New Poverty Figures from Census Bureau's ACS

Newly released data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) show that Wisconsin’s overall poverty rate declined slightly from 10.8% in 2007 to 10.4% in 2007. The child poverty rate dropped from 14.4% in 2007 to 13.3% in 2008. However, these figures do not capture the bulk of the impact of the recession, as evidenced by dramatic 2009 increases in eligibility for a wide range of support services in Wisconsin, including FoodShare and free and reduced school lunch, as well as the number of families enrolled in BadgerCare Plus with incomes below the poverty line. Details about some of those trends are in our press release about the new census figures.

Overall, about 569,000 Wisconsin residents (including 172,000 children) lived in poverty in 2008. Wisconsin’s overall and child poverty rates remain substantially better than the national rates, but by less of a margin than in 2000 and earlier. Nationally, the 2008 overall poverty rate was 13.2%, and the child poverty rate was 18.2 percent; both are similar to the previous year’s figures. The federal poverty level for a family of four in 2008 was $21,200.

Congratulations to Wraparound Milwaukee

Wraparound Milwaukee has been selected as a recipient of the Harvard University-Kennedy School of Government award for Best Innovation in American Government Award. Wraparound Milwaukee's collaborative systems of care and funding have been hugely successful in serving families of children with serious emotional disturbance in the community, many of whom would otherwise have been placed in residential or institutional care settings. The award includes a grant of $100,000 to promote replication of its practices locally, nationally, and internationally.

The Future of Children Journal: Focus on Preventing Child Maltreatment

If you've never checked out the Future of Children journals, you should. Start with their most recent volume on Preventing Child Maltreatment. With up-to-date research on best practices, this volume covers prevention through intervention and serves as an excellent overview of critical issues facing child protective service professionals today. While there you can link to previous editions about Juvenile Justice and Children and the Electronic Media.

New Census Numbers Suggest Wisconsin Strong on Health Coverage, Not So Strong on Income

Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released a batch of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), an annual survey of some 3 million households nationwide. The release includes data on health insurance coverage (for the first time), household income, and housing costs for 2008. Wisconsin remains a national leader in making health insurance available to residents. 9.1% of residents went without health insurance for all or part of 2008, tied for fifth best in the nation. For children under 18, the figure was better--5.2% of Wisconsin kids were uninsured in 2008, largely thanks to the success of our highly effective Badger Care Plus program and its predecessors. The ACS has a bigger sample size than the Current Population Survey (CPS)--for which poverty data was released a couple weeks ago--meaning reliable county-level data is available for the larger counties. Statewide, median household income in Wisconsin was $52,094, slightly less than in 2007. Income disparity based on race remains a huge problem in the state. For more information, see the tables below and our press release, as well as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's coverage of the numbers.

National Juvenile Justice Network Policy Platforms Released

The National Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Network (NJJN) has recently released two public policy platforms that will help guide juvenile justice advocates and policy-makers in the months/years ahead. Conditions of Confinement focuses on some guiding principles about where and the conditions under which youth are held if they need to be confined, and Girls in the Juvenile Justice System outlines some standards and goals in developing programs that are relevant to the unique needs and strengths of youthful girl offenders.

Court Calls Retroactive Part of SORNA Deemed Unconstitutional

On September 10th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declared in US v. Juvenile Male, No. 07-30290 (9th Cir. Sept. 10, 2009) that part of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) relating to former juvenile offenders is unconstitutional. Although this decision does not directly affect Wisconsin, it is the first of various cases challenging the retroactive requirement for former juvenile offenders in SORNA.

Currently, Wisconsin only uses confidential juvenile registration in instances when a Judge deems it necessary to protect the public. Title 1 of SORNA, known as the Adam Walsh Act, requires states to put children as young as 14 on publicly accessible registries and face broader notification procedures.

In the unanimous Ninth Circuit Court opinion, Judge Reinhardt states “We must decide as a matter of first impression - in our court and in any other circuit court - whether the retroactive application of SORNA’s provision covering individuals who were adjudicated juvenile delinquents because of the commission of certain sex offenses before SORNA’s passage violates the Ex Post Facto Clause of the United States Constitution. In light of the pervasive and severe new and additional disadvantages that result from the mandatory registration of former juvenile offenders and from the requirement that such former offenders report in person to law enforcement authorities every 90 days for 25 years, and in light of the confidentiality that has historically attached to juvenile proceedings, we conclude that the retroactive application of SORNA’s provisions to former juvenile offenders is punitive and, therefore, unconstitutional.”

