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News from Every Child Counts
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01/11/12
The first day of the 85th Legislative Session has arrived bringing new opportunities for children and their families. We look forward to working with all of you on ensuring good policy and wise investments for children!
In case you have not seen our legislative agenda for 2013, you can download it here. We will also support many of our partner organizations in their legislative priorities that support children and their families. Here are just a few highlights from our agenda:
* Continue to develop and expand programs that improve child health preventive and developmental practice, such as 1st Five and Project LAUNCH
* Support Early Childhood Iowa's comprehensive early childhood systems-building strategies at the state and community levels
* Increase access to the child care assistance program by raising the eligibility level for working families and increasing provider reimbursement rates and extending eligibility from 6 months to 12 months
* Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to at least 20 percent of the federal credit (from the current 7 percent)
* Improve child safety and well-being through youth, family and community involvement in child safety, permanence and well-being efforts
Leadership and Committee assignments have been made so we will send out the links to all those once they are posted on the website.
In terms of policy, it seems as though this year will look a lot like last year with property tax reform (and EITC), mental health reform and education reform to dominate much of the discussion. The Governor will give his Condition of the State Address on Tuesday and release his budget. We should have some idea of where his priorities will be then. We also have a budget surplus in addition to all of our rainy day funds full, so there will be a lot of discussion around whether the state provides a tax refund of some kind or invests the money in our infrastructure and our children! Should be an interesting year.
Sincerely,
Sheila Hansen & Danielle Oswald-Thole
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 Early-childhood Needs Assessment Reveals Stresses Among Iowa Children Many young Iowa children and their families are facing challenges in their day-to-day lives, according to the first part of a comprehensive early-childhood needs assessment conducted by Child and Family Policy Center (CFPC ) on behalf of Early Childhood Iowa.
The report, "A Baseline on Iowa's Young Children: Capturing the Demand for Early-Childhood Services" documents in over 40 maps and charts social and demographic trends affecting Iowa's young-child population, including population growth, single parenting, poverty, parental education and workforce participation.
The next segments of the report will document the supply, capacity and quality of early-childhood services in Iowa and determine how well they are positioned to meet the current and projected future demand for quality services.
Early Childhood Iowa is a statewide alliance of stakeholders in early care, health and education systems that affect children ages prenatal to five years. Its purpose is to support the development and integration of an early care, health and education system for Iowa.
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Kids Count Data Book Released
Iowa's families and children continued to experience tough economic times in 2011, according to "Iowa Kids Count 2011: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children."
But even as families continue to feel effects of the Great Recession, most health and education indicators actually showed continued improvement - an encouraging sign, and one that reflects intentional policy decisions.
The share of people receiving food assistance (known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) almost tripled from 2000 to 2011 while the unemployment rate more than doubled. In addition, the child-poverty rate and the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches grew substantially. In that same period, the teen birth rate decreased, and the majority of the child mortality indicators improved. Educationally, grade-level testing proficiency and preschool enrollment are both up.
Iowa Kids Count 2011 provides state- and county-level health, education, welfare and economic data on 20 indicators of child and family well-being. It is supported by a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which supports Kids Count activities in all 50 states.
Learn more:
View the full report
View individual tables
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Get timely updates from the Child and Family Policy Center:
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How is state policy affecting the families around you?
Tell us about it! Sheila Hansen
Every Child Counts
Director
Danielle Oswald-Thole
Every Child Counts Outreach Coordinator and Policy Advocate
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Every Child Counts helps us do what's good for Iowa kids
and families.
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2013 Forum on Third Grade Literacy
Ensuring World Class Readers
February 8th at 9:00 a.m. in Des Moines, IA
Barbara O'Brien, policy advisor for the national Grade-Level Reading Campaign and former Colorado Lieutenant Governor, will keynote the second Iowa Third Grade Literacy Forum - Ensuring World Class Readers. Ms. O'Brien has led efforts at the Grade-Level Reading Campaign to support states and communities in improving third grade literacy through comprehensive, birth-to-eight policies.
The forum will showcase the work of six Iowa charter communities in the Grade-Level Reading Campaign: Ames, Council Bluffs, Des Moines, Dubuque, Marshalltown, and the Quad Cities.
The 2011 forum was instrumental in establishing state policies to create an Iowa Reading Research Center and offered new direction to schools to improve third grade literacy and respond to the needs of struggling readers. This year's forum will offer a progress report on that legislation and enable participants to offer recommendations for future policy actions to improve third grade literacy.
The forum is being co-sponsored by the Grade-Level Reading Campaign, the Child and Family Policy Center, and the Iowa Afterschool Alliance.
We hope you can join us for this very important discussion! Please RSVP using the link provided below.
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"You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result." - Mahatma Gandhi
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