Posted on February 6, 2019
New Jersey's child protection system can be complicated, stressful and frightening for the children, parents and the caregivers involved. ACNJ developed a series of videos on topics relating to child welfare, the need to consider a child's developing mind when making decisions and ways to potentially mitigate any stress they might experience as a result.
Posted on February 6, 2019
On February 5th, ACNJ’s Cynthia Rice and Peter Chen testified on chronic absenteeism before the Joint Committee on Public Schools at the State House.
Main takeaways:
The committee also welcomed testimony from students, who explained first-hand, the complexities of why so many children miss too much school.
Read NJ Spotlight article: Why don’t kids go to school? Students have their say.
Read ACNJ’s latest reports on chronic absenteeism.
Posted on January 16, 2019
Undercounting Kids in 2020 Census Will Shortchange NJ Billions in Federal Dollars
That’s why ACNJ hosted a forum that gathered advocates across the state to discuss how to address the undercount of children in New Jersey. With nearly $23 billion in federal funding at stake for various programs such as Medicaid, SNAP, child care and Head Start, all children must be counted in the upcoming 2020 Census.
Nearly 150,000 kids in the Garden State under age 5 live in “hard-to-count” (HTC) areas where a low percentage of residents completed and returned their most recent Census questionnaire. That makes up 28 percent of the total child population under age 5 in the state. Read news release.
Materials from the event:
Check out photos from the event.
Click here to learn more and be 2020 census ready.
Posted on January 15, 2019
ACNJ statement on Governor Murphy’s budget address
January 15, 2019
Today, Cecilia Zalkind, president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ), released the following statement on Governor Phil Murphy’s State of the State address:
“ACNJ applauds Governor Murphy’s commitment to New Jersey’s working families and their children, particularly his support of continued preschool expansion. However, one of the biggest costs for working families in New Jersey is child care, averaging $220 per week for an infant in a licensed center. Families are burdened by the cost of child care, which rivals housing and college costs as a percentage of family budgets. New Jersey cannot support its working families without a stronger child care system.”
Advocates for Children of New Jersey is a statewide, non-profit child research and action organization, committed to giving every child the chance to grow up safe, healthy and educated.
Posted on January 8, 2019
Lead Levels in Newark Kids Up for First Time Since 2011
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Lead exposure continues to endanger Newark children, but recent developments present an opportunity to develop a permanent plan to eliminate and control the lead found in Newark’s homes, infrastructure and environment.
Lead has reentered the spotlight and new data reveals continued risks for Newark kids:
As we begin 2019, this should be the year that the city of Newark and the state of New Jersey create a comprehensive solution to eliminate lead exposure for children once and for all.
Data Update: Lead Levels in Kids Up for First Time Since 2011
In March 2018, ACNJ released a Newark Kids Count report with a special section on lead exposure, since Newark children have a heightened lead exposure risk. The report showed continued high percentages of children being exposed to lead, as well as a lack of awareness among residents of programs designed to reduce lead exposure.
Newly available data show that heightened lead exposure risk persists for children in Newark. After years of trending downwards, the rate of children ages 6 to 26 months with elevated lead levels increased in the city, from 5.3 percent of tested children in 2016 to 5.9 percent in preliminary data from 2017, while the state rate remained largely flat between 2016 and 2017. Elevated lead levels are defined as 5 micrograms or more of lead for every deciliter of a child’s blood, but there is no safe level of lead for children.
The rate also went up for children age 6 years and under, from 4.7 percent in 2016 to 5.2 percent in 2017. This contrasts with the state exposure rate, which also remained roughly flat for children age 6 and under. New Jersey has a universal screening mandate at 12 and 24 months old, since young children are most vulnerable to the developmental harm caused by lead exposure.
Although there is no information on the cause of the increase, the shift is cause for concern after years of declining rates of lead-exposed children.
Recent Development: Water Exposure Risks
Although lead paint and dust are traditionally the main exposure risk for young children, tap water can also be a risk in old housing.
In 2018, tap water in Newark was found to have unsafe levels of lead. Of the 240 tap water samples tested in Newark in the second half of 2018, more than 2 in 5 (43 percent) tested above the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) action level for lead of 15 parts per billion (ppb). Results can be found on the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Watch page for Newark. To enforce the rule, large water systems in New Jersey are required to sample water in six-month intervals.
The EPA action level is the level for enforcement, not safety. There is no safe level of lead in water. Instead, when 10 percent or more of taps tested are above the EPA action level, the water system is considered out of compliance with the EPA Lead and Copper rule, requiring investigation and remediation if necessary. For a home, however, the only safe level of lead in water is 0.
Newark’s lead levels have exceeded the EPA action level during each testing period since the first half of 2017. The EPA requires water systems to add certain ingredients called “corrosion controls” to limit the amount of lead that mixes into tap water from lead pipes and faucets. In 2018, Newark’s investigation revealed the failure of its corrosion controls in roughly half the city’s water. This led the city to:
For more information on the City’s programs to reduce lead exposure through water, please visit newarkleadserviceline.com.
What’s Next: Getting the Lead Out of Newark
With the spotlight on Newark’s lead issues, 2019 represents an opportunity for the city and state to eliminate future lead hazards for Newark’s kids. Although the City of Newark already has some programs to address lead in homes and water, ACNJ’s March 2018 report detailed the low awareness of these programs to many residents.
A comprehensive plan to eliminate lead exposure in Newark will require extensive cross-sector and cross-department collaboration, data collection and analysis, stronger enforcement of lead inspection and lead-safe housing laws, and large-scale public and community engagement efforts.
It is never too early to take precautions to protect children from lead. Even low levels of lead can have lifelong effects on children’s brain development, and these effects cannot be reversed. Healthy child development is a core part of ACNJ’s Right from the Start NJ and Think Babies campaign. With a comprehensive approach, we can ensure that all children in Newark grow up lead-free.
Sources:
NJ Department of Health provided the preliminary 2017 data in a special data request from November 30, 2018. Data for 2016 and prior years are available on the Department of Health website: https://www.state.nj.us/health/childhoodlead/data.shtml
NJ Department of Environmental Protection publishes water system testing data on its Drinking Water Watch website (https://www9.state.nj.us/DEP_WaterWatch_public/). Newark data for lead testing is available here: https://www9.state.nj.us/DEP_WaterWatch_public/JSP/PBCUSummary.jsp?tinwsys=127 Data was retrieved on January 8, 2019.
