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Animoto is a web application that uses photos (and other images) and music to deliver a message-and it's FREE. We all agree that music has a powerful effect on us, now imagine pairing music with images of our children, clients, organizations, etc.  The potential is huge.  Animoto is a great way to highlight organizational milestones, personal celebrations, and project highlights.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics recently released their annual report, America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009, which offers updated information on the welfare of children and families in the United States. This year's report includes a special feature on children with special health care needs, in addition to information on demographics, family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.

The most comprehensive interactive resource exploring the lives of the nation's 16.4 million children with foreign-born parents debuts August 26, 2009 on the website of the Urban Institute.

The Children of Immigrants Data Tool enables users to generate detailed charts of the characteristics of children age 0 to 17 nationwide and for individual states and the District of Columbia. Statistics on 21 features include citizenship and the immigrant status (foreign vs. native-born) of children and their parents; children's race, ethnicity, and school enrollment; parents' education and English proficiency; and family composition, income, and work effort. The child and parents' citizenship and immigrant status (foreign vs. native-born) can be used as reference points for comparisons.

Whether you are a parent sending your child off to preschool, or a teacher preparing for those first days of classes, this Classroom Literacy Checklist will help you to recognize or create an environment that encourages and nurtures the skills that children need to learn to read.

The U. S. Department of Education is encouraging reforms and innovations to improve educational outcomes by offering multiple incentives. What is being offered provides opportunities for enhancing efforts to help schools develop a comprehensive system of learning supports.

For example, the Race to the Top initiative provides a significant opportunity to propose fundamental systemic changes to address barriers to learning and teaching and re-engage disconnected students. See UCLA Center and click on the "What's New" icon. Take special note that the draft describing the Race to the Top initiative contains a priority currently entitled "School-Level Conditions for Reform and Innovation."

As cash-starved states slash mental health programs in communities and schools, they are increasingly relying on the juvenile corrections system to handle a generation of young offenders with psychiatric disorders. Click here to read more. 

More than 200,000 school children are paddled, spanked or subjected to other physical punishment each year, and disabled students get a disproportionate share of the treatment, according to a new study. Most states prohibit corporal punishment in schools, but 20 do not. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union are urging federal and state lawmakers to extend the ban nationwide and enact an immediate moratorium on physical punishment of students with disabilities. New York Times, 08/11/09.

The U.S. Department of Education has published the following new guidance documents on the use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds:

Using IDEA Part C ARRA Funds to Improve Outcomes for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities and their Families - This document is the second in a series of the Department's guidance on IDEA Part C ARRA funds. It is intended to spark ideas about how early intervention service programs might use IDEA Part C ARRA funds to implement sustainable improvements to their systems and to promote inter- and intra-agency collaboration.
Using ARRA Funds Provided Through Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to Drive School Reform and Improvement - This guidance builds on earlier guidance by providing: (1) additional examples of potential ARRA expenditures that are relevant to improving results for students with and without disabilities; (2) more detailed explanations for all of the examples; and (3) suggestions regarding the coordinated use of funds to support some of the examples.

Additional guidance documents are available online at ED.Gov.

There is a new sense of urgency to improve public school outcomes. The focus is on  innovation.  Public schools in many cities are using public relations strategies so stay competitive with open enrollment and school choice. The beginning of a new school year is a good time to look at how students and families experience your school.  How can teachers, support staff, and administrators make the experience of returning to school  more welcoming and supportive.

 

For more ideas and resources see: Welcoming and Involving New Students and Families - Guidelines, strategies, and resource aids for planning, implementing, and evolving programs to enhance activities for welcoming and involving new students and families in schools.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has released a Quality Benchmark for Cultural Competence tool (PDF) to meaningfully integrate key elements of cultural competence for early childhood programs within quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS) criteria. The tool is intended to help spark discussion and to serve as a guide to help early childhood programs respond to the needs of diverse children and families in a positive way.