-December Children's Advocate issue -- now available and online in English, Spanish, and Chinese! This issue includes a special supplement about how raising families’ income is a key strategy for improving the lives of young children

Special supplement:

Money Matters: Community programs boost families’ incomes
Money Matters: Money matters for child development
Money Matters: What can I do to help?

Also in this issue:

Grassroots Snapshot: Oakland homeowners win foreclosure protections
Hot topics: Parents are taking action—in their homes and in the community—to protect girls from developing too soon
Early Care and Education: Learning through play: Play activities that include letters and writing prepare children to read
Hot Topics: Immigrant child care providers—and even many who were born here—sometimes find the system confusing
Raising kids: Parents offer tips for talking with kids about advertising
Bookbasket: Hard times
News from the California Child Development CORPS
News from Parent Voices
News from the Children's Advocates Roundtable

In English at http://www.4children.org/current.htm
In Spanish at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#esp
In Chinese at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#chn

Proposed mid-year budget cuts

2008-11-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

The worsening economy has led to a sharp decline in state revenues -- creating a $11 billion shortfall in the budget that was just passed. The governor has called a special session of the legislature to address this gap. He is proposing more cuts and some new revenues -- including a temporary increase in the sale tax and a tax on oil extraction -- to close the gap. Proposed cuts include:

Health
* Restricting eligibility requirements for working parents with Medi-Cal
* Reducing health care benefits to legal immigrants (from full-scope to emergency-only)
* Eliminating several Medi-Cal benefits, including dental and vision care
* Imposing monthly eligibility requirements for undocumented immigrants to get emergency care
* Increasing the amount that low-income seniors and blind and disabled people pay for Medi-Cal
* Reduce public hospital funding

Poverty
* Reducing CalWORKs grants by 10% (the maximum grant for a family of three would go from $723 to $651 a month)
* Changing time limit and work requirement rules, which would eliminate aid to tens of thousands of children
* Eliminating state-funded food stamps for legal immigrants (CFAP)

Schools
* Reducing Prop 98 funding by $2.5 billion

Child care
* Reducing child care benefits for working and CalWORKs families

For more information, contact: Health Access, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, Western Center for Law and Policy

Recent environmental health resources

2008-10-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Breathing Easy from Home to School, from PolicyLink, offers strategies to communities
reduce childhood asthma, such as reducing truck traffic and requiring landlords to check apartments for mold.
Initiating Change: Creating an Asthma-Friendly School, from the Centers for Disease Control, is a tool kit to help advocates push schools to better serve children with asthma.
Children living in areas with more street trees have lower prevalence of asthma, a study in the May 2008 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, found that New York City preschoolers who lived on streets with more trees had significantly lower asthma rates than their peers, even after taking into account other factors. Summary
from the BBC.

Why Place Matters: Building the Movement for Healthy Communities, from PolicyLink, discusses how environmental factors contribute to a healthy community.
Environmental Policy as Social Policy?, from the National Bureau of Economic Research, finds that a significant reason for recent declines in violent crime is because children were exposed to the less lead after abatement efforts in the '70s and '80s (the study controlled for other factors).

Some recent reports and studies about the potential harmful effects of specific products:

Toxic Baby Furniture: The Latest Case for Making Products Safe from the Start, from Environment California.
Fire Retardants in Toddlers and Their Mothers, from the Environmental Working Group.
Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Cell Phone Use and Behavioral Problems in
Children, a study in the July 2008 issue of Epidemiology. Summary of this and other cell phone studies from the LA Times.

Advocacy events coming up!

2008-09-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

Here are some great ways to get active this fall on children's issues -- and stay tuned for our November issue which will cover Step up for kids day as part of the Parent Voices feature!

Sep 16: Step Up For Kids Day is an opportunity to call on policymakers to make children a national political priority. Sacramento. For more information, contact Parent Voices, Mary Ignatius, (415) 882-0234

Oct 16: Lights on Afterschool! is an opportunity to call attention to the importance of after-school programs and the need for more programs. For event information and activity ideas, contact the Afterschool Alliance, (866) KIDS-TODAY

Oct 17-19: National Observance of Children's Sabbaths is an opportunity for congregations to learn more about children's issues and work to improve the lives of children. For more information or resources specific to different faiths, contact the Children's Defense Fund, (800) CDF-1200

September-October Children's Advocate

2008-09-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Check out our September-October Children's Advocate issue -- now available and online in English, Spanish, and Chinese! This is our special election issue, with information on presidential candidates and ballot measures that affect kids. We also kick off a new series in this issue for early care and education teachers and providers on learning through play.

Election 2008:

Candidates for President: Find out where candidates for president (Democratic, Republican, Green, and Libertarian) stand on children's issues
Ballot measures: Summaries of key propositions affecting children, with pro and con arguments.
Election resources: "Why should I vote" a reproducible cartoon flyer about why parents and others should vote, as well as nonpartisan resources.

Also in this issue:

Grassroots Snapshot: Parents preserve affordable housing for low-income families
Early Care and Education: Learning through play: Taking ownership of language
Raising kids: Families and parent educators share tips for helping children stay motivated in school
California Child Development Coprs: Corps group nurtures new leaders
Parent Voices: Parent Voices member helps draft family-issues platform

In English at http://www.4children.org/current.htm
In Spanish at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#esp
In Chinese at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#chn

Election 2008: Voter participation resources

2008-08-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

If you work in an agency serving families and children, or if you're active in a community organization, you're an important part of families' lives--so you can be most effective at persuading them to vote. How to go about it? Here are some resources from the Children's Advocate:

10 Steps to voting power offers ways children's organizations can encourage parents and others to vote. In English and Spanish.
"Why Should I Vote?" is a reproducible, bilingual cartoon flyer about why parents and others should vote. English and Spanish.
Getting out the vote for kids describes 2004 "get out the vote" campaigns by children's organizations and provides voting and election resources. In English and Spanish.
Stay tuned for our September special election issue with information on presidential candidates and ballot measures affecting kids.

New campaigns offer ways to get active

2008-07-21T12:18:00.000-07:00

Our Children, Our Duty, Our Future

Our Children, Our Duty, Our Future, a new campaign spearheaded by the Children's Advocates Roundtable, aims to educate policy makers and the general public about how cuts in health care, foster care, education, child care, and welfare would hurt children. They're encouraging parents and people who work with children and families to share their personal experiences in letters to their state legislators and visits to their district offices. The website includes resources to help people take action for kids.
For info: Contact Lisa Kaplan, kaplan4kids@yahoo.com

Together for California's Future

Together for California's Future (T4CF) -- a broad new coalition formed by organizations of parents, teachers, health care advocates, school employees, seniors, firefighters, law enforcement officers, environmentalists, people with disabilities, caregivers, and working families -- is working to oppose proposed budget cuts of "billions from the vital services that California's families rely on every day." The new coalition wants to "change the conversation,"
says Central Valley regional coordinator John Boisa and reject a "cuts-only" strategy for balancing the budget. They are encouraging people to

Get the facts about the impacts the cuts would have in your county from the California Budget Project at www.cbp.org/Impactbycounty.htm
Write letters to the editor and op-ed articles in your local papers
Visit legislators in your district—and recruit local business, religious, professional, and other leaders to contact legislators too
Get involved in local events the coalition is planning. In June, for example, local groups held events at schools and clinics, press conferences, and town hall discussions of the local effects of budget cuts.

