• State Medicaid programs face $141 million shortfall, report says, By Jason Stein, January 31, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Wisconsin’s health programs for the poor have a $141 million shortfall in state money over the next year and a half, new estimates show. So far, GOP Gov. Scott Walker’s administration has saving plans that would more that cover that potential deficit in the state’s Medicaid health programs. But a new report by the Legislature’s nonpartisan budget office questions whether all of the saving will materialize. With costs in the program still substantial and the saving uncertain, the Legislative Fiscal Bureau found in its new report that the finances of the health programs will need careful monitoring. The report comes ahead of new estimates expected next week that should shed more light on the overall condition of the state’s strained budget…”
• Medicaid rolls rose even as Pa. disqualified many, new calculation shows, By Don Sapatkin, January 26, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s stepped-up efforts over the summer to target waste, fraud, and abuse quickly bore fruit in the fall. Adult Medicaid enrollment alone was down 109,000 through November. Cause and effect seemed clear. Advocates for the poor and disabled were outraged. Now, DPW has suddenly changed its reporting method. Revised calculations show a decline of just 6,000 participants for the same period. And when December is added in, enrollment is up by 23,000 since August - a time when officials agree that tens of thousands of people lost benefits after overdue reviews found they were ineligible. DPW says the new reporting method is just as accurate as the old one, merely different. But it will not disclose its new method or recalculate the latest Medicaid data using the old formula…”
• Medicaid copays could increase in South Dakota, By Megan Luther, January 31, 2012, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “Medicaid recipients in South Dakota will face larger copays for their medication if the federal government signs off on a state plan designed to drive down costs in the program that provides health care to poor people. Requiring the larger copays is one of 11 recommendations put forth by the Medicaid Solutions Work Group, an assembly of health care providers, lawmakers and state employees assigned with finding savings the the program. The group began work last year at the request of Gov. Dennis Daugaard…”
• Medicaid change to cut pharmacy payments in Texas, By Jim Fuquay, January 28, 2012, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “When Marwan Hattab opened Wedgwood Pharmacy just over a year ago, he knew from his previous years in the business how much it costs to fill a prescription. And he knows it’s quite a bit more than he’ll be paid under a new reimbursement system for Texas’ Medicaid program. The state’s move to managed care for Medicaid prescriptions goes into effect March 1, and Hattab and other independent pharmacists say they stand to lose money on every prescription they write for the federal/state healthcare program for the poor. A coalition of Texas pharmacies said last week that the dispensing fee that pharmacists receive for filing a Texas Medicaid prescription will plunge from about $6.50 to as little as $1.35. The change is part of legislation passed last year that aims to save the state an estimated $100 million over the next two years…”

Number of asset-poor Americans rising, By Becky Yerak, January 31, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Luz Pagan, 45, has been working as a part-time cashier at a discount store in downtown Chicago for nearly three years, her requests to become a full-time employee with benefits having gone nowhere. The single mom and her 12-year-old son, Marvin, have been living in a $575-a-month studio apartment on the North Side since November. But with a work schedule averaging 15 to 20 hours a week, in a job paying about $8.75 an hour, Pagan is struggling to cover living expenses and has to scrape together money from friends and family. Her last paycheck netted $64. ‘I’m underemployed,’ said Pagan, who previously lived in a shelter for two months. She has an associate’s degree and would love an office job. Marvin’s dad helps with expenses, but she said she and her son - a mostly A and B student who wants to be a doctor - are living paycheck to paycheck, with no savings. Pagan’s plight is becoming more commonplace. Nationwide, 27 percent of households are ‘asset poor,’ meaning they don’t have enough money tucked away to cover basic expenses for three months in case of a layoff or other emergency that saps income, according to a study to be released Tuesday by the Washington-based Corporation for Enterprise Development…”

With focus on income inequality, Albany bill will seek $8.50 minimum wage, By John Eligon, January 29, 2012, New York Times: “The Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park is no more, but the focus it brought to income inequality is having an impact in Albany and beyond. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, plans to introduce a bill on Monday to raise the state’s minimum wage to $8.50 an hour, a 17 percent increase. The bill also calls for the minimum wage to be adjusted each year for inflation. Mr. Silver’s action follows similar steps by lawmakers across the country: Delaware recently passed a minimum wage increase, and raises are being considered in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Jersey…”

Without dental coverage, patients seek pain relief in ER, By Alison Bath, January 28, 2012, Shreveport Times: “Louisiana spent $1.7 million on Medicaid patients who visited statewide emergency rooms seeking pain relief from toothaches during fiscal year 2010-11. The year before, the state paid $1.66 million for the same reason, according to Department of Health and Hospitals data. Those hospital visits didn’t solve the problem. Unlike dentists and oral surgeons, ER doctors and other physicians can’t pull a tooth. So, the thousands of Medicaid and other government health program recipients who visit an ER each year in Louisiana seeking help for toothaches, tooth abscesses and other dental emergencies receive only palliative care and a referral to an oral surgeon…”

