State wants all foster youths to know about tuition waiver

State wants all foster youths to know about tuition waiver:
Newly enacted legislation is meant to offset the lack of parental support
July 13, 2012
Lauren Dake, The Bulletin

SALEM — Until recently, Haley Wahnetah could not picture a happy future for herself.

The best-case scenario, the 18-year-old thought, was landing a job at a fast-food restaurant.

But now, the Madras resident and mother of a 2-year-old son is enrolled at Mount Hood Community College and envisions a different life.

“I graduated from high school. ... I registered for college. And I feel like my life is better now than it’s ever been in the past 18 years,” she said.

Wahnetah grew up in foster homes, bouncing among more than five homes while her mother battled addiction. When she was growing up, nobody talked to her about college. She didn’t see herself becoming a drug and alcohol counselor, as she does now.

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School District’s Achievement Compacts will Include Absenteeism

March 22, 2012
Amanda Waldroupe, The Lund Report

School District’s Achievement Compacts will Include Absenteeism

Children’s advocates hope that more school-based health services will occur once more is learned about why students miss school

March 22, 2012—After intense lobbying and attending countless Oregon Education Investment Board meetings and subcommittee meetings, the Healthy Kids Learn Better Coalition got what it wanted: inclusion of absenteeism in the achievement compacts between school districts and the state, which could lead to more information about students’ health problems.

Achievement compacts are agreements between Oregon’s 197 school districts and the state that are expected to determine whether schools are marching toward the goal of having 100 percent of high school students graduate by 2025. The agreements, and the creation of the Education Investment Board, were part of a major overhaul that Governor Kitzhaber and the Legislature made to the public education system in the legislative session that just ended.

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Children First’s Pamela Butler Discusses Jeanette Maples in the Statesman Journal

Jeanette Maples’ death is important lesson for us all
Mar. 19, 2012
Pamela Butler, Children First for Oregon
The Statesman Journal

For some of us, Jeanette Maples’ death will never be forgotten.

Advocates who work tirelessly to reduce child abuse and neglect are reminded in our daily work of what happens to vulnerable children when the community—and the system created to protect them—fails them. In order to prevent a similar tragedy, the state legislature and Department of Human Services must not view her story as an isolated case, but one that is emblematic of a continual, urgent issue that deserves adequate resources and attention.

Maples’ story clearly highlighted shortcomings in DHS policies and practices—from abuse allegations that are closed with no investigation to the criteria caseworkers use to assess a child’s vulnerability.

While the department has taken steps to address these failures in the wake of Maples’ death, it must continue to use its Quality Assurance Tool to review allegations of abuse that haven’t been investigated—because we know that so often these calls are the smoke before the fire.

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Some Serious Glitches in Oregon’s $40 Million Child Welfare Computer

Oregon’s $40 million child welfare computer upgrade has glitches, some serious
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Michelle Cole, OregonLive.com

SALEM—

Oregon child welfare managers have not had access to statewide performance data showing how quickly local offices are responding to abuse reports and other information. Foster parents have waited for payments. And caseworkers say they are spending time putting information into a computer that should be spent with families.

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Statewide limit on day care subsidies may affect local parents

Statewide limit on day care subsidies may affect local parents
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Carisa Cegavske, The News-Review

“Some families on the waiting list will now receive subsidies. Many more will not, however. There are 3,000 families on the waiting list, which is growing by 100 families a week, said Regan Gray, a lobbyist with Children First for Oregon.”

“Children First lobbied the Legislature to tap federal grants already awarded the state to raise the cap back to 10,000. About $10 million of the $16.6 million in federal child care and developments funds will remain unspent under the budget adopted by the Legislature, according to Children First.”

“After the state imposed the 10,000-family cap, fewer working parents sought child care and some day cares closed, said Anna Aasen, project specialist at Family Connections in Roseburg, a state-funded child care referral agency. She said she believes both may have been largely caused by cuts in subsidies.

Another Children First lobbyist, Stacy Michaelson, said 2,000 child care providers statewide closed between December 2010 and December 2011.”

