I know I'm getting older. Used to be when I heard "New Year," I thought only about the end-of-the-year parties. Now I get giddy about those fun end-of-one-year/beginning-of-the-next lists: the best and worst in films, books, news, you name it.
For kids and their activist supporters, 2010 was a mixed year, no doubt. Still, there were some big steps forward in the policy arena when it comes to children, over the last 12 months. Those wins are worth remembering--especially as we head into a year that promises a roller-coaster ride on the policy front.
Below are my personal Top 5's for best of 2010 and things to watch in 2011. You and even my colleagues at Texans Care for Children might have totally different ideas on these topics. What do you think? Were there big wins for kids--nationally, locally, or statewide--that I missed? Other things you're keeping an eye on? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
[Note: Since the Texas legislature doesn't convene in even-numbered years, the first list has a big federal focus. Still, state policy affects our kids in a big way, so my 2011 list is heavily Texas-centric.]
Top 5 Policy Wins for Children in 2010
5. The White House tackles child obesity: It's been almost a year since First Lady Michelle Obama announced her goal for the country: ending the childhood obesity epidemic within a generation. From her own planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn to the release of a major White House report offering a national plan, she set in motion a national campaign, appropriately named "Let's Move." By involving parents, schools, and policymakers, the campaign has what it takes to give our kids what they need most: a legacy of health and a longer life.
4. Texas makes much needed improvements for poor kids: In the last few months of 2009, horror stories--about hungry families trying to get food stamps and running into months-long bureaucratic delays--plagued communities all over Texas. Leadership at the Health and Human Services Department went into overdrive, hiring and training more workers so that the eligibility and enrollment system that allows poor kids to get things like food and health care could work as intended. Today, Texas does a far better job meeting federal guidelines for paperwork processing...which, bottom line, means more children are getting the care and service they need.
3. Home-visiting gets a boost. It's got a clumsy name, but "home-visiting" refers to a series of programs whose focus is giving babies and young kids a good start in life. Nurses and other professionals are paired up with needy families, and they make visits to their homes to help them access resources for their children, get child development and health questions answered, etc. The federal health care reform bill included new funding to expand home-visiting programs that have incredible track records of reducing child abuse, helping families, and improving school achievement down the road.
2. The U.S. takes a new direction on child nutrition. The lame duck Congress reauthorized the Child Nutrition Act, with some important changes for school lunches, school breakfasts, and other programs that affect what kids eat. New money in the bill will allow more children to get healthy foods, like fresh produce, where less nourishing processed junk used to be the norm. (The awful tradeoff that still needs fixing is that funding was taken out of the food stamps program to pay for it.)
1. Health insurance gets reformed. I know the new health law is controversial, but it means more for kids and families in Texas than possibly any other state. Already, it has banned insurance companies from denying coverage to children with preexisting conditions. It allowed families to keep their older kids on their health plans longer (until age 26), and improved a lot of folks' coverage for check-ups and other preventative care. In a few short years, it will mean families rarely experience something all too common today: medical bankruptcy, following the birth of a premature or severely ill child. Maybe best of all: Texas will see its rate of kids without health coverage fall from somewhere around 20% to roughly 5%.
Runners-up: Texas revises its child care licensing rules to (start to) improve early education environments. A new statewide Council on Children and Families advances one big plan and budget for kids' services. San Antonio opens a promising new transition center for kids leaving the juvenile justice system. A new national food safety law reduces the contaminated-jar-of-peanut-butter types of stressors in daily life.
Top 5 Issues to Watch in 2011:
5. Ongoing reforms to the juvenile justice system. Texas has had a lot of scandals in its juvenile justice system in recent years and has implemented some promising changes. This year, though, the state decides the way forward for two big agencies in charge of putting kids in trouble on a better path.
4. Health reform implementation and Health and Human Services system improvements (tie). Did you think health reform drama was sooooo 2010? Well, Texas still has a lot of work ahead of it to get ready for big changes before the law takes full effect in 2014. Meanwhile, at the federal level, battles over the new law continue. On another technical note, the recent wins in improving our state system for enrolling eligible poor kids in safety net programs (see #4 above) are under threat, due to the budget deficit.
3. The battle over bullying. The Texas Legislature doesn't convene until next week, but already legislators have filed dozens of bills about bullying. With bigwigs like Facebook weighing in, these bills promise to attract a lot of attention. Good practices are out there, to protect victims of bullying, involve parents and schools in making sure kids are safe, and introducing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports school-wide, to avert bullying in the first place.
2. Whether we'll see progress on child protection. Shamefully, a report says more Texas kids died as a result of child abuse in 2009 (the latest year on record) than ever before. Poor economic conditions add stress for families, putting more kids at heightened risk for abuse or neglect. After the last recession, a series of horrific news stories about child abuse led to system reforms--but now the state is looking at de-funding prevention programs and others that do make kids safe.
1. The budget, the budget, the budget. Will your kids' class size grow? Will their grandma in the nursing home have to move in with you? Will there be enough money to do anything at all to improve--heck, maintain--the status of children? The Texas budget faces a deep deficit in the multi-billions, and right now, elected leaders say they want to fix the problem with budget cuts alone. Not every alternative to cuts should be a dirty word. We've got state savings. We've got federal funding opportunities. And we could start considering a tax on things like luxury services or raising popularly supported taxes on unhealthy stuff like cigarettes (added bonus: it reduces teen smoking) or sugary drinks (added bonus: it would put a major dent in childhood obesity). We could also hike fees on bad actors--like predatory lenders, who make a killing on payday and auto-title loans--and be strategic in finding savings. For example, Texas can change practices in hospitals and medical settings that lead to costly-but-avoidable problems, like higher-than-average rates of premature births.
Full disclosure: I don't really believe there are just five issues to watch. For a full list of what our organization recommends keeping an eye on, check out our
2011 Policy Agenda for Children.
This blog will be cross-posted at LiveMom.
Content updated on January 7th to correct the age until which children can stay on their parents' health plans under health care reform.