Medicaid dispute pits ’shared responsibility,’ care of poor, By Michael Booth, January 29, 2012, Denver Post: “Colorado policymakers are wrestling to bring the burgeoning Medicaid budget under control, as critics fear health insurance for the poor will consume the state budget. But even the smallest cuts or cost-shares raise protests from patient advocates and objections that such measures will prove more expensive in the long run. ‘Sharing responsibility’ by raising co-pays and enrollment fees for public health care actually discourages patients from seeking care until they require budget-busting emergency or specialty help, researchers say. ‘There is indisputable evidence that when you ask poor people to pay more for medical care, some of them cannot afford it, so they avoid seeking the doctor or cannot afford their medications,’ said Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at George Washington University. Some of those patients, Ku said, will eventually require ‘the most expensive forms of care at emergency rooms or in hospitals.’ The constraints inherent in Medicaid - a tangled web of mandates, entitlements and patients’ behavior - frustrate critics, who see the program growing even more onerous. Federal health reform and expansions from a state hospital fee will add hundreds of thousands of people to public insurance rolls who are unlikely to ever leave…”

• Feds confirm high hurdle for DHHS cuts; LePage officials prepared to take case to D.C., By Steve Mistler, January 27, 2012, Lewiston Sun Journal: “The federal agency that will decide whether some of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposed Medicaid cuts qualify for waivers to make the reductions legal reaffirmed Thursday that the exemptions face long odds. In a written response to the Democratic leads on the Legislature’s budgetary committee, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed that legislative action was not a consideration in whether the agency will grant a waiver from the federal health care law…”
• Kansas governor has no plans to slow Medicaid overhaul, By John Hanna (AP), January 26, 2012, Kansas City Star: “Kansas asked the federal government Thursday to waive some of its rules so that the state can overhaul its $2.9 billion Medicaid program, despite concerns among legislators that Gov. Sam Brownback is moving too quickly to turn all of it over to private health insurance companies. Brownback expects the state to issue contracts this year to three companies to manage the program, which provides health coverage to poor families and disabled and elderly Kansans. The contracts would take effect Jan. 1, 2013, and Kansas wants federal officials to issue a waiver so the state can include services for the disabled and elderly and build in financial incentives for improving services while controlling costs…”

• Report: N.J. subsidized child care program hobbled by poor oversight and long waits, By Susan K. Livio, January 25, 2012, Star-Ledger: “New Jersey could be wasting millions of dollars a year on its subsidized child care program for thousands of working poor families by overpaying day care providers and failing to catch parents lying about their income, according to an audit state Comptroller Matthew Boxer released today. The comptroller’s team found glaring problems with the oversight of the N.J. Cares for Kids day care assistance program that eluded the state Department of Human Services and 15 regional agencies that manage its vast referral network, according to the audit…”
• NJ comptroller criticizes state-administered child care program in audit, By John Reitmeyer, January 25, 2012, The Record: “Parents who cheated a $124 million state-administered program that helps low-income families afford child care - a program that has 8,000 children on a waiting list - could face criminal prosecution. An audit of the state Child Care Assistance Program released Wednesday by the Office of the State Comptroller found a series of other problems not detected by administrators, including overpaying child care centers with inflated attendance figures and enrolling children without proper Social Security numbers. In some cases, Comptroller Matthew Boxer said, the errors were likely honest. But others could eventually give rise to a criminal case, he said…”

How Haiti is fighting poverty by killing cash, By Margo Conner, January 27, 2012, Christian Science Monitor: “In Haiti, cash is escaping from wallets and savings accounts are breaking free from brick-and-mortar banks. Two years after 2010’s devastating earthquake, mobile money has taken off in the island nation. While the country has seen setbacks in many areas and continues to struggle, one bright spot is the transformation of the country’s traditional banking sector. Physical banks were wiped away by the quake and subsequent hurricane, and a mobile banking network that uses cell phones has grown up in their place…”

Spain unemployment hitting nearly 1 of 4 workers, rises to 22.8 percent, Associated Press, January 27, 2012, Washington Post: “Spain’s brutal unemployment rate soared to nearly 23 percent Friday and closed in on 50 percent for those under age 25, leaving more than 5 million people - or almost one out of every four - out of work as the country slides toward recession. Spain’s National Statistics Institute reported that 5.3 million people were jobless at the end of December, up from 4.9 million in the third quarter - a jump in the unemployment rate from 21.5 percent to 22.9 percent in the fourth quarter. For those under age 25, the rate hit a whopping 48.5 percent, and the institute also reported that Spain now has 1.6 million households in which no one has work…”

