State of the Children

As federal health care reform rolls out over the next few years, many of the currently uninsured children in Texas--1 of every 4 children--will have access to health coverage, including mental health and substance abuse benefits. This is great news. Providing hundreds of thousands of Texas children with increased access to health and behavioral health coverage is a huge step forward to helping our children grow up healthy and strong, physically and mentally--and to helping our state and society prosper. Yet coverage does not guarantee access to effective treatment, nor does it guarantee there will be health or mental health providers available in their communities to appropriately address children's mental and behavioral health needs. More work lies ahead for Texas.

Two recent reports relayed bad and seemingly paradoxical news for Texas children. According to the latest research, our Texas kids, more than almost any in the country, face threats from both hunger and obesity.

Nearly one out of four Texas children is "food insecure," meaning they might not know where their next meal will come from, says a July 1 report from Feeding America, which ranked Texas 49th in the country for providing reliable food access for children under 18. The same week, however, the Trust for America's Health announced Texas children suffer disproportionately from obesity. More than 20 percent of kids here are obese, and Texas had the seventh-highest child obesity ranking.

Underlying these statistics is a sad reality: Too many children get poorly nourished because their environment--at school, in the neighborhood and their community--proves inhospitable to healthy eating.

This week, Texans joined with others from across the country to send the U.S. Congress an important message--we care about improving future prospects for youth in the juvenile justice system, we support programs effective at protecting against youth crime, and we expect the federal government to be a good partner to states and counties in a united front to help youth participate positively in their communities. We acted in conjunction with a federal partner organization, Act 4 Juvenile Justice, who organized July 7th as the National Call-In Day for Juvenile Justice. Our goal is to get the U.S. Congress to revise the federal legislation, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, that guides states' juvenile justice work before the year ends.

Imagine if a new terrorist plot were revealed, with widespread implications for our economy, its supply chains, and many civic institutions. Let's say the scheme has the potential to set our nation back by a generation, but that, fortunately, some of the country's top scientists have determined a way to subvert the plot before it occurs. In that case, we would expect our elected leaders to come together in a nonpartisan way and act to protect our common interests for safety and economic stability. Now, if the preventable scenario that would damage our communities for decades turned out not to come from off-shore terrorists, but from our own ill-conceived policies, isn't that all the more reason to come together and address a key threat we face?

Cuts that cost in juvenile justice, the rising cost of raising a child, more families facing homelessness, and a new funding opportunity for home visitation programs are among the features in our round-up this week of the latest news and reports on children and policy in Texas. We also put a spotlight on one item in our agenda for the upcoming Texas Legislative session in 2011: closing a loophole in the law that today disproportionately hurts vulnerable families with young children.

Texas-grown ideas for improving kids' fitness, nutrition, and graduation rates are among the positive highlights in this week's news and reports round-up. We also feature news about the effect of toxins on pregnant mothers, the growing trend toward criminalizing classroom misbehavior even for elementary students, and more about the effects of state budget decisions on Texas families and children--stories we hope you will join us in following closely, and taking action to address.

Often when speaking to colleagues not familiar with our work, I am asked which area of child wellbeing will get priority in the coming legislative session. The truth is: all of them. We seize opportunities to improve outcomes for children as they arise, but at all times we work to improve all areas of wellbeing at once. As a point of principle, but more importantly, as indicative of the full array of potential and need of each child, we are dedicated to doing the challenging work of staying active in a wide spectrum of policy discussions related to children and families...

Many may not know that today is the anniversary of one of the deadliest attacks on American children in history. All but forgotten today, the events of May 18, 1927 in Bath Township, Michigan, have special resonance for our political discourse today. Over 80 years ago, a deranged man named Andrew Kehoe had a political ax to grind and targeted grade-schoolers, killing as many innocent children in a single morning as later attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Oklahoma City Federal Building, and September 11 combined--38 kids in all, most between the ages of 7 and 12. His motive? Kehoe resented having to pay property taxes for those children's schooling.