A Chapin Hall Brief on the Role Home Visitation Programs Play in a Comprehensive Approach to Early Childhood Development

A recently released brief by Chapin Hall, titled Embedding Home Visitation Programs Within a System of Early Childhood Services, provides a great summary of the value of quality home visitation services in ensuring the healthy development of at-risk children, especially birth to three. Perhaps of greatest interest to practitioners and policy-makers is the summary of critical components of quality home visitation programs and the integration of progams with other early childhood services(e.g. quality early learning programs, access to health care, etc.).

Kids Unleaded: Your Link to New Information about the Hazards of Lead Poisoning

The Children's Health Alliance has launched a new e-newsletter, called Kids Unleaded. The newsletter will cover issues related to lead poisoning elimination, the long-term negative effects of lead exposure, and opportunities to link with others working on this critical issue. The negative impacts on brain development, school performance, behavioral and mental health issues, and overall health are all well-researched; if you are interested already in this issue, this e-newsletter is a good way to stay connected. If you are not already aware of some of these issues, it's a good way to get started.

CHIPRA Can Help Improve Health Care for Non-English Speakers

The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) approved by Congress early this year gives states financial assistance and policy options that will help Wisconsin improve Badger Care Plus. One source of financial assistance is an enhanced federal match rate for interpretation and translation services.

The new rate, which is 75% for children in Medicaid (and potentially slightly higher for kids covered by CHIP), applies to translation and interpretation services needed to assist children in applying for coverage or at renewal, or when care is being provided. Like some of the other parts of CHIPRA, this is an area where there is still some uncertainty, but it’s important to start thinking about how WI can take advantage of the increased federal funding for these services.

Initially, it was unclear to me whether or to what extent the higher federal matching rate would help states like WI that primarily use managed care, since the HMOs generally get one flat rate for each enrollee, rather than reimbursement for each service. However, after preliminary conversations with DHS staff and other experts, and after recent guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), it appears that there are at least 4 sorts of ways that the higher matching rate for translation can be of assistance in WI:
• to translate outreach documents;
• to help support bilingual workers who assist with applications or renewals;
• to improve communications with non-English speakers when kids are receiving fee-for-service care, such as emergency Medicaid services; and
• to provide increased federal reimbursement (to the state) for spending attributable to interpretation services provided by managed care organizations when caring for children.

In recent weeks CMS has issued several documents that provide guidance to states on how CHIPRA will be interpreted and how states can take advantage of it. One of those, issued on Sept. 3, is a Q & A format document that addresses – among other issues – the matter of how the enhanced federal match for interpretation services will apply to managed care organizations. At question # 9, CMS says:

“States will be permitted to claim the enhanced match for that portion of the capitation rates paid to MCEs that can be documented as attributable to the cost of translation and interpretation services under the contract. CMS will work with States to develop an allowable methodology to collect the information necessary to claim this higher matching rate for the eligible portion of their managed care payment rates."

All of the CHIPRA guidance can be found on the CMS website. Some of the other documents and topics include the following:
• The September 3 Q & A document expands upon previously released information about the new option for states to provide CHIP coverage to targeted low-income pregnant women.
• An August 31 letter focuses on the provisions in CHIPRA that are intended to ensure immediate coverage up to age 1 for newborn babies born to mothers who are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP.

Unfortunately, we are still waiting for CMS guidance on what I consider to be the most pressing CHIPRA concern in WI: what specifically do states have to do to become eligible for performance bonus funding by increasing enrollment of children and meeting 5 of the 8 CHIPRA standards for improving enrollment and retention? Wisconsin seems to come close to meeting 5 or 6 of those standards, but there are many unanswered questions about what it will take to meet some of those standards. Once there is any news on that, I’ll share it via this blog and will update WCCF’s CHIPRA implementation checklist.

New Report Shows States Moving Forward on Covering Kids Despite Fiscal Challenges

The Center for Children and Families today released the report “Weathering the Storm: States Moving Forward Despite Tough Economic Climate,” the first evaluation of CHIPRA implementation. "Weathering the Storm" finds that despite the tough fiscal climate in the states, 23 states moved forward in covering children this year. By taking advantage of the passing of the Children's Health Insurance Reauthorization Act and other federal support, states moved forward by expanding eligibility for their Medicaid and CHIP programs or made it easier for uninsured children already eligible to enroll and stay enrolled.

