A new tip sheet for parents from the American Academy of Pediatrics about kids and social media, Talking to Kids and Teens about Social Media and Sexting, recommends keeping the family computer in a public part of the home, finding out what platforms friends are using, checking chat logs and social networking profiles, setting time limits for Internet usage, and creating a system to monitor children’s online usage—then following through.
March 2011
Double Jeopardy
http://www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Topics/Education/Other/DoubleJeopardyHowThirdGradeReadingSkillsandPovery/DoubleJeopardyReport040511FINAL.pdf
Low-income students who do not read proficiently by third grade are at great risk of not graduating, or not graduating on time, according to Double Jeopardy, a new report from The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Twenty-six percent of low income, low-proficiency readers fail to graduate high school by age 19, compared to 22 percent of low-income children overall, and 6 percent of children who have never experienced poverty. The statistics are most grim for black and Latino students who are not proficient readers by third grade.
May 2011
Early Care and Education for Children in Immigrant Families
http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/21_01_04.pdf
Immigrant children make up 24 percent of children under age six children nationally and 50 percent in California. However, they are more likely than native-born children to be in parental care only, and less likely than native-born children to participate in center-based care. Early Care and Education for Children in Immigrant Families recommends universal preschool and addressing language barriers and informational gaps in publicly subsidized programs’ marketing and structure as ways to reach disadvantaged immigrant children.
March 2011
State Trends from 2005-2010: Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System
http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/CFYJ_State_Trends_Report.pdf
States toughened laws regulating juvenile offenders in the 1980s and 1990s, but recent research shows these tougher laws have neither deterred crime nor decreased recidivism among youthful offenders. A new report from The Campaign for Youth Justice, State Trends from 2005-2010: Removing Youth from the Adult Criminal Justice System, says that in recent years 15 states have reformed their juvenile court systems, and nine more are implementing progressive changes, indicating a trend toward a culture of active reform.
March 2011
Ensuring High Quality Kinship Care for Children
http://www.childrensrights.org/wp-content/uploads//2011/03/2011-03-07_ensuring_high_quality_kinship_care_for_wisconsin_children_final.pdf
A new report from Children’s Rights takes a look at recent revisions in Wisconsin law that require relatives caring for their young kin to apply for a foster home license. Ensuring High Quality Kinship Care for Children offers 17 recommendations to ensure that foster youth placed with their relatives are as safe as children placed with foster parents, and that they receive the same services and level of care. Almost one-third of Wisconsin children in foster care live with their relatives, but only six percent of these homes are licensed for foster care.
March 2011
Racial Bias in Child Protection?
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/127/3/471
Child abuse cases involving black children are reported to child welfare agencies at twice the rate of cases involving white children. The usual explanation for this phenomenon is racial bias on the part of the child welfare system. But Racial Bias in Child Protection? finds that, while it is not possible to preclude the possibility of such a bias, racial differences in the victimization rate data are consistent with known differences for other child outcomes, and that a reduction in the disproportion between black and white victimization rates can best be achieved by reducing underlying risk factors that affect black families more than white families.
February 2011
Criminal-Justice and School Sanctions Against Nonheterosexual Youth
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/reprint/127/1/49.pdf
A new study concludes that nonheterosexual youth suffer disproportionate punishments at the hands of schools and criminal justice systems. Criminal-Justice and School Sanctions Against Nonheterosexual Youth finds that self-identified gay, lesbian, and bisexual teenagers are 1.2 to 3 times more likely to receive punishment from their schools and the courts than “straight” teenagers, with nonheterosexual girls experiencing 50 percent more police stops for minor transgressions than their straight cohorts.
February 2011
Injustice at Every Turn
http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/reports/reports/ntds_full.pdf
A survey of 6,000 transgender and gender non-conforming participants finds that 78 percent of those who expressed their identity while in K-12 schools reported being harassed, 35 percent were assaulted physically, and 12 percent experienced sexual violence. Injustice at Every Turn reports that fifteen percent of those responding said harassment led them to leave either a K-12 or post-secondary school. Fifty-one percent of those who reported being harassed at school attempted suicide. The suicide rate for the general population is 1.6 percent.
February 2011
Holding Steady, Looking Ahead
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/8130.pdf
An annual survey of state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility rules, cost-sharing practices, and enrollment and renewal procedures found that 49 states, including the District of Columbia, did not lose ground in service improvements despite the recession. “Holding Steady, Looking Ahead” says that 14 states made additional improvements in enrollment and renewal procedures, and 13 states expanded eligibility for pregnant women and children -- but coverage for parents continues to lag behind.
