Studies in the News (SITN) is a current compilation of policy-related items significant to the Legislature and Governor's Office. It is created weekly by the State Library's Research Bureau and State Information & Reference Center to supplement the public policy debate in California's Capitol. To help share the latest information with state employees and other interested individuals, these reading lists are now being made accessible through the State Library's website.

How to Obtain Materials Listed in SITN:

• When available on the Internet, the URL for the full-text of each item is provided.

• California State Employees may contact the State Information & Reference Center (916-654-0206; cslsirc@library.ca.gov) with the SITN issue number and the item number [S#].

• All other interested individuals should contact their local library - the items may be available there, or may be borrowed by your local library on your behalf.

ECONOMY

CHILDREN

The ABCs of ECD: A Discussion on the Economics of Early Childhood Development. By Arthur J. Rolnick. Vol. 17, No. 4. Supplement. (Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota) December 2003. 7 p.

Full Text at: minneapolisfed.org/research/studies/earlychild/ABC-Part1.pdf

["Advocates of early childhood learning programs have an important new ally: economists. Art Rolnick, vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, is one such example. He says a good pre-school can offer a staggering 12-percent annual return on investment after inflation." Connect For Kids Weekly (March 15, 2004).]

[Request #S1627]

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EDUCATION

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

How to Develop Children's Early Literacy: A Guide for Professional Carers and Educators. By Laurie Makin and Marian Whitehead. (Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, California) 2004. 122 p.

["The years before a child starts school are crucial in establishing strong foundations for literacy. This book addresses current issues relating to early literacy. The authors offer pragmatic ideas and literacy for babies and toddlers, literacy for preschool, daycare and nursery children, and play, bilingualism, special needs and official curriculum frameworks." NOTE: How to Develop Children's .... is available for 3-day loan.]

[Request #S1628]

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"Play Under Siege." By Edward F. Zigler and Sandra J. Bishop-Josef, Yale's Center in Child Development and Social Policy. IN: 21Community News: A Newsletter for Schools of the 21st Century. (Winter 2004) pp. 1-4.

Full Text at: www.yale.edu/21c/pdf/Winter2004.pdf

["No naptime in preschool, no recess in kindergarten -- are schools focusing too narrowly on desk learning alone? Child development specialist Ed Zigler says that children's play is under attack as schools focus on children's reading development at the expense of their equally important (and related) physical, social and emotional development." Connect for Kids Weekly (March 22, 2004).]

[Request #S1629]

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Collective Management of Early Childhood Programs: Approaches That Aim to Maximize Efficiency, Help Improve Quality, and Stabilize the Industry. By Louise Stoney. A Collaborative Publication of Smart Start's National Technical Assistance Center and the Cornell University Linking Economic Development and Child Care Research Project. (Alliance on Early Childhood Finance, Smart Start National Technical Assistance Center, Raleigh, North Carolina) 2003. 76 p.

Full Text at: www.earlychildhoodfinance.org/handouts/CollectiveManagementfullreport.pdf

["This is essentially a catalog of collective management approaches that are currently used by child care businesses across the United States. Seventeen multi-site early care and education organizations or alliances are profiled, proceeded by a narrative that discusses lessons that can be learned from these approaches."]

[Request #S1641]

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Status of Efforts to Increase the Qualifications of Head Start Teachers. By the Office of Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services. OEI-07-01-00560. (The Department, Washington, DC) January 2004. 26 p.

Full Text at: oig.hhs.gov/oei/reports/oei-07-01-00560b.pdf

["The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that some states are continuing to face challenges in meeting the mandates set in the 1998 reauthorization of Head Start, calling for 50 percent of all Head Start teachers to have at least an associate degree. This report indicates that although the nationwide goal was met in 2003, many communities are still far from reaching 50 percent. Fifteen states, mostly in the South, are facing the most challenges in getting their teachers degreed. The Inspector General recommends that the HHS Administration for Children and Families offer targeted assistance to programs that have not yet reached the goal." Center for the Child Care Workforce Newsletter (March 22, 2004).]

