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The needs of children don’t stop when
legislators leave the state capitol - “The Child
Advocate Insider” is a bi-weekly update during
the summer and fall months to keep you informed on new
children’s policy research, federal updates from Capitol
Hill, interesting media articles, as well as local events and
advocacy opportunities in Kansas & Missouri.
Read on!
More MO Budget Cuts
Announced
Though the MO state legislature passed a
balanced budget in May, Governor Nixon recently announced that
approximately $385 million more cuts and budget withholdings
will be necessary due to falling revenue
projections.
The 2009 budget year ended in Missouri
on June 30th with a 6.7% decline in general revenue
from the previous year – that’s over $500 million
less revenue than collected in 2008. The bad news continues, as
a further 1% decline in general revenue is projected in Fiscal
Year 2010 that just started on July
1st.
So the question is, how will Missouri
cut $385 million more? Before signing the new FY’ 10 budget,
Governor Nixon used his line-item veto to slash $105 million in
state spending and put a “hold” on an additional
$220 million that can only be used if revenue improves.
In the past week, state departments have been instructed
to put a hold on $60 million more in general revenue.
This includes $20 million from the Department of Social
Services, $12 million of which is slated to be cut from
the Children’s
Division.
Partnership for Children feels that
these proposed cuts unfairly impact Missouri’s most
vulnerable children and families. The Children’s
Division’s share of state general revenue spending is just
3% -- yet the division’s share of the proposed budget cuts
is 20%. This is the division that is charged with caring for
more than 9,000 children in foster care, investigating 75,000
child abuse hotline reports each year, and providing child care
assistance to 43,000 kids and their working parents each month.
Governor Nixon Signs
Bills Affecting Children/Families
July 14th marked the
deadline for Governor Nixon to sign or veto legislation passed
by the General Assembly in 2009. Thankfully, all of the bills
supported by Partnership for Children were signed into law!
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July 15,
2009
News from Missouri
· More MO Budget Cuts
Announced
· Governor Nixon Signs Bills
Affecting Children/Families
· New Regulations for
Child Care Programs
· PFC & CMC Op-Ed: MO
Must Invest in Foster Families
News from Kansas
· State needs tax system that is
efficient, fair
News from Washington
· $40 million in federal
grants for children’s health insurance
outreach
New
Resources
·
Seeking Participants for KC “Healthy Homes
Program”
· 2009 Affordability of Child Care Report: How did KS &
MO fare?
· Balancing the Missouri Fiscal Year 2010 Budget: a
Summary of Vetoes and
Withholds
·
Comparing Missouri’s Tax and Spending with the
Nation
· New
publications address economic issues facing
Kansas
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PFC on
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The following is a list of bills impacting
children and families that were signed by the Governor as of
July 14, 2009:
HB
154
– Grandparents as first preference for emergency placement
and the Foster Care Education Bill of Rights. Championed by Rep.
Ruestman (R-Joplin), this legislation makes it a priority of the
state to locate a child’s grandparents when removing from
a child from their home. Senator Jolie Justus (D
– Kansas City) sponsored the Foster
Care Education Bill of Rights which was also added to HB
154. Sen.
Justus’ bill will make it easier for foster children to
stay in school and graduate on time.
HB
176
- Sponsored by Rep. Tom Todd (D
– Campbell) this legislation establishes the Brady Alan
Cunningham Newborn Screening Act which adds certain lysosomal
storage diseases to the list of required newborn
screenings. In
effect, this legislation adds a few more diseases that newborns
must be tested for in an effort to improve the health of
children.
HB 481 – Originally sponsored by Rep. Tim Jones
(R-St. Louis County), HB 481 became an
omnibus judiciary bill and Rep. Rachel Bringer (D-Palmyra)
successfully added an amendment offering a college tuition
waiver for students in foster or adoptive
care.
HB
863
- Sponsored by Rep. Bob Dixon (R – Springfield), HB 863
establishes the Child Witness Protection Act that applies to all
children 14 years of age or younger who are testifying in any
judicial proceeding.
This legislation makes it less intimidating for young
children to testify in court and establishes age-appropriate
guidelines for their testimony.
SB 140 - Sponsored by Sen. Jeff Smith (D-St.
Louis City), SB 140 allows
courts that deal with child support cases to assign nonviolent
defendants to educational, vocational, substance abuse treatment
or work programs as an alternative to jail time for failure to
pay.
SB 141 – Sponsored by Sen. Jeff Smith (D-St.
Louis City), SB 141 requires
that a man presumed to be the father of a child must be notified
of any civil proceedings used to determine paternity, and
informs him of his right to contest the assumption that he is
the father and to request a genetic test to determine his
paternity.
SB
157
- Sponsored by Sen.
Eric Schmitt (R – St.
Louis), SB 157 codifies into law the five regional autism
projects currently serving persons with autism. The autism projects
already exist, this legislation just makes them exist
permanently in law.
SB 291 - Originally sponsored by Sen. Charlie Shields
(R-St. Joseph), SB 291 became an enormous omnibus bill
containing dozens of provisions relating to education,
including: strengthening the MO P-20 Council; Foster Care
Education Bill of Rights; MO Preschool Plus Grant Program;
Persistence to Graduation Fund; and stronger PE
requirements.
