Pre-KNation Summit in New York City

On Tuesday, August 5, New York City became the site for a “Preschool Nation Summit.” The summit, the first one, was a bicoastal event broadcast through a webinar presented by Scholastic Inc based in New York City. The nation’s largest city was an appropriate setting since Mayor Bill de Blasio ran on a campaign that included a proposal to expand universal preschool in the city.

Mayor de Blasio’s opened the event with keynote remarks that discussed his support and belief that providing universal preschool is vital to addressing a range of issues including poverty. He recounted his recent visits to some of the city’s preschool programs and what they were accomplishing and discussed the experiences of his own children and how they were helped by effective programs. As far as New York City, the Mayor said that the just completed school year resulted in 20,000 children enrolled in full-day Pre-K and that this coming September that figure will increase to 50,000. He also said more would be needed because they estimated the need to be approximately 70,000.

The opening panel focused on the current status of programs across the country and how effective models are being put together and how state and local programs are leveraging funds. That panel included comments by Carmen Fariña, New York City Education Chancellor, Kris Perry, the First Five Years Fund, Celia C. Ayala, Los Angeles Universal Preschool, Steve Barnett, National Institute for Early Education Research, Aaron Lieberman, Acelero Learning; CEO, Shine Early Learning.

Their presentation was followed by a discussion of pre-k’s relevance to a cross-section of key
stakeholders including law enforcement, businesses and the military. The discussion included comments by Rob Dugger, Co-Chair of the ReadyNation Advisory Board, Frank Fowler, Syracuse Chief of Police a member of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, Major General Mike Hall (ret.) and member of Mission:Readiness and Suzanne Immerman, Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Explaining Mission Readiness’s reason for being involved in this issue, Major General Hall indicated that 75 percent of youth aged 17 to 24 could not enter the military due to being poorly educated, having health care issues or having a serious criminal record.

The final panel focused on advocacy and strategies to increase the support and implementation of preschool programs nationally. This group included Patti Miller, Too Small To Fail, Adrián Pedroza, Partnership for Community Action and member of President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, Helen Blank, National Women’s Law Center and Albert Wat, the National Governors Association. Participants were urged to raise the issue during the upcoming elections and that members of Congress need to hear about the importance of expanded access to universal preschool.

For additional information on the event go to Preschool Nation Summit 2014.

Senate Roundtable Discusses Wide-Ranging Child Welfare Proposal

On Wednesday, July 30, the Senate Foster Youth Caucus hosted a “Discussion on Child Welfare Finance Reform.” For months, the caucus has been hosting a series of different presentations to update Senate staff on a range of child welfare topics. They issued an open invitation to organizations that wanted to offer varying proposals. For this roundtable approximately 17 different proposals were discussed by a number of different organizations. The proposals (Senate Foster Youth Discussion) ranged from ideas to change the current funding structure to more targeted reforms including ideas to better align and improve on Medicaid and mental health services, changing the current eligibility link to foster care, realigning funding such as SSBG to expanding funding to services such as post permanency and reunification support and the appropriate use of residential care.

CWLA, building on its earlier policy statement issued in April, Finance Reform & Child Welfare: A Balanced Approach submitted a proposal to realign the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) to update the current definitions of programs and to highlight its significant role in funding child protective services, prevention and intervention services, other child welfare services as well as other vital human services including domestic violence and special services for the disabled. The $1.7 billion in SSBG funding has been targeted for total elimination under some House proposals.

During the various presentations there were some overlapping issues and concerns that were raised that offer potential incremental change such as the need to strengthen access to mental and behavioral health services, better coordination between state Medicaid and state child welfare agencies, there was also agreement on the desire to do away with the eligibility link between foster care and AFDC and the need to strengthen the child welfare workforce. There was no conclusion to the event but the series will continue to focus on key issues and issue areas. The forum is envisioned as a way to continue a policy education effort for congressional staff.

In light of the Senate’s inability to pass an adoption reauthorization bill later in the week, there appears to be little opportunity to enact anything comprehensive this year. It is still hoped by some advocates that an end of the year budget deal that may have to deal with a range of delayed policy issues could include a small child welfare piece such as the Administration proposal to incentivize coordination between Medicaid and child welfare that would improve health care access for children in foster care and also reduce the incidence of over-medication.

CCAI Foster Youth Offer Recommendations For Improvements to Child Welfare

The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute’s (CCAI) 2014 Foster Youth Internship (FYI) report,”Shaping Tomorrow with Today’s Minds”, was released on Wednesday, July 30. A group of interns finished up their summer work on Capitol Hill by unveiling the set of recommendations. The proposals were crafted by the 11 interns who, through their intern experiences observing the Washington process and by blending what they learned with their own personal experiences, developed a series area-specific changes to foster care.

Policy recommendations include:
• Giving Youth a Voice: Contact After Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights
• Increasing Stability for Infants and Toddlers in Care
• Essential Documentation for Youth in Care
• Addressing the Trauma: Treating Children’s Mental Health with Screening and Assessments
• Creating Best Practice Standards for the Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare
System
• Renewing the System’s Commitment to Child Well Being: Fostering Resilience through Trauma Informed
Training
• Providing Comfort and Information to Children Transitioning into the System
• Stolen Pasts, Corrupted Futures: Preventing Identity Theft for Youth in Foster Care
• Empowering Foster Youth through Case Plan Trainings to Increase Youth’s Acceptance Rate of Extended Foster
Care
• Helping Foster Youth Overcome Barriers to Employment
• Improving Educational Outcomes for Foster Youth: Special Education and Mental Health

The recommendations include a number of proposed changes to current federal law to address strengthen the protections for youth in care as well as proposals to strengthen current practices. To read and download a copy of the report go to the CCAI website under, Shaping Tomorrow with Today’s Minds

Understanding and Improving the Quality of Service Delivery for Immigrant Families Involved

The Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare and the MCWNN will be hosting a webinar entitled Understanding and Improving the Quality of Service Delivery for Immigrant Families Involved with the Child Welfare System on July 31, 2014 from 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. EDT. This webinar, which will feature presenters Alan Dettlaff, Lyn Morland, and Wendy Cervantes, will explore the challenges encountered by immigrant families involved with the child welfare system and will discuss strategies for addressing the needs of this population.

The Migration & Child Welfare National Network is a coalition of individuals and organizations focused on the intersection of immigration and child welfare

You may register for the webinar here.