Imagine, if you can, all the children in Texas in one giant room together. What would they look like? How much of the group would be Hispanic? Black? White? Now picture all of the children in Texas' foster care system together in one place. Do the two groups look different? Unfortunately, if you said "yes,” you would be correct. This is disproportionality, the child welfare buzzword that captures the fact that some racial or ethnic groups are represented at greater or lesser rates within the child welfare system than in the general child population.

Child care standards, federal updates, fighting child obesity together, making Child Protective Services accountable to African-American communities, and lots of mental health news as Children's Mental Health Awareness Week approaches are among the highlights in our latest round-up of news and reports. As we mentioned last week, this was also a busy week for advocates, with partners meeting with us on everything from food policy to the children's mental health workforce, from health coverage for kids to money for the Texas budget, as well as strategies to prevent teen pregnancies, implications of making juvenile offenders register as sex offenders, and ways to support transitions to adulthood for foster youth. Have you ever wondered, though: What's up with all those meetings? We answer in the post this week. . .

Perhaps you heard the story of little Eli Johnson, and maybe it got to you, too. In my home state of Oklahoma, 3-year-old Eli lost his life when the adults responsible for his care lost their temper. He is one of about 1,700 American children who died last year of child abuse or neglect. Every sixth child in that statistic was from Texas, which had its highest number of child abuse fatalities on record last year. That's especially disheartening, considering that child abuse rates overall are falling. Yet these, the most tragic of cases, continue to climb year after year. . . .

Children may be bundles of joy, but, as any parent knows, they also represent life’s greatest responsibility. For each moment of wonder in seeing life through a child’s eyes, each heartstring tug inherent in a tiny human trustingly placing a hand in your own, each deep belly giggle, there are also moments somewhere else on the emotional spectrum. From a sick child’s midnight wails to the testing of limits from a growing preschooler (or teenager), having a family can bring challenges. Maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised at the recent Newsweek report. In an article on the science of happiness, we learn parents register further down the happiness scale, compared to the childless.

The lesson in all this goes beyond parenthood...

Drug use during pregnancy is the sort of hot-button issue that draws lawmakers' attention. Last session was no exception, with two bills presented during the session that would have allowed the state to use newborn infants who test positive for illegal drugs as legal evidence against their mothers. . . .

The Texas Indigent Defense Summit is underway right now at the Capitol, and I was able to catch the opening remarks and first panel discussion. From these two sessions alone, I gained a better understanding of the progress and challenges of the Texas Fair Defense Act since its passage in 2001. The Act upheld U.S. Constitutional rights by requiring all criminal courts in Texas to adopt a system that appoints lawyers to indigent defendants, those who can't afford representation. This Act ensures that impoverished individuals, including juveniles, who are accused of crimes, are provided adequate access to public defense services. . . .

Some kids who act out had TBI, traumatic brain injury, which has been undiagnosed but which acts as a driver for misbehavior. The prospect is likely, but, until now, no one has investigated or focused on the children and youth in the juvenile justice system who need extra help because of TBI. Texas will be the first state to do so. . . .

Parity for mental health patients, a spike in the teen pregnancy rate, and growing child care expenses for working families are covered in this week's round-up of news and resources. We also wanted to let those of you in community-based organizations know about a great new tool we came across for finding federal funding for youth and family programs: Federal Funding Guides from the Finance Project.

Some good chances to speak out about issues pertaining to children are coming up, and we highlight these, along with updates on everything from Texas children's H1N1 vaccines to approaches to treating depression in this week's round-up. Of course, the big national story on many folks' minds is what happens now with health reform. Perhaps the context most important to keep in mind for Texans this week is that the state responsible for an electoral upset that has led some to question the fate of the reform bills pending in Congress just happens to be the one with the least to gain from health reform. . .

My son has forever reframed for me Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. As together we set forth last year to make it a "day on" rather than a day off, his unexpected interpretation of how personal our commitment should be made me rethink my own sense of obligation . . . . Read the complete post.