By Lauren Gambino

Ten-year-old Andrés Jiménez was looking forward to the end of summer. Not because he was particularly eager to return to school, but because the end of summer was meant to be the president’s deadline for taking action on immigration.

But Obama’s deadline came and went, and with it Andrés’s hopes of reuniting his family after his father was wrenched from his life three years ago…

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The post Orphaned by deportation: the crisis of American children left behind appeared first on First Focus.

In a statement last week regarding the report, U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said, “The report shines a light on the estimated 168 million children around the world who toil in the shadows — crawling underground in mine shafts, sewing in textile factories or serving in households as domestic workers.”

But Secretary Perez’s statements on child labor in the world have one glaring omission: there are child laborers right here in the United States also working in hazardous conditions.

According to a recent Human Rights Watch report, Tobacco’s Hidden Children: Hazardous Child Labor in US Tobacco Farming, the children working in the tobacco industry are exposed to extreme measures of nicotine, toxic pesticides, and other dangers. Many of the children suffer from dizziness, headaches, nausea, and vomiting, all common symptoms of nicotine poisoning. Nearly all children interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that their employers did not provide health education, safety training, or personal protective equipment while working.

Preventing exploitation of children in the worst forms of child labor requires ongoing effort and vigilance. DOL is the sole federal agency that monitors child labor and enforces child labor laws. The only federal law that restricts the employment of child workers is the Fair Labor Standards Act, enforced by DOL’s Wage and Hour Division. U.S. labor laws do not comply with international standards, it allows agriculture child to work in extreme conditions at the earliest age of 12-years-old. The laws do not provide safeguards for farm-working children, which work under extremely hard conditions of labor work. The FLSA has a minimum age of 14 for employment in non-hazardous, non-agriculture industries, but with long hours of 12 to 14 hour days with very limited bathrooms breaks or water to drink. The WHD found violations of labor laws in 70 percent of investigations they conducted in the past three years of tobacco growers.

.@LaborSec, what about tobacco child labor in the United States? Will you take action to protect these children? pic.twitter.com/pSB3ktuLyI

— CampaignForChildren (@Campaign4Kids) October 8, 2014

There are advanced findings in the new DOL report, child labor around the world looks to be improving by a decent percent. According to DOL, 9 percent of the countries assessed-nearly one in 10 reported “significant advancement” in their child labor responses and half of the countries assessed experienced moderate advancement. 36 percent- just over one in three- were judged to have made minimal or no advancement.

The data from the 2013 Findings on The Worst Forms of Child Labor should be an indication that we too as a nation need to look at our child labor standards.

More information about the report it is available at http://www.dol.gov/ilab/. Join the Conversation on twitter by using #Childlabor #InvestInKids & tagging @USDOL.

The post U.S. Department of Labor’s releases findings on global child labor, gives U.S. child tobacco labor a pass appeared first on First Focus.

By Bruce Lesley

The Oct. 3 editorial “Children in need” urged Congress to protect funding for the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), but it missed one critical point: Congress must approve four more years of funding this year.

CHIP is a state-federal partnership, so both federal and state budget debates matter, and state budget debates are underway. In Maryland, the governor’s budget typically comes in mid-January; in Virginia, the prior December. In some states, it comes in November, nearly a year before the federal funding deadline…

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The post Congress should approve more funding for Children’s Health Insurance Program appeared first on First Focus.

Recognizing this disparity, today the Coalition for Teaching Quality (CTQ), of which First Focus is a co-chair, released “Excellent Educators for Each and Every Child: A policy roadmap for transforming the teaching and principal professions.” The Coalition also held House and Senate briefings on Capitol Hill with practitioners to help explain the importance of these strategies to policymakers. In the Policy Roadmap, CTQ—which comprises more than one hundred civil rights, disability, rural, youth, higher education, principal and education advocacy organizations dedicated to ensuring that every child has fully prepared and effective educators—offers a continuum of the teaching and principal professions to ensure every child has well-prepared and effective educators.