January 2011
The 2010 Broad Prize
http://www.broadprize.org/asset/0-30largedistsbetterperform2010.pdf
The 2010 Broad Prize, a new analysis from the Broad Foundation based on data collected during the 2010 prize selection process, says that 30 large urban school districts do a better job, on average, than their states do of educating black, Latino, and low-income students. While fifteen of these urban districts are in Texas or California, the report found that cities in 11 states and the District of Columbia routinely outperform state averages in subgroup achievement.
December 2010
The Missouri Model
http://www.aecf.org/~/media/Pubs/Initiatives/Juvenile%20Detention%20Alternatives%20Initiative/MOModel/MO_Fullreport_webfinal.pdf
Three-year outcome recidivism rates for large juvenile corrections facilities—the model for treatment of juvenile offenders in most states for more than a century—are uniformly high. A new model spearheaded by the state of Missouri includes a multi-step treatment experience in small, regional facilities with a much lower rate of recidivism: 8.5 percent. The authors of The Missouri Model recommend limiting the use of isolation, adopting group-focused treatment, and implementing an individualized case management system as ways to reduce recidivism among youthful offenders.
December 2010
A Spatial Analysis of Risks and Resources for Reentry Youth in Los Angeles County
http://www.jsswr.org/article/download/5745/4470
A new study of Los Angeles County youth finds that the kind of neighborhood a youth settles into upon returning from incarceration influences recidivism. Reentry was higher in communities that experienced higher rates of violence, vacant housing, lower rates of education, lower availability of mental health services, and higher densities of alcohol outlets. A Spatial Analysis of Risks and Resources for Reentry Youth in Los Angeles County recommends altering neighborhood structure as the best means to reduce recidivism.
October 2010
A Call for Change
http://www.cgcs.org/cgcs/Call_For_Change.pdf
Black boys on average fall behind from their very earliest years in school, according to A Call for Change, a new report from The Council of Great City Schools. Twelve percent of fourth-grade black boys read proficiently, while 38 percent of their white cohorts do, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared to 44 percent of white boys the same age. Poor white boys perform just as well in school as black boys who are not economically disadvantaged, and black boys drop out of school at nearly twice the rate of white boys. Black boys’ SAT scores average 104 points lower than those of white boys, and in college in 2008, black men made up just 5 percent of the students enrolled.
October 2010
Housing Policy Is School Policy
http://tcf.org/publications/2010/10/housing-policy-is-school-policy/pdf
A study of 858 public-housing students enrolled in Maryland’s affluent Montgomery County public schools says that, seven years after enrolling, these students scored 8 percent higher on standardized math tests than their cohorts in higher-poverty schools -- who had received additional services. According to Housing Policy Is School Policy, by the time the public-housing students had left elementary school, they had reduced – by 50 percent in math, and 33 percent in reading -- the achievement gap with their more affluent classmates.
October 2010
Investing in Young Children: New Directions in Federal Preschool and Early Childhood Policy
http://nieer.org/pdf/Investing_in_Young_Children.pdf
A new report details enrollment in and Federal spending on three early childhood programs: Early Head Start, Head Start, and home visiting programs. Investing in Young Children: New Directions in Federal Preschool and Early Childhood Policy finds that with an enrollment of 900,000, Head Start serves less than half of the nation’s 3- and 4-year-olds in poverty, and that Head Start serves many children who are not poor; 18 percent of the children served are not in the bottom 40 percent of families by income. The report also says that Head Start and Early Head Start have not been found to have a lasting effect on child development or school readiness, and that while home visiting programs have shown consistent impact on child development in some trials, they have not yet been evaluated as a full-scale public program.
September 2010
Foster care
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/stats_research/afcars/tar/report17.htm
The nation’s foster care population has dropped 20 percent since 2002, and has dropped eight percent from 2008 to 2009 alone, according to a new report from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System. The sharp decline is due to changing child welfare policies over the past decade, such as shortened stays in foster care and an emphasis on preventative support for families that helps avoid displacement of children from the family home.
