The Wisconsin Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers has taken on the cause of raising the age of adult court jurisdiction to 18, including this as one of their key points of advocacy in meeting with Wisconsin legislators for their advocacy day on April 1. For a brief story about their advocacy, visit...
Effective yesterday (April 1), Wisconsin is receiving a significant increase in federal funds for the FoodShare program. The boost stems from passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), otherwise known federal stimulus package. Program participants will see an increase in their benefits, and more families will be...
On March 24, Senators Pat Leahy (D-VT), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced juvenile justice legislation similar to the bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee at the end of the last Congress.This legislation, the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 2009, S. 678, would...
WCCF and the Wisconsin Early Learning Coalition support a Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) for child care in the state budget for 2009-11.The Coalition supports the Governor’s proposal to invest $2.7 million to build a quality rating system. Tthe Coalition also endorses investing an additional $3 million (at a minimum) to...
For each biennial budget bill, the Wisconsin Budget Project at WCCF prepares a comprehensive summary that describes the significant budget issues in a variety of areas. It focuses primarily on issues relating to children and families, but also describes the various measures being used to balance the budget. We prepared such a document...
Today marked the first of six Joint Finance Committee budget hearings. Joint Finance began their day at the American Legion Hall in Sparta at 10 AM. On Wednesday, they will travel to State Fair Park in West Allis, and on Friday they will be at UW-Eau Claire. WCCF has all the Joint Finance Statewide Budget hearing locations and times on...
The Office of Justice Assistance has just announced the availability of two grant opportunities in the juvenile justice area. They are:(1) Juvenile Offender Substance Abuse and/or Mental Health Program Grants (Non-Direct Juvenile Accountability Grant program)– approximately $275,000 will be available to fund new grants to establish...
Interesting piece on health care by Gov. Doyle on the Huffington Post last week. Sure, it's his job to toot his state's own horn, but he makes some important points in this post. In addition to laying out the case for addressing the nationwide health care crisis, Gov. Doyle focuses on the importance of investing in preventive care and...
On March 3 the Wisconsin Court of Appeals concluded that a life sentence without possibility of parole for a 14-year-old homicide defendant does not violate constitutional prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Roper v. Simmons that offenders under the age of 18 cannot be subject to...
The budget repair bill signed into law on February 19, 2009, contains funding to allow the state to proceed with plans to offer basic health insurance coverage for low-income adults without dependent children, beginning on July 1, 2009. We have just updated our short paper about this development. The paper describes the need for...
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