In the policy roadmap, the coalition outlines several measures to build a continuum that supports educator excellence: strengthen the recruitment pipeline for teachers and principals; build robust preparation programs that ensure that all educators are profession-ready; and cultivate opportunities for continuous growth and leadership. This comprehensive vision is an alternative to teacher tenure lawsuits. Instead of a cudgel designed only to take away job protections, this alternative vision strengthens and invests in teachers and principals to ensure that their leadership, knowledge, skills, and expertise are leveraged to improve outcomes for every child and to prepare students to meet the demands of society and a global economy. In supporting educator excellence, these strategies will improve educational conditions for children.

CTQ also released “Profession Ready Teachers and Principals for Each and Every Child,” the first in a series of deep dives into pieces of the policy roadmap. This report describes four steps for future teachers to ensure that they are fully prepared when they enter the classroom as a teacher of record, including participating in extensive clinical experiences and demonstrating their skills and knowledge through a performance assessment.

For principals, profession-ready means having a strong instructional background as a teacher, demonstrated abilities related to effective school leadership competencies and prior success in leading adults. As such, profession-ready principals should earn an advanced degree and demonstrate a record of success as a teacher, complete a one-year residency program under accomplished school leaders, and successfully demonstrate leadership competencies through assessments prior to and upon completion of their preparation and residency experiences.

For children, having teachers and principals who are profession-ready the day they begin their careers means the professionals, who are the largest school-based factor in student achievement, are fully prepared and fully trained. It means they have teachers who are well versed in teaching pedagogy and are subject matter experts so teachers, students, principals, and the rest of the school hit the ground running and learning on day one.

Every child, regardless of race, ethnicity, disability status, income, or zip code, deserves great teachers and principals. With the release of these documents the CTQ has laid out a vision of support, continuous learning, and professional growth to achieve this lofty goal.

The post More than 100 Organizations Offer Comprehensive Vision of Support for Educators appeared first on First Focus.

By Gary Gately

“Detroit has the highest level of child poverty in the nation, according to new statistics. In this 2010 photo, the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository has been abandoned since a fire in 1987. As Detroit’s population has contracted, many schools have closed and are now shuttered and abandoned.

Child poverty increased in 35 of the biggest U.S. cities in the past eight years, and millions of children now live in families barely scraping by, a new analysis shows…”

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By Bruce Lesley

“What if there were a bipartisan health care plan that worked? What if it gave states lots of flexibility and represented a true private-public partnership? What if it delivered quality care for kids at a cost their parents can afford? And what if it was incredibly successful and overwhelmingly popular with voters? You’d think Congress would be rushing to protect it, wouldn’t you? Think again.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP, called Healthy Start in Ohio) was created by a Republican-controlled Congress and a Democratic president. And recent polling shows that CHIP continues to enjoy strong, bipartisan support…”

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As a recent Urban Institute report entitled Kids’ Share 2014 highlights, if policy changes are not enacted by the President and Congress in the near future, the share of federal investments committed to children will decline by about one-fifth of both the share of the federal budget and the economy over the next decade.

As the report concludes:

Without adequately funded education, nutrition, housing, early education and care, and other basic supports, the foundation of children’s well-being is at risk. When children grow up without adequate supports, they are less able to support themselves and to contribute to economic growth as adults…A continuous decline in federal support for children over the next decade bodes poorly for their future or the future of the nation.

Fortunately, the American people are not on board with children becoming a declining priority. According to an American Viewpoint poll, not only are voters pessimistic about the well-being of children but they are deeply concerned about how the next generation will fare. In fact, by a 67-26 percent margin, voters are not confident that the life for our children’s generation will be better than it has been for us. That concern for the future of children resonates with all American voters but is highest among Republican voters, who overwhelmingly doubt our children’s generation will be better off (80-18 percent, with 63 percent strongly not confident).