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Pamela Butler Guest Column: Cutbacks hamper agency’s ability to prevent abuse cases

GUEST VIEWPOINT: Cutbacks hamper agency’s ability to prevent abuse cases
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Pamela Butler, Children First for Oregon
The Register-Guard

Jeanette Maples’ death never will be forgotten. Advocates who work tirelessly to reduce child abuse and neglect are reminded in our daily work of what happens to vulnerable children when the community fails them.

To prevent a similar tragedy, the state Legislature and the Oregon Department of Human Services must not view her story as an isolated case, but one that is emblematic of a continual, urgent issue that deserves adequate resources and attention.

Jeanette’s story clearly highlighted shortcomings in DHS policies and practices, from abuse allegations that are closed with no investigation to the criteria caseworkers use to assess a child’s vulnerability.

While the department has taken steps to address these failures in the wake of Jeanette’s death, it must continue to use its Quality Assurance Tool to review allegations of abuse that haven’t been investigated — because we know that these calls are often the smoke before the fire.

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Report: Oregon Kids Living in Poor Areas Have Tripled

Report: Oregon Kids Living in Poor Areas Have Tripled
Friday, February 23, 2012
KTVZ.com News Sources

SALEM, Ore.—An estimated 42,000 children in Oregon are living in areas where at least 30 percent of their neighbors are poor, which affects them negatively in a variety of ways, according to a report released Thursday.

The number of Oregon children growing up in areas of concentrated poverty has tripled since 2000, according to the KIDS COUNT “Data Snapshot” report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Even being one of the more stable families in an impoverished neighborhood still holds a family back, says Laura Speer, the Casey Foundation’s associate director for policy reform.

“It really gets at this double-jeopardy in terms of these children who are living in high-poverty communities that there actually is an effect that the communities have, regardless of their own family’s income,” she said.

Children living in areas of concentrated poverty have harmful stress levels, the report says, and are more likely to have behavioral and emotional problems and trouble in school.

Stacy Michaelson, a Children First for Oregon policy associate, says it’s all part of a much bigger problem: With 374,000 children in Oregon who are living in low-income households, a number which has been creeping up for a decade and isn’t confined to high-poverty areas.

“We’re a small state; that’s a large portion of folks,” Michaelson said. “Things are green and pretty in the Northwest, but that doesn’t mean our kids aren’t experiencing poverty. I think because it’s not visualized in the same way as it is in a lot of other areas, it’s sort of easy to not realize the magnitude of the problem.”

Michaelson, who has been sitting in on this week’s budget discussions at the Legislature, says she hoped for more dialogue about how and when to deploy social services, not just whether to fund or cut them. She calls it a “return on investment conversation.”

“Where we really look at, at what point we begin investing dollars in a family—and are we waiting until a family gets to a point where they’re in a really dire position? Or are we prioritizing programs that prevent families from getting to that level of poverty in the first place?” she asked.

Children First for Oregon advocates maintaining funding for programs such as Employment-Related Day Care, which helps lower-income families pay for child care so parents can hold jobs. The Casey Foundation report says three out of four children living in poverty have at least one parent in the full-time workforce.

The full report is online at AECF.org.

Chris Thomas of Oregon News Service prepared this report.

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Save ERDC Advocacy a Success

Supporters rally to preserve child care program

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Legislative Session Notebook, The Statesman Journal
Queenie Wong

Child care providers and parents called on lawmakers Tuesday to preserve a state program that helps low-income families pay for child care.

Children First for Oregon’s “Advocacy Day to Save Employment-Related Day Care” attracted more than two dozen participants.

The Employment-Related Day Care program was budgeted for 10,000 families for the 2011-2013 biennium, but a budget-rebalancing plan unveiled last week would clamp a new limit of 8,500.

During the event, families and child-care providers listened to speakers and visited their lawmakers to urge them to protect the program.

“I just want to be the little birdie in their ear to tell them that there are people out there that really do need help,” Portland resident Summer Frost said.

Frost said she relies on the program to support her three daughters while she works. The program subsidizes about $1,100 per month of her child care costs, she said.