Wisconsin is among those 23 states, having made two small but important changes in BadgerCare Plus: (1) expanding express enrollment, and (2) applying automatic enrollment to all infants whose births were covered by Medicaid or CHIP (including BadgerCare Plus Prenatal). Nevertheless, there is still room for improvement. WCCF's checklist of CHIPRA options outlines additional ways that Wisconsin can make progress toward the goal of quality health care for all children in the state.

The new report is well worth reviewing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the gorgeous color palette in the photos of kids.

Guest Column by Jim in Sunday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Ponders the Wisdom (or lack thereof) of Locking up Kids in Adult Prisons

The Crossroads section of yesterday's (Sunday 9/13) Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contained a guest column by WCCF Acting Executive Director Jim Moeser. The piece comes in response to a horrific case in Milwaukee in which 13-year-old Labrina Brown is accused of fatally stabbing a family member. The case has brought to the fore a lot of questions about how we treat young offenders in the justice system, including: What purpose does it serve to incarcerate teenagers in adult system? Does it make communities safer? (Hint: The answer to that one is no.) Is justice for the victims or for the community? Should juvenile justice policy in 2009 be driven scary decade-old rhetoric about dangerous teenage predators rather than by a research-based understanding of what makes adolescents tick? (Hint: That one's also a "no.") Jim explores these and related issues in the column, along the way making the case that we're overdue in passing legislation that would return 17-year-olds to the jurisdiction of the juvenile system, where they are much more likely to receive the services they need to get their lives together, likely to be exploited or harmed by fellow inmates, and less likely to become repeat offenders.

New Report on JJDPA from the Coalition for Juvenile Justice

As the 35th anniversary of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) neared, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice (CJJ) conducted a national survey detailing the progress states have made and the challenges that state and local communities still face in reaching full compliance with this act.

The CJJ survey includes self-reported, unverified responses from 53 states and territories. These findings demonstrate widespread state compliance with JJDPA and show that states value the federal partnership created by this act. This survey determined that the JJDPA is fulfilling its purpose.

The survey also found areas in which states face greater challenges in reaching the goals of the JJDPA. Decreased funding, inconsistent communication, and insufficient training and technical assistance around compliance practices are areas in need of greater support.

CJJ determined that as a result of the JJDPA, youth and their families in contact with the juvenile justice system are better served today than they were 35 years ago. Every effort should be made to sustain the success and enhance the future of the JJDPA.

New Census Bureau Data on Health Insurance Trends

The U.S. Census Bureau today released a batch of new data on poverty, income and health insurance coverage from the Current Population Survey (CPS). On the national level, the CPS numbers show a big drop in median household income and an increase in poverty. The CPS data is available for your perusal on the Census Bureau website. This coverage from Reuters gives the national poverty news in broad strokes, and this AP story offers similarly big picture coverage of the health insurance trend identified in the data.

As for Wisconsin implications, here are a few highlights in the form of a comparison of the Census data from 2000-01 with the averages for 2007-08:

• The poverty rate grew from 8.6% in 2000-01 to 10.4% in 2007-08.
• Median family income (adjusted for inflation) fell by $3,537 – from $55,761 to $52,224.
• The number of people with employer-sponsored insurance fell by about 213,000.

In our press release about the Census Bureau data, we opted to focus primarily on health insurance trends, for a couple of reasons. For one thing, this is the only source there is for state-by-state health coverage trends over many years. Also, there is another set of Census Bureau data--from the American Community Survey (ACS)--scheduled to come out on Sept. 22, less than two weeks away. The ACS is a better source for poverty data because the sample size is larger, allowing us to look at the data on a more local scale and break it down by race and other demographic factors. The CPS, in contrast, generally uses 2-year averages for state-level analysis because the smallness of the sample size sometimes leads to quirky jumps.

The main story from our perspective is that Wisconsinites are losing employer-based insurance at a troubling pace, so we must continue to invest in our excellent system of health care safety net programs like BadgerCare Plus, along with working toward a comprehensive federal health care reform package, as we seek to finish the job of insuring every child and family in Wisconsin.