For info: contact Shawnda Westly, Shawnda@togetherforca.org, or Kim McCoy Wade, Kim@togetherforca.org

Health Care for America Now

Health Care for America Now is a national campaign bringing people together to demand quality, affordable health care for everyone. Supporters include national and community-based activist organizations, labor, health professionals, and faith-based organizations. The California campaign will continue to press for state-based health reform.
For info: contact Health Access

July-August Children's Advocate

2008-07-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Children's Advocate July-August 2008 issue is now available -- and online -- in English, Spanish, and Chinese. This is a special environmental issue, with tips on raising "green" kids and connecting kids with nature, as well as a snapshot of anti-global-warming activism in Chula Vista and a bookbasket of environmentally themed kids' books. Check it out:

Grassroots Snapshot: Parents help win Chula Vista global warming plan
Hot topics: Families organize to bring children's issues into political campaigns
Early Care and Education: Early care and education teachers share tips for helping children connect with nature
Hot topics: Stressed-out parents find help and education in support groups
Raising kids: Families and educators offer kid-friendly environmental tips
Bookbasket: Children's books provide kid-friendly descriptions of environmental issues -- and suggest positive ways to make a difference
News from the California Child Development CORPS: Working against budget cuts -- locally and statewide
News from Parent Voices: Parents come together to create platform on family issues
News from the Children's Advocates' Roundtable

In English at http://www.4children.org/current.htm
In Spanish at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#esp
In Chinese at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#chn

Tools for advocates

2008-07-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

Breathing Easy from Home to School, from PolicyLink, offers strategies to help communities reduce factors that contribute to childhood asthma. Includes California case studies.
How to Plan a Site Visit: Invite Policymakers to See Your Work with Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families, from Zero to Three, offers tips for inviting policymakers to visit early care and education programs and for getting ready for the visit.
A Public Engagement Primer, from Public Agenda, discusses why engaging people in public policy decisions is important and looks at the pros and cons of key strategies.
Protect Children, Not Guns, from the Children's Defense Fund, finds that the number of children killed by firearms in 2005 (most recent data) increased for the first time since 1994. Provides state-level data and ways to take action against gun violence.
Tips and Tools for Flexible Work Options, from Moms Rising, compiles resources on flexible work arrangements for employees, employers, and stay-at-home parents.

Children's Advocate March-April issue

2008-03-07T13:49:00.000-08:00

The Children's Advocate March-April 2008 issue is now available -- and online -- in English and Spanish. This issue includes articles about grassroots activism -- and efforts to push for a fair budget -- along with a package of articles for families and early care and education staff about helping kids learn to control their impulses. Check it out:

Moms' walking group leads push for a walkable neighborhood

Pushing for a fair budget: Parents and advocates mobilize to fight the proposed
state budget cuts

Kids with attention deficit disorder and hyperactivity can learn to control
their impulses -- but they need special support

After-school programs are multiplying because of funding from Prop 49. How
can parents make sure their children benefit?

Parents and parent educators offer tips for helping children learn to control
their impulses

Children's books on keeping impulses in check

News from the California Child Development CORPS: The Corps mobilizes to
fight proposed budget cuts

News from Parent Voices: Spreading the word about tax credits

News from the Children's Advocates Roundtable

In English at http://www.4children.org/current.htm
In Spanish at http://www.4children.org/current.htm#esp
And Chinese coming soon!

Round-up of some recent studies and reports

2008-01-16T09:27:00.000-08:00

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.

Brood Awakenings

2007-10-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

And here's another interesting resource --

The online environmental news site, Grist, has put together a package of articles that tackles some of the environmental health issues faced by families, including
* chemicals and reproduction
* dealing with the plastics scare
* kid-proofing your cleaning supplies
* toys -- avoiding toxic ones and finding alternatives to disposable ones
* eco-causes of early puberty
* the need for more public investment in school lunches

Several of articles include stories about how parents are navigating these challenges along with all the usual challenges of raising kids.

http://www.grist.org/feature/2007/09/17/parenting/index.html

Toxic toys recalled

2007-10-22T12:09:00.000-07:00

It seems like we've been innundated this year by recalls of toxic children's toys and products -- many with dangerously high amounts of lead. But you may not have heard about advocates' campaigns to make toys safer by strengthening testing and product standards:

Don't lick Elmo! is an opportunity to urge Congress to make sure that food and products imported from other countries are safe.

Get the Lead Out! is a petition by Moms Rising, calling on Congress and the Consumer Product Safety Commission to test children's products for toxic chemicals.

For background, see Toys recalled
For an up-to-date list of recalled products, see Recalls and Product Safety News

Good schools as a human right

2007-08-13T12:25:00.000-07:00

You know that the lousy schools in poor neighborhoods have devastating effects on the lives of kids and reinforce injustice. Educational inequity violates the human rights of students in low-income communities and communities of color.

Now there’s a new training manual for advocates, organizers, community members, parents, and youth interested in using a human rights framework as a tool for improving public education in the U.S. It was produced by the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative (NESRI) and Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), a grassroots parent organization in L.A.

The manual includes three training curricula: (1) Know Your Human Rights -- Introduces participants to basic human rights principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and standards for the right to education; (2) Using Human Rights for Social Change -- Introduces participants to strategies for using the language and principles of human rights in their campaigns and messaging; (3) Taking Action by Documenting Human Rights Abuses -- Introduces participants to research methods for documenting rights violations in schools and tips for using documentation as an organizing tool. The appendix includes training handouts and exercises, a glossary of human rights terms, and excerpts from human rights treaties and declarations recognizing the right to education. To order hard copies email info@nesri.org or call 212-253-1710. Available in English and Spanish online in PDF format at:http://www.nesri.org/programs/education_manual.html

Budget action

2007-08-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

California still doesn't have a 2007-08 budget, which means some early care and education programs aren't getting the funds they need to stay open. Senate Republicans refuse to vote for the current budget unless it includes $1 billion in additional cuts.

