Posted on January 19, 2016
The United States Senate may begin moving quickly on the Child Nutrition Reauthorization, which provides the funding for a host of programs that combat childhood hunger. One provision would give children in child care for eight or more hours a day an additional snack. This is our best chance to make needed improvements to the Child Adult Care Food Program.
So please take a minute to send a message, tweet or make a call. It’s easy.
Posted on January 15, 2016
| “Healthy kids are healthy learners and states that help all kids get the health coverage they need to succeed will help build a healthier, better educated workforce for tomorrow…” Sonya Schwartz, researcher at Georgetown University and lead author of the report |
The number of uninsured Hispanic children in New Jersey declined 27.5 percent following the expansion of certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act, according to a new report by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, the National Council of La Raza and Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ).
Families interested in enrolling their children in affordable health care coverage should contact NJ FamilyCare at 1-800-701-0710 or njfamilycare.org.
Open enrollment through the Affordable Care Act closes at the end of January, but Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare enrollment is are open all year.
Posted on January 9, 2016
We hope your holidays were happy and healthy and that your new year is off to a good start. 2015 was a great year for child advocacy in New Jersey and we expect to build on our many successes in 2016. We look forward to working with all of our partners this year to ensure that every child has the chance to grow up safe, healthy and educated.
Our first event is slated for Jan. 21 in Newark…
Posted on January 5, 2016
A bi-partisan bill to improve students’ school attendance and their academic success has cleared two key state legislative committees, but needs your support to advance to the next stage on its way to becoming law.
More Info
More than 125,000 New Jersey K-12 students were “chronically absent” in the 2013-2014 school year. Poor attendance threatens students’ academic success and their ability to graduate from high school, college or career ready.
S-3245, is a great first step toward addressing this critical issue. It would define chronic absenteeism as 10 percent or more of the days a child is enrolled in a particular school and would require publishing district-level data.
Under the measure, schools with 10 percent or more of its students deemed chronically absent would have to convene a coalition made up of key school staff and at least one parent to review school absentee data and work together to develop a school-wide plan to address the problem.
Learn more.
The legislation is in response to ACNJ’s September report, Showing Up Matters, the State of Chronic Absenteeism in New Jersey. Read the report to learn more about chronic absenteeism in New Jersey.
Posted on December 17, 2015
Democratic lawmakers unveiled a two-year plan to expand preschool to 17 school districts, reinstate funding for before- and after-preschool care and establish a pilot program to combine private and public dollars to fund preschool expansion.
This is great news and puts preschool on the legislative agenda. But, a lot more work is needed to turn this proposal into reality.
