New Report Shows the Crippling Cost of Child Abuse

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This month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report quantifying the costs of child maltreatment in the United States. The report underscores that child maltreatment is a serious public health issue with financial impacts comparable to a stroke and Type 2 diabetes. What the report does not quantify is the loss of a child’s innocence. What is the price of the smile on a baby’s face when he takes his first steps, or on the 8-year-old who scores her first goal, or on the 12-year-old who wins his class spelling bee? What about the joy and love brought into the lives of family and friends by that child?

Enrollment in Kids’ Health Insurance Programs Grow Under Medicaid Bonus Program

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Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded 23 states approximately $296 million in bonuses for increasing the number of children enrolled in health insurance programs.
The bonuses, funded by the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA), came a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report stating that about 1.2 million more children have health insurance in the United States than three years prior. According to the most recent estimates, approximately 93 percent of the nation’s children now have some form of health insurance coverage, a 2 percent increase from federal levels around 2008. When the Children’s Health Insurance Program was initially created in 1997, the national statistics hovered around 86 percent. In addition to providing performance bonuses for states that simplify and increase coverage for children, CHIRPA provisions allow states to enroll children using information culled from other public programs, as well as automatic eligibility for babies whose mothers are already covered by Medicaid or CHIP programs.

Cindy Mann, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said that although the nation faces “serious fiscal challenges,” she still believes that children’s health should remain “a top priority” for states. “Not only have more states qualified for performance bonuses in the past,” she said, “but many have continued to improve the efficiency of their programs.”

In 2010, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded more than $217 million in CHIPRA Performance Bonuses to 16 states, all of which qualified for performance bonuses again in 2011.

ARISE Launches New Program to Raise Teen Pregnancy Awareness

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This month, the nationwide non-profit organization ARISE launched a new website to promote its Sprouts Series, a program designed to encourage prevention and raise awareness of teenage pregnancy. The organization touts its Sprouts Series, a component of the ARISE Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, as “evidence-based” material intended to show teenagers “the realities of making babies and all that is involved in raising them.”

The latest Centers for Disease Control data finds that more than 400,000 American teenagers gave birth in 2009. The Sprouts Series program consists of five books, which are available in both English and Spanish. Each book charts a different aspect of the childrearing process, from prenatal care and postpartum expectations to family building and infant safety. Additional resources, including instructor manuals and learner’s workbooks, are available for the first four installments in the series.

Infant Mortality Down in State with Historically High Rate

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North Carolina saw its infant mortality rate drop in 2010 to its lowest level ever recorded, according to state officials. Officials there say this is tremendous progress given that nearly 25 years ago the state had one of the highest rates of infant mortality in the nation. The recent figures show a continued decline from 7.9 deaths per 1,000 infants in 2009 to 7 per 1,000 in 2010. Speaking to the Associated Press, the state’s Health Director Dr. Jeff Engle said the fall off in infant mortality was a “direct result of long-term, sustained investments in promising to reduce infant deaths and eliminate disparities in birth outcomes.”

Engle attributed much of the decline to a state program called Healthy Beginnings, which promotes safe child rearing practices. North Carolina, the AP points out, is now very close to the national average of 6.8 percent.

The Price of Teen Pregnancy and the Influence of Reality TV

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Reality stars’ influence is not always the best, as proven by MTV’s group of teen mothers, who generate publicity that often glamorizes teenage pregnancy. Sadly, these stars sometimes have more money and fame and influence over teens than doctors, educators, businessmen and women. If your aspirations are to become famous and make tons of money, know that it is sometimes easier to accomplish these days by appearing on reality shows. We live in a society that rewards people for knowing how to party hard, like the cast of “Jersey Shore,” date an athlete, like the women of VH1’s “Basketball Wives,” and even get pregnant in high school, like the now tabloid-famous reality stars of MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom.”

This summer, MTV premiered season three of its hit TV show, “Teen Mom.” The show is about a group of teens who have recently given birth. They are followed by MTV’s cameras to watch their everyday lives.

Part One: Darkness Visible

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Just joining us? This is part one of a five part series. See the whole series. When Suzanne and John Boyer left their upper-middle class home for work on the morning of May 20, 2008, their 15-year-old son, Kyle, had a stomachache and was still in bed. It wasn’t too bad, he told them.

Random Drug Testing for 6th Graders

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Children as young as 11 face random drug testing in Belvidere, New Jersey, and the news has people talking across the country. The Board of Education approved the plan for Oxford Street School on Wednesday, and apparently many parents support the idea, even though no drug or alcohol abuse has ever been reported there. The program is voluntary  - both parents and children must sign up.  If a child tests positive for drugs, he or she will get counseling.  School officials promise no suspensions and no police reports.  Principal Sandra Szabocsik  thinks it will be a deterrent, telling WCBS-TV, "We're hoping that the students, if they're at a party or someone's house or just hanging out somewhere, that they'll say 'I don't want to get involved in drinking or using any drug because tomorrow could be a drug testing day,”

Random drug testing in schools is nothing new.