October 2010
Cyber and Traditional Bullying: Differential Association with Depression
http://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X%2810%2900343-5/abstract
Rates of depression are higher among the victims of cyberbullying than among victims of more traditional forms, according to a new study, Cyber and Traditional Bullying: Differential Association with Depression. The study hypothesizes that it is the lack of a face-to-face confrontation, and perhaps not being able to identify their attacker, that lead victims of cyberbullying to feel more isolated, helpless, and dehumanized than if they had suffered a more conventional attack.
September 2010
Measuring Inappropriate Medical Diagnosis and Treatment in Survey Data: The Case of ADHD among School-Age Children
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~msmorril/EvansMorrill_ADHD.pdf
Being born just before a state’s kindergarten eligibility date significantly increases the chances of receiving a diagnosis of ADHD, according to a new study, Measuring Inappropriate Medical Diagnosis and Treatment in Survey Data: The Case of ADHD among School-Age Children. There can be as much as one year’s difference in children’s ages in any kindergarten class, and the study claims the younger children’s lower maturity and higher impulsiveness have lead to a misdiagnosis of ADHD in 1.1 million cases.
September 2010
Understanding Very High Rates of Young Child Poverty in the South
http://www.carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publications/IB_Mattingly_SouthernChildPoverty.pdf
The national poverty rate for children under six was 21 percent in 2008, but the average poverty rate for young children in the South in 2008 was almost 24 percent, with some southern states experiencing far higher rates. Understanding Very High Rates of Young Child Poverty in the South says that divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing in the South exacerbate levels of child poverty, as do low levels of educational attainment and a history of racial discrimination.
August 2010
Yes We Can
http://www.schottfoundation.org
Twice as many white boys are “Gifted and Talented” as black boys, while black boys are twice as likely to be classified as “Mentally Retarded.” Black boys receive out-of-school suspensions twice as often, and expulsion three times as often, as white boys. The Schott Foundation’s 2010 report on public education and black males, Yes We Can, says that school discipline disparities like these may account for the large number of black males who don’t graduate.
August 2010
America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2010
http://childstats.gov/pdf/ac2010/ac_10.pdf
The percentage of preterm births declined again from 2007 (12.7 percent) to 2008 (12.3 percent). Adolescent births also declined -- to 21.7 per 1,000, down from 22.2 per 1,000 in 2007. Reading and math scores for eighth graders also improved from 2007-2008. But food insecurity rose from 17 to 22 percent, and child poverty increased from 18 to 19 percent over the same period. For more information, read America’s Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2010.
July 2010
A Critical Moment
http://www.firstfocus.net/sites/default/files/HomelessEd_0.pdf
The number of homeless children in public schools has increased by 41 percent over the past two years, according to a new First Focus report, A Critical Moment. A state-by-state breakdown of data shows the number of homeless students increasing between the 2006/07 and 2008/09 school years in 42 states and the District of Columbia, with Texas showing an increase of 139 percent, Iowa an increase of 136 percent, and New Mexico an increase of 91 percent.
July 2010
What Works for Home Visiting Programs
http://www.childtrends.org/Files//Child_Trends-2010_7_1_FS_WWHomeVisitpdf.pdf
A new report from ChildTrends, What Works for Home Visiting Programs, finds that high-intensity programs averaging four or more visits a month for more than a year produced positive outcomes for children in early childhood (0-3); weekly home visits conducted by trained non-professionals produced mixed results for preschoolers (4-5); teaching parenting skills during home visits had a positive impact for middle childhood (6-11); and visits from trained non-professionals for one year or longer worked best for adolescents (12-17).
July 2010
KIDS COUNT Data Book
http://datacenter.kidscount.org/DataBook/2010/Default.aspx
The latest KIDS COUNT Data Book shows that 1 million more children lived in poverty in 2008 than in 2000. But five areas of child well-being improved: infant, child, and teen death rates; teen birth rate; and percent of teens not in school. The percent of children living with one parent, low-birthweight babies, and rate of child poverty have all increased. Across indicators, New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Vermont rank among the highest; Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi rank as the lowest.
July 2010
Teaching Discipline: A Toolkit for Educators on Positive Alternatives to Out-of-School Suspensions
http://www.ctkidslink.org/publications/edu10discipline.pdf
A new report from Connecticut Voices for Children demonstrates that there are effective means other than out-of-school suspensions to improving school discipline, including support for positive behavior, mentoring, peer mediation, detention, restitutions, parent meetings, and fostering student engagement. The report, Teaching Discipline: A Toolkit for Educators on Positive Alternatives to Out-of-School Suspensions, showcases examples of alternatives to out-of-school suspensions used successfully in Connecticut schools, where out-of-school suspensions have dropped from 7.1 percent in 2006-07 to 5.4 percent in 2008-09.
