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March 30, 2009
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-MISSOURI
UPDATE-
House Passes Budget – Next Stop:
Senate
The Missouri House of Representatives voted
to pass the FY’10 budget bills last Thursday along mostly
party lines. Some
items for children's programs and services were partially
restored in the House’s final version, but the budget
still falls short of what Missouri’s children need and
deserve.
Rep. Jason Kander (D-Kansas
City) was
able to add about $600,000 in SCHIP funding targeted
specifically for covering children with cancer and autism. This small increase to
reduce the number of uninsured children in Missouri
is a step in the right direction; however the House rejected the
Governor’s plan to extend coverage to an additional 27,000
children.
In addition, Reps. Ryan Silvey
(R-Clay County), Allen Icet (R-St.
Louis County), and Rachel Storch
(D-St. Louis) led the way in the House to partially restore cuts
to SCHIP presumptive eligibility, child care assistance, and
children’s treatment services and DHSS licensing
inspectors respectively.
PFC would like to recognize and thank all of these
individuals for their leadership in restoring critical funding
for Missouri’s
children.
House Budget Amendments Impacting
Children:
-
Child Care Assistance (Icet) - $2.1
million. This
partially restores a $3.9 million cut by the House Budget
Committee to the Governor’s recommendation, leaving a $1.8
million cut going into the Senate. At this point, income
eligibility for child care would remain at 127% FPL but the
transitional assistance program would have to be significantly
reduced.
-
Children’s treatment services
(Storch) - $1.5 million. This fully restores cuts by the House Budget Committee to
the Governors’ recommendation.
-
DHSS Licensing Inspectors (Storch)
– 1.3 million.
This partially restores cuts by the House Budget Committee,
leaving approximately a $500,000 cut going into the
Senate.
-
SCHIP for children with cancer and
autism (Kander) - $635,000.
-
SCHIP Outreach through Presumptive
Eligibility (Silvey) - $12
million. This
restores funding cut by the Budget Committee for
children’s health presumptive eligibility through FQHCs
and rural health clinics, an initiative that was funded for the
first time last
year. |
MISSOURI
UPDATE
House Passes Budget
– Next Stop: Senate
Update on
Children’s Bills of Interest
- QRS: Two Steps
Forward
- Omnibus Education Bill Passes
Senate
- Foster and Adoptive
Parent Recruitment and Retention Fund
Upcoming
Hearings
New Bills of
Interest
KANSAS
UPDATE
Budget Cuts Funding
for Public Schools
Kansas Budget Includes Expansion of
HealthWave
Governor Signs Graduated
License Bill
House Approves Random
Drug Testing for Public Assistance Recipients
Smoking
Ban
KIDS College Savings Program Awaiting House
Vote
Child Care Licensing
Child
Support Enforcement Passes
Senate |
|
The Budget will now make its way over to the
Senate where the first hearings will begin tomorrow (Tues)
morning and run through the end of the week and likely into next
week as well. There
are indications that the Senate will be more likely to restore
many of the cuts to children’s programs and services and
to utilize more of Missouri’s federal tax
dollars here at home.
However, none of this can be taken for granted. Please contact your
state Senator and tell them that it is their turn to be the hero
for Missouri’s kids by
investing in their future.
-back to top-
Update on Children’s Bills of
Interest
QRS: Two Steps
Forward
Last Wednesday, the House Elementary &
Secondary Education Committee gave approval to Rep.
Cooper’s HB387, establishing a voluntary statewide Quality
Rating System for child care programs. The same day, the bill
was referred on to the House Committee on Rules, bringing it two
steps closer to debate by the full House.
The committee substitute for HB387 included
a few minor changes, including:
-
Programs currently receiving state funding
for quality improvement will be required to be rated by 2014,
instead of 2012.
-
Recruitment efforts for programs to
voluntary participate in QRS will be targeted towards programs
serving a high number of families receiving child care
assistance.
-
DSS shall contract with a non-governmental
organization to provide grants disbursed directly to child care
programs for quality improvement.
