Return-Path: <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.9.3/8.9.0.Beta5/980425bjb) with SMTP id OAA12612; Mon, 7 Feb 2000 14:30:07 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000 14:30:07 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <NCBBKFFJEKBIIPDOPFOGGEOMCNAA.nsledd@famlit.org> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Nancy Sledd" <nsledd@famlit.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:2695] Excerpts from Connect for Kids Weekly -- February 7, 2000 X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 11821 Lines: 233 ********************************************** Connect for Kids Weekly--February 07, 2000 ********************************************** The Connect for Kids Weekly is your source for the latest news on issues affecting kids and families. Feel free to forward this information. Please attribute the source to "Connect for Kids published by the Benton Foundation." <http://www.connectforkids.org/> *************************************** NEW ON CONNECT FOR KIDS www.connectforkids.org **For Schools, Smaller is Better In our monthly column, Nick Geisinger explores class size, and why super-sizing our schools may not be the best deal for America's students. ** Mom's Vote 2000 Voter choices in the upcoming primaries in February and March will not only deliver delegates for specific candidates, but will help shape the future of the presidential races. Connect for Kids' campaign feature, Mom's Vote 2000, can help you learn about the issues and prepare your questions for the candidates. http://www.connectforkids.org/content1550/content.htm TIPS FOR PARENTS **Parent-Teacher Conference Coming Up? Get Ready! A parent-teacher conference is an opportunity for you to learn how your child is doing in school, share important information with the teacher, and find out more about what your child should be learning. Make the most of this opportunity! Here's a set of questions that can help you prepare. http://www.carr.lib.md.us/ccps/parent/conference.htm **PBS Relaunches Popular Kids' Site PBS's online space for kids to interact, learn and play with their favorite PBS characters has gotten even better with the redesign of their Web site. http://www.pbs.org/kids/ *************************************** HELP FOR VULNERABLE KIDS **Tools for Improving Kinship Care Decisions When a child needs to be placed outside of the home, the home of relatives can sometimes offer a better alternative to foster care. These arrangements, referred to as "kinship care" or "kinship foster care," can be difficult to evaluate. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created "Evaluating the Quality of Kinship Foster Care," a set of tools that includes an encyclopedia of kinship care with lessons learned and recommended practices and an evaluation package for assessing the suitability of a specific kinship care placement. If you are trying to improve child welfare services in your community, call 217-333-5837 for a copy of these bulky, but comprehensive and useful binders! **New Legislation Can Aid Child Abuse Prevention Congress has voted overwhelmingly (410-2) to pass H.R. 764, the Child Abuse Prevention Enforcement Act (CAPE), which promises to give more tools to community services for child abuse prevention and protection: child protective service workers, Court Appointed Special Advocate programs, police, doctors and nurses and foster families. CAPE gives the states the authority to use federal law enforcement grants for child abuse prevention and sets aside money from the Crime Victims Fund for improving services for victims of child abuse. Other provisions allow money to be used by states to help child protective services workers access criminal conviction records and provide law enforcement personnel quick access to court custody, visitation, protection, guardianship and stay-away orders. Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (D-Ohio) offers more information. http://www.house.gov/pryce/CAPEAct.htm *************************************** KEEPING KIDS HEALTHY **Healthy People 2010 Released on January 25, 2000 the Department of Health and Human Service's initiative, "Healthy People 2010," focused on two areas: increasing the quality and years of healthy life and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health status. Surgeon General David Satcher also announced the establishment of 10 leading health indicators with 21 specific measurable objectives to enable us to take stock of the health status of our nation, now and over time. The leading indicators are physical activity, overweight and obesity, tobacco use, substance abuse, mental health, injury and violence, environmental quality, immunization, responsible sexual behavior and access to health care. Hard copies will be available at the end of February (call 800-367-4725 and ask for stock #017-001-00543-6). http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2000pres/20000125a.html Learn more about outreach efforts to ensure more kids, managed care strategies, and improving health care policy for kids by looking up "Health" in Connect for Kids Topics A-Z. http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1543/index.htm *************************************** MONITORING CHILD CARE QUALITY **"Remember the Children" Child Care Study Questions Quality A new study on welfare reform and child care indicates that new welfare regulations requiring work may be pressuring mothers to accept substandard child care arrangements for their young children, care where educational materials are scarce and little reading or story telling is observed. For the executive summary (the report is not yet available in full), e-mail your fax number to sharon.kagan@yale.edu. **GAO Reports on State Oversight of Child Care States are using regulatory oversight to monitor if regulated child care centers and day care homes are adhering to child care block grant health and safety requirements. However, informal child care arrangements for many children are not being monitored, with many states relying on "self-certification" to encourage adherence with health and safety regulations. http://www.gao.gov/new.items/he00028.pdf Find out more about the importance of high-quality child care in