June 2010
Youth Risk Behavior Survey
http://www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/yrbs/index.htm
Only 30.9 percent of students sleep eight or more hours on school nights, and while 15.6 percent of them use tanning devices, only 9.3 percent usually wear sunscreen, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Youth Risk Behavior survey. The biannual survey monitors six categories of health-risk behaviors among youth and young adults, including those that lead to unintentional injury and violence, tobacco use, alcohol and drug use, sexual behaviors, physical activity, and dietary behaviors.
June 2010
The Class of 2010: Economic Prospects for Young Adults in the Recession
http://www.epi.org/page/-/pdf/bp265.pdf
This spring’s high school graduates face the worst job market in a quarter century, says a new report from the Economic Policy Institute. Unemployment among young high school graduates averaged 22.5 percent over the past year, up from 12 percent in 2007. The number of young people neither employed nor enrolled in school has likewise increased to 17.7 percent, up from 14.5 percent in 2007. Restrictive eligibility rules often make these young workers ineligible for unemployment insurance.
May 2010
Feeding Opportunity
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/pdf/feeding_opportunity.pdf
A new paper from the Center for American Progress, Feeding Opportunity, says that child hunger costs the U.S. $28 billion per year because hungry children perform less well in school and have more long-term health problems. The report recommends expanding access to school breakfasts, improving and expanding access to other school meal programs, and reducing the paperwork necessary for students to participate in them, and rewarding states that reduce child hunger with cash grants.
May 2010
Births: Preliminary Data for 2008
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_16.pdf
While preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the overall rate of childbearing by unmarried women increased to historic levels in 2008, the teen birth rate in the U.S. fell 2 percent -- to 41.5 per 1,000 -- between 2007 and 2008, reversing the trend of the last two years. The data also show that the birthrate for Hispanic teenagers has declined to 77.4 births per 1,000, an historic low.
April 2010
Race/Ethnic Differences in Effects of Family Instability on Adolescents' Risk Behavior
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123343736/abstract
Adolescents who are exposed to repeated changes in a parent’s marital status and experience family instability are more likely to become sexually active early, become parents outside of marriage, or engage in delinquency, according to a new study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. White and Mexican-American adolescents who experience family instability seem particularly at risk, and they are more prone than their black adolescent peers to early sexual activity and unwed parenthood.
April 2010
The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Child Welfare
http://www.firstfocus.net/sites/default/files/r.2010-4.7.cervantes.pdf
Seventy-three percent of the children of undocumented immigrant parents are U.S. citizens, and many of them attend public schools. A new report from First Focus examines the impact of immigration enforcement on these children’s lives and the child welfare agencies serving them. The report recommends avoiding placing children in the child welfare system whenever possible: Detained or deported parents cannot participate in child welfare proceedings, creating a risk for the permanent separation of the child and parent.
April 2010
State Estimates of Underage Alcohol Use and Self-Purchase of Alcohol
http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k10/180/SR180UADhtml.pdf
A state-by-state analysis of underage alcohol use finds that 27.6 percent of youths 12 to 20 surveyed drank alcohol in the last month. A new survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration finds that Utah has the lowest rate of underage drinking (13.7 percent), and Vermont and North Dakota have the highest (40 percent). Twenty percent of the youths in Louisiana and the District of Columbia bought alcohol themselves, compared to 9 percent nationally.
April 2010
Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement
http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412020_FacingOurFuture_Final.pdf
U.S. citizen children of illegal immigrants experience deeply damaging consequences when their parents are arrested, detained, or deported. A new report from the Urban Institute, Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement, analyzes 190 children of arrested parents in 85 families across the country. Most of the families in the study were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Haiti. The study found that these children suffered family separation (two-parent families became single-parent families), economic hardship and insecurity, and widespread behavior changes, including changes in eating and sleeping habits, anger, and withdrawal. Behavioral changes were more common and most severe when parental arrests occurred in the home. During a very stressful time, school provided stability and a safe haven for many of the children.