While some might argue that declining investments in kids is the price we need to pay to reduce the federal deficit, the fact is that the American people disagree and believe it to be a false choice. As a result, voters are against cutting education (74-23 percent with 68 percent strongly against), programs preventing child abuse and neglect (77-18 percent with 67 percent strongly against), the Children’s Health Insurance Program (67-21 percent), tax credits for working families with children (68-26 percent), and early childhood programs (62-32 percent) in order to reduce the federal budget deficit.

There is clearly a major disconnect between the major budget reductions for children that are pending in the federal budget versus the desire by the public to have children protected from such cuts. So, why the disconnect?

According to Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell:

For all their baby-kissing, politicians know that it’s the elderly — not suffrage-ineligible children or their parents — who turn out to vote. This perhaps explains why a smaller and smaller share of government budgets is expected to go to children over the coming decade

Obviously, children also do not operate political action committees (PACs) that can funnel money to politicians that protect their interests.

Fortunately, there are signs and glimmers of hope that things may be beginning to change. First, we have seen a growing cadre of legislative Champions for Children at the federal level.

In fact, five years ago, the First Focus Campaign for Children began putting together a “scorecard” to best identify and thank the Top 100 Champions for Children at the federal level. That list includes 16 senators and 23 representatives who consistently speak out and make children a priority in their work year-after-year. These 39 legislators have, as a result, been named a Champion for Children in all five years of the scorecard’s history.

However, with the departure from the Congress of some long-standing important Champions for Children in recent years, including Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Richard Lugar (R-IN), and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and the forthcoming retirements of some other champions, including Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Henry Waxman (D-CA), the children’s advocacy community has become increasingly concerned about whether new voices will rise to speak out on behalf of children in a strong and meaningful way.

Fortunately, that is happening. In fact, there are 7 senators and 21 representatives that have become Champions for Children for the first time in this Congress and, in some cases, they have surpassed some previous champions on the scorecard. This is an important development and encouraging news for children.

Second, in a number of House, Senate, and particularly, Governor’s races, we are seeing education rising to become a leading issue in a number of the campaigns. There are a number of candidates that are on the offensive with a pro-education platform committing increased investments in education and early childhood programs. Meanwhile, those on the defensive for having supported cuts to education in the past are, in almost every instance, now promising increases in education funding for the future.

Examples of these races in which education has become a major campaign issue are as follows: North Carolina Senate, Iowa Senate, Pennsylvania Governor, Michigan Governor, Florida Governor, Illinois Governor, Wisconsin Governor, Kansas Governor, Texas Governor, and Texas Lieutenant Governor.

As candidates jockey and argue over who will do better for children, one can only hope this translates into a reversal of the recent education cuts that schools, students, and teachers have faced but that it translates into lasting support for both education and children.

Third, women and members of the Tri-Caucus in the House (Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus) have been growing in the Senate and the House and data indicates that they are more likely to be Champions for Children, as determined by the First Focus Campaign for Children scorecard.

In the case of women legislators, 55 percent of the women and 29 percent of the men qualify as Champions or Defenders of Children in the Senate. And, in the House, 25 percent of the women and just 13 percent of the men qualify for the awards. Overall, women are twice as likely as men (32 to 16 percent) to be a Champion or Defender of Children.

In addition, members of the House Tri-Caucus are more than 50 percent more likely to be Champions for Children than the average House member and all three of the co-chairs , Representatives Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX), and Judy Chu (D-CA), are Champions for Children.

Consequently, as the number of women and minority legislators grow, this should translate in greater support for children.

Fourth, just as men are increasingly taking on a greater share of child-rearing dutiesin families, this younger generation of male legislators are increasingly stepping up their support for children in Congress. Surprisingly, of the 28 newly-named Champions for Children in this Congress, 22 were men. This has reduced the gender gap, as women were nearly three times as likely to be a Champion for Children at the close of the last Congress in 2012 and now are “only” twice as likely to earn that recognition in this Congress.