• Obama wades into issue of raising dropout age, By Tamar Lewin, January 25, 2012, New York Times: “President Obama’s State of the Union call for every state to require students to stay in school until they turn 18 is Washington’s first direct involvement in an issue that many governors and state legislators have found tough to address. While state legislative efforts to raise the dropout age to 18 have spread in recent years, many have had trouble winning passage. Last year, for example, such legislation was considered in Alaska, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland and Rhode Island - but only Rhode Island actually changed its law…”
• Missouri, Illinois educators debate raising high school dropout age, By Jessica Bock, January 26, 2012, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The legal age at which students in Missouri and Illinois can drop out of high school has inched up to 17 in recent years. Now, President Barack Obama wants states to do more. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, he called on every state to require students to stay in high school until they either graduate or turn 18. But some educators and researchers question the cost and effectiveness of such a measure. And they say that truly addressing the dropout problem requires far more than changing a number…”
• In Ohio, dropout law hard to enforce, By Charlie Boss, January 26, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “During Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama urged states to require students to stay in school until they graduate or turn 18 - a law already in effect in Ohio and 19 other states. Still, at least 23,000 Ohio teens dropped out in the 2010-11 school year. And only a small number of those kids took advantage of an Ohio provision that lets them ‘officially’ leave school if they’re at least 16, have a full-time job and have permission from a parent and the district. Most of those 23,000 were out of school illegally and could face penalties - if they could be tracked down…”
• City students at small public high schools are more likely to graduate, study says, By Winnie Hu, January 25, 2012, New York Times: “New York City teenagers attending small public high schools with about 100 students per grade were more likely to graduate than their counterparts at larger schools, according to new findings from a continuing study released on Wednesday night. The findings are part of a study that tracked the academic performance of more than 21,000 students who applied for ninth grade admission at 105 small high schools, mainly in Brooklyn and in the Bronx, from 2005 to 2008. The study appeared to validate the Bloomberg administration’s decade-long push to create small schools to replace larger, failing high schools…”

• Welfare drug testing bill whips up debate in state legislature, By Mike Sluss, January 25, 2012, Roanoke Times: “A House of Delegates committee has advanced legislation that would require drug testing of Virginia welfare recipients, despite objections from Democrats who argued that the proposal amounts to a targeted attack on poor people. The legislation - House Bill 73 - would require local social services agencies to screen recipients in the state welfare program to determine whether they use illegal drugs. Those who refuse to comply or fail a drug test would lose Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits for one year unless they enter a drug treatment program. A recipient would have one opportunity to be reinstated to the program by complying with screening, assessment and treatment requirements…”
• Welfare drug-testing bill passes on to vote from full House, By Maureen Hayden, January 25, 2012, News and Tribune: “Indiana lawmakers are pushing forward on legislation that would cut off cash assistance to welfare recipients who fail drug tests. In a 15-5 vote that crossed party lines, the House Committee on Ways and Means approved a bill that would require the state’s Family and Social Services Agency to test out a drug-screening program on a small scale before it was launched statewide. It now goes to the full House for a vote. The focus is narrow: The FSSA would implement the drug-screening program in three test counties for a two-year period, then report back to the legislature. The drug-screening would only apply to adults who are receiving cash payments through a program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF…”

Welfare issue makes political comeback, By Dawn Turner Trice, January 22, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently offered to attend an NAACP convention to explain why African-Americans ’should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.’ And he has described President Barack Obama as ‘the most successful food stamp president in American history.’ While the Republican presidential race has brought the welfare issue to the forefront, critics say it has also resurrected stereotypical images of the black ‘welfare mother’ having out-of-wedlock babies so she can stay home and live large off the taxpayers. When it comes to welfare, perceptions have often trumped reality…”