February 2010
Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) One Year Later: Connecting Kids to Coverage
http://www.insurekidsnow.gov/chip/chipra_anniversary_report.pdf
Nearly 40 million children were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP from 2008-09 -- including 2.6 million new children who were not enrolled in the previous year. A new report from InsureKidsNow.gov, Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) One Year Later: Connecting Kids to Coverage, says the greatest enrollment gains (2.2 million children) were among lower income children eligible for Medicaid. More than half of states have tried to improve coverage since CHIPRA’s inception, including efforts to simplify the enrollment and renewal processes. Despite these efforts, 5 million eligible children remain uninsured.
February 2010
Test, Punish, and Push Out: How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline
www.advancementproject.org/sites/default/files/publications/01-EducationReport-2009v8-HiRes.pdf
Too many students -- and far too many students of color -- leave school without a diploma, despite efforts to raise student achievement. A new report from the Advancement Project, Test, Punish, and Push Out: How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline, tells how the implementation of policies like zero-tolerance and high-stakes testing and laws like the No Child Left Behind Act -- intended to raise student achievement -- have backfired. The report states that policies such as these have eroded trust and turned schools into a hostile environment for millions of children, who are treated as if they are disposable and routinely forced out of school and into the criminal justice system. “After years of devastation caused by these policies,” the authors say, “we should have learned that the solution is not to be ‘tough’ on crime and schools, but to be smart.” Explored in the report are the common origins and ideological roots of zero tolerance and high-stakes testing; the current state of zero-tolerance school discipline across the country, including local, state, and national data; how high-stakes testing affects students, educators, and schools; how zero tolerance and high-stakes testing have become mutually reinforcing, combining to push huge numbers of students out of school; and successful grassroots efforts to eliminate harmful discipline and testing practices.
January 2010
The Child Who Stutters at School: Notes to the Teacher
http://www.stutteringhelp.org
A new downloadable brochure from The Stuttering Foundation, The Child Who Stutters at School: Notes to the Teacher, helps teachers correctly identify and support students who stutter. The brochure offers advice on how best to assist stuttering students with tasks such as reading aloud and answering in class and contacts for concerned parents, as well as advice on how to limit and assist with teasing in the classroom. The brochure includes the tip sheet, 8 Tips for Teachers.
2010
Halting African-American Boys’ Progression from Pre-K to Prison: What Families, Schools, and Communities Can Do!
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/123346165/PDFSTART
African-American boys enter school with less general knowledge of the world and less well-developed capacities for self-regulation and behavior, says a new study appearing in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. Schools and communities respond to these difficulties with an ever-escalating system of sanctions that becomes a school-to-prison pipeline. Increasing access to high-quality early childhood education for young African-American boys and hiring teachers who understand the context from which their students come are keys to reform.
2010
Just the Facts: A Snapshot of Incarcerated Latino Youth
http://www.nclr.org/files/62194_file_JJ_FACT_SHEET.pdf
Latino youth face disproportionate incarceration rates when compared to those of whites and blacks, according to a new fact sheet from the National Council of La Raza. Latinos make up only 19 percent of America’s 10- to 17-year-olds, but comprise 25 percent of all incarcerated youth in the U.S. Moreover, the number of these youths in adult prisons rose from 12 to 20 percent from 2000 to 2008, while rates for black and white youth declined in the same period.
2010
America’s Future: Latino Child Well-Being in Numbers and Trends
http://www.nclr.org/files/63002_file_AMERICA_S_FUTURE_Latino_Child_Well_Being_in_Numbers_and_Trends.pdf
A new data book from the National Council of La Raza and the Population Reference Bureau offers an overview of state and national trends for Latino children relative to non-Hispanic white and black children since 2000. Fifty-nine percent of Latino children live in low-income families in high-poverty neighborhoods, despite the efforts of their hardworking parents. While 92 percent of these children are U.S. citizens, 58 percent of them live in immigrant families, which limits their access to education and health services.
2010
Family Structure and the Economic Mobility of Children
http://economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/Family_Structure.pdf
Children of divorce may be at a disadvantage. A report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Family Structure and the Economic Mobility of Children, suggests that divorce is a significant barrier to a child’s economic mobility. Among children who start in the bottom third of the income distribution, only 74 percent of children with divorced parents exceed their parents’ family income as adults, compared to 90 percent of children whose parents did not divorce.
2010
Child and youth Well-Being Index
http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/FINAL_2010_CWI_Annual_Release.pdf
By 2010, the recession will have wiped out much of the progress made for children since 1975 in regards to the number of families living beneath the poverty line, median family income, health insurance coverage, and secure parental employment. The Foundation for Child Development’s Child Well-Being Index indicates that almost 22 percent of American youth will be living below the poverty line, the highest rate of poverty in 20 years; 500,000 children may be homeless.
