March-April Children's Advocate

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)

November-December Children's Advocate

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

Stricter rules for babies of undocumented immigrants

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