The California Child Development Administrators Association is calling on advocates to contact Republicans about the impact of the budget delay on child care programs, staff, parents, and children -- and to urge them to vote yes on the Assembly budget. For more information, contact CCDAA, 800-835-3083, or see California State Budget Delay and Mass-Layoff Law

Investing in children and families saves money

2007-08-10T09:40:00.000-07:00

There’s been a number of new reports and studies proving what advocates for children already know – money invested in programs for children and families can save a lot more money in the long-run than these programs cost to operate. Here’s a sampling of the reports I’ve come across recently, hopefully you’ll find them useful in your advocacy efforts:

Early care and education:
• Enriching Children, Enriching the Nation, from the Economic Policy Institute, finds that California would save $12 dollars for every dollar it invested in a targeted, high quality, publicly funded preschool program -- or $8 dollars for every dollar it invested in a similar universal preschool program. This is because participants would earn more, commit fewer crimes, and not need as many public benefits.

School-age children:
• Returns to the Public from Investing in an Excellent Education, hosted by the Public Education Network, finds that the public would save $2 to $4 for every dollar invested in key high school completion programs for young black males -- because, as adults, they would commit fewer crimes, have lower health costs, and earn more.

• Afterschool Programs: Keeping Kids -- and Communities -- Safe, from the Afterschool Alliance, finds afterschool programs help prevent youth crime.

Health:
• Economic Cost of Domestic Hunger, hosted by the Sodexho Foundation, finds that hunger costs the US $90 billion each year -- but it would only take $10 to $12 billion to end serious hunger with more food stamps and nutrition programs.

• Costs of Care for Medi-Cal Children After a Gap in Coverage, from the California Endowment, studied children who lost Medi-Cal coverage for three months before being able to reenroll. Finds that children's health care costs after they reenrolled were almost twice as much as before the break in coverage.

Child welfare:
• Protecting Kids, Reducing Crime, Saving Money, from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, finds investment in home visiting programs would help prevent nearly half of child abuse and neglect -- and save millions because participants would need fewer social services and commit fewer crimes.

Poverty:
• The Productivity Argument for Investing in Young Children, by James Heckman and Dimitriy Masterov, argues for more funding for early interventions for disadvantaged children. Benefits include lower crime rates and fewer school dropouts and teenage pregnancies.

• From Poverty to Prosperity, from the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty, finds that child poverty costs the US $500 billion each year in lost productivity, crime, and health care costs -- but cutting total poverty in half over 10 years would cost about $90 billion a year. Recommends tax credits; education; help with housing, child care, and building assets; promotion of unions; and raising the minimum wage.

And Save money: Invest in kids and families is an article we wrote a couple years ago on this, which talks about the more important older studies, such as the Perry Preschool and Abecedarian programs, if you want to pull data from that.

School discipline/parents’ rights

2007-07-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

People call our office when they have tough problems and there’s no obvious place to go for an answer. Often these problems have to do with arbitrary/harsh/racist/etc. school discipline decisions. We do our best to suggest resources, but it’s always inadequate.

So I was delighted to see that Carolyn Goossen, of New America Media, has written a step-by-step guide for parents: ‘My Child Just Got Expelled’ – What Every California Parent Should Know About School Discipline http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=90f1622ef1ce3e2185d1ca373c003bd0&from=rss

I hope parents and everyone who works with parents will print this out and keep it handy for the next time you are faced with a situation you feel is unfair. The article ends with an important point – if you think unfair discipline is a pattern at your child’s school, you don’t have to deal with this only on a case-by-case basis. You can organize with other parents and demand change.

I would just add that this applies, not only to racial bias in discipline (which is a huge problem) but also to harsh/arbitrary discipline in general. It’s a long tradition in public education to decide kids are “no good” and declare war on them. It happens to kids of color disproportionately but it happens to kids of every background.

For some inspiration on the possibilities of organizing for a positive, supportive approach to discipline, see the article in our May ’07 issue, www.4children.org/news/507gse.htm

Infant/Toddler Learning Foundations too

2007-04-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

In addition to developing "preschool learning foundations" (a catalog of things that typically developing children can do at ages three and four, see previous post), the California Department of Education is also developing "infant/toddler learning foundations" covering development in four domains: social/emotional, cognitive, language, and motor and perceptual. As with the preschool foundations, the CDE has posted a draft on their web site and plans to gather input on them at four public hearings and through the Internet.

The public hearings are the same days and locations as the public hearings on the preschool foundations; the preschool meetings are from 9 to 12 in the morning, the infant/toddler meetings are from 1 to 3 in the afternoon. The hearings will be at the state Department of Education in Sacramento May 11 and at county offices of education in Fresno (May 16), San Mateo (May 17) and LA (May 22).

There will also be a way to provide feedback on the web site in May. However it doesn’t look like they’re planning the kind of regional input sessions around the state that they are holding for the preschool foundations.

For more on the infant/toddler foundations, including links to the draft foundations, go to http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/itfoundations.asp

Why you should participate
All the foundations are based on "the research." However, as many people pointed out in the first meetings on the preschool foundations, most of the research has been done on children in white Anglo middle class mainstream families. Meanwhile, much recent research has also shown that development is powerfully shaped by interaction with the environment. To me that suggests that some of the current orthodoxy about what’s "typical development" might not fully reflect the behavior and development of children in other cultures.

So what that means, folks, is that people who have real-life experience with the diverse young children in California have very valuable information to share with the CDE as it develops its concepts of what’s typical development. Please check out these foundations and contribute your experience and insights so that they truly reflect the development of all California’s young children.

What will California expect of preschoolers? Your input needed!!

2007-03-16T14:40:00.000-07:00

The California Department of Education is developing “early learning foundations,” documents that describe what typically developing children can be expected to be able to do at age three and at age four. The first set of “foundations” will be on:
Social/emotional development
English learners
Language and literacy
Mathematics

The department prepared a first draft of the foundations and held invitational sessions in March where “stakeholders” could provide feedback.

Then they revised the foundations and developed new drafts, which you can see online at http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cd/re/psfoundations.asp

In April and May they will be holding dozens of “regional input sessions” around the state, open to anyone who wants to go and provide feedback on the second draft, which is planned to go up on the web site April 9. This is a crucial opportunity for people who know and care about young children to influence the expectations that will help shape California’s preschool educational policies!!!

You can see a complete list of times and places for these sessions at:
http://www.sonoma.edu/cihs/cpin/pdf/All%20Region%20Input%20Sessions%20%20(3).pdf

In addition, there will be four public hearings on the foundations, all held 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m:
May 11, 2007 - California Department of Education, Sacramento
May 16, 2007 - Fresno County Office of Education
May 17, 2007 - San Mateo County Office of Education
May 22, 2007 - Los Angeles County Office of Education

I don't really know what the difference is between an "input session" and a "public hearing," but whatever, these are all places and times where you can go and express your views.

You can also provide feedback through the web site where the foundations are posted.

Parents and child care/preschool teachers are the ones who really know little kids. Your experience and wisdom are necessary to make this come out right!

Wanted: the political courage to raise revenues!

2007-03-13T17:03:00.000-07:00

California advocates for children should take some inspiration from Illinois, where the governor and the teachers’ union are now fighting for a new tax on business transactions to fund a new $10 billion investment in schools.