2010
Monitoring the Future’s annual survey of U.S. teenagers
http://www.monitoringthefuture.org/data/09data.html#2009data-cigs
Monitoring the Future’s annual survey of U.S. teenagers reveals that teen marijuana use is up, while tobacco use has declined. This year’s survey of 46,097 10th- and 12th-graders was conducted at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research.
December 2009
Children's Exposure to Violence: A Comprehensive National Survey
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/227744.pdf
Most U.S. children are exposed to violence in their daily lives, either in the home, school, or community, according to a survey issued by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. More than 60 percent reported exposure within the past year.
October 2009
Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008
www.census.gov/prod/2009pubs/p60-236.pdf
The U.S Census Bureau has announced that the U.S. real median household income fell 3.6 percent between 2007 and 2008, and now stands at $50,303. The official poverty rate rose 1 percent in 2008, and is now at 13.2 percent. The good news is that the number of uninsured children declined to 9.9 percent in 2008, the lowest number of uninsured children since 1987. But children living in poverty remain more likely to be uninsured than other children. To learn more about these statistics, read the Bureau’s report, Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008.
September 2009
Facts at a Glance: A Fact Sheet Reporting National, State, and City Trends in Teen Childbearing
www.childtrends.org/Files/Child_Trends-2009_08_31_FG_Edition.pdf
Child Trends’ Facts at a Glance: A Fact Sheet Reporting National, State, and City Trends in Teen Childbearing, an analysis of data from the National Center for Health Statistics, shows that the U.S. teen birth rate increased in 2007, for the second year in a row. The rate for 2007 of 42.5 births per 1,000 females aged 15-19 was 1 percent higher than the rate reported in 2006, and 5 percent higher than the rate reported in 2005. The U.S. has the highest teen birth rate of any developed nation.
September 2009
Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students with Disabilities in U.S. Public Schools
http://www.hrw.org/node/84950
Although students with disabilities make up just 13.7 percent of the total student population nationwide, they comprised 18.8 percent of the students who received corporal punishment at school in the 2006-07 school year. A report from the Human Rights Watch (HRW), Impairing Education: Corporal Punishment of Students with Disabilities in U.S. Public Schools, says that 41,972 disabled students were physically disciplined that year, a number the HRW believes may be undercounted, since not all instances of physical discipline are reported.
August 2009
CHIP Tips -- New Federal Funding Available to Cover Immigrant Children and Pregnant Women
http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7915.pdf
The July issue of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s CHIP Tips brief examines the recently enacted Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA), including details for complying with CHIPRA’s new “ICHIA” provision. This provision allows states to receive federal funds for providing Medicaid and CHIP coverage to lawfully residing immigrant children and pregnant women, regardless of their length of residency.
July 2009
Health Status and Behavioral Outcomes for Youth Who Anticipate a High Likelihood of Early Death
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/124/1/e81
A new study from the University of Minnesota says 15 percent of adolescents believe they will die before 35, and that youth who think they have a good chance of dying early frequently engage in behaviors that are likely to make their hunch a reality, such as illegal drug use, suicide attempts, and unprotected sex. The study, Health Status and Behavioral Outcomes for Youth Who Anticipate a High Likelihood of Early Death, says that expectations of premature death were prevalent among non-white and low-income youth.
July 2009
Acculturation and Adjustment in Latino Adolescents: How Cultural Risk Factors and Assets Influence Multiple Domains of Adolescent Mental Health
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2656/1/
Latino adolescents are happier and healthier if both they and their parents embrace a bicultural lifestyle, according to a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Students whose families assimilate into U.S. culture while staying involved in their culture of heritage are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.
June 2009
Major Depressive Episode and Treatment among Adolescents
http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k9/youthDepression/MDEandTXTforADOL.pdf
Two million American teenagers experienced a major depressive episode (MDE) last year, but only 38.9 percent of them ever received treatment. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration report also shows that health insurance is an important factor in whether or not MDE sufferers receive care. Only 17.2 percent of those who did not have coverage received treatment.