• Kids Count 2011 report shows children on Medicaid, food assistance doubled in past decade in Southwest Michigan, By Fritz Krug, January 24, 2012, Kalamazoo Gazette: “More children are living in poverty in Southwest Michigan than a decade ago, and the number receiving Medicaid and the Food Assistance Program (food stamps) has nearly doubled over the last 10 years in four counties in the region. The findings are part of the annual Kids Count in Michigan Data Book, released today by the Michigan League for Human Services…”
• Many Michigan kids living in poverty, report finds, By Robin Erb, January 24, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “Fewer Michigan teens are having babies or dropping out of school, and educational benchmarks for some of the state’s youngest students have improved, according to the new Kids Count report. Still, more of Michigan’s families continue to slip into poverty, threatening the health and future of the state’s youngest residents, according to the annual measure of the well-being of the state’s children. More than 1 in 10 children live in extreme poverty — twice as many as a decade ago, according to the report, which draws from several sources, according to the Kids Count in Michigan project at the Michigan League for Human Services, an advocacy group for poor people in Michigan…”
• Kids Count: Nearly half of Michigan students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, By Dave Murray, January 24, 2012, Grand Rapids Press: “Nearly half of Michigan’s students now qualify for free or reduced-priced school lunches, a sign that any economic recovery has not filtered down to the state’s youngest residents, according to a report from two children’s advocacy organizations. The Kids Count in Michigan report also finds that the number of children living in poverty has jumped from 14 percent to 23 percent between 2000 and 2009, and that the number of children in extreme poverty has more than doubled, reaching 11 percent at the end of the decade. But advocates said there is good amid the economic statistics. Teen pregnancies are declining, as are the number of students dropping out of school. Death rates also are slowing, though children are experience more chronic illnesses…”
• Recession affecting Michigan, Great Lakes Bay Region children, Kids Count data shows, By Kathryn Lynch-Morin, January 24, 2012, Saginaw News: “Today’s release of Kids Count in Michigan data paints a bleak picture of kids’ well-being in the Great Lakes Bay Region. More children are living in poverty in Saginaw and Bay counties than were in 2005, and rates of abuse and neglect have increased in both counties over the course of the decade, the report shows…”

Kansas Gov. Brownback to review state’s food stamp policy, By Laura Bauer, January 25, 2012, Kansas City Star: “Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday that he would review a new policy that has eliminated food stamps for hundreds of low-income children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are illegal immigrants. The Star reported Sunday how the new way the state Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services counts income for food stamp eligibility has affected families across Kansas. Since the new policy went into effect Oct. 1, more than 1,000 households have lost their food stamps. Many said they had relied heavily on benefits provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Brownback told reporters Tuesday that he would look into the new policy and talk to SRS workers in the field to see how families have been affected. Advocates for low-income families were encouraged by Brownback’s words, although the governor’s spokeswoman said no changes are planned…”

Hawaii minimum wage could rise to $8.14 in January, Associated Press, January 25, 2012, CBS News: “A bill moving through the state Legislature could increase Hawaii’s minimum wage for the first time since 2007, but opinions are mixed as to whether elevating the wage floor would help or hinder Hawaii’s economic recovery. According to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the current $7.25 minimum wage is worth 84 cents less than when it was set five years ago due to inflation. A minimum wage increase would help Hawaii workers recover lost purchasing power and encourage more spending that can contribute to the state’s economic recovery, the Labor Department suggests. That’s not the way the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii sees it, however…”

State’s student homeless population doubles, By Jessica Anderson, January 22, 2012, Baltimore Sun: “For a few hours after school, Ryan Johnson is just like most 16-year-olds. He lounges on the couch with his favorite Xbox game or checks his Facebook page. But then reality sets in. He decamps from his cousins’ house for the Howard County cold-weather shelter. Dinner is a meal with his father and 20 other homeless people. He goes to bed early, on a green plastic mat next to strangers, who also have no other place to go in one of the state’s wealthiest counties. ‘It has been really hard,’ said Ryan, a junior at Wilde Lake High School in Columbia. ‘I look at it like a detention I have to do every day, even though I didn’t do anything wrong.’ Ryan’s experience is becoming increasingly common. The number of homeless students in Maryland has more than doubled in the past five years, rising from 6,721 to 14,117 last school year, according to the Maryland State Department of Education…”

Kansas slashes food aid for children of illegal immigrants, By Laura Bauer, January 22, 2012, Kansas City Star: “Pedro moved to the Kansas City area about 13 years ago and has held the same job for 11. Though he sometimes struggles to pay bills, he knows most people think he should receive no public aid. He’s an illegal immigrant. He doesn’t deserve handouts. He understands that. ‘I’ve never asked for anything for myself,’ said Pedro, who didn’t want his last name used to protect his family. ‘Never. I just work. Work hard.’ A new debate swirling around Kansas, though, isn’t about Pedro. It’s about two of his three children. They were born here, and one day they will have driver’s licenses and the right to vote, just like any other U.S. citizen. Early last year, when they needed food assistance, they got it. Pedro’s family received nearly $300 a month in food stamps. Enough to buy milk, eggs and meat, fruit and yogurt. Now, they get nothing. Neither do hundreds of other Kansas families who, like Pedro’s, are a mix of undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens. At a time when Gov. Sam Brownback has vowed to reduce child poverty, the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services - a state agency the governor controls - made a policy change that eliminated food stamps for hundreds of low-income U.S. children whose parents are illegal immigrants. For more households, benefits were reduced…”