35th Anniversary of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act

On Tuesday, September 7, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) turned 35 years old. The JJDPA set out federal standards for the custody and care of youth in the juvenile justice system. These standards include four core protections that help ensure the health and well-being of youth:

--Deinstitutionalization of Status Offenders (DSO) keeps status offenders, such as runaways and truants, out of secure facilities;

--Adult Jail and Lockup Removal (Jail Removal) prevents youth from being placed in adult jails and lock-ups;

--Sight and Sound Separation provides that when youth are detained or incarcerated in adult jails or police lock-ups, they must be separated by both sight and sound from adult offenders;

--Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) requires that states address the disproportionate contact of youth of color with the juvenile justice system.

Currently, juvenile arrests are at a historic low. Please take the time to contact your congressional representatives and urge them to reauthorize the JJDPA.

More about the JJDPA reauthorization is here.

$9.9 Million Federal Grant Allows WI To Cover More Childless Adults

Wisconsin has received a federal grant of nearly $10 million per year that will be used to cover more adults without dependent children in the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan. The grant, which apparently will last for 5 years, buys the state a little bit of time before DHS needs to institute a waiting list for the Core Plan coverage.

From Gov. Doyle’s Sept. 4 press release on the announcement:
“Each day in Wisconsin, one of our friends, loved ones or neighbors is gambling with their health,” Governor Doyle said. “They may be sick or injured, but don’t go to a doctor because they do not have insurance. We’ve taken this issue head-on in Wisconsin to help make us a national leader on health care reform. This grant will help us continue our efforts and do what’s right for the people in our state.”

Although enrollment of childless adults started less than 2 months ago, the state has already gotten applications from more people than the funding in the budget bill will pay for. DHS Secretary Timberlake recently acknowledged that DHS will soon need to cut off enrollment in the Core Plan, but the federal grant should push that off long enough to sign up a few thousand additional people.

The Wisconsin grant is the largest of 13 announced on Sep. 3 by the U.S Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the State Health Access Program (SHAP). Funding for 5 years of SHAP grants was appropriated in the Omnibus Appropriations Act signed by the President in March.

Modernizing the Way We Measure Poverty

This month, the US Census Bureau will be releasing key poverty information from two different data sets, the Current Population Survey (CPS, to be released this Thursday, 9/10) and the American Community Survey (ACS, coming on 9/23). WCCF and a zillion other organizations will be examining the data upon its release and seeking to tell the story behind the numbers. The CPS data is good for identifying national trends over time and includes good information on health care coverage, while the ACS offers more detail on local conditions and breaks poverty down by race and other demographic characteristics. But while the Census Bureau provides a wealth of data based on current measures of poverty, there is a problem. The very method currently used to gauge poverty is hopelessly out of date, and does not accurately reflect the big changes that have taken place in key household expenses and income sources over the years.

A number of improvements in the poverty measure have been proposed in recent years. Last month, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) reintroduced legislation that would modernize the way the poverty threshold in the United States is calculated. The Measuring American Poverty Act would direct the Census Bureau to develop a poverty measure based on a more realistic assessment of the costs of food, clothing, shelter and other basic necessities. The new measure would also take into account certain unavoidable expenses such as out-of-pocket medical costs and work-related expenses like child care. In addition, the new formula would factor in government programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, and housing assistance. The Act would also fix another weakness in the current measure by including geographic differences in the cost of living, both between states and between urban and rural areas within a given state. The legislation, which relies on recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, has been referred to the Senate HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions). A companion bill was introduced in the House back in June by Rep. James McDermott (D-WA). The House bill has been referred to the Ways and Means Committee and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

WCCF thinks it is crucial that we have reliable tools for assessing poverty in our communities in order to best plan and target our use of scarce resources for combatting poverty. Poverty has a devastating effect on kids; if we are going to succeed in addressing it on the public policy level, we need to have available the best possible information about who is poor, where they live, and what types of support they need in order to improve their living situations.

Race and Ethnicity in Juvenile Justice - Disproportionality for Latino Youth

"The face of America is changing. The number of Latino youth in this country has almost doubled in the last decade, and on any given day close to 18,000 Latino youth are incarcerated in America." Thus begins the foreword for a recent publication by the Campaign for Youth Justice titled "America's Invisible Children: Latino youth and the Failure of Justice". Citing the often-grim statistics about how Latino youth are overrepresented in the system but sometimes lost in discussion about race in a black-white paradigm, the publication provides a picture of work yet to be done. Of particular concern is the high percentage of these youth who are held in adult facilties, ill-equipped to meet the needs of the youth let alone meet them in a culturally competent manner. Check out this report for policy recommendations on how to improve the system's response in working with Latino youth.

