This Cleveland.com op-ed calls for Ohio lawmakers to pass legislation expanding Medicaid coverage to include doula services. Ohio, and Cuyahoga County in particular, have stark racial disparities in birth outcomes for moms and babies.
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“The truth is that moms have bailed out governments and businesses through their unpaid labor caring for children and other family members during this crisis at the expense of their wealth, health, and wellbeing... The truth is that we’re being taken advantage of. Governments and employers see women’s work as dispensable and women’s unpaid labor as given.” |
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who:
Mara Bolis, Oxfam America’s Associate Director of Women's Economic Rights
where:
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Cleveland Metropolitan School District is partnering with Spectrum on a new initiative to bring free internet access to 5,000 families. The goal of “Stay Connected K-12 Solution” is to close the “homework gap" and make it possible for students to have uninterrupted learning access at home.
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Federal policy analyses
In this fact sheet, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) analyzes state by state co-pay costs under a current proposal, the Child Care for Working Families Act, or the CCWFA. Family co-payments would be based on income and vary by state median income.
A Zero to Three fact sheet examines the impact of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) at its 25th anniversary mark. The authors describe the underlying factors explaining why so few families who could benefit from the program actually receive assistance from it.
The Bipartisan Policy Center explains how the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) enables more families to afford child care. Meanwhile, the First Five Years Fund outlines the differences between the CDCTC and the Child Care Tax Credit (CTC). Apologies for all the acronyms.
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Faculty and staff from the Crane Center and Schoenbaum Family Center have recently received over $14 million in federal grants to support programs and research that explore how environmental and social factors impact learning. Read more about six recent grant awards and the work the teams will accomplish.
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Join us for the first Crane Research Forum of the academic year on September 8th at 12 pm. Dr. Lauren Jones, Crane faculty associate and associate professor in the Department of Human Sciences, will present “Tax policies and child development”, discussing her research on what we know about how household income and tax policies affect child well-being. Register here.
The Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center is hosting the second annual Ohio Family Engagement Leadership Summit on September 17th. The Summit will feature interactive presentations from family engagement leaders, researchers, and practitioners in four learning tracks: family engagement and mental health, family engagement and student transitions, opportunity for all, and family engagement leadership. Learn more and register.
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An interactive map from FutureEd shows how states are planning to spend their federal COVID relief funds on education. Tutoring programs, addressing student mental health, and strengthening teacher workforces are popular options among the 44 states who have submitted their plans.
Tennessee passed a law that makes it easier for children and teens to qualify for school sports. Chalkbeat describes the legislation as well as other efforts made in the state to improve the experiences of the foster care community.
New America has a one pager detailing 8 lessons the U.S. can learn from Quebec's universal child care system.
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This article published on Early Learning Nation (and a related white paper) make the case for “early childhood districts” akin to K-12 school districts. This new type of government infrastructure could, in theory, create an easily understandable construct that at its core would be an “affirmative, rights-based model that guarantees universal access.”
As schools return to in-person learning, Ohio district Mason City School District is addressing growing mental health needs in their student population by offering a suicide prevention program in 5th and 6th grade. The district is also introducing a peer-to-peer suicide prevention program to middle schoolers.
Center for American Progress shares an issue brief that calls for a multi-generational approach to poverty alleviation, specifically through “the strategic braiding and/or blending of the various anti-poverty federal, state, and local funds” to secure basic needs, boost family incomes, strengthen and modernize the safety net, address racism, and improve neighborhoods.
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The Hechinger Report offers a quick synthesis of past research suggesting that babies’ ability to walk may be intertwined with language acquisition – a finding that understandably caused parents of late walkers to “fret.” More recent research from the same psychologist (Eric Walle) offers insights for parents to help crawling babies acquire language, specifically related to how they are directed to play with objects: “When parents are encouraging their child to interact with objects more frequently, their crawling infants have a vocabulary that looks more like that of walking infants.”
Countless research studies have tried to answer questions about whether reading on screens or reading via print is better for children. This article in Education Week explains the nuance in the research, which shows that young children on the whole understand stories better in print than in digital form. Researchers are calling for a “more nuanced understanding” as to when and how these mediums may be beneficial for children. For instance, when electronic books use elements that focus children’s attention toward asking questions or identifying main story components, they “tended to outperform print books in children’s comprehension.”
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This edition written by: Jamie Davies O'Leary, Associate Director of Policy and Caitlin Lennon, Communications & Policy Specialist |
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