[Request #S1630]

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EMPLOYMENT

WORKFORCE

Working in a 24/7 Economy: Challenges for American Families. By Harriet B. Presser. (Russell Sage, New York, New York) 2003. 267 p.

["An economy that operates 24/7 -- as ours now does -- imposes extraordinary burdens on workers. Two-fifths of all employed Americans work mostly during evenings, nights, weekends, or on rotating shifts outside the traditional 9-to-5 work day. The pervasiveness of nonstandard work schedules has become a significant social phenomenon, with important implications for the health and well-being of workers and their families." NOTE: Working in a 24/7 Economy ... is available for 3-day loan."]

[Request #S1632]

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HEALTH

CHILDREN

SCHIP-Enrolled Children With Special Health Care Needs: An Assessment of Coordination Efforts Between State SCHIP and Title V Programs. By Ann Markus and others, Center for Health Services Research and Policy, George Washington University. Prepared for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured. (The Center, Washington, DC) January 2004. 49 p.

Full Text at: www.kff.org/medicaid/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=31921

["The first section of the paper provides background and an overview of the Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant program and presents data on the characteristics of Title V programs as they pertain to CSHCN. The second section presents the study's principal findings, including the three basic models developed by states with separate SCHIP programs to address the health care needs of CSHCN, and the final section discusses the implications of these findings for publicly funded health insurance programs and pediatric health care." Maternal and Child Health Alert (March 19, 2004).]

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Improving Care For Children With ADHD. By the National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality. (NICHQ, Boston, Massachusetts) October 2003. 18 p.

Full Text at: www.nichq.org/documents/public/ADHD2003lg.PDF

["On average, at least one child in every American classroom needs help for attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality offers best practices for treating children with ADHD, and recommendations for health providers to work with families, schools and communities to provide comprehensive services to children with ADHD." Connect For Kids Weekly (March 15, 2004).]

[Request #S1634]

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Survey on Childhood Obesity: Summary and Chartpack. By San Jose Mercury News and Kaiser Family Foundation. (The Foundation, Palo Alto, California) March 2004. 46 p.

Full Text at: www.mercurynews.com/multimedia/mercurynews/mercurynews/20040307_kaiserobesitypoll.pdf

["Obesity in the United States has been labeled an epidemic by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Surgeon General has said that overweight and obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as smoking. Fifteen percent of children and teens ages 6-19 are overweight and another 15% are at risk of becoming overweight - triple the rate of only 20 years ago. Overweight and obesity are associated illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer, as well as psychological disorders like depression and low self-esteem. These diseases do not just afflict adults; obese children and teens confront these same issues as well as social discrimination from their peers."]

[Request #S1635]

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Prescription Drugs for Children with Special Health Care Needs in Commercial Managed Care: Patterns of Use and Cost, 1999-2001. By Henry T. Ireys, Mathematica Policy Research, and others. (Mathematica Policy Research, Washington, DC) January 2004. 44 p.

Full Text at: www.mathematica-mpr.com/PDFs/prescription.pdf

["Although rapidly rising pharmaceutical costs have contributed to increased health expenditures nationwide, few studies have examined this trend in children with special health care needs. This study examined how many and what kinds of prescription drugs these children used, as well as their costs. Among its findings: central nervous system/psychiatric medications were the most frequently prescribed and accounted for about a third of all drug costs for the children studied; and from 1999 to 2001 prescription drug costs increased seven times more than use."]

[Request #S1636]

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HUMAN SERVICES

CHILD CARE

Advancing the Child Care Workforce: Implementation of Training and Retention Initiatives in the Bay Area. By Laura Ruth Johnson and others. Policy Brief 04-1. (Policy Analysis for California Education, Berkeley, California) January 2004. 16 p.

