Policy News You Can Use: December 2017
How legislation and policy changes affect children's well-being
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New Policy and Advocacy Efforts at Committee for Children

 
At Committee for Children, Jordan Posamentier is taking over policy and advocacy matters from the wonderful and intrepid Carol Wood, who is retiring. Jordan is an education attorney, a former public school teacher, a policy wonk, and an experienced legislative advocate. You'll see from this newsletter that there are plenty of policy issues for readers like you to lend your voice to. In 2018, we'll be helping you do that with us on social-emotional learning (SEL) and related issues that are important to you. If you have policy or advocacy interests or concerns that you'd like Committee for Children to address, now would be a great time to share by writing Jordan at: jposamentier@cfchildren.org.
Federal
'Tis the Season to Focus on Education Financing in Washington, DC

 
Legislation around revenue and funding is dominating education talks in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives passed its tax overhaul last month, and the Senate passed its last week. The conference committee process to reconcile the different versions is the next step for the legislation to become law. Both versions pose major implications for dollars that go to children and schools. Here is one analysis, now dated, of the tax overhaul's impact on education. Here is more recent commentary. Beyond taxes, much is afoot with regard to funding for children, including:
  • Disaster relief. The US Department of Education is awarding $8 million for hurricane-ravaged schools, which will be distributed by Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence), a group that helps schools and districts recover from, as the Department put it, "violent or traumatic events in which the learning environment has been disrupted."
  • Delinquency prevention. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), part of the Department of Justice,  awarded nearly $83 million in FY17 grants  to help state, local, and tribal jurisdictions protect children and respond to juvenile victimization. The grants will support more than 170 sites, jurisdictions, and task forces nationwide and will help communities find missing children, combat internet crimes against children, provide tailored treatment and rehabilitative services, and increase public safety.
  • Children's health insurance. The House of Representatives has voted to renew funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides health insurance coverage to 9 million children across the country. The bill did not include $6.35 billion to the Prevention and Public Health Fund, a cut that largely divided the vote along party lines. The Senate version of the bill does not include that cut and is expected to pass with bipartisan support. CHIP funding expired on September 30, 2017, and several states expect to shut down their CHIP-funded programs by the end of the year if Congress does not successfully renew funding.
     
  • Research on child sexual abuse prevention. Congress's Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee is mulling allocation of $1 million annually out of the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for evaluation of child sexual abuse prevention evaluation and programming. Committee for Children has joined a coalition asking Congress to vote for this appropriation.

If you're wondering how the prospective tax overhaul might affect your state, see these links (dated, as they are), reprinted from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Senate bill map, House bill map, and Senate Child Tax Credit. (Note: The overhaul is a moving target; content of these links is already outdated, but should nevertheless provide some insight.)

From Schools, Schools, Schools, to Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

 
The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) has support from a bipartisan group of 50 senators to move forward with reauthorizing the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, which would spend $1 billion each year on career and technical education (CTE) programs.
 
The Senate's focus on renewing CTE funding follows the House's voice vote earlier this year to pass similar legislation, H.R. 2353 (115), and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has previously said she's looking forward to working with Congress to get that done. To that end, in November 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Michigan State Representative Timothy Kelly to be assistant secretary of education for Career, Technical and Adult Education at the Department of Education, although the administration hasn't weighed in specifically on the CTE legislation.

The private sector is supporting CTE and future work preparedness as well. Google will provide $1 billion to nonprofits working in education and job training, as well as offer technical training and certificates.

You can read more about the link between SEL and its relationship with workforce needs here .
State
State Courts Continue Focus on the Need to Adequately Fund Public Education


In November 2017, the Washington State Supreme Court once again ruled that the state failed to fulfill its constitutional responsibility to fully fund public education. In its unanimous opinion , the Court approved the state legislature's plan to fully fund education but said it would take too long. The legislature is still in contempt of court until it figures out how to pay for the plan faster. (Read more about Washington State's McCleary case here .)

Washington State's case follows the Kansas Supreme Court ruling of a similar kind. In October 2017, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled in an ongoing case that its legislature failed to adequately and equitably fund education. Kansas has nearly the opposite problem of Washington--it has more time to get a plan right but does not have a workable plan thus far. (You can read more about Kansas's Gannon case here .)
All Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Plans Are In


All 50 states, along with Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, have submitted their ESSA plans to the Department of Education. They still must undergo staff and peer review to ensure ESSA compliance before being approved. Many of these ESSA plans include chronic absenteeism as an indicator used to measure school performance, which relates closely with low social-emotional learning (SEL) skills.
 
It is unclear whether these "fifth indicator" metrics will account for equity or demography. The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) is paying attention to this issue, as it has recently released a new policy brief on SEL as it related to students with disabilities, English language learners, and youth who are involved in the juvenile justice system. The AYPF hosted a webinar on its brief in late November 2017 and will have hosted another in December.
Children's Trusts Help States Fund SEL to Stave Off Child Maltreatment

 
SEL is instrumental in preventing child maltreatment, but how should such preventive measures be funded? In early November, the National Alliance of Children's Trust & Prevention Funds met in Little Rock, AR, for their annual membership meeting. During the two-day event, staff from Trust and Prevention offices from 32 states met to learn about resources and strategies for building strong partnerships and collaborations in their states and communities; how to use data for decision-making, public awareness, and planning; and how federal budget and policy issues are likely to impact their work in the coming year.

The annual meeting also served as a time for participants to learn successful prevention efforts from their peers. Deborah Chosewood, interim director and Laura Griggs, program specialist from the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services, Office of Prevention and Family Support and Tara Shelton, SEL coordinator from Atlanta Public Schools along with Joan Cole Duffell, Committee for Children executive director, were able to share their experiences in their presentation, "Utilizing Social-Emotional Learning as Primary Child Maltreatment Prevention." The presentation highlighted how the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services Prevention and Community Support grant provides funds for schools in Georgia to support primary prevention of child maltreatment by using SEL programming to teach children as young as preschool the essential skills to have empathy, manage their emotions, solve problems, make friends, and have a positive school experience-all building blocks for becoming a person who does not grow up and abuse others.

This innovative grant in its fifth year provided over $550,000 in funds for implementing SEL programming this last round for the 2017-2018 school year serving 11 different school districts encompassing 72 schools and over 23,000 students, including all of Atlanta Public Schools. Click here to learn more about the grant and the success supporting prevention through SEL.
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Founded in 1978, Committee for Children is a global nonprofit dedicated to fostering the safety and well-being of children through education and advocacy. We work on the federal, state, and local level to prevent bullying, violence, and child abuse and to encourage teaching social-emotional skills to children and youth. These newsletters will help you learn the latest news affecting our priorities as well as opportunities to advocate for change.
  
Please forward this newsletter to other colleagues who are interested in these topics. And feel free to submit timely news on these topics from your state or region. I look forward to your feedback!
  
Jordan Posamentier, Senior Policy and Advocacy Manager
jposamentier@cfchildren.org
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800-634-4449
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