-
The non-governmental organization will
establish a quality improvement panel consisting of early
childhood and school-age professional to review grant
applications and determine
funding.
Omnibus Education Bill Passes Senate
After hours of debate and dozens of
amendments, the Senate gave initial approval last Wednesday to
SS/
SB 291 (Shields). The original bill addressed virtual
schools, but grew into a broad omnibus education bill that now
includes many bills being tracked by Partnership for Children.
Approved amendments include:
-
SB344 (Lager): Creates the
P-20 Council to create a more efficient and effective education
system.
-
SB116 (Bray): Creates the
Persistence to Graduation Fund to distribute grants to certain
school districts for drop-out prevention
efforts.
-
SB96 (Justus): Establishes
educational rights for foster care students.
-
Amendment #17 (Cunningham):
Allows open enrollment in public schools for foster students and
tasks the Joint Committee on Education with studying the issue
of open enrollment in public schools.
-
Amendment #24
(Wright-Jones): Adds physical education mandates
similar to HB506 (Stream) in grades K-5.
The Senate also defeated an amendment by a
vote of 13-16 to allow school districts to implement a four-day
school week, a measure that passed the House several weeks
ago.
Foster and
Adoptive Parent Recruitment and Retention
Fund
On Tuesday of last week, Partnership for
Children testified in favor of SB 536 sponsored by Senator Yvonne
Wilson (D-Kansas City). This legislation
proposes to establish a fund that would be used for a mass media
campaign aimed at recruiting and retaining quality foster and
adoptive families.
The committee substitute for the bill will likely contain
a provision for a tax check off box on state income tax return
forms that would allow individuals to voluntarily contribute to
the fund. Each
year, between 9,000 and 10,000 Missouri children are in
foster care. All of
these children deserve to grow up in a safe and nurturing
environment, with the best families Missouri
has to offer.
-back to
top-
Upcoming
Hearings:
Drug Use During Pregnancy
(SB459): Mon, Mar 30 @ 7pm –
Senate Judiciary. Allows criminal prosecution of mother for harm
to unborn child due to intentional and unlawful use of
controlled substances.
Senate Appropriations: The Senate Appropriations
Committee will be meeting all week to review the House budget
bills (HB 1-13).
Child Care
Transitional Assistance (HB
987): Tues,
March 31 @ 5pm – House Healthcare Transformation. Requires
the Family Support Division to implement a step reduction method
to more efficiently transition recipients off of child day care
services benefits.
-back
to top-
New Bills
Filed:
HB
987 (Schaaf)
Requires the Family Support Division to implement a step
reduction method to more efficiently transition recipients off
of child day care services
benefits.
HB
994 (Smith-14)
Allows criminal charges to be filed against a mother who
intentionally uses or ingests an illegal drug while pregnant
which results in harm to her unborn
child.
HB
1008 (Pace)
Increases physical activity requirements in
schools.
HB
1033
(Gatschenberger) Amends laws relating to mandatory
school attendance and penalties for parents or guardians of
students who are not in compliance with the
law.
HB
1052
(Jones-89) Creates procedures for open enrollment of
public school students across school district boundary
lines.
HB
1086 (Shively) Amends the
laws relating to kindergarten and first grade age
requirements.
HB
1089
(McClanahan) Establishes the Missouri Health Policy
Authority to develop and maintain a coordinated health policy
agenda for the provision of health services in this
state.
-back to
top-
-KANSAS
UPDATE-
Agreed Budget Cuts Funding for Public
Schools
Legislative negotiators
agreed last Thursday night on a state budget that reduces
funding for public school districts but generally appears to
leave higher education alone. The deal between House and Senate
negotiators was designed to ensure that Kansas
spends enough of its own tax dollars to satisfy the requirements
for claiming federal stimulus funds for education. The stimulus
money would help balance the $13 billion budget for fiscal year
2010, which begins July 1. Legislative staff said the result is
a cut of about $25 million, or 0.7 percent, in state aid to
school districts.