The funds would boost school spending by 23% in the next year, increase the amount spent on each student, and expand preschool programs.

The new tax would raise money from the service sector -- the only part of the economy that’s expanding. One of the reasons California is in a constant budget crisis is that the sales tax, a major source of revenue, only applies to sales of goods, stuff, while a larger and larger part of our economy is services. A sales tax on some services is only one of many practical, good ideas for raising revenue from the people who can afford to pay. For more ideas, see http://www.caltaxreform.org

Of course businesses in Illinois are claiming, as they always do when asked to carry some of the weight, that the new tax would drive businesses out of the state. Governor Blagojevich says that the business lobbyists are really interested in convincing legislators ''to get off of tax fairness and go back to taxing people.''

''It will be Armageddon, but we are on the side of the Lord and we will prevail,'' Blagojevich told a cheering audience of 1,200 teachers.

Advocates for children, whatever their personal theology, have an obligation to reject the current bad political choices and change the political balance--with a powerful campaign demanding that the state raise enough revenue to meet kids’ needs.

You can read about the Illinois effort at:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/292664,031107blago.article

Push for better health care

2007-03-12T10:50:00.000-07:00

With SCHIP (Healthy Families in California) up for federal reauthorization this year and several health care reform proposals in the California legislature, advocates are pushing for better health care for children and adults.

The Children's Defense Fund has two campaigns for health insurance for all children in the US:

Covering All Children in 2007 is a campaign to ensure that all children have comprehensive health and mental health care. For more information, contact the Children's Defense Fund, 202-628-8787, http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=healthy_child

Elect Susie is a fictional presidential campaign for Susie Flynn, a 10-year-old girl who is calling for health insurance for all children in the US. For information about the campaign (sponsored by the Children's Defense Fund), visit http://www.electsusie.com

Health Access and organizations representing seniors, labor, and people of color are pushing for better health care in California:

It's Our Health Care is a campaign for quality, affordable health care in California. It will include outreach to gather health care stories and concerns, town hall meetings around the state, house parties, and opportunities to communicate with policymakers about health care reform proposals. For more information, contact Health Access, 916-442-2308, http://www.itsourhealthcare.org

Health Access also has a new-ish blog at http://www.health-access.org/blogger.html

Get active on children's issues

2007-03-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Lots of advocacy events are heading our way this spring -- great ways to get active for children and families, or if you're already active, here's some events you can use to get other folks involved! Here's some info on the ones I know about so far ... but sign up for our monthly email bulletin to keep up-to-date.

Mar 30: Eliminating Childhood Obesity Town Hall Meeting is an opportunity to discusses strategies for reducing childhood obesity and supporting children's health through communities and schools. Los Angeles. For more information, contact the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, la@rwjf.org

Apr 22: Week of the Young Child is a day to bring attention to the needs of children and their families. For more information, contact the National Association for the Education of Young Children, (800) 424-2460; http://www.naeyc.org/about/woyc

Apr 22: Earth Day is a day for children to learn about and participate in activities related to the environment. For more information or events in California, contact Earth Day Network, (202) 518-0044; http://www.earthday.org

Apr 30: Día de los Niños is a day to honor and celebrate children. For more information, contact National Latino Children's Institute, http://www.nlci.org/DLN2004/dlnmain.htm

Apr 30: National Healthy Schools Day is a day to support school environments that are clean and in good repair to better foster health and learning. For more information and a guide with event ideas, contact Healthy Schools Network, Jen Sentar, 202-543-7555, http://www.healthyschools.org/nhs_day.html

May 1: Worthy Wage Day is a day to increase awareness of the need for adequate wages for child care providers to ensure quality care for children. For more information, contact the Center for the Child Care Workforce, 202-662-8005; http://www.ccw.org/about_wage.html

May 2: Stand for Children with Parent Voices is an opportunity to advocate for quality early childhood programs with hundreds of parents from all over California. Sacramento. For more information, contact Parent Voices at 415-882-0234

May 15: ENACT is an opportunity for advocates to talk with legislators about nutrition and physical activity. Sacramento. For more information, contact California Center for Public Health Advocacy, Alyssa Walker, 530-297-6000, http://www.cfpa.net/ENACT2007/index.htm

May 24: California Afterschool Challenge is an opportunity to thank legislators for recent laws that have expanded and enhanced afterschool programs -- and to call for additional afterschool funding. For more information, contact California School-Age Consortium, Annie Nogg, (415) 957-9775, http://calsac.org/events_page.asp?eventID=546

California “Early Learning Foundations”

2007-02-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

This spring you will have several opportunities to influence California’s expectations for preschoolers’ development.
The Child Development Division of the California Department of Education is doing a great job at inviting—and listening to!—input from the Early Care and Education community as they develop their “Early Learning Foundations” in four areas:
* Social/emotional development
* English language learning (for kids whose first language is not English)
* Language and literacy
* Mathematics
(next year they will add other areas).
These are not supposed to be tests or requirements, but descriptions of typical development in three- and four-year-olds.
The fact that they start with social/emotional development and English learning is already a sign that the CDD has listened to the field. (Their first standards were just for literacy and math, but they heard from a lot of people that social/emotional development and English learning were essential).
The first draft of the “foundations” was developed by researchers looking at a lot of studies and experience from the field.
The department then invited “stakeholders” to four all-day sessions to give feedback. I attended two of those sessions and I have to say I was really impressed with the level of discussion. On the whole, people were very pleased with the drafts, but they weren’t shy about making dozens and dozens of criticisms and suggestions for change, which the researchers and CDD people received very graciously--they seemed eager to make changes based on the input. So that was very cool.
Their goal is to incorporate the suggestions and get the next draft on the web site by April 9.
The next step is public regional input meetings, to be hosted by the California Preschool Instructional Network (CPIN) around the state in the next few months. There will also be an opportunity to give input on the foundations on the web site.
After that, hearings on the foundations will be held in mid-May.
Dates/times/places for the regional meetings are not yet available, but you can see a general outline of the process at http://www.sonoma.edu/cihs/cpin/standards.htm. When more info is available, I’ll let you know.