Full Text at: pace.berkeley.edu/policy_brief_04-1.pdf

["This policy brief ... is meant to report on and summarize the most salient findings regarding the implementation of the programs in Alameda and San Francisco counties in their second year of operation. (Topics include) the need for quality ECE and the demand for qualified and well-trained staff; ... welfare legislation mandating longer working hours for welfare recipients; ... movement for universal preschool; ... issues surrounding the retention of qualified staff."]

[Request #S1637]

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What Happens When Child Care Inspections and Complaints are Made Available on the Internet? By Ann Dryden Witte and Magaly Queralt, Wellesley College. NBER Working Paper 10227. (National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts) January 2004. 34 p.

Full Text at: papers.nber.org/papers/w10227.pdf

["This paper provides evidence that placing child care provider inspection and complaint reports on the Internet changed the behavior of child care inspectors and improved the quality of child care received by low-income children. These results were forthcoming in part because: 1) the media widely reported the availability of this information on the Web; 2) the information was easy to locate and use; and 3) the inspector’s name and contact information appeared on the first page of the reports."]

[Request #S1638]

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"Thinking About How to Evaluate Your Program? These Strategies Will Get You Started." By Rebecca Gajda & Jennifer Jewiss, the University of Vermont. IN: Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation: A Peer-Reviewed Electronic Journal, vol. 9, no. 8. (2004). Online.

Full Text at: PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=9&n=8

["This article introduces and demystifies common evaluation terminology and presents a series of strategies to help those delivering direct services and programs to begin down the road of program evaluation. The approaches described in this article are intended to help those with little or no experience in program evaluation to: a) identify and document the outcomes, activities, and indicators to be evaluated, and b) assess the quantity and quality of the program's achievements."

[Request #S1642]

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[The following studies, reports, and documents have been ordered or requested, but have not yet arrived. Requests may be placed, and copies will be provided when the material arrives.]

HEALTH

INFECTIOUS DISEASE

"Effects of Antibacterial Home Cleaning and Handwashing Products on Infectious Disease Symptoms." IN: Journal of Internal Medicine, vol. 140, no. 5. (March 2, 2004) pp. 321-330.

["The antibacterial soaps, laundry detergents and other household cleaning products that have become increasingly popular in recent years apparently offer little protection against the most common germs, the first major test in people's homes has found. The effectiveness of antibacterials has also been questioned because most common infections, such as colds and flu, are caused by viruses that are not affected by antibacterial preparations. This study represents the first time scientists have attempted a study to evaluate the products under real-life, day-to-day conditions in homes." Los Angeles Times (March 8, 2004 F1.]

[Request #S1639]

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SMOKING

"Developmental Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Material Hardship Among Inner-City Children." By V.A. Rauh and others. IN: Neurotoxicology and Teratology (2004) In press.

["The effects of prenatal exposure to second-hand smoke on mental development are exacerbated in children who experience socioeconomic hardships, such as substandard housing and inadequate food and clothing, during the first two years of life, according to this study. While the study results indicate that prenatal exposure to second-hand smoke can be harmful to the unborn child regardless of socioeconomic conditions, the data also suggest that lower-income children may be less able to compensate for these effects over the next few years of life." National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (March 15, 2004).]

[Request #S1640]

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HUMAN SERVICES

CHILD CARE

Who Are These People?: A Guide for Child Care Professionals. By the National Academies with Support from the McCormick Tribune Foundation. (The Academies, Washington, DC) 2004.

["As children spend an increasing portion of their day outside the home, it has become even more important that they are consistently exposed to positive and productive experiences, especially during their formative years. High-quality care is no longer a plus—it’s a must. Based on key findings described in two recent reports on early childhood development and education from Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development and Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers, it offers helpful suggestions and practical guidance to child care providers, educators, and even interested parents, concentrating specifically on infants, toddlers, and preschoolers." NOTE: Who are These People? ... will be available for 3-day loan.]

Order Information to Request Free Copy:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10696.html?ed_12

English Version. 16 p.:
http://books.nap.edu/html/childcare_guide/NI000526.pdf

Spanish Version. 15 p.:
http://books.nap.edu/html/childcare_guide/NI000526_spanish.pdf

[Request #S1643]

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