A new study: Rating YoungStar – How Wisconsin’s child care quality rating and improvement measures up by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) carefully analyzes the last few years of YoungStar, with many recommendations for improvement. Some key findings: • There are too few 4- and 5-Star high-quality providers in the poorest...
Vice President Pence is headed to Milwaukee this Saturday in an attempt to build support for repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The Vice President and Governor Walker plan to put a spotlight on a few Wisconsinites who are unhappy with the ACA, but let’s look at the larger picture and consider the many ways that hundreds of...
Medicaid provides health care for nearly 1.2 million Wisconsinites in all parts of the state, but a new study shows that it is especially important for children in rural areas. The new analysis by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families found that in 2014-15 Medicaid provided health coverage for 45 percent of children...
Medicaid and the closely related Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are a partnership between states and the federal government to provide access to health care services for low-income children, pregnant women, adults, seniors, and people with disabilities. Read more: Medicaid at Risk in Wisconsin
Proposed Medicaid Cuts Would Grow to 45 Percent in 2026 Medicaid is at a crossroads. Changes proposed by the President and the House of Representatives would put it on a path that leads to continual cuts and sharply reduced health care services for seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income children and families. Both the House...
According to the recently released 2016 report on preschool nationwide, Wisconsin is ranked 4th in the nation for the percentage of 4-year-olds in state-funded Pre-Kindergarten programs in the 2015-16 school year. Wisconsin, through its Four-Year-Old Kindergarten Program and its Head Start State Supplement program, enrolled 51,551...
Wisconsin has made significant headway in keeping children safe from firearms, but progress has stalled in recent years. Between 1999 and 2009, the number of children killed with guns dropped by more than a third, but since 2010 the number of children killed each year has stayed fairly level
First, the good news. The Joint Committee on Finance unanimously approved the Governor’s proposal for a $3.9 million increase for home visiting in each year of the biennium. The support for home visiting is encouraging. Now, the bad news. Two critical proposals to improve child care were rejected. The implications are serious. No...
Per the Coalition for Juvenile Justice: House Passes HR 1809 to Reform and Reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act. Today, in the U.S. House of Representatives, a bipartisan bill that would reauthorize the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, and enhance the focus on prevention, was passed by voice...
The Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has released a video Play is the Way! to emphasize the importance of play in early learning and development. The short video, starring Sheila Briggs, Assistant State Superintendent, describes how young children learn and develop through interaction and play. Here is the link again Play is the...
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