-back to top-
Kansas Budget Includes Expansion of
HealthWave
Both sides had already
included in their respective versions of the budget $1.2 million
to expand the state’s health insurance program for
children. The difference was in which pots from which to draw
the money that officials said would extend HealthWave coverage
to an additional 4,500 children in the fiscal year that starts
July 1. The expansion would mean eligibility for youngsters in
households earning up to 250 percent of federal poverty
guidelines, or a little more than $55,000 a year for a family of
four. The Senate approved taking the dollars from an increase in
the settlement dollars available from litigation with the major
tobacco companies. The House planned to take the money from the
state general fund but offset by federal stimulus dollars. The
House signaled agreement with the Senate
position.
-back to top-
Governor Signs
Graduated License Bill
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius
signed legislation on Friday raising the age for getting an
unrestricted Kansas driver’s license
from 16 to 17. Kansas would become the 49th
state to adopt a graduated driver’s license law. Unchanged
will be the practice of allowing teens to get a farm permit or
learner’s permit at age 14. Holders of learner’s
permits are allowed to drive if they are accompanied by an
adult. The measure requires people to have such permits for a
year, instead of the current six months, before obtaining an
unrestricted license. The state would keep its current policy of
allowing a 15-year-old with an unrestricted license to drive
unsupervised to and from school and work.
-back to
top-
House
Approves Random Drug Testing for Public Assistance Recipients
The Kansas House has
approved a bill mandating random drug tests for about 14,000
Kansans who receive cash assistance. The 99-26 vote last
Wednesday sent the measure to the Senate. Under the bill,
testing would start next year for participants in the Temporary
Assistance for Families, General Assistance, and Child Care
Assistance programs. They would lose their benefits after
failing a third drug test; the first two times, they would
receive treatment. Critics noted the bill eventually could cost
the state $1.6 million a year.
-back to top-
Smoking
Ban
A
day after appearing dead for the session, a proposed statewide
ban on smoking inside most public places found some new life
Thursday. The House Health and Human Services Committee voted
Wednesday to indefinitely table Senate Bill 25, suggesting it
wouldn't act on the bill. A day later, Senate Public Health and
Welfare gutted the entire contents of a House bill dealing with
child care and inserted the smoking ban proposal that had passed
the Senate on a 26-13 vote last month.
Should House Bill 2221 pass the Senate, the smoking ban
issue could be put before legislative negotiators or the full
House could simply have a vote to agree with the Senate's
smoking ban. But House GOP leaders could still block further
consideration of the bill this session by ruling that the Senate
has materially changed the bill's subject.
-back to
top-
KIDS College Savings Program Awaiting House
Vote
The next action for the
KIDS College Savings Program is
the whole House vote. The Senate approved the measure in late
February. This bill will extend indefinitely the Postsecondary
Education Savings Program, which allows the state to match on a
dollar-for-dollar basis, the cost of tuition and books paid for
by students participating in the program- up to $600 per school
year. The state treasurer has the ability to approve up to 1,200
applications annually, with no more than 300 applications from a
single congressional district. If fewer than 300 applications in
a single district are approved, then additional applications
from the remaining districts may be approved.
-back to
top-
Child Care Licensing
House Bill 2356 has been approved by the Health
and Human Services Committee and now awaiting a vote in the
House. Private agencies that provide foster care and other youth
services want to exempt themselves from state inspections,
saying they already must abide by rigorous accreditation
standards. But the Kansas Department of Health and Environment,
along with some child care facilities, are opposing the move.
-back to
top-
Child Support Enforcement Passes
Senate
The Senate passed HB
2201 which addresses professional license sanctions for parents
who are in arrears in child support payments. HB 2201 would
require restrictions on a professional license holder when the
person owes past due child support equal to or greater than
three months of child support. The House gave approval for this
measure in late
February.
Until next week
–
Carrie Shapton & Jeremy
LaFaver
Policy & Outreach
Coordinators
Partnership for
Children
shapton@pfc.org; lafaver@pfc.org
816-531-9200 |
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