Children's Trust Policy Post
June 11, 2014
CEO Sue Williams to Speak on National Home Visiting Webinar Panel
South Carolina to Represent for Best Practices Home-Visiting Program Implementation -- Web Seminar Scheduled for 1 p.m. on Thursday, June 19
An upcoming web seminar featuring an expert panel will examine research implications for home visiting policy, practice and research.  It is open to anyone.  Children's Trust CEO Sue Williams will join other experts on the panel including: 
  • David Willis, MD, Director of the Division of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems at the Health Resources and Services Administration in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
  • Sue Williams, BS, Chief Executive Officer, Children's Trust of South Carolina
  • Lauren Supplee, PhD, Director of the Division of Family Strengthening at the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), DHHS
  • Moderator, Melissa Brodowski, PhD, MSW, MPH, Senior Child Welfare Program Specialist, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, CB, ACF, DHHS.   

High-quality home visiting programs can help strengthen families and buffer risk factors and family stress, ultimately preventing child abuse and neglect. Such evidence-based programs also have strong potential to promote early learning and child development. 

 
Mathematica Policy Research and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago will co-present the policy forum hosted by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The forum will focus on the implications of findings from a national cross-site evaluation of replication and costs of evidence-based home visiting programs. Kimberly Boller, senior fellow at Mathematica, Deborah Daro, senior research fellow at Chapin Hall, and Heather Zaveri, senior researcher at Mathematica, will summarize key findings.  

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Regular Legislative Session Ends
Finalizing the Budget and Special Legislative Items Remain
Last Thursday, June 5, was the last day of the regular legislative session. The General Assembly will return to Columbia next week on Tuesday, June 17, to take up special legislative items remaining on the calendar as well as any gubernatorial vetoes on the 2014-2015 budget.

This year's budget, totaling more than $7 billion, has a significant focus on education, including $20 million for the expansion of 4-year-old kindergarten to school districts with 70 percent or more of students living in poverty.  Another $180 million has been allocated for reading coaches and expanded summer reading camps.

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S.C. First Steps to School Readiness is Reauthorized
Reauthorization is Effective Through July 1, 2016
The legislation outlines several new changes, including a definition of school readiness, a revised board composition, and creates an Office of First Steps Study Committee.

Members of the study committee will include eight members of the General Assembly, president of Institute for Child Success, chair of the Education Oversight Committee, chair of the Joint Citizens and Legislative Committee on Children and an appointee of the Governor. The committee will review processes and procedures by which First Steps operates, including governance, systems coordination and board leadership. The study committee will submit their report to the General Assembly no later than March 15, 2015.
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Safe Kids Report Focuses on Teen Driving Fatalities
Motor Vehicles Crashes are the Number One Killer of Teens 
Teen in Cars, a new Safe Kids report, is based on a survey of 1,000 teens to learn why more teens die in motor vehicle crashes than from any other cause of death. The report highlights why teens don't always buckle up, explores their texting and distraction habits, and examines what teens do when they feel unsafe. In half of national motor vehicle fatalities, the teen was not wearing a seat belt. 
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Vital Statistics Report Released
Report Presents Preliminary Data on Births in the United States in 2013 
The National Vital Statistics Report, Births: Preliminary Data for 2013, was released on May 29, and shows a number of modest improvements. The report also offers opportunities to accelerate progress.  Highlights include:
  • Preterm birth rates declined in 49 states and the District of Columbia from 2006 to 2013.
  • In 2013, there was a small decline in the cesarean delivery rate, to 32.7 percent of all births (down from 32.8 percent in 2012.)
  • The lack of change in the Hispanic cesarean delivery rate marks the first year in more than a decade that the rate for this group has not increased.
  • The preterm birth rate for non-Hispanic black births is the lowest in the more than three decades that comparable data have been available.
  • The 2013 preliminary birth rate for teenagers was 26.6 births per 1,000 women age 15-19, down 10 percent from 2012 (29.4)--another historic low for the nation.

 

Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs (AMCHP) commented on the release and attributed the continued decline in infant mortality, preterm births and births to teen mothers to programs such as Children's Health Insurance Program, WIC, Healthy Start, Home Visiting, and evidence-based Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grants.  These are leading initiatives that are showing a positive return on investment for public health. AMCHP has called for continued support of the critical investments needed to ensure further improvements.

 

AMCHP highlights what states are doing to improve birth outcomes in their comprehensive compendium entitled Forging a Comprehensive Initiative to Improve Birth Outcomes and Reduce Infant Mortality.
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National Commission Increasing Visibility to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities

Website Now Available for Work on National Strategy and Recommendations
Last week the Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities went live with its website.  The site features links for submitting comments, the latest news reports on child deaths within states, Commissioner's blog, event schedules and other information on the Commission and its actions. 

Future public meetings have been scheduled:
  • July 10, Tampa, Florida
  • August 28, Detroit Michigan 

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Injury Prevention Webinar Available on SIDS
Session will Explore Quality Improvement Module for Safe Sleep for Infants in the Hospital 
Join the national Children's Hospital Association to learn about sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)  and its risk factors, the evidence behind SIDS risk reducing strategies, as well as the role of health care providers as key educators about SIDS to caregivers. An example of a quality improvement hospital module on incorporating safe sleep recommendations in routine hospital practice will be discussed. Objectives for this session include: 
  • Define SIDS and general criteria for diagnosis
  • Describe latest science on SIDS risk factors and risk reducing strategies
  • Understand health care professionals' role in parental education about SIDS
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Child Welfare News from Around the Country
New York Social Services Commissioner Proposes More CPS Staff
Erie County Department of Social Services Commissioner Carol Dankert-Maurer proposed another expansion of the Child Protective Services unit to a legislative committee, recommending the addition of 12 investigators and three new "special teams."
  A Salvation Army program, Annie's House, is one of the few in Illinois dedicated to helping the estimated 16,000 women and girls trafficked or prostituted in the Chicago area at any given time. According to the news article, "the facility provides intensive therapy, a secure, home-like environment with constant support, rules and structure."  It is one of the few programs working with victims, despite the high numbers. 

 

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This weekly e-update provides information on S.C. legislation affecting children, highlights federal legislation and shares news stories from other states that focus on child well-being. We encourage you to visit Children's Trust's website and take a look at the legislative agenda. You can also track child well-being legislation and find helpful resources, like county-by-county data from the KIDS COUNT page.

We welcome your feedback. Simply e-mail us at [email protected], and let us know what's on your mind.

 

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