3 of 4 uninsured Americans in states that have yet to adopt health overhaul plans, Associated Press, January 23, 2012, Washington Post: “Here’s a reality check for President Barack Obama’s health overhaul: Three out of four uninsured Americans live in states that have yet to figure out how to deliver on its promise of affordable medical care. This is the year that will make or break the health care law. States were supposed to be partners in carrying out the biggest safety net expansion since Medicare and Medicaid, and the White House claims they’re making steady progress. But an analysis by The Associated Press shows that states are moving in fits and starts. Combined with new insurance coverage estimates from the nonpartisan Urban Institute, it reveals a patchwork nation. Such uneven progress could have real consequences…”

• U.S. teen pregnancy rate remains highest in developed world, By Shari Roan, January 19, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Teen pregnancy rates in the United States have fallen in recent years, but the country still has a higher rate than any other developed country, according to data released Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Battles over how to best prevent teen pregnancy may be to blame for the continued high rate in the United States. Abstinence-only programs are favored in some areas while education and improved access to contraception are supported in others. The most recent controversy stemmed from the federal government’s refusal in December to allow emergency contraceptive pills to be sold over-the-counter to girls age 16 and younger…”
• CDC: Many teen moms didn’t think it could happen, By Mike Stobbe (AP), January 19, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle: “A new government study suggests a lot of teenage girls are clueless about their chances of getting pregnant. In a survey of thousands of teenage mothers who had unintended pregnancies, about a third who didn’t use birth control said the reason was they didn’t believe they could pregnant. Why they thought that isn’t clear. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey didn’t ask teens to explain. But other researchers have talked to teen moms who believed they couldn’t get pregnant the first time they had sex, didn’t think they could get pregnant at that time of the month or thought they were sterile…”
• Roanoke’s teen pregnancy rate plunges 32%, By Courtney Cutright, January 20, 2012, Roanoke Times: “Roanoke’s rate of teen pregnancies dropped nearly 32 percent from 2009 to 2010, moving the city out of the top 10 localities in Virginia with the highest rates. Roanoke still ranks 12th in the state. But the city’s teen pregnancy rate for 2010 is one of the lowest since 1996, according to Virginia Department of Health statistics posted online recently…”

• Food stamp recipients to critics: Walk in our shoes, By Jesse Washington (AP), January 20, 2012, Charlotte Observer: “Some have advanced degrees and remember middle-class lives. Some work selling lingerie or building websites. They are white, black and Hispanic; young and old; homeowners and homeless. What they have in common: They’re all on food stamps. As the food stamp program has become an issue in the Republican presidential primary, with candidates seeking to tie President Barack Obama to the program’s record numbers, The Associated Press interviewed recipients across the country and found many who wished critics would spend some time in their shoes. Most said they never expected to need food stamps, but the Great Recession, which wiped out millions of jobs, left them no choice. Some struggled with the idea of taking a handout; others saw it as their due, earned through years of working steady jobs. They yearn to get back to receiving a paycheck that will make food stamps unnecessary…”
• The Americans no one wants to talk about, By Michael Gerson, January 19, 2012, Washington Post: “It is an achievement of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements to have raised large issues of economic freedom and economic inequality. It is a paradox that their arguments have generally been vague, ideological and unhelpful. Elements on the right reject the whole ideal of distributive justice - opposing most taxation as theft and embracing a utopian project involving the abolition of the modern state. Elements on the left seek a substitute for capitalism - a utopian project that has been tried and found frightening. The political debates on free markets or the privileges of the 1 percent seldom touch on the actual struggles of citizens - say, living in the shadow of foreclosure, or attending a failing school, or surviving in a gang-occupied neighborhood. Ideology is abstract. Hardship is lived concretely. I like a good political philosophic debate as much as the next columnist. Give me a soy latte and a libertarian, and I’m set for the night. Ideas do have consequences. But many Americans are being overlooked in this bipartisan conspiracy of economic abstraction. A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty…”
• GOP presidential candidates wade into politically tricky territory of food stamp spending, By Associated Press, January 9, 2012, Washington Post: “Politicians normally shy away from saying they want to cut food stamps, but this year’s Republican presidential candidates are using domestic food aid as an example of a welfare state gone awry. Supporters of the program say it is one of the most reliable safety nets for families who suddenly find themselves unable to pay for food, and politically the program has proved almost untouchable over many decades. More than 45 million people received the benefit last year at a $75 billion cost to the government, a record number as the economy has flailed. Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and fellow contender Rick Santorum, both heavily involved in congressional welfare reform efforts in the mid-1990s, say the government should stop promoting a welfare-like state and convert food stamp spending to block grants to states, a move that could freeze spending and cut the benefit to many who now receive it. A spokesperson for Republican Mitt Romney says the former Massachusetts governor also supports turning the nation’s food stamp program into state block grants, though he rarely mentions it…”

