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Dates
to Watch
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December 15-18, 2008
House
Interim Committee Meetings
January
3, 2009
Start of 111th Congress
January
13, 2009
Children & Youth Cabinet Meeting
January
20, 2009
New U.S. President sworn in
March
3, 2009
Florida Regular Session Convenes
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Send
Me More
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CSCs
strategically invest in primary prevention and early intervention
programs and services.
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 Wishing
you a Happy Holiday season shared with family and friends!
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LEGISLATIVE WATCH
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Legislature to Address Budget
Shortfall in January Special Session
The Florida Legislature
will address the state's current year $2.3 billion budget deficit in a
special session, Jan. 5-16. In a joint statement, House Speaker Ray
Sansom (R-Okaloosa) and Senate President Jeff Atwater (R-Palm Beach)
said legislators will consider spending cuts and trust fund transfers,
rather than tax increases, as a way to balance the budget. Most
troubling is the fact that the cuts will have to be made over the
remaining five months in the fiscal year, as opposed to spreading them
over a full year. With House and Senate committees in Tallahassee this
week, budget committees are expected to begin preparations for the
special session. Also see, "Florida legislature
sets special budget crisis session"
in the Miami Herald.
House
and Senate Leaders Announce Committees, Appointments
Senate President
Jeff Atwater (R-Palm Beach) last week announced committees and
committee appointments for the 2009 Legislative Session. He also named
the rest of his Senate leadership team, which will include Sen. Alex
Diaz de la Portilla (R-Miami-Dade) as the Senate Majority Leader for
the 2008-2010 term. See all Senate committees
and appointments. House Speaker Ray Sansom (R-Okaloosa) also
named his committees and committee appointments for the coming session.
Speaker Sansom said he will create a Select Committee on Seminole
Indian Compact Review, which will be charged with reviewing the
proposed gambling compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe of
Florida. See all House committees and
appointments.
Afterschool
Alliance Meets with Obama Transition Team
Recently, the
National Afterschool Alliance met with members of President-elect
Obama's transition team to discuss afterschool issues. The transition
team requested a memo of policy recommendations from the alliance, and
decided to post the memo on the Obama web site. The recommendations
focus on increasing funding, improvements to afterschool in No Child
Left Behind, and supporting long-term strategies like New Day for
Learning. See the recommendations on the web site.
Afterschool supporters are encouraged to post positive comments on the
web site that reinforce the importance of expanding afterschool
programs and supports.
Obama
Pledge Stirs Hope in Early Education
It was the morning
after the presidential election, and Matthew Melmed, executive director
of Zero to Three, a national organization devoted to early childhood
education, could barely contain his exultation. Mr. Melmed fired off an
e-mail message to his board and staff, reminding them of President-elect
Barack Obama's interest in the care and education of the very young and
congratulating Mr. Obama for campaigning on a "comprehensive
platform for early childhood."
Mr. Melmed was not
alone in his excitement. After years of what they call backhanded
treatment by the Bush administration, whose focus has been on the
testing of older children, many advocates are atremble with
anticipation over Mr. Obama's espousal of early childhood education. Get the full story
in the New York Times.
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TOP STORIES
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Chiles
Foundation Urges State Leaders to Invest Wisely in Kids
 Two days before the anniversary of the late Lawton Chiles'
death, his son, Lawton "Bud" Chiles III, and former first
lady Rhea Chiles joined child advocates at a press conference in
Tallahassee to emphasize the critical need to invest in Florida's
children. Chiles said Florida has sunk to a dismal place for children
in the 10 years since his father's death. "It's not that our
leaders aren't spending money on children; they're just spending it in
the wrong places," said Chiles. Others who spoke included former
state representative Loranne Ausley, chair of the Healthy Kids
Corporation and newly appointed senior policy advisor for the Chiles
Foundation, and David Lawrence, chair of The Children's Trust and
president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation. Read the press release.