The "self-esteem" trap

2007-02-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

A professor at San Diego State has discovered that today’s college students are more self-centered and full of themselves than previous generations. Professor Jean Twenge gave kids a test for “narcissism” – that means basically that you think you’re all that and a bag of chips and nobody else is important. Two-thirds rated high on that scale, compared to only one-third in the ‘80s.
What's the problem?
The researchers—Tweng and Keith Campbell of the University of Georgia, say this is a problem because people who are narcissistic "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors."
They blame efforts to promote kids’ “self-esteem.” For example, they quote a song they say is commonly sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques" in preschool: "I am special, I am special. Look at me."
But we want kids to feel secure and confident, right?
I think the problem is that our culture is so competitive and individualistic that we don’t know how to feel good about ourselves without feeling that we are better than other people. We think those are the same thing.
Actually, they are opposite.
If our feeling of safety and confidence is based on rating higher than others, we are continually anxious, somewhere deep down, about the possibility that someone will come along and rate higher than us. That’s why the researchers describe narcissistic people as being so tightly wound.
There's an alternative!
There is another choice. Actually, it’s the ethic that has been traditional in early childhood education: Everyone is important. You can feel secure because you are loved, however you perform. Everyone’s contribution is valuable. We are all valuable because we are part of the human family, which is part of the larger family of all living things on earth.
I remember, after years of therapy, the moment I said to the shrink: “Now I understand that love is different from getting a high score.”
Different consequences
Now, if you are trying to make kids nervous enough so that they work hard to perform well on standardized tests and grow up to be the kinds of people who work long hours and do whatever they are told because they are desperate to make a lot of money and achieve high status, you won’t want that. You will want people to compete for the limited amount of “self-esteem” that comes from winning a scarce prize.
But if you want children to feel safe and confident enough to learn and explore, and to grow up treasuring and nurturing their relationships with other people, you’ll award prizes less, and hug and smile more.
Get this book!
Recently a children’s book called “Hooray for Me!” arrived in our office. At first I was disgusted, because of this narcissism thing. But because it was illustrated by Vera Williams, who I think is great, I looked at it. And I was delighted to see that expresses exactly the values I think we should be teaching kids.
Who’s “me?” the book asks. And a picture shows dozens of houses with kids in them, each saying, “I’m me!’ “I’m me too!” “Me too!” etc.
Then the book asks: “What kind of me are you?” (Uh-oh, I thought. Here comes “the fastest runner,” “the best singer,” etc.)
But the answer was all about relationships: daughter, nephew, half-sister, friend, etc.
And they elaborate: “I am my baby brother’s sister.” I am my mother and father’s son.” All the way to “I am a great-grand-kitten.”
The book ends with a poem that concludes: “Hooray for us! Whatever we be. Hooray for you, Hooray for me.”
By Remy Charlip and Lilian Moore, illustrated, as I said, by Vera B. Williams, Tricycle Press.
Run out and get it!

Sexualization of girls: Fighting back

2007-02-26T11:42:00.000-08:00

I was excited to see that people are starting to fight back against the psychologically crippling sexualization of girls being promoted by toy and clothing manufacturers and the media:
* The American Psychological Association recently published a report explaining the harmfulness of the sexualization of girls—check it out at www.apa.org/pi/wpo/sexualization.html.
* Last year a letter-writing campaign organized by Dads and Daughters (http://www.dadsanddaughters.org/) and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (http://www.commercialexploitation.org/) led to the cancellation of a line of dolls based on the Pussycat Dolls, a musical group known for their sexualized clothing and lyrics.
(check out their new campaigns!)
In a commentary published Feb. 26 in the SF Chronicle, Eileen Zurbriggen, associate professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who chaired the American Psychological Association's Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, pointed to the beauty pageant in Little Miss Sunshine as an example of this trend, but added that there are many:
“Signs of it are everywhere,” she wrote. “On a t-shirt for a 6-year-old girl that proclaims her a "Little Hottie;" on dolls that sport fishnet stockings, bare midriffs and platform shoes; and in a music video that shows busty women performing sexy dances while dressed in Brownie uniforms. . . .
“The problem isn't one particular doll, or song or hypersexualized young heiress. The problem is that girls today are swimming in a veritable sea of toxic messages about what it means to be female.”
After a generation of feminism, the strength and health we so want girls to develop is being threatened by pressure to look at themselves as sex objects—or face the penalties of not being considered cool and attractive--remember how hard that is, as a kid?
Zurbriggen and the APA are calling on people to resist this assault on girls:
“We must continue to urge manufacturers and media producers to replace sexualized images of girls with images that present girls and young women as active, competent individuals who have their own goals, desires and dreams.
“Schools can help, too. Media literacy training programs help children to become active and critical interpreters of media messages, rather than passive consumers. These programs should be available to all middle-school students.
“Finally, parents can talk with their daughters and let them know they are loved and valued for who they are, rather than for how they look.”

Fairer school discipline for LA?

2007-02-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Unified School District just unanimously passed a new, districtwide student discipline policy based on “positive behavior support,” that would allow suspension and expulsion as options only for the most serious offenses like possession of a gun or causing serious injury.
For more routine problems, the policy calls for things like positive reinforcement of good behavior, mentoring, discussions with parents and/or students or, at the most, in-school suspension. The policy also emphasizes greater parent involvement in resolving discipline problems.
The development of a system-wide, less punitive discipline policy is a victory for CADRE, a community-based parent organization in South L.A., and other community groups that have been campaigning for a comprehensive student discipline policy based on prevention, alternatives to school removals, strong parent participation, and monitoring and evaluation of school discipline practices.
In a survey of parents, CADRE found that schools often use suspension as the first step rather than a last resort. The group has also shown a connection between high rates of suspension and high dropout rates. All these issues affect disproportionate numbers of African American and Latino students, who some say are “pushed out” of school with punishments that emphasize getting kids out of the class or the school rather than working to change their behavior.
You can read an LA Times article about the new discipline policy at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-discipline12feb12,1,1567250.story
We'll have an article about this in the May issue of the Children's Advocate, in our Grassroots Snapshot department, so be sure to check that out for more details.
You can contact CADRE at 323-752-9997.

Hope boosts educational achievement

2007-02-20T16:15:00.000-08:00

A new study at Stanford, recently reported in Child Development, shows that if kids know that intelligence can be developed, they do better in school than kids who think it’s fixed at a certain level.
NPR recently reported on a study by researcher Carol Dweck in which “about 100 seventh graders, all doing poorly in math, were randomly assigned to workshops on good study skills. One workshop gave lessons on how to study well. The other taught about the expanding nature of intelligence and the brain.
The students in the latter group ‘learned that the brain actually forms new connections every time you learn something new, and that over time, this makes you smarter.’
By the end of the semester, the group of kids who had been taught that the brain can grow smarter had significantly better math grades than the other group.”
(This is one reason kids from the US don’t do so well in international comparisons. Our culture tells people they either “have it” or they don’t. And some are given the message that people in their ethnic group don’t have it, academically. In other cultures kids are more likely to think success comes from hard work. )
To read the full NPR report, go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7406521

