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BLOG: New Snapshot Highlights Pandemic’s Effects on Newark’s Kids, Families

Posted on May 5, 2021

Alana Vega, Kids Count Coordinator

Every year, ACNJ releases its Newark Kids Count report in order to share information about the well-being of children living within the city. This year, Newark Kids Count looks a bit different. Rather than a comprehensive data report, ACNJ will be releasing smaller “snapshots,” featuring data showing the impact of the pandemic on children and families.  

This year’s data snapshots are an attempt at providing the data we can currently obtain in order to provide some insight for stakeholders in Newark. The first, The Impact of COVID-19: A Look at the Utilization of Programs Assisting Families, looks at programs assisting families, as well as unemployment rates.  

The second, due to be released in June, will look at data relating to Newark’s high school senior classes of 2019 and 2020 as they transitioned to college. These data will cover trends in college enrollment and other areas, and the report’s release will highlight young people’s experiences over the last year. 

Traditional Kids Count reports rely on publicly available data from federal, state and local sources, and the most current data from many of these sources are still pre-pandemic figures.  The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey is only available up to 2019, and figures for 2020 will not be released until this fall. In other cases, data are simply unavailable. In the N.J Department of Education’s 2019-20 School Performance reports, data for state assessments and chronic absenteeism, among others, are not being reported due to the pandemic. 

It is likely that it will be several years before we have enough data to truly provide a complete picture of the pandemic’s impact. In the meantime, experimental data products such as the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, provide some glimpse into the experiences of residents across the country. Data from this survey focused on households with children are available on the KIDS COUNT Data Center. However, these data are limited and are not available for smaller, more specific geographies like Newark. This is a gap ACNJ hopes to fill through our data snapshots in order to ensure more informed decisions can be made in order to help families navigate through the pandemic.

 

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Have you checked out our Kids Count data dashboard lately?

ACNJ continues to update its Kids Count Data Dashboard on a quarterly basis, in order to provide current information to our audience. Additionally, some data sets are broken down by race, allowing us to gather a more complete view of trends impacting children. View the most current information on children, and stay tuned for our June 2021 update for data covering: children involved with child protective services, lead testing, birth outcomes and school enrollment. 

Focusing on Black Maternal Health – Roadmap to Launching the Maternal Experience Survey

Posted on April 23, 2021

Watch ACNJ, First Lady Tammy Murphy, the NAACP of Atlantic City, Prematurity Prevention Initiative and Family Health Initiatives engage in a roundtable discussion of the launch and expansion of the Maternal Experience Survey. The survey focuses on the experience of Black and Brown mothers in New Jersey, with the goals of improving maternal and child health care and reducing inequities for birthing women of color.

Tell state leaders to end the child care staffing crisis

Posted on April 22, 2021

In a recent Op-ed published by the Star Ledger, The person who cares for your child should be paid a living wage, Meghan Tavormina, President of the NJ Association for the Education of Young Children (NJAEYC), made three critical points about the child care staffing crisis:

  • The current child care staffing crisis is directly linked to programs' inability to pay their child care teachers what they are worth.
  • The pandemic has added additional responsibilities to the daily work of the child care staff, with most being paid at the minimum wage rate.
  • Child care programs are competing with employers like Costco and Amazon that offer higher wages and benefit packages--and child care programs are losing.

But now we have an opportunity to end the child care staffing crisis and #ReimagineChildCare.

Through the recent federal COVID-relief dollars, New Jersey can address the workforce compensation issue. As our state plans on how best to use the funds, policymakers need to hear from you. It is important that they hear what you have experienced over the last year and how you want to help #ReimageChildCare!

Here is one easy thing you can do to help end the child care staffing issue!

Share Meghan’s Opinion piece and your experiences with Governor Murphy, Acting DHS Commissioner Adelman and your state legislators. Just click here to help make New Jersey’s child care system the nation’s best for children, their families and the staff who care for them!

What Parents Should Know Regarding School’s Obligations for Compensatory Education for Children with Disabilities

Posted on April 15, 2021

Nina Peckman, Staff Attorney
Nina Peckman, Staff Attorney

On March 3, 2021, the New Jersey Department of Education (DOE) issued new guidance regarding the responsibility of school districts to provide compensatory education to students with disabilities as a result of COVID-19, as well as explaining the parent’s rights to appeal any decisions. However, aspects of the guidance remain unclear, and can lead to a potential educational gap in the future, leaving children to endure the consequences. Parents may want to consider speaking to a knowledgeable special education advocate for to help.

What must school districts do under the new guidance?

  • Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams must use the next IEP meeting, whether virtual, in-person or when schools reopen, to consider whether compensatory education is required.
  • IEP teams must review formal and informal assessment data, services that were missed and goals and objectives that were not reached to determine a decision.
  • Proper written notice must be provided to the parent and/or guardian if a change to the IEP is proposed, including the type, frequency and location of the compensatory education services.

Parents/guardians who disagree with any aspect of the IEP team’s decision may seek mediation and/or due process. 

Aside from compensatory education services, students with disabilities are entitled to additional services that every student is entitled to as a result of learning loss such as accelerated learning programs, tutoring outside of normal school hours, summer enrichment programs.

Some aspects of the guidance remain unclear.

  • The guidance does not clearly explain when an IEP team can decide a student does not need compensatory education to meet the IEP goals and objectives.
  • The guidance states that districts are not required to follow a “1:1 ratio” when calculating how much compensatory education is owed to the student. However, while federal and state regulations do not mention compensatory education at all, this right is actually based upon judicial decisions.
    • According to the Third Circuit Court, which governs New Jersey, missed services that are listed in the IEP must be made up on a 1:1 basis. This means that when a student fails to receive an IEP service, the parent only needs to keep track of the services the district did not provide, preferably in writing. The parent may then make a written demand to make up the services, if the district does not offer to provide them first.

There is no deadline to schedule the IEP meeting to discuss compensatory education.

Parents who have already attended their annual IEP meeting or do not realize they can ask for an IEP meeting, may not receive a chance to discuss compensatory education until the 2021-2022 year. This would result in delays of compensatory services, widening the achievement gap for their children.

If you have questions or concerns about a student’s rights to compensatory education or services to address learning loss, you may contact Nina Peckman, Staff Attorney, at npeckman@acnj.org or 973-643-3876, ext. 226.