New Service Available for Floridians Receiving Public
Assistance
A new service
available through the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will
allow food stamp, temporary cash assistance and Medicaid applicants and
recipients to check their case status 24-hours a day, seven days a week
online. Gov. Charlie Crist and DCF Secretary George Sheldon recently
unveiled the My ACCESS account management program, which will enable
customers to access information about their public assistance benefits
at their convenience. Account users can also view current benefits,
check the date benefits will be available, print a temporary Medicaid
card, and more. To register for My ACCESS Account, visit www.myflorida.com/accessflorida. More
information about DCF's ACCESS Florida program is available HERE.
Feds Give Florida Millions to Help Prevent Home
Foreclosures
Florida received
nearly $11.5 million to continue providing statewide foreclosure
prevention counseling and legal assistance to homeowners in
foreclosure. Gov. Charlie Crist said the boost will enable 77
counseling agencies and organizations across the state to provide
foreclosure counseling. The funds also will allow legal services groups
to counsel area homeowners at risk of foreclosure. The grant to support
Florida's foreclosure counseling intervention efforts comes from funds
provided through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act approved by
Congress in July 2008. Congress appropriated $180 million to be
distributed nationally through a competitive application process. In
March 2008, Florida received nearly $1.3 million to support statewide
foreclosure prevention counseling efforts. Florida has the
nation's third-highest state foreclosure rate, with 166,600 households
statewide being impacted by foreclosure activities in October 2008. To
learn more about foreclosure prevention resources, please visit www.FloridaHousing.org and click on
"Foreclosure Prevention Resources Now Available!"
Governor Launches Cover Florida, Asks Uninsured to
Consider Plan Options
To launch the Cover
Florida Health Care Access Program, available January 5, 2009, Gov.
Charlie Crist last week witnessed the signing of contracts between six
health insurance providers and Secretary Holly Benson of the Agency for
Health Care Administration and Commissioner Kevin McCarty of the Office
of Insurance Regulation.The six private insurance carriers were chosen
based on their innovative and affordable health insurance products.
Cover Florida plans contain no mandates for participation and are
portable from one employer to another because they are individual
policies. Voluntary for both employers and policyholders,
employers also may voluntarily share in the cost of the plan with their
employees or may assist employees with a payroll deduction, providing a
pre-tax benefit for the employee and a payroll tax break for the
employer. Cover Florida is intended to offer affordable, quality health
insurance coverage to Florida's 3.8 million uninsured applicants age 19
to 64. Four of the six carriers will also insure children of
applicants. Read the press release.
For details about Cover Florida benefit options, visit www.CoverFloridaHealthCare.com.
Children's Week Wants Nominations for "Kids
Only" Town Hall Meeting Panel
Nominations are being accepted now for the 2009 "Kids
Only" Town Hall Meeting student panel, which is scheduled for
Tuesday, March 31, at Tallahassee City Hall. The event will
feature middle school and high school students asking questions
directly to members of the Florida Children and Youth Cabinet. The
event will be broadcast statewide on The Florida Channel. The deadline
to nominate a student is February 1. To nominate a student,
please download the application at www.childrensweek.org/townhallmeeting. For more
information about Children's Week, contact Jason Zaborske, Children's
Week Statewide Coordinator at 850-251-7274 or e-mail jz@childrensweek.org
or info@childrensweek.org.
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CSC NEWS
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Children's
Board Focuses on Priority Issues at Legislative Breakfast
The Children's Board of Hillsborough County partnered with
the United Way of Tampa Bay and Hillsborough County to hold a
Legislative Breakfast on Friday, Dec. 5, attended by 80 people, including
many local policymakers and several elected officials. Community
members presented 19 priorities in the areas of child welfare, early
childhood education and care, elderly, health, family self-sufficiency,
juvenile justice, housing and homeless, mental health and substance
abuse, and revenue strategies. Children's Board CEO Luanne
Panacek and Board Chair Valerie Goddard led a discussion about issues
facing families in these difficult economic times and obtained support
for many of the recommended priorities, which are posted on the
Children's Board web site at www.childrensboard.org.