House committee approves dropout bill, By Mike Wynn, January 18, 2012, Louisville Courier-Journal: “A long-debated push to raise Kentucky’s high school dropout age received a green light from the House Education Committee Tuesday and now heads to the House floor, where lawmakers expect it to win approval. House Bill 216 - approved 21-1, with one member passing - would increase the dropout age from 16 to 17 by July 2016 and raise the age to 18 one year later, changing a provision that has been in place since the 1920s. The bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Jeff Greer, D-Brandenburg, has pushed for the change during the past two legislative sessions. He said Tuesday that raising the dropout age will keep students on the path to long-term success and promote a more competent workforce to grow the state’s economy…”

State steps up health care coverage for kids, By Deborah Barfield Berry, January 18, 2012, Montgomery Advertiser: “Alabama’s successful efforts to increase the number of children with health care coverage has made it a standout in the region, according to a national study released Wednesday. The study by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured lists Alabama among four states that are regional leaders in making gains in children’s health care. The others are Iowa, Massachusetts and Oregon. Alabama recognizes the importance of health care coverage for kids, said Trisha Brooks, a co-author of the report and a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families…”

Recession’s toll touches children, By Michael Martinez, January 14, 2012, Reno Gazette-Journal: “Heidi Lanini and her four kids live an austere life — by necessity. Lanini, 37, has lived in her southeast Reno apartment for eight years but hasn’t worked in six for a variety of reasons. These include health issues, the inability to find a new job as the economy soured and a lack of training in the technological skills required for her work. And then there are her kids, who require resources she has struggled to provide, leaving the children living on the edge, struggling with everyday life, school work and uncertainty about their futures. She and her family have survived on subsidized housing, food stamps, welfare and Medicare. Lanini’s family could be a portrait of a growing national trend described in a report on how the recession has affected families — particularly children. The report released by Washington, D.C.-based First Focus shows that Nevada children fared worse than American children overall on several key economic indicators of child well-being…”

• Homelessness down but seen rising anew: report, By Ian Simpson, January 18, 2012, Orlando Sentinel: “U.S. homelessness slipped 1 percent from 2009 to 2011, but the sluggish economy left more poor people struggling to pay for housing and just a step away from shelters, an advocacy group said in a new study on Wednesday. The drop to 636,017 homeless people last year could prove short-lived, since it was likely due to $1.5 billion in federal aid that will run out this year, the National Alliance to End Homelessness said in its report…”
• Stimulus money kept Americans off the street, study finds, By Matt Smith, January 18, 2012, CNN.com: “Federal aid helped many cash-strapped Americans keep a roof over their heads during the prolonged economic slump, but the number of people living a step away from the streets has grown sharply, researchers reported Wednesday. The estimated U.S. homeless population dipped about 1% between 2009 and 2011 despite the lingering effects of the 2007-2009 recession, the Washington-based Homelessness Research Institute concluded. About $1.5 billion from the 2009 economic stimulus measure went toward rental assistance and programs steering recently evicted people toward new housing, ‘and it seems likely that that has worked,’ said Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness…”

Oregon seeks OK to judge schools on overall performance, not success with small groups that typically struggle, By Betsy Hammond, January 8, 2012, The Oregonian: “Oregon schools that serve a concentration of low-income students will face a distinctly different accountability system this fall if the U.S. Department of Education approves the state’s plan. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, Oregon schools that receive federal funds to help disadvantaged students have been judged since 2003 mainly by whether they got enough low-income, special education, minority or limited-English students to pass state reading and math tests. Schools that didn’t — more than 80 in 2011 — faced a series of escalating consequences, such as having to offer students a transfer to another school or free private tutoring. Now Oregon, like many other states, proposes to scrap that system for one that measures success in a whole new way — and offers more flexible consequences to schools whose results are deemed inadequate…”

Growth in prekindergarten slowed in recession, By Kimberly Hefling (AP), January 17, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “The expansion in public prekindergarten programs has slowed and even been reversed in some states as school districts cope with shrinking budgets. As a result, many 3- and 4-year-olds aren’t going to preschool. Kids from low-income families who start kindergarten without first attending a quality education program enter school an estimated 18 months behind their peers. Many never catch up, and research shows they are more likely to need special education services and to drop out. Kids in families with higher incomes also can benefit from early education, research shows. Yet, roughly a quarter of the nation’s 4-year-olds and more than half of 3-year-olds attend no preschool, either public or private. Families who earn about $40,000 to $50,000 annually face the greatest difficulties because they make too much to quality for many publicly funded programs, but can’t afford private ones, said Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University…”