May 2009
Seclusions and Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers
http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/testimony/20090519GregKutzTestimony.pdf
A new Government Accountability Office report, Seclusions and Restraints: Selected Cases of Death and Abuse at Public and Private Schools and Treatment Centers, has found that many teachers use restraint practices to control misbehaving students -- and disproportionately, children with disabilities -- even for minor infractions such as refusing to remain seated or speaking when it is not their turn. These instances have resulted in emotional trauma, physical injury, and even death. In half of the cases studied, the teachers or school staff involved continue to work.
May 2009
2009 Child Well-Being Index
http://www.fcd-us.org/usr_doc/Final-2009CWIReport.pdf
Virtually all the progress made in children’s economic well-being since 1975 will be wiped out by the current recession, according to a report by the Foundation for Child Development. The impact will be especially severe for low-income children of color, according to the 2009 Child Well-Being Index.
May 2009
History of U.S. Children's Policy
http://www.firstfocus.net/sites/default/files/r.2009-5.1.yarrow.pdf
First Focus has published a brief history of federal actions impacting America’s children, from Teddy Roosevelt to the Obama administration.
May 2009
Prevalence of Obesity Among US Preschool Children in Different Racial and Ethnic Group
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org
Almost one in five American 4-year-olds is obese, and the rate is alarmingly higher among American Indian children. More than 500,000 children is obese at this age; among American Indian children, where one third is severely overweight, the rate is almost double that of whites
April 2009
Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success
http://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Berliner_NonSchool.pdf
A Great Lakes Center policy brief, written by researchers from Arizona State University, details the poverty-induced physical, sociological, and psychological effects on students that limit what schools alone can accomplish. The brief lists six negative out-of-school factors that inhibit achievement: low birth-weight and nongenetic prenatal influences; inadequate medical, dental, and vision care; food insecurity; environmental pollutants; family relations and family stress; and neighborhood characteristics.
March 2009
New data – same staffing inequities at high-poverty schools
http://www.thenotebook.org/summer-2009/091304/new-data-same-staffing-inequities-high-poverty-schools
Despite district efforts to correct the trend, data reported by The Notebook show that those Philadelphia schools with the highest concentrations of poverty still have the highest teacher turnover and the fewest highly qualified teachers. These differences are most striking in the district’s middle schools and high schools.
2009
Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2005 to 2007
http://feedingamerica.org/our-network/the-studies/~/media/Files/research/child-food-insecurity.ashx
Feeding America’s Child Food Insecurity in the United States: 2005 to 2007 states that 3.5 million children under the age of 6 in the U.S. are “food insecure.” Among young children, the rate is 33 percent higher than in adults. Data indicate a dramatic increase in food insecurity among children of all ages within the past five years in many states. The report includes a state-by-state analysis of early childhood hunger.
2009
A Report on the Status of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People in Education: Stepping Out of the Closet, into the Light
http://www.educationvotes.nea.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/GLBT-Students.pdf
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) students are missing classes, underachieving academically, or dropping out due to bullying, harassment, or physical abuse they suffer at school, according to a new report issued by the National Education Association (NEA). The report, part of an NEA series on underserved groups in education, also shows that GLBT students experience a higher rate of homelessness because of their families’ hostility to their sexual orientation or gender identity.
2009
Well-Being of Children in Poverty
http://www.childtrends.org
Child Trends has released three reports on the well-being of children in poverty. One, Teen Births: Examining the Recent Increase, explores whether the data reflect a short-term blip or a true reversal in the decline of the U.S. teen birth rate. The second, Children in America’s Newcomer Families, says the poverty rate for immigrant children is much higher than official estimates suggest, and many of those children live in states where the gap between the poor and the middle class is especially wide. The third, Children in Poverty: Trends, Consequences, and Policy Options, notes that the rate of children living in poverty has risen steadily since 2000. The report also highlights research on the consequences of poverty for children and suggests program and policy approaches that hold promise for decreasing poverty among low-income children and their families.
2009
Child Maltreatment 2008
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/pubs/cm08/cm08.pdf
2008 saw the lowest rate of child victimization in five years, says a new analysis of survey results from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. 2008’s rate of 10.3 per 1,000 children is the lowest since the survey began in 1990, and is a sharp decline from 1993’s peak rate of 15.3. Eighty percent of the abusers were parents, and more were women (56.2 percent) than men (42.6 percent).
2009
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/
After declining for 14 consecutive years, the teen birth rate in the U.S. increased 5 percent between 2005 and 2007. Research indicates that children in single-parent families are more likely than children with two parents to be poor, drop out of high school, and have lower grade point averages, lower college aspirations, and poorer school attendance records.
2009