Youth Aids Isn't Perfect, but It Could be Worse

While the relative "value" of Youth Aids funding has declined over the years and the permutations of the Youth Aids formula has not necessarily kept up with local needs, the Youth Aids concept continues to be among the most creative approaches to juvenile justice funding in the nation. As states attempt to provide incentives to jurisdictions to increase community-based programs and reduce institutional placements, the current economic climate makes it even more difficult to find ways to reinvest. A measure of relative success related to juvenile justice funding was recently noted in a posting through the Models for Change web-site of the MacArthur Foundation, highlighting three states in which systemic funding reforms, including Wisconsin, were maintained, or close to it! While some note that the increasing responsibility that counties take on related to juvenile justice funding is a sign that the Youth Aids concept did not work, there are other things that suggest it had done what it was intended to do, namely incentivize counties to develop more local, effective, and safe alternatives.

Thousands of Wisconsin Families Are Exhausting Their Jobless Benefits

Economists generally agree that the most effective form of stimulus spending during an economic downturn is to get funding into the hands of people who most need assistance and will quickly use the dollars in their community. (See, for example, p. 10 of the Congressional testimony by Mark Zandi, the chief economist and cofounder of Moody’s Economy.com.) One way the economic stimulus bill (known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) has been accomplishing that objective is by extending unemployment insurance benefits for people who regular period of unemployment benefits would have run out.

In the first six months after its passage (from February through July 2009), federal aid to jobless workers generated over $401 million in direct relief to Wisconsin families that needed help and to the communities hardest hit by the recession. That total includes more than $270 million in federally-funded extended benefits, lasting up to 33 weeks in Wisconsin. In addition, the stimulus bill boosted unemployment checks by $25 a week, generating over $131 million to Wisconsin workers to help cover basic necessities.

Unfortunately, although the recession hasn’t abated very much, and employment hasn’t started to rebound, extended unemployment benefits will soon be ending for thousands of unemployed state residents. According to a report by the National Employment Law Project, a total of more than 24,000 Wisconsin workers are expected to collect their last unemployment check by the end of 2009 – even as they struggle to find work and pay their bills in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. That includes about 8,800 workers who will reach the end of their federally-funded jobless benefits this month.

A bill in Congress would provide another extension in the unemployment benefits for jobless workers. That bill deserves prompt enactment.

New "Special Budget Recap" Issue of WisKids Journal is Online

WCCF has published a special edition of our Wiskids Journal newsletter recapping what went down in the state budget process. This issue analyzes the 2009-11 state budget passed in July. Articles focus on how the gaping hole was closed (hint: federal stimulus funds and some carefully targeted state revenue uppers helped a lot), what the budget did with regard to come key areas that affect children and families, and what deficit challenges lie before us. BTW, you can subscribe to Wiskids Journal (and/or any of our other e-publications and alert lists) and start receiving it via email. It's also always available on the WCCF website.

btw, we now have on our website an index of all WisKids Journal articles that are available online. The index goes back to 2006, when the publication first went electronic.

BC+ Core Plan Faces Possible Waiting Lists

An article in today's Wisconsin State Journal notes that enrollment in the new program for childless adults within BadgerCare Plus is exceeding the state's projections. The article states that DHS Secretary Karen Timberlake has indicated that they may have to turn to waiting lists in order to keep the program on budget. According to the article, 26,000 childless adults have already enrolled in the BC+ Core Plan since its July launch, a pace that would quickly result in enrollment growing beyond the target of 41,000 participants by next July. One obvious culprit is the sagging economy, which has seen thousands of individuals lose their health insurance coverage along with their jobs. WCCF's Jon Peacock is quoted as saying that we knew there was a big unmet demand for health care among uninsured adults, but that the state's notions about the magnitude of that unmet demand undershot the mark. The BC+ Core Plan is helping plug the largest hole in Wisconsin's health care safety net, as we seek to finish the job of insuring everybody in the state. Because it allows otherwise uninsured adults to seek treatment for health problems before they become severe--and therefore much more expensive to treat--the program, while costly, is a good investment of public resources. For that reason, WCCF thinks waiting lists would be unfortunate.