the Connect for Kids' Early Years feature. http://www.connectforkids.org/content1554/content.htm For insight into the impact of welfare reform on child care in our country, read Caitlin Johnson's "Child Care in the Wake of Reform." http://www.connectforkids.org/content1554/content_show.htm?doc_id=23831&attr ib_id=321 **Take Your Congressman to Head Start Child care funding proposals -- increasing the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for families, increasing funding for Head Start and after-school programs and others -- are on the table again for the federal budget this year. Introduce your Senators and Congressional representatives to the real kids whose futures are at stake by inviting them to visit your local child care programs. For tips on how to host a program visit, check out the Children Defense Fund's "Planning a Visit to Child Care Centers for Legislators." http://www.childrensdefense.org/childcare/cc_cwvisits.html **An Asset Builders Guide to Service Learning The Search Institute offers best practices and practical guidelines for developing service learning programs that enhance community assets for kids from the Search Institute. 800-888-7828, $11.95 plus shipping and handling. For more ideas and resources on helping kids in your community, visit the Connect for Kids' Ideas for Action section. http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1563/index.htm Find additional resources in the "Community Building" section of Connect for Kids Topics A-Z. http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1543/index.htm *************************************** REPORTS ROUND-UP **Vocational Education in the United States: Toward the Year 2000 The National Center for Education Statistics reports that vocational programs are beginning to reflect the economy's shift away from manufacturing jobs toward service and information industries. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000029 **Want to teach? Meet the Urban Teachers Challenge The nation's city schools face critical shortages in qualified teachers in special education, math, science, English as a second language and bilingual education, according to a new report from Recruiting New Teachers, the Council of the Great City Schools and the Council of the Great City Colleges of Education. http://www.cgcs.org/reports/2000/RNT-0101.pdf **Self-employment and Micro-enterprise: An Opportunity for Welfare Recipients Self-employment may be a way out of poverty for some welfare families, according to the Aspen Institute. "Designing Micro-enterprise Programs for Welfare Recipients" and "Developing Policies to Support Micro-enterprise in the TANF Structure: A Guide to the Law" are available by calling Damon Bethea at the Aspen Institute. 202-736-1071. *************************************** DRUGS, ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO SURVEYS **Survey Results on Alcohol, Drug and Tobacco Use "No Place to Hide," a new report from Columbia University's Center on Alcohol and Substance Abuse, finds that the drug crisis is "as common on Main Street as in Manhattan." Nostalgia for small town life notwithstanding, mid-size cities and rural areas are seeing higher rates of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drug use among middle school students than large metropolitan areas. Adult drug use in such communities is equal to that in large metropolitan centers. http://www.casacolumbia.org/newsletter1457/newsletter_show.htm?doc_id=23562 **U.S. Teens Report More Health Troubles than Peers in Other Countries The World Health Organization report, "Health Behaviors in School-Aged Children" surveyed 11, 13 and 15-year-olds in 26 European countries, Canada and the United States in 1997-98. Correlation charts measured the interaction of different variables. For example, 13-year-old and 15-year-old girls who found it difficult to talk with their mothers were more likely to report higher rates of drinking and smoking. The correlation was not as strong for 11-year-old girls or for boys at any age. Smoking rates among 11-year-olds in the United States were as high was elsewhere, but smoking rates among 15-year-olds were not as high. For all countries, affluence was associated with higher rates of reported feelings of happiness, confidence and lower rates of feeling helpless. Drinking and smoking rates were not correlated to socio-economic factors. http://www.ruhbc.ed.ac.uk/hbsc Find out more about keeping kids on track and away from tobacco, drugs and alcohol on the Connect for Kids Web feature on "The Teen Years." http://www.connectforkids.org/content1555/content_list.htm?attrib_id=337 You can also look up "Substance Abuse" in Connect for Kids Topics A-Z. http://www.connectforkids.org **Too Many Children Without a Home of Their Own Shelters and services for the homeless have increased since the late 1980s, but so have the costs of housing. According to the Urban Institute, between 1987 and 1996, the number of people experiencing homelessness at any point in time has increased. Between 900,000 to 1.35 million children experienced homelessness in 1996. http://www.urban.org/news/pressrel/pr000201.html **Homeless Kids Not Well Served by Schools "Separate and Unequal: Barriers to the Education of Homeless Children" documents a continuing pattern of violations of federal law guaranteeing the right of homeless children to equal access to public schools. Barriers most often cited include problems with transportation, residency requirements and difficulties with immunization and other documentation. http://www.nlchp.org/edupress.html **City Kids and Country Kids More and more young children are growing up in suburbs, and fewer are growing up in rural areas. Those preschoolers who grow up in urban areas face greater risks for poverty and being unemployed as adults than their peers who grow up elsewhere. "Children and Cities" compares life experiences, risk factors, and outcomes for children growing up in rural, suburban, and urban centers. http://www.brookings.org/es/urban/sawhill.pdf Find out more about homeless kids in the Connect for Kids' Reference Room by looking up "Poverty" in Topics A-Z. http://www.connectforkids.org/homepage1543/index.htm
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