~ Submitted by the Children's Board of
Hillsborough County
Palm Beach CSC Releases State of the Child Report
The Children's
Services Council of Palm Beach County released its 2008 State of the
Child Report this week. The report says fewer Palm Beach County
children are abused than in the state as a whole, but Florida's rate is
more than double the national average and the highest in the
U.S. Other report data reveals that uninsured children in Palm
Beach County incurred $17 million in emergency room visits, while the
number of babies dying in the county decreased. On the positive side,
more children are entering kindergarten ready to learn.
View the full report.
~ Submitted by the CSC of Palm Beach
County
Report Reveals Disparities Among Jacksonville Children
The Jacksonville
Children's Commission will release its latest report, "The
2009 State of Jacksonville's Children: Racial and Ethnic
Disparities," on January 12. The report findings will be used to
provide the first step in framing an informed conversation on exactly
where child inequalities exist and how best to address them. Details of
the release are as follows:
Date:
Monday, January 12, 2009
Time: 10:30
a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Location: City
Council Chamber
City
Hall at St. James
117 W. Duval Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
For more
information, or to RSVP, contact Lisa Burnette at (904) 630-7267 or
Burnette@coj.net.
~ Submitted by the Jacksonville
Children's Commission
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NET DATA
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Kaiser
Releases Guide on Covering the Uninsured
The guide, "Approaches to Covering the
Uninsured," explains the key strategies for expanding coverage to
the nation's 45 million uninsured people and explains how different
policy options can be combined to form comprehensive reform proposals.
It organizes the various policy strategies under four overall
approaches: strengthening current coverage arrangements, improving the
affordability of coverage, improving the availability of coverage and
changing the tax treatment and financing of health insurance. Download the guide.
NWLC Releases 2008 Tax Credits Outreach Toolkit
Each year, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) partners
with child care advocates and other community leaders to conduct a
public education campaign aimed at informing millions of families about
state and federal tax benefits for which they may be eligible and how
to find free tax preparation assistance. The toolkit includes
information on why tax credits matter, sample campaign activities, and
resources available from the NWLC. The toolkit also contains sample
outreach materials and a campaign timeline. Additionally, the NWLC
produces federal and state specific outreach materials and makes the
materials available on its website, www.nwlc.org/loweryourtaxes. Download the Outreach Toolkit.
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EVENTS
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Palm Beach CSC Economic Summit Will Examine Ways to
Invest in Young Children
The Children's Services Council of Palm Beach County will
host an Economic Summit on Jan. 21, 2009, in West Palm Beach. The
summit will bring together business leaders, policymakers and child
advocates to evaluate how to address the pressing issue of early
childhood education - and its impact on the future. Decades of research
prove that investing in young children is the best way to improve
current workforce performance, ensure school success and create
long-lasting economic returns for families, businesses and society as a
whole. Featured speakers include Rob Grunewald, Economist, Federal
Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and Dr. Ross Thompson, Psychology
Professor, University of California, Davis. For more information,
please e-mail Marlene Passell, Palm Beach CSC Public Information
Director, marlene.passell@cscpbc.org
or call 561-740-7000.
Registration Opens for 2009 National Network of
Statewide Afterschool Networks
Registration is
now open for the 2009 National Network of Statewide Afterschool
Networks annual meeting in Clearwater Beach, January 26-29,
2009. Teams from each of the statewide afterschool networks will
meet to share ideas, resources and strategies for achieving the
collective systemic goals of the networks to further statewide
afterschool policies. The Florida Afterschool Network plans to have a
large contingency in attendance. Go to the web site to register, or to see
additional information about the meeting. Please note that the web page
is in a password protected area of the website. Please contact Becky
Gibbons with Collaborative Communications Group at gibbons@collaborativecommunications.com
for assistance with passwords. Meeting participants must be confirmed
and registered by Dec. 19.
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