Government coverup of lead hazard in lunch boxes

2007-02-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

The bad news is that some of the vinyl lunch boxes that kids use to bring their lunches to school contain levels of lead that are considered unsafe.
The even worse news is that the federal Consumer Products Safety Commission tested the vinyl lunch boxes, found out about these high lead levels, then released a statement in 2005 saying it found “no instances of hazardous levels” of lead in kids’ vinyl lunch boxes.
The truth only came out when the Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records of the CPSC tests. (The agency had said they wouldn’t release the records to protect manufacturers’ trade secrets.)
The CPSC defended itself by saying that kids’ don’t put lunchboxes in their mouths and a lot of the food is wrapped anyway, so the high lead levels aren’t a problem.
So is the current US administration covering up for business and failing to give consumers adequate information about hazards? What do you think?
You can read the CNN story about this at http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/02/18/lunchbox.lead.ap/index.html

A strong call to action for kids

2007-02-02T16:32:00.000-08:00

We're usually pretty timid in the child advocacy world. Because most of us work for 501(c)3 nonprofit organizations, we shy away from "politics" or advocacy.
But you know as well as I do that the conservative politics of the last 25 years, starting with the "Reagan revolution," have been devastating for children and families.
Now a longtime advocate for children has written a call to action--a short book that provides facts and figures on how shockingly the U.S. neglects its children and calls on us to mobilize to make children's issues central to the 2008 presidential election.
The author is Michael Petit, who left management positions at organizations like the Child Welfare League of America to launch a new organization, called (this is important) Every Child Matters. (www.everychildmatters.org, obviously).
His book is called Homeland Insecurity: American Children at Risk. Here's a short quote from the first chapter:
"Federal programs have failed to keep pace with the growing needs of children. . . . Thanks in large part to the erosion of real federal spending on children and families, mostly engineered by conservatives, the child poverty rate is rising again even as the stock market has climbed. Further, more people are uninsured, real wages are declining, prisons are overflowing, and millions of children live in distressed families facing their struggles alone, thanks in large measure to conservative policy."
The book goes on to compare the U.S. to other rich democracies on measures like child poverty, paid maternity leave, health insurance, child care, child abuse, rates of imprisonment--if you have been paying attention to children's issues you already know that the U.S. is miserably behind in all these areas. But some of these facts and figures will shock you--or at least give you great ammunition for arguments.
What do we need? The first thing, Petit says, is public financing of elections. Why? Because if we, the public, don't finance campaigns, big corporations and wealthy individuals will keep doing it--and they will keep wielding the power to push children's issues off the table. As they have been doing. As you well know.
What else? Well, single-payer health care. (Let's take the 30% of every health care dollar that now goes to insurance companies and spend it on health care! That would be enough to give everybody high-quality, comprehensive care.) Universal high-quality preschool and child care, obviously. Greatly expanded housing, nutrition, and income support programs, family support programs -- everything that you know we need. We know these things work. It's not rocket science. Our society has just not been willing to pay for it.
But doesn't all this cost money, you will ask? YES! How will we pay for it? With TAXES, duh! Tax breaks for the wealthy have crippled our society's ability to take care of children (and other people). The rich are getting richer and the rest are getting poorer because of these goverment policies. They have undone the progressive tax system. Let's get it back!
Maybe I am expressing myself too forcefully here, but I just heard Petit speak and I was inspired! He came right out and said these things that we all know but are too polite to mention in public.
And he has a plan to make things change--a strategy for putting these issues at the center of the 2008 presidential campaign--without blowing our precious 501(c)3s. This post is already too long, you should just read the book. But one of his plans is to work through child-serving organizations to get parents, child care providers, and other children's service workers to vote -- voting rates are very low in these groups. If they all voted, it would shift the political balance, especially on these issues. He also has plans for mobilizing to make sure all the presidential candidates address these issues as they run in the primaries.
You should really read this book. It's very short, to the point, and explosive. You can download it free at http://www.everychildmatters.org/homelandinsecurity/index.html. Then you should tell everybody you know all about it, and we should all get to work.
How can we tolerate what's happening to children and families any longer?

Save Family and Medical Leave -- update!

2007-02-01T14:37:00.000-08:00

Hi again -- I just found out that you now have until Feb. 16 to get your comments on the Family and Medical Leave Act to the Dept. of Labor (see previous post) -- so now you have no excuse for not doing it! Thanks for helping to save this minimal family benefit (reminder: the U.S. is one of only four counties without PAID maternity leave. Family values, right?)

Save family and medical leave!

2007-01-30T15:04:00.000-08:00

Hi --
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act is in danger. Please act before February 2!!!!!

(this is an urgent message adapted from MomsRising, an interesting web-based organization promoting children and family issues, www.momsrising.com):

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) has been a real life-saver for tens of thousands of families. It allows people who work for companies with fifty or more workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a new baby, or to care for a family member or themselves when facing a serious health issue.
Now the FMLA, even though it's unpaid leave and only applies to those who work for bigger companies, is at real risk of being scaled back when it actually should be expanded. As you may know, the current law is actually quite weak in comparison to the rest of the world. A Harvard study of 168 countries found that only 4 don't offer some form of paid leave for new mothers--Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Lesotho, and the United States of America.
THE LOWDOWN: After years of corporate opposition, the U.S. Department of Labor is now seeking comments on the FMLA as it reviews the law. The FMLA could be scaled back if they don't hear from lots of people demanding that they protect (and expand) the law.
TELL THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR TO RETAIN & EXPAND THE FMLA: Submit your comments via e-mail to whdcomments@dol.gov
The comment period ends Feb. 2. Sorry I didn't get this to you earlier. Please forward to everyone you know!!!

Questions to start 2007 with

2007-01-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

1. Will the Democratic Congress stop the war and redirect at least some of the money to programs that children and families desperately need? One of the most urgent questions on my mind is: Will they stop cutting Section 8 and put in more money before housing costs push even more families into hunger and homelessness? The federal government has also been cutting job-training funds—while increasing the pressure on parents to get off welfare. Will they provide enough funds to enable parents to get the kinds of jobs that can support their families?

2. Will California really make health care available to all kids who live here? Advocates say yes, and according to the polling, Californians really support this, but the stumbling block is anti-immigrant ideology. If you want to help, see http://www.100percentcampaign.org/

3. Will the governor be able to provide high-quality, comprehensive health care to all Californians without raising taxes? (Hint: the answer to this one is: No. Even if he increases the number of Californians with “health insurance,” I’m sure you know that many health insurance policies leave people stranded a lot of the time—oh, we don’t cover that.)
Many people favor a requirement that employers pay for health insurance. But what happens when you change jobs or are unemployed for a while? And who’s going to guarantee that the health insurance they provide will cover the care you need?
The follow-up question is: Will advocates for children and families finally add their voices to the movement for a nonprofit, single-payer health care system that includes everyone, set up by the state? A nonpartisan think tank commissioned by the legislature found that such a system could provide high-quality, comprehensive care for everyone in the state for less money than we now spend on our inadequate non-system of health care.