This improvement in support for children among younger men is also reflected in polling data. For example, support for the renewal and extension of CHIP among women overall (77-12 percent) is higher than among men (71-16 percent), but that gap is eliminated among younger women and men ages 18-34. Among these younger voters, women support extension of CHIP by 79-11 percent but young adult men support it even more at 80-7 percent.

The gender gap for CHIP grows with each subsequent generation and is widest among voters 60 years of age or older. With this age group, there is a 28 percentage point swing in the level of support, as older women support protecting CHIP by a much wider margin (79-8 percent) than older men (64-21 percent).

Polling on other children’s issues, such as protecting early childhood programs from federal budget cuts shows the same type of results. As noted earlier, voters oppose cutting early childhood programs to reduce the federal deficit by nearly a 2-to-1 margin (62-32 percent). Women oppose such cuts (66-29 percent) by higher margins than men (59-36 percent), but the age trends are very much the same as you see with CHIP.

For example, opposition to budget cuts for early childhood programs is consistently strong among women, as the level of opposition is right around 66 percent for every age group. In sharp contrast, there is a wide difference in the polling among men, as younger men strongly oppose cuts to early childhood programs by a substantial margin (73-18 percent) while older men just barely oppose the cuts (48-45 percent).

While the Kids’ Share report highlights the negative pathway that the federal budget has placed kids on with declining investments over the next decade and some would argue that this will only get worse as the percentage of the elderly population continues to rise and that of children declines, the fact is that voters would like to see a different outcome for children. In fact, the evidence shows that the American people are: deeply concerned about the future of children; specifically opposed to the pending cuts to children’s programs; making children a priority in a number of elections this year; and, showing trends, particularly among younger male voters, that point to increasing levels of support for children in the future.

Furthermore, with growing numbers of female, African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American legislators, who are disproportionately Champions for Children, and a new generation of male legislators who appear to be more consciously pro-child than previous generations, a new coalition for children may be forming to willingly and proactively change the current course for our next generation toward the positive.

As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”

And, even for those motivated purely by self-interest, cutting back on investments in kids will have long-term implications for all of us. As Anna Bernasek of Newsweekwrites about spending cuts that target and disadvantage children:

That has implications for long-term economic growth. Cutting back on the young is like eating the seed corn: satisfying a momentary need but leaving no way to grow a prosperous future.

With an aging society, we are calling upon our children’s generation to carry more of a burden than ever. Investing in them and our nation’s future matters and the time is now.

The post Children Need Champions Now More Than Ever appeared first on First Focus.

• How many children are affected by homelessness
• Causes of child and youth homelessness
• Effects of homelessness on children
• Policy recommendations.

The post Child and Youth Homelessness: A Problem of Epic Proportions appeared first on First Focus.

By Bruce Lesley

“What if there were a bipartisan health care plan that worked? What if it gave states lots of flexibility and represented a true private-public partnership? What if it delivered quality care for kids at a cost their parents can afford? And what if it were incredibly successful and overwhelmingly popular with voters? You’d think Congress would be rushing to protect it, wouldn’t you? Think again.

The Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, was created by a Republican-controlled Congress and a Democratic president. Recent polling shows that CHIP continues to enjoy strong, bipartisan support…”

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The post Bruce Lesley: Congress can protect Texas kids by reauthorizing CHIP appeared first on First Focus.

“WASHINGTON — A report released by the bipartisan children’s advocacy organization First Focus finds that public health coverage provided through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP, known as N.C. Health Choice for Children in North Carolina), is even more important for children in North Carolina’s rural areas than their urban counterparts.

The report, authored for First Focus by William O’ Hare, reveals that in 2012, 49 percent of rural North Carolina children were covered through CHIP or Medicaid, compared to 35 percent of urban children. But, unlike Medicaid, federal funding for NC Health Choice for Children will expire next year unless Congress acts first…”

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