Salem resident Teresa Monahan, a single mother of three, said the program has helped keep her away from unemployment.

Participants were from groups including SEIU, AFSCME and the Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children.

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Rising Cost of Child Care in Eastern Oregon

Rising cost of child care
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
By Bill Rautenstrauch, The Observer

OSU report: Child care prices on average increased 7 percent more than family incomes from 2004 to 2010

Maybe the best news in a recent report on child care in Oregon is that it doesn’t cost as much on the east side of the state as it does in other places.

Still, it’s expensive, and hits young parents —  especially those who can’t get on the list for a key assistance program offered by the state — right where it hurts.

“I sometimes wonder how those parents are managing,” said Jean Johnson of the La Grande office of Child Care Resource and Referral.

The report from Oregon State University says that while child care costs throughout the state have risen, wages have remained flat or increased only slightly over the past decade. It’s resulted in what researchers call “a crisis for families.”

The report, looking at child care in every Oregon county, says child care prices on average increased 7 percent more than family incomes from 2004 to 2010.

And for single parents, the situation is more serious. Their child care prices increased 14 percent more than their incomes in the same period.

Counties on Oregon’s more populated west side are really feeling the pinch, according to the report. In Washington County, for example, the average cost of toddler care in a child care center is $10,400, some $4,000 more than the annual cost of college tuition.

On the east side, costs aren’t as high, though they’re still burdensome.  In Union County, toddler care costs $4,888 on average, while college tuition averages $6,790. In Wallowa County, cost of toddler care comes in at about about $2,788, with college tuition pegged at the same amount as in Union County.

The bottom line? Many young parents are struggling along on minimum wage incomes and spending a good part of their money on child care providers, either in informal or formal arrangements.

Across Eastern Oregon, families using paid care are shelling out an average of $255 a month.

Johnson said that until a few years ago, Eastern Oregon child care costs were among the lowest in the nation, and remain comparatively low today. She also said that while costs have gone up locally, there hasn’t been a big, sudden spike in prices.

Both Johnson and Kathy Wadsworth of the Wallowa County Child Care Resource and Referral office in Enterprise said the child care issue is double-sided. The local child care providers struggle with costs, just as those seeking child care do.

“It’s expensive for parents, and it’s hard for providers to make a sufficient income,” Johnson said.

Wadsworth said Wallowa County providers — many of whom work on a part time or seasonal basis — haven’t raised their rates significantly the past six or seven years. She said providers’ earnings aren’t keeping pace with the cost of living.

But considering what parents of young children in Eastern Oregon are likely to earn in a year’s time, child care still takes a big bite out of a budget. Annual income of a minimum wage worker is about $17,000.

“I would say most young parents are on fairly low incomes, and it’s a struggle to pay for care,” Johnson said.

She added that parents of infants and toddlers have an extra burden, because child care providers tend to charge more for kids under two.

Struggling parents look for financial help from the state, but there isn’t a lot available. Johnson said the number of programs aimed at helping with child care costs is small. The one people look to most is the Employment Related Day Care Program run by the Department of Human Resources.

But budget shortfalls the last couple of years have forced cuts to the program. As a cost-saver, the state decided to cap the number of participants at 9,000.

The result is that many do without help, even though they meet the program’s income guidelines.

“The cap means that many people who are eligible can’t get on it,” Johnson said.

Johnson said that in Union County, there are about 130 licensed providers registered with her office, ranging from professional care center operators to people who routinely care for one or two children and grandparents who care for young family members and charge little or nothing.

The number of registered care providers in Union County stays about the same year-to-year. Then, too, any number of people in the community aren’t registered but help friends or family members with child care. The situation is the same in Wallowa County.

So people with children make the best arrangements they can. Every working parent hopes for high quality child care, placing children in care centers or pre-schools, but costs for those kind of arrangements are often too high.

“Paying for care is a huge challenge. There aren’t many funding options,” Johnson said.