New Regulations for Child Care
Programs
The Missouri Division for Child Care
Regulation recently proposed changes to licensing rules and
regulations that haven’t been updated in nearly 20 years
for child care centers. The new proposed requirements include:
· Increasing the amount of early
childhood development training for new child care workers from
12 to 15 hours
· Capping the size of a preschool
class at 20 and requiring centers that exceed that limit to
reduce child to worker ratios
· Requiring centers with employees
who are not Missouri residents to obtain a
background check from their states of residence as well as
checking with the FBI National/State Sex Offender
Registry
· Requiring staff members
certified in CPR to be present at a center during operating
hours
· Requiring center directors to
take three additional course hours of college business or
management courses
· Requiring infants to be placed
on their backs at nap time to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome
The proposed changes only apply to licensed
child care centers—not to family/group homes or to
license-exempt facilities—and they will have to be
approved by the legislature’s Joint Committee on
Administrative Rules before going into
effect.
Read more: St. Louis Post-Dispatch – “Day Care
Watchdog Eyes Big Changes”
PFC & CMC Op-Ed: MO Must
Invest in Foster Families
Executive directors Charron Townsend with
Partnership for Children and Scott Gee with Citizens for
Missouri’s Children
recently published an op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
calling on the legislature to build upon the successful
accreditation of Missouri’s
Children’s Division by improving investments in foster
families. Read the full story
>>>
State needs tax system that is efficient,
fair
Kansas Action for Children executive director Gary
Brunk calls for a new tax commission in Kansas that is accountable to taxpayers
but can operate outside of the political realm in order to bring
real change to Kansas’ unfair tax
system. Read the full story in the Wichita Eagle
>>>
Federal
Government Announces $40 million in grants for children’s
health insurance
outreach
Last week, Health and Human
Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of
$40 million in funding for outreach and enrollment efforts in
the widely touted Children’s Health Insurance Program
(CHIP). PFC is
hopeful that the state of Missouri will take advantage
of this additional funding aimed at getting kids enrolled in
health insurance.
PFC is putting together a small coalition in the
Kansas
City area to look into applying for one
of the regional grants – more to come on this in the near
future. Below is
some information on the grants, including the full
announcement.
HHS News
Release
Full Announcement and information
on how to apply
This is the first of two cycles
in grant funding available for CHIP outreach as authorized in
the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization
Act of 2009 recently signed by President Obama. There will be another
cycle of $40 million in grant funding available in the coming
years, but now word from HHS yet on when that might be, so take
advantage of the opportunity now!
Seeking
Participants for KC “Healthy Homes
Program”
Children’s Mercy Family Health Partners has a
program to help make kids healthier and the homes they live in a
healthy place to be.
The program is free, all that is required is
to:
-
Live in the
Kansas City Metro area.
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Have a child
between 2 and 17 years of age, with asthma, allergies, sinus
problems, constant cough, or other constant health
problems.
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Your child stays
at your home at least 4 nights per week.
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Own your home, or
have lived in the same rental unit the last 6 months and plan to
be there the next 12 months.
The FREE home checkup
includes:
-
Checking indoor
air quality and ventilation, dust and allergen levels, moisture
and mold.
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A household
chemical survey.
-
A home
maintenance survey.
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A home safety
check up.
All families will
receive a Healthy Home Cleaning Kit that includes a HEPA Vacuum,
high quality furnace filters, and a set of healthy home cleaning
supplies.
For direct service
providers, this is a great opportunity to refer your
clients. For more
information, call the Healthy Home Program at: 816-235-6331
2009 Affordability of Child Care Report: How
did KS & MO
fare?
A new nationwide report finds that the price
of child care across the country surpasses most other expenses
in family budgets, including food, rent, mortgage payments, and
college tuition. The report by the National Association of Child
Care Resource & Referral Agencies also finds significant
differences in child care costs and affordability between
Kansas & Missouri.
· While Kansas ranks the 29th worst
state in affordability of child care for single parents,
Missouri ranks 47th
as one of the comparatively most affordable states in the
country.
· The average annual price of
infant care in Kansas is $2,500
more than Missouri
· Though Missouri is ranked the most
affordable state for pre-k aged care, annual costs for pre-k
still comprise 20% of a single parent’s
income.
· In
Kansas, while the average two
parent household would spend 9% of their budget on child care
for a 4-yr-old, the same care would take up 26% of a single
parent’s income.
· In
Missouri, infant care costs
26% more in urban areas compared to the rural areas of the state
and 35% more for pre-k care.
· While there is little difference in price for
accredited infant care in Kansas, accredited infant programs cost an
average of 30% more in Missouri, or nearly $2,000
more a year.
View the full report:
“Parents and the High Price of Child Care: 2009
Update”
New Resources from the Missouri
Budget Project:
Balancing the Missouri Fiscal Year 2010 Budget: a
Summary of Vetoes and
Withholds
Comparing Missouri’s Tax and Spending with the
Nation: Where Missouri Ranks in
2009
The Taxed
Enough Already proponents recently held TEA
parties in some areas of Missouri to protest the growth
of government and spending. Are Missourians over-taxed? Is
Missouri’s spending out
of control? Here’s the real facts:
- Missouri
ranks 47th lowest in
the nation on per capita state government revenue
- When local taxes are
included, Missouri ’s rank among
the states improves only slightly to 45th
lowest in the nation for per capita state
and local government revenue
New publications
address economic issues facing
Kansas
Kansas
Action for Children has released several reports this year about
economic issues that impact Kansas children and families.
The most recent report, "The
Kansas Budget Gap: How Did it Happen and Who Gets
Hurt?" calls on the state to do a
top-to-bottom review of our tax
system.
Other
reports on economic security in Kansas:
Become a Fan of Partnership for
Children!
Show your support for policies that help Kansas
City’s children grow up safe,
healthy, and with equal opportunity for success. Become a Fan of
Partnership for Children on Facebook
today.
Sincerely,
Carrie
Shapton & Jeremy
LaFaver
Policy & Outreach
Coordinators
Partnership for
Children
infopfc@pfc.org ~ 816-531-9200
www.pfc.org
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