4, What’s going to happen to the families on CalWORKs?!?!
* The state is under increased pressure from the feds to make them get jobs.
* The governor wants to deny them cost of living increases and take away the whole grant, not just the parent’s share, if the parent violates a CalWORKs rule.
* On the plus side, California has done a good job so far in protecting support services like job training and counseling.
More questions:
* As many CalWORKs parents struggle with homelessness, limited English skills, lack of job skills, domestic violence, depression, substance abuse, etc.— the reasons they went on welfare in the first place -- is increased pressure really what will enable them to support their families?
* If more parents are pushed to go to work, will the state increase the amount of child care available for their kids?

Stay tuned! And watch the Children's Advocate for updates on these and other issues. www.4children.org

Low-cost vision care

2006-12-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just found out about an organization that provides free eye exams and low-cost glasses to low-income families, details at: http://www.californiavision.org/

If you aren't eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families or if you are eligible but you still can't get through the red tape, this might work.

Hope it helps!

Selling candy to babies: Is that OK?

2006-12-22T15:52:00.000-08:00

Everyday Outrages Department

Should corporations have unlimited freedom to market junk food to kids too little to understand what an ad is?

A growing chorus of advocates for children is saying “No!”

That includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, which issued a policy statement this month calling on Congress to “implement a ban on junk-food advertising during programming that is viewed predominantly by young children.”
(Their statement also called for restrictions on advertising of cigarettes, alcohol, and “erectile dysfunction” drugs and for a ban on interactive advertising to kids on digital TV. It’s great. See the full statement at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/6/2563 )

Also calling for limits on food ads to kids is Sen. Tom Harkin (D, IA), who is about to become chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Harkin has already introduced legislation that would allow the Federal Trade Commission to regulate marketing of foods and beverages to children younger than 18. (The AAP says kids younger than eight can’t understand the concept of an ad, but kids a lot older than that can still be seduced by ads). For more on current and past attempts to restrict advertising to kids, see http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/20/BUGH6N1RL545.DTL&hw=George+Raine&sn=003&sc=562

And for more background on the movement to restrict food ads to kids, check out our article at http://www.4children.org/news/505adve.htm

Corporate advertisers say enticing toddlers with pictures of candy is free speech. But the AAP says “Unlike free speech, commercial speech does not enjoy the same protections under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Advertisements can be restricted or even banned if there is a significant public health risk.” They cite a growing body of evidence that watching food ads contributes to childhood obesity. Which is one of the major health risks in our country right now.

So who’s doing something about this?
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, http://www.cspinet.org
Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, www.commercialexploitation.org
Strategic Alliance to Promote Healthy Food and Activity Environments (California), http://www.preventioninstitute.org/sa
Stay tuned!

Valuing all kids

2006-11-30T16:11:00.000-08:00

Building on Strengths Department
A lot of people talk about how schools should build on kids’ “multiple intelligences” but not as many really do it. So I have to tell you about a recent class my daughter taught.
She works in a program that teaches art/creative expression in some of the “worst” schools in Oakland. Last week in an after-school class of first- and second-graders, the kids made “storyboards,” a series of drawings telling a simple story of a problem that was solved by a family with "superpowers." Then the kids wrote words for the power the family had used to solve the problem. For example, one of the stories showed a homeless person who was cold, so the family built him a fire. The kids wrote “power of fire.” The superpower in another story was the “power of cheer-up.” :)
Meanwhile there were a couple of kids, as there often are, who couldn’t sit still to work on the project and hadn’t yet gotten into this writing thing. So they wandering off making up dances to a current popular song, chanting “lean with it, rock with it, lean with it, rock with it.”
“Can you dance about the superpowers?” my daughter asked. “Here’s a story about the power of fire.”
So the dancers went to the first group, danced, and chanted “Lean with the power of fire, rock with the power of fire.”
Then, my daughter said, all the kids were clamoring for the dancers to dance for their story, so they danced for each one in turn: “Lean with the power of cheer-up, rock with the power of cheer-up.” Etc.
From being marginal and uninvolved, the dancers had turned into valued contributors.
Obviously it can’t end there. They will have to learn how to write! But it will be easier if they feel like valued members of the group. This was a start.

CalWORKs changes: More pressure

2006-11-30T16:04:00.000-08:00

More Trouble Department
The new federal welfare law, signed last February, will put a lot more pressure on states, and thus on low-income families, who already had plenty, thank you.
The new law forces states to get more of the people on welfare working. It also puts more restrictions on what you can count as “work” (for example, you can count a year’s worth of job training, but the new law specifies that this “training” can’t be part of a four-year college program).
If you’re interested in the technical details, the feds didn’t actually increase the “work participation” requirement: it’s still 50%. What they did was drastically decrease the credit that states get for reducing the number of families on welfare. The states were using this credit to make up for the fact that nowhere NEAR 50% of the families on welfare were working. In California it’s been around 23%.
(That’s because families on welfare have REASONS for not working. Some parents lack job skills. Some are homeless. Some can’t find child care or transportation. Many have mental health, domestic violence, or substance abuse problems. That’s why they’re on welfare. Duh.)
(If you want even more technical details about the federal changes and California’s response, see the summary by the Western Center on Law and Poverty at http://www.wclp.org/files/Welfare%20Watchers%207-21-06%20final.doc )
California has responded to this pressure in a good way, by trying to protect supportive programs for CalWORKs families and even providing more funds for programs such as job training, that will help parents meet work requirements. They’re also moving some families out of the federal welfare program so they won’t be under pressure to work if that’s not appropriate for them. They’ve added policies to help families avoid “sanctions” (penalties for not meeting CalWORKs requirements) and to end sanctions quickly.
But the federal law will still increase pressure and restrict options for CalWORKs and CalWORKs families.
Fortunately California also has some kick-ass organizations that are mobilizing to help CalWORKs parents learn about the new law and figure out how to deal with it, both on an individual and a policy level.
LIFETIME (Low-Income Families Empowerment Through Education) (http://www.geds-to-phds.org/) will be working with other organizations in the TANF Stakeholders Working Group to prevent any cuts in income to CalWORKs families. They’ll also continue to work on expanding educational opportunities for CalWORKs parents.
Meanwhile LIFETIME staffer Dianna Collier will be traveling around the state holding workshops for parents on CalWORKS about how they can deal with the new requirements and build toward financial success for their families. To schedule a workshop at your community college or organization, contact her at dcollier@geds-to-phds.org.
And look for the Children’s Advocate’s article on new issues in CalWORKs, coming up in our March issue.

Shortchanging Head Start Kids

2006-11-13T09:35:00.000-08:00

What are they thinking?! Department

The US Dept of Health and Human Services is telling Head Start to cut wages, cut teacher health care, and ask businesses for extra money because of budget cuts, says the National Head Start Association.

NHSA calls the requirements "unrealistic" and "an insult" ... and only marginally effective at reducing costs because previous budget cuts have left most programs with only the bare necessities.

