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Is the Tide Turning for Kids in Public Discourse?

The following post first appeared in A Better Life, a blog for the Courier-Journal about the aftermath of the recession. http://youtu.be/WIndJDVCPAY In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, child and poverty advocates across the country had their wishes granted – to hear the President discuss poverty issues, and children’s issues. (Gun control advocates and climate change advocates got their wish too – as did many other advocates). While in reality, the SOTU is little more than “political [...]

By |2013-02-13T17:17:48-05:00February 13th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|
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State Needs More Independent Review of Child-Abuse Cases

This post originally appeared as an Op-Ed in the Herald Leader here. A million years ago, when I was a high school student in Jefferson County, schools were overcrowded to the point where 200 to 300 students were clustered in an auditorium or cafeteria to watch instructional television as the means of teaching. Because of those outrageous student/teacher ratios, we frequently graded our own papers. Maybe it was just me, but a trend line emerged: My grades [...]

By |2013-02-13T09:01:37-05:00February 13th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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It’s Time to Clear the Air

 Last month I asked my children to draw a poster to submit for Children's Advocacy Day on what they thought would make Kentucky a better place to be a kid. My 5-year-old child and I talked about some different ideas, but my 7-year-old son jumped right in to drawing. He had his idea and set to work. A picture emerged of a pizza restaurant with a no smoking sign on the front door. When I [...]

By |2013-02-12T13:50:30-05:00February 12th, 2013|Blog, Health|
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Safe Harbor for Kentucky’s Children

Guest Post by Gretchen Hunt, Training Coordinator, Kentucky Association of Sexual Assault Programs The statistics are staggering.  Nationally, between 100,000 and 300,000 children are vulnerable to being trafficked into commercial sex in the United States. Runaways and homeless youth are particularly vulnerable, with one in three being exploited in commercial sex in the first 48 hours of being on the streets.  The average age of entry into prostitution in this country is between twelve and [...]

By |2013-02-11T07:38:41-05:00February 11th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Youth Justice|
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Children’s Advocacy Day 2013: When it comes to kids, do we have courage?

The weatherman cooperated.  Citizens from throughout the Commonwealth – hundreds of them – showed up.  The atmospherics were great – the Blue Apple Players performing a scene from “Lincoln”; a high school dance team jazzing up the scene; and, young people talking about public policy issues like human trafficking and a smoke-free environment  that count in their lives.  And the 9th Children’s Advocacy Day kicked off. The sun may have been shining bright on our [...]

By |2013-02-07T14:37:36-05:00February 7th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education, Health, Youth Justice|
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FREE Upcoming Bullying/Violence Prevention Curriculum Workshop

If you work for a public school in Kentucky you’ve probably already heard, but we want to make sure after-school programs and summer camps are also in the know about a free bullying/violence prevention workshop taking place April 10 at Murray State University. The Kentucky Center for School Safety, Murray State University Center for Environmental Education, MSU College of Education, and MSU Regional Outreach are sponsoring a full-day training by Operation Respect. Operation Respect is a non-profit organization founded [...]

By |2013-02-05T00:00:05-05:00February 5th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Education|
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Protect Kids from Cuts

On January 29 the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services announced cuts to some vital programs for children, in response to a projected $86.6 million budget shortfall for the Department of Community Based Services. The planned cuts target the Kinship Care Program and the Child Care Assistance Program both of which affect thousands of families and children across the Commonwealth. Cutting the Kinship Care and Child Care Assistance Programs will cost the state more [...]

By |2013-02-04T16:23:29-05:00February 4th, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety, Economic Security, Education|
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Protect Children, Not Guns

After the incident in Newtown, my wife remembered a moment in her classroom with rare clarity.  It happened more than a decade ago when one of Louisville’s neighborhoods had been riddled with violence for a second consecutive weekend.  It was a neighborhood in which the majority of her students lived.  Judy remembers feeling an urge to ask an important question of her youngsters – “How many of you live in a home in which there [...]

By |2013-01-31T08:56:31-05:00January 31st, 2013|Blog, Child Welfare & Safety|
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The Price of Poverty is High in Kentucky

The following post first appeared in A Better Life, a blog for the Courier-Journal about the aftermath of the recession. Something exciting about one solution to poverty cited - a state Earned Income Tax Credit received broad support on the show from experts across the political aisle. Dr. Eric Schansberg, an economics professor at Indiana University-Southeast and member of the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Board of Scholars in particular, believes it’s a great way to [...]

By |2013-01-30T13:51:01-05:00January 30th, 2013|Blog, Economic Security|
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Important Notice Regarding the Chronic Absenteeism Data in 2012 KIDS COUNT Data Book

Kentucky Youth Advocates (KYA) was just informed by the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) that the chronic absenteeism data provided by KDE in the recently released 2012 Kentucky KIDS COUNT County Data Book is inaccurate for all school districts. KYA has taken the chronic absenteeism data off of our online KIDS COUNT Data Center until the corrected data is provided by KDE. KYA has also put a hold on fulfilling book request orders until this [...]

By |2013-01-29T15:10:57-05:00January 29th, 2013|Blog, Education|
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