States Stepping Up in Child Health

08/12/2009

States Stepping Up in Child Health

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.
T.S. Eliot

The governor of Oregon, Ted Kolungoski, recently signed a bill that expands state health care access to nearly every child in Oregon. According to Forbes.com (August 5, 2009), the measure makes Oregon one of just 12 states that has universal health care for children.

However, what is interesting is that even in this economic slump with all states struggling to balance budgets at least 13 states have invested millions of dollars this year to cover 250,000 more children with subsidized government health insurance. Reporting on this surprising development, the New York Times (July 19, 2009) observed...

"The expansions have come in the five months since Congress and President Obama used the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program to vastly increase its funding and encourage states to increase enrollment. Although the federal government covers the vast majority of the cost, states set their own eligibility levels and must decide whether to spend state money in order to draw even more from Washington.

"In addition to increasing income eligibility levels, three states are dropping requirements that legal immigrants wait five years before joining the program, a step newly permitted by the federal legislation. Others have extended coverage to pregnant women or streamlined enrollment and eligibility procedures."

Exchange's Many Resources on Challenging Behavior

Exchange has a number of extremely helpful resources for supporting teachers in dealing with children with challenging behaviors:

Our Beginnings Workshop book, Behavior, has 24 articles written by experts in the field on how to deal with challenging behavior.
Ten Out of the Box Training Kits on "Positive Discipline" provide directors with all the resources you need to conduct in-house training sessions.
Two Exchange CEU modules, "Managing Challenging Behavior" and "Social and Emotional Development", provide credit for reading Exchange magazine articles.
Exchange's newest resource, the DVD, Facing the Challenge is an expertly crafted video training tool.

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For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.