NHSA President and CEO Greene said: "It is a shame to see that those responsible for educating America's most at-risk children are being asked to make the kind of personal financial sacrifices that would never be asked of a worker for a Defense Department contractor. Many Head Start staff workers are women who are trying to lift themselves up out of poverty and these crippling cuts often make it impossible for them to turn around their lives and those of their families …. "(I)t is naive for ACF to think that one-time donations to individual programs from local business will staunch years of programmatic bleeding or be sufficient to replace the lost operational funds.”

The NHSA also warns that the funding situation will get worse if the proposed 2007 budget for Head Start is passed – which would provide an additional $.06 per child per week.

Get involved on this issue:
Save Head Start
http://www.saveheadstart.org/

Eco-friendly preschool

2006-11-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

This is cool! Department

A new Pasadena preschool will be the first green-certified preschool in CA, says an article in the Whittier Daily News. The Mother's Club learning center is gutting an existing building, reusing construction materials, and plans to tile the front of the building with solar panels. The program sounds pretty cool, too -- care for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers during the day; literacy, health, and ECE classes at night.

Read more:
New preschool will be Earth-friendly
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_4549840

Stricter rules for babies of undocumented immigrants

2006-11-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

What are they thinking?! Department

A new federal policy means that children born in the US to undocumented immigrants will no longer automatically qualify for health insurance, reports the New York Times. Before, women got emergency care under Medicaid and their babies were covered for their first year.

Now, families will have to apply to Medicaid and prove that their baby is a citizen (even proponents of the new policy say this part is obvious) before the child can get health coverage -- despite all the obstacles this poses for families, such as language barriers, fear of deportation, and finding time to deal with all this with a new baby!

Marilyn E. Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Medicaid program, said she’s been told all states will have to change their policies accordingly.

Read more:
U.S. Tightens Medicaid Rules for Babies of Illegal Immigrants http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/02/washington/02cnd-medicaid.html?
_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1162925636-FNGnxBn/Bh7mpW/QZJEBhg

From the CA Immigrant Welfare Collaborative:
Access to Medicaid for Newborns of Immigrant Mothers
http://www.caimmigrant.org/source/Newborns&Medicaid.pdf

Tool for improving community health

2006-11-13T09:32:00.001-08:00

Cool new resource

The Prevention Institute offers a new resource -- THRIVE, a web-based tool to help communities identify and support factors that improve community health and reduce disparities. Includes a guide to using the tool in your community, to think through the planning process and potential partners.

THRIVE
http://www.preventioninstitute.org/thrive/index.php

Bilingual schools: tips for success

2006-11-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

New report

Successful Bilingual Schools looks at six elementary schools in San Diego, LA, and Ventura counties with successful bilingual education programs (despite poverty and students' limited English skills). The report identifies key features that contribute to success -- leadership, accountability, teacher qualifications, and professional development.

Successful Bilingual Schools
http://www.sdcoe.net/lret2/els/pdf/SBS_Report_FINAL.pdf

Health info for early care and education teachers and providers

2006-11-13T09:31:00.000-08:00

New curriculum resource

Child Care Health Linkages Project, part of the California Child Care Health Program at UCSF, offers a new resource -- Curriculum and Resources for Child Care Health Advocates. The 18-module curriculum has info about health and safety for early care and education teachers and providers and tips for working with child care health consultants. Available in English and Spanish. Instructor's guide also available. Free to download or $80 for each language (and $30 more for the instructor's guide)

Curriculum and Reources for Child Care Health Advocates
Curriculum: http://ucsfchildcarehealth.org/html/pandr/trainingcurrmain.htm#ccha
Instructor's guide: http://ucsfchildcarehealth.org/html/pandr/trainingcurrmain.htm#ig

Child welfare terms in Spanish

2006-11-13T09:29:00.000-08:00

New resource

It can be challenging to translate technical terms about issues affecting kids (esp child welfare services!) into Spanish, so this reference from the Child Welfare Information Gateway (part of the US Dept of Health and Human Services) looks very handy:

Child Welfare Terms, English to Spanish
http://www.childwelfare.gov/glossary/
terms_english_spanish_a-b.cfm

Lower pay for moms

2006-11-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

Everyday Outrages Department

If you're a woman, on average, becoming a mother will cost you 17 cents off every dollar in your paycheck. If you're a man, your pay is likely to increase when you become a father.
?!?!@#?!??@#!
We all know there's a "wage gap" between women and men. But now a bunch of studies have shown that women with kids also get paid less than women without kids. One study, for example, found that women without children make 90 cents to a man's dollar. Moms make 73 cents, and single moms make 56 to 66 cents.
Oh, but it's because they take more time off when kids are sick etc., right? Wrong. A Cornell University researcher, Shelley Correll, released a study last year showing that the cause is discrimination. It's not mothers' "fault" for doing delinquent things like taking care of their kids.
Correll also found that mothers were less likely to be hired than non-mothers and were offered lower starting pay. (She figured this out by comparing the hiring experiences of equally qualified moms and non-moms.)
This discrimination is the latest target of an organization called MomsRising, an internet activism group trying to drum up political pressure for "family friendly" policies in the U.S. They've published The Motherhood Manifesto, which documents problems and proposes solutions on a wide range of issues from work policies to child care to health and more.
Lower pay for moms hurts kids! MomsRising quotes a researcher at the Institute for Women's Policy Research, who says that if this pay gap didn't exist, the poverty rate would be cut in half for single-mother families and the poverty rates for dual-earner families would be cut by 25%.
To see the solutions MomsRising is proposing for this and other problems, check them out at www.momsrising.org.
Jean

Ending child poverty

2006-11-10T15:23:00.000-08:00

What a Concept! Department

Did you know that Great Britain has an official policy of ending child poverty by 2020? This was adopted seven years ago by the Tony Blair government and has already led to a drop of 17% in child poverty. That was less than their target of 25% -- but the government has vowed to try harder.
Advocates say that the main benefit of this policy is that it “focuses the minds of the politicians” on this problem, which, as you know, is at the root of a lot of the other problems children face, in health, school success, mental health, etc. Some of the things the Brits are doing to end child poverty are:
· a system of subsidies to low-wage earners
· continuing increases in the minimum wage so it keeps up with inflation (like the measure Gov. Schwarzenegger vetoed this year)
· a 10-year national child care strategy to help parents access affordable, high-quality child care (so they can hold down a job)
· programs for healthy development of preschoolers, teens, and young adults.
Could we adopt a policy like this here? Probably depends on how hard we push………..
Jean
(article on this at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/
2006/04/02/AR2006040201091.html)

Birth of a Blog

2006-11-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

The Children’s Advocate is giving birth to a blog! This newest member of our family will be a place for new resources (studies, reports, materials, etc), news, model programs, advocacy campaigns, and other interesting stuff that appears on our radar screen, along with our two cents on what it all means. You can respond with comments and soon you’ll be able to look up past posts by topic. We hope to hear from you!
Jean and Jessine