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More than one-quarter of people younger than 18 struggle to get by

More than one-quarter of people younger than 18 struggle to get by
Friday, September 23, 2011
Saerom Yoo, The Statesman Journal

Salem, OR - Poverty has been a painful reality for many more people since the recession, but according to the 2010 American Community Survey results released Thursday, children are among its greatest victims.

In Marion County, 27 percent of children under age 18 live below the poverty level. In Polk County, 29.3 percent of children live in poverty.

Families of children younger than 5 headed by single mothers are struggling the most, according to the survey, with more than half of such families in Marion County living in poverty.

For all Marion County families with children younger than 5, the poverty rate rose from 15.5 percent in 2009 to 27.4 percent in 2010. For married couple families with children younger than 5, the poverty rate rose from 3.3 percent to 15.2 percent.

Regan Gray, policy director for Children First for Oregon, said growing up in stressful situations will have lasting impact on children.

“We know that children that live in poverty usually suffer from circumstances that brings,” she said. “They’ll have lower educational attainment, school achievement, behavioral and emotional well-being and physical health issues.”

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National Child Poverty Rate Hits Record High

National Child Poverty Rate Hits Record High
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
KBND

BEND, Ore.—46 million people in America are living in poverty; that’s one in 6.

These findings from the last census mark a 27 year high. 15% of Americans are living below the poverty line.

Reagan Gray with Children First for Oregon, a non-partisan child advocacy group, says Oregon is especially hard hit. “And a report came out a month ago that found Oregon has the highest rate of childhood hunger in the nation and that’s on top of this report about a record high national level of poverty. We need to be thinking about what can we do to mitigate the effects of poverty. How can we keep families whole.” The National Child Poverty Rate has hit a record high of 22%, a level not seen since 1994.

The government defines the poverty line as income of $22,000 a year for a family of four and $11,000 for an individual.

Read the original article here.

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DHS Facing Drastic Child Care Cuts

DHS Facing Drastic Child Care Cuts
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Susan Gager, KOHD 9

LANE COUNTY, Ore.—The Department of Human Services is facing significant cuts, in some programs up to 75 percent.

For one single mother, it could mean losing her children to child welfare.

The legislature slashed a Lane County jobs program’s annual budget from $5.2 million to $1.4 million.

Part of the program provided child care to assist parents attending mental health and drug treatment programs.

However, DHS alerted parents that child care is on the chopping block.

“It’s really hard and I think we all know the price of utilities, housing, and the needs children have when they’re enrolled in school. Clothing, and it’s not enough when you pencil it out in a budget,” said John Radich, DHS District Manager.

Radich says DHS will still provide an employment-related daycare program.

That’s the program for those who are employed but still need financial help.

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Fair to promote active, healthy lifestyles

Fair to promote active, healthy lifestyles
Friday, June 3, 2011
April Bamburg, The Newport News Times

Nearly 30 percent of Lincoln County’s youths, ages 0-17 are obese, according to statistics from Children First for Oregon’s 2010 data book. A coalition of community members and local organizations are looking to change that figure, and encourage citizens to be more active.

To get the word out about activities and services in the community, a three-county coalition called the Childhood Obesity Partnership formed, after Samaritan Health Services received a 1-year planning grant to develop strategies to prevent or reduce childhood obesity, because of particularly high rates of childhood obesity in Linn and Lincoln Counties, according to Julia Young-Lorion, Community Health Improvement Partnership Coordinator with Samaritan Health Services.

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Oregon’s budget priorities: It’s too soon to uproot the foundations we’ve laid

Oregon’s budget priorities: It’s too soon to uproot the foundations we’ve laid
Friday, May 6, 2011
By Ryan Fisher and Stephanie Tama-Sweet, Guest Columnists, The Oregonian

Recent public hearings on the state budget have been dominated by public outrage about a list of budget cuts that are too long and too deep. These cuts will hurt all of us, and all of our communities. We’ll be less resilient in the face of the challenges posed by everyday life. The list includes deep cuts to the already bare-bones support we provide to our lowest-income families; family support for children with developmental disabilities; and reductions in services to individuals leaving domestic violence;...

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