Report on Preschool Programs articles from July 2005

Report on Preschool Programs archives from July 2005

Feeling the heat.(Slants & Trends)(Service Employees International Union)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... FEELING THE HEAT. The battle to unionize child care workers is heating up again. Family child care workers won a resounding victory in Illinois, voting to align themselves with the Service Employees International Union. A heated debate is...

No good news.(Slants & Trends)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... NO GOOD NEWS. Early childhood advocates are not expecting to reap major funding increases when a powerful Senate panel finishes its work this week on a human service/education funding bill for the next fiscal year. As RPP went to press, a...

Agency finds 69 pre-k programs, including little known initiatives.
July 13, 2005... Though advocates may be hard-pressed to name all the initiatives, the federal government operates 69 separate programs that allow pre-kindergarten and early education as allowable activities, according to a new analysis. The Government...

New Jersey grantee sought.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... NEW JERSEY GRANTEE SOUGHT: The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking one or more Head Start grantees to operate programs in Union County, New Jersey. Three agencies previously had grants to serve the county, and HHS said new...

Senate provides little new funding for Head Start, other programs.
July 13, 2005... Long considered more generous to human service programs than the House of Representatives, the Senate this week took a different path with a bill that has little new funding for core early childhood programs. The Senate appropriations...

Children with preschool experience show gains 25 years later: study.
July 13, 2005... Children who participated in a 1970s preschool program performed better academically and had better physical and mental health in adulthood, says a new study that may have implications for Early Head Start, which borrowed many concepts from...

Leaders to meet.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... LEADERS TO MEET: State child care administrators will meet Aug. 8-10 in Washington, D.C. Contact: Z-Tech Corp., (301) 315-2825, www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccb.

Congress grants welfare extension with no consensus in sight.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... Congress again is extending the 1996 federal welfare reform law due to its inability to reach consensus on how to improve the statute. Lawmakers have failed to reach agreement for three years on an extension of welfare policy and the...

Democrats propose paid leave in new expansion of FMLA.(Family and Medical Leave Act)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... Three House Democrats are proposing new legislation that would allow workers to receive paid, rather than unpaid, leave for the birth or adoption of a child under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) introduced the...

HHS providing new funds to target infant mortality.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... The Department of Health and Human Services is providing $80 million in new Healthy Start grants to reduce infant mortality. HHS made 77 grant awards to improve health care for pregnant women and reduce higher-than-average infant mortality...

Many Southern states improving pre-k offerings, new study says.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... Many Southern states are improving their preschool programs despite budget challenges, a research organization reports. Half of Southern states provide enough pre-k and early childhood slots to accommodate low-income children, says the...

Child care unionization plan gets veto from R.I. governor.
July 13, 2005... The battle to unionize child care workers is reaching new battlegrounds in Illinois and Rhode Island, two states targeted by the Service Employees International Union. More than 49,000 Illinois home-based child care providers have voted...

A lung treatment.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... A lung treatment originally judged helpful for premature infants does not reduce a child's chances for death or additional problems, a study from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says. The study examined the use of...

The Consumer Product Safety Commission.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Graco Children's Products are recalling about 1 million Duo Tandem strollers for two children. Graco has received 306 reports of strollers that collapsed unexpectedly as strollers failed to latch...

Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.).(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) has introduced legislation to provide comprehensive eye exams and follow-up treatment to young children. The Children's Vision Improvement and Learning Readiness Act would provide comprehensive exams to children...

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).(Healthy Start program,)
July 13, 2005... Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) has introduced a bill to make changes in the operation of the Healthy Start program, a Department of Health and Human Services initiative to combat infant mortality. The bill, H.R. 3131, was referred to the Energy and...

A coalition of 13 lawmakers.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... A coalition of 13 lawmakers has introduced legislation to extend the dependent care tax credit to include stay-at-home parents with young children. The Parents' Tax Relief Act also would make the $1,000 child tax credit permanent and index it...

The Toyota Family Literacy.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... The Toyota Family Literacy program wants to expand to five new sites. The $2.97 million expansion will target Hispanic and other immigrant families with a need to increase basic language and literacy skills and help parents acquire skills that...

The Department of Health and Human Services.(allotments for State Children's Health Insurance Program)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... The Department of Health and Human Services has made 2006 allotments to each state and territory under the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The allotments are to match expenditures under an approved state child health plan for three...

The Senate has confirmed.(Tom Luce appointed as assistant secretary for the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Education Department)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... The Senate has confirmed Tom Luce as assistant secretary for the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Education Department. Luce was the founder and chairman of Just for the Kids, a Texas nonprofit group, and he was...

President Bush in June.(Terrell Halaska appointed as assistant secretary of education for congressional affairs)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... President Bush in June nominated Terrell Halaska as assistant secretary of education for congressional affairs. Halaska is a special assistant to the president for domestic policy and previously was deputy chief of staff at the Department of...