Poverty level of children in Bristol, Va., among worst in the state, By David McGee, January 17, 2012, Bristol Herald Courier: “One out of every three city children lives below the poverty level - a figure that ranks among the worst in Virginia, a new report shows. Nearly 34 percent of children in Bristol, Va., live in a household where the median income is below $22,000, according to a report released Monday by Voices for Virginia’s Children. The city is tied with Roanoke for having the seventh highest rate statewide. The problem is acute across Southwest Virginia, where the number of children living in poverty is double the state average and significantly higher than the national figure. Released Monday, the report uses information from the 2010 census, which is the most recent data available…”

Investigator finds overpayments in food-stamp system, By Jason Stein, January 15, 2012, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In just two months, private investigators found nearly a half-million dollars in overpayments and cost savings in two state aid programs for the needy in Milwaukee County, with much more expected to be added up in the coming weeks. The findings of fraud in public food assistance and health care programs come after budget cuts left such investigations painfully neglected in many parts of the state, including Milwaukee County - the state’s largest urban area. For the past year, the Journal Sentinel has been reporting about fraud and other problems in the FoodShare program. The contractor looked at 111 suspicious cases in FoodShare and Medicaid health programs such as BadgerCare Plus and found overpayments in every case. So far, the total overpayments have been tallied up in only 62 of those cases, or just over half. But the total overpayments and future cost savings will likely come close to $1 million when it’s all added up, with most of that due to fraud, said Ed O’Brien, who heads the investigative firm O’Brien & Associates…”

• After a contentious political year, Republicans may moderate their approach, By John Gramlich, January 9, 2012, Stateline.org: “From the moment he took office last year, Florida Governor Rick Scott made clear that a new and unabashedly conservative administration had taken power in Tallahassee - just as it had in state capitals around the country following an historic election haul for Republicans in 2010. Scott, a Tea Party-backed Republican, stood before a cheering crowd and introduced a state budget that contained more than $4 billion in tax cuts for corporations and property owners, even as it slashed funding for K-12 education…”
• Washington and the states: a year of uncertainty and foreboding, By Pamela M. Prah, January 10, 2012, Stateline.org: “A long siege of deadlock and dysfunction in Washington has left states frustratingly unclear what to expect from the federal government in the coming year. About the only thing they know for sure is that it is not going to be a year of generosity. In fact, it’s likely to be quite the opposite. As a result of last summer’s deal to raise the federal debt ceiling, and the consequent failure of the congressional ’super committee’ to decide on budget cuts, states are bracing for automatic across-the-board cuts in education, social welfare and other programs for the upcoming 2013 fiscal year. Those cuts would come atop federal cuts in 2011 and 2012, not to mention the continuing wind-down of federal stimulus aid…”
• Medicaid: a year of excruciating decisions, By Christine Vestal, January 11, 2012, Stateline.org: “In health care history, 2012 will be remembered for the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the Obama administration’s health overhaul. But in the states, 2012 will likely be remembered less as an historic turning point than as a gradual continuation of their longstanding struggles to get Medicaid costs under control. That’s not to say the states aren’t watching the Supreme Court closely. The case set to be heard in March and decided in June was brought by 26 states who argued the federal law’s ‘individual mandate,’ as well as a massive expansion of Medicaid in 2014, were unconstitutional. While the outcome could have long-term consequences for states, it likely won’t change their most pressing short-term budget considerations…”
• Unions adapt to new rules, even as they fight to reverse them, By Ben Wieder, January 12, 2012, Stateline.org: “It took nearly a year for Dale Kleinert to negotiate his first teachers’ contract. When Kleinert started his job as schools superintendent in Moscow, Idaho, the talks were already underway. Then, discussions reached an impasse. There were disagreements over pay and health care costs, and the pace slowed further when first an outside mediator and later a fact-finder didn’t render a decision. It wasn’t until May of 2011 that Kleinert and his union counterparts finally reached an agreement. Just before then, while Kleinert and the teachers were still stuck, Republican lawmakers in Boise were finishing work on plans to take away much of the leverage that Idaho teachers had long enjoyed in these kinds of negotiations. So for Kleinert’s next round of talks with Moscow’s teachers, which began pretty much right after the previous ones wrapped up, the rules were very different…”
• At last, a state budget year when the sky is not falling, By Daniel C. Vock, January 13, 2012, Stateline.org: “During the depths of the Great Recession, states had to do many unsavory things to balance their budgets. But few things left a more bitter taste than Arizona’s decision to sell off the office space of its state Capitol complex. It helped lawmakers close a gap in one year’s budget, even though it meant taxpayers would essentially have to pay rent on the property for the next two decades. Now, Arizona’s budget outlook is showing some improvement: For the first time since 2006, the state finished its last fiscal year with a surplus, which came as a surprise to state financial forecasters…”

