There was some serious excitement in my house last week, as my youngest daughter began kindergarten. The day before her first day, we went into school to deliver her bag of school supplies – crayons, markers, scissors, notebooks, and glue sticks. We visited her new classroom and found her spot at the table with her name and met her new teacher. We hung her first-day-of-school outfit in her closet and got her new Shopkins backpack [...]

Children’s health is touched deeply and pervasively by where they live, learn, and play – long before they get to the doctor’s office or dentist’s chair. This week, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute released their annual County Health Rankings. This easy-to-use snapshot compares counties within states to show that where you live influences how well and how long you live. The local level data makes it clear that [...]

A bill to support one of the most vulnerable groups of children in Kentucky – children with an incarcerated parent – cleared its final hurdle this week. The Kentucky Senate concurred with changes made by the House, and SB 120, sponsored by Senator Whitney Westerfield, is now off to the Governor’s desk for signature. SB 120 emerged from the work of Governor Bevin’s Criminal Justice Policy Assessment Council that was created to identify policy solutions [...]