House restores 2006 funds for child lead paint hazards.(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... The House of Representatives has restored $48 million to a program that helps reduce young children's exposure to lead paint hazards. In approving a fiscal 2006 housing and transportation budget bill, lawmakers approved an amendment with...

Hoyer bill promotes preschool as part of Full-Service Schools.(Steny Hoyer's Full-Service Community Schools Act)(Brief Article)
July 13, 2005... Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) wants more schools to offer comprehensive services such as child care and early childhood education. His new Full-Service Community Schools Act would improve the coordination, availability and effectiveness of...

The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National-Louis University has published a new Research Notes issue on professional development for early childhood administrators.
July 13, 2005... The McCormick Tribune Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National-Louis University has published a new Research Notes issue on professional development for early childhood administrators. Contact: McCormick Center, 6310 Capitol Drive,...

Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom.
July 13, 2005... Teaching Young Children in Violent Times: Building a Peaceable Classroom, 2nd edition, is $21 for National Association for the Education of Young Children members and $24 for non-members from NAEYC, (800) 424-2460, www.naeyc.org.

Teacher training.(Slants & Trends)(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... TEACHER TRAINING. Head Start teacher education continues to rise. About 65 percent of Head Start teachers now have an associate, bachelor's or advanced degree in early childhood education or a related field, based on federal data released on...

Senate proposes FY06 freeze for key child care services.(financial year)
July 27, 2005... The federal government's main child care program faces yet another funding freeze in 2006 based on new U.S. Senate recommendations. The Senate Appropriations Committee has earmarked $2.08 billion next year for the Child Care and Development...

Pre-K bill proposes grants for states, local districts.(Prekindergarten-Oriented Professional Support Act )(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... A new bill from Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) would provide grants to states and localities for the hiring and training of pre-k teachers. The Prekindergarten-Oriented Professional Support Act would authorize $50 million a year and $250...

Senate spares one key program, but votes to terminate another.(early childhood education programs)
July 27, 2005... A Senate panel took different paths this month when asked to approve the termination of two Department of Health and Human Services programs important to advocates of early childhood education. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to...

Early education shows few gains in senate education spending bill.
July 27, 2005... The Senate is joining the White House in proposing termination of the Even Start family literacy program next year. Once a politically popular program reaching two generations of families, Even Start is facing increasing fire on Capitol...

HHS offers funds for preschool education, training initiatives.(Department of Health and Human Services)(Sharon Lynn Kagan receives award)
July 27, 2005... The Department of Health and Human Services is looking for interested organizations to sponsor two major education and training initiatives for preschool professionals. HHS' Head Start Bureau has $3 million annually available for the next...

Special education bill offers gains for infants, freeze for preschoolers.
July 27, 2005... The Senate this month gave a small boost to infant special education while other programs would remain largely unchanged next year. Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee included a $4 million increase for the infant/family program,...

Senate bill provides more funds for CACFP, breakfast program.(Child and Adult Care Food Program)
July 27, 2005... Congress is moving another step closer to final approval of small funding increases for major child nutrition programs. A Senate bill would follow House and Bush administration proposals to provide more funds for the Child and Adult Care...

New vaccine bill proposes ban on mercury.(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) has a new bill to reduce human exposure to mercury through vaccines. Despite attempts to reduce mercury in many vaccines, particularly those required for children, more action is needed, Hagel said in introducing the...

New teacher education rules bring Head Start 'funding gap'.
July 27, 2005... Head Start needs another $3.4 billion over six years if Senate proposals to increase teacher education requirements become law. The Center for Law and Social Policy identified this "funding gap" after the Senate proposed to raise...

Researchers find gains for mothers who establish paternity at hospital.(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... Establishing paternity while a baby is still in the hospital leads to stronger involvement of unwed fathers in their children's lives, a new study says. Fathers were more likely to be involved in their child's life when their paternity was...

A House subcommittee has approved a bill with $5,000 in education loan relief to individuals in early childhood education, nursing and other areas with shortages of qualified professionals.(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... A House subcommittee has approved a bill with $5,000 in education loan relief to individuals in early childhood education, nursing and other areas with shortages of qualified professionals. Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) successfully attached the...

Hand-washing with soap reduces the number of pneumonia-related infections in preschool children by more than 50 percent, says a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... Hand-washing with soap reduces the number of pneumonia-related infections in preschool children by more than 50 percent, says a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A division of Proctor & Gamble also participated in the...

A new bill from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) would reduce childhood obesity by encouraging nutrition improvements and obesity prevention programs at schools.(Brief Article)
July 27, 2005... A new bill from Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) would reduce childhood obesity by encouraging nutrition improvements and obesity prevention programs at schools. The bill, S. 1324, also would promote the development of new physical...