Status of 2010 Federal Funding for Early Childhood Programs

The committees in both the House and the Senate have moved their appropriations bills for early education. The New America Foundation's Early Ed Watch Blog has an excellent analysis of the proposed 2010 federal appropriations for early childhood programs.

While the House and Senate committees funded CCDBG and Head Start at the same levels President Obama requested for 2010, neither committee was willing to fund new early childhood initiatives requested in the President’s budget. Like their House colleagues, the Senate appropriations committee would provide no funding for proposed Title I Early Childhood Grants or the Early Learning Challenge Fund. ... More generally, the decline in federal investment in PreK-3rd literacy—from $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2007 to less than $300 million under either of the funding bills emerging from the House or Senate committees—should trouble early childhood advocates.

For policies to support early academic success.

What Can States Do to Address Racial Equity in Child Welfare?

In a bold step to examine racial disproportionality and disparity, the state of Michigan’s Department of Human Services initiated an intensive review of their policies, procedures and case practice with a team of national experts, local leaders, and stakeholders. This team, led by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, designed and implemented a qualitative Race Equity Review to examine the research question: "How does it come about that, after substantiation of child abuse or neglect, African American children are more likely to be removed from their homes?" The findings of the review and this report identify specific policies and practices that directly negatively impact African American children and families. Listen to an NPR interview about this report and its findings. Policies to address racial disparities in foster care.

How Effective are Programs for Delinquent Girls?

The Government Accounting Office has issued a new report to review OJJDP's efforts related to studying and promoting effective girls' delinquency programs.

This report addresses the following questions: 1. What efforts, if any, has
OJJDP made to assess the effectiveness of girls' delinquency programs? 2. To
what extent are OJJDP's efforts to assess girls' delinquency programs consistent
with generally accepted social science standards and the internal control
standard to communicate with external stakeholders? 3. What are the findings
from OJJDP's efforts to assess the effectiveness of girls' delinquency programs,
and how, if at all, does OJJDP plan to address the findings from these efforts?

For policies to reduce juvenile detention.

Does a Child's Neighborhood Impact Economic Mobility?

The Washington Post reported yesterday on findings to be issued this week by the Pew Economic Mobility Project: "Researchers found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults." The Pew project released results from a poll in March that found "Americans believe in the their ability --- and the ability of their children --- to get ahead. Resoundingly, Americans place greater importance on ensuring that everyone has a fair chance to improve their economic standing over reducing inequality." This latest report looks specifically at the important influence of neighborhood poverty on the mobility gap between Black and White America. The findings "provide compelling evidence that investments in children’s environments have the potential to facilitate economic mobility among blacks living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods". The report discusses the policy implications of these findings. For policies to increase family economic success.

Academy for State Policymakers on Safely Reducing Foster Care

The National Governors' Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures are offering a policy academy on "Achieving and Sustaining a Safe Reduction in Foster Care". States can submit an application to attend the academy on November 5-6, 2009, in Tampa, Florida. The deadline to apply is August 7, 2009, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. (Contact: Jody Grutza) (Hat Tip to Front and Center) For policies to increase exits from foster care to reunification, guardianship or adoption.

e-Government, the Trend Continues

The Brookings Institute recently held an event titled "Innovation in Government: How to Make the Public Sector Faster, Smarter and More Connected". Experts in e-Government discussed technology tools that policymakers at the federal and state levels are using to not only share information with citizens, but engage them in the process. Other interesting sources of information on this topic include Transparent-gov, with links to state websites; GovTwit, a directory of government twitterers; and a directory of links to legislative caucus websites, Twitter pages, Youtube pages, Facebook pages, and blogs courtesy of the National Conference of State Legislators. Follow policyforresults.org on Twitter or Facebook.

Home Foreclosures Hit Record, States Are Finding Ways to Help

Bloomberg News reports that "more than 1.5 million properties received a default or auction notice or were seized by banks in the six months through June, ... a 15 percent increase from the year earlier. One in 84 U.S. households received a filing. ... One in eight Americans is now late on a payment or already in foreclosure." The State of Pennsylvania has announced a new program to assist families facing economic crisis. The “Get Help Now, Pennsylvania” initiative offers the assistance of volunteer attorneys, banking and mortgage professionals, and financial analysts association offices twice a week. (Hat tip to Front and Center) For policies to address housing foreclosures.

Cost of Child Care Continues to Grow

The National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies has issued a new report "Parents and the High Price of Child Care: 2009 Update" which looks at the average prices charged for child care for infants, 4-year-olds, and school-age children in centers and family child care homes in every state. The report reveals that child care costs continue to rise with costs often times exceeding monthly food and other household expenses. For policies to improve access to early care and education.

(Hat tip to Connect for Kids)

Assets and Opportunities Scorecard, How Does Your State Rank?

CFED now has state data along with a state scorecard "divided into six indexes — Financial Security, Business Development, Homeownership, Health Care, Education, and Tax Policy and Accountability — the Assets and Opportunity Scorecard ranks the 50 states and the District of Columbia on their performance in 84 outcome and policy measures. The state-level data highlight areas where individuals and families are excelling or lagging in securing a sound financial foundation. The Scorecard also describes what each state government is or is not doing to further foster opportunities for its citizens to own and keep assets." For policies to support family economic success.

Reforming the Child Welfare System

The Urban Institute has a new book out, Reforming Child Welfare, that "chronicles the experiences of the D.C. child welfare agency and two state agencies, places them in the context of national child welfare data, and matches the accounts with rich analyses of research on leadership, management, and organizational change". Coinciding with the release of the book, Urban is offering an event/webcast on July 24th entitled "Child Welfare: Uniting Leadership, Policy, and Research to Serve Vulnerable Children and Families". For policies to safely and effectively reduce foster care.