School free-lunch program dogged by abuses at CPS, By Monica Eng and Joel Hood, January 13, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “When a teachers assistant at Chicago’s North-Grand High School handed in her child’s lunch form last school year, it showed that her household made too much money for the child to receive free lunches. So the school’s assistant clerk told the woman to fill out a new one, explaining, ‘She shouldn’t have to pay for lunch,’ and besides, ‘Nobody checks the applications anyway,’ according to an inspector general’s report released last week. Apparently, word had gotten around. At the West Side school, more than a dozen CPS and city employees had submitted false applications for free or reduced-price lunches, according to James Sullivan, Chicago Public Schools’ inspector general. The alleged offenders included teachers, teachers assistants, district employees, a security officer and two people in law enforcement, some of them earning six-figure salaries. The findings led Sullivan to conclude in his report that the National School Lunch Program, meant to provide basic nutrition to needy students, was ‘ripe for fraud and abuse’ because of layers of bureaucracy, incentives for high enrollment, and minimal checks and balances…”

India celebrates one year without polio cases, huge milestone in fight against disease, Associated Press, January 12, 2012, Washington Post: “India will celebrate a full year since its last reported case of polio on Friday, a major victory in a global eradication effort that seemed stalled just a few years ago. If no previously undisclosed cases of the crippling disease are discovered, India will no longer be considered polio endemic, leaving only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria on that list. ‘This is a game changer in a huge way,’ said Bruce Aylward, head of the World Health Organization’s global polio campaign. The achievement gives a major morale boost to health advocates and donors who had begun to lose hope of ever defeating the stubborn disease that the world had promised to eradicate by 2000. It also helps India, which bills itself as one of the world’s emerging powers, shed the embarrassing link to a disease associated with poverty and chaos, one that had been conquered long ago by most of the globe…”

• Report: Even before birth, low-income children lag behind, By Erin Andersen, January 12, 2012, Lincoln Journal Star: “Before they are even born, children of low-income families lag behind their more economically stable peers in every way.  They hear fewer words. Have fewer developmentally stimulating experiences. Poorer nutrition, child care and health care.  They start kindergarten less ready than their wealthier counterparts, and they fall further behind as the years roll by. They are less likely to graduate from high school, less likely to attend college and less likely to land financially stable jobs. They are more likely to be arrested and jailed, to have babies as teenagers and to perpetuate the cycle of poverty from which they came, according to national and state data compiled in the 2011 Kids Count in Nebraska Report…”
• Report shows more kids in poverty, By Paul Goodsell, January 12, 2012, Omaha World-Herald: “A growing share of Nebraska’s children lives in poverty - a trend that has major implications for the state’s schools, workforce and future vitality, according to the latest Kids Count in Nebraska report. ‘Poverty really underscores so many different aspects of a child’s life,’ said Melissa Breazile, who wrote the report for Voices for Children in Nebraska, a statewide research and policy group. ‘It influences outcomes in all kinds of different indicator areas.’ As it has for the past 19 years, the group’s report provides a report card on how children fare in Nebraska. It includes statistics on subjects such as test scores, infant mortality and juvenile crime.  This year’s report outlines numerous challenges and urges Nebraska to invest in its future through programs that help children, especially in their early years…”

Fla. DCF releases 1st foster care report card, By Kelli Kennedy (AP), January 11, 2012, Miami Herald: “Private contractors that receive hundreds of millions of dollars a year to oversee foster care in Florida scored poorly in ensuring proper medical, immunization and dental services for children, but ranked about average in most other areas, according to a report card issued Wednesday for the first time by the state child welfare agency. The review is part of an effort to beef up oversight of the 20 providers that care for foster kids. Since taking office in 2010, Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins has repeatedly said improving accountability among the providers was a top priority and that he intended to include penalties for poor performance in the contracts going forward…”

Many high-poverty schools ’shortchanged’ in Central Florida, By Lauren Roth, January 12, 2012, Orlando Sentinel: “At Hiawassee Elementary in Orange County, where nine out of every 10 students lives in poverty, the school district spent about $2,065 per student on teachers and other staff during the 2008-09 school year. By contrast, the county’s Lake Whitney Elementary, where only about 10 percent of the students are poor, spent about $2,710 on staffing per student that year - nearly a third more. Across Central Florida, school districts spend less per pupil to staff many of their highest-poverty schools despite federal rules intended to make sure every poor school gets its fair share, according to an Orlando Sentinel analysis of federal data…”

• SC Senate panel approves unemployment bills, By Seanna Adcox (AP), January 11, 2012, Charlotte Observer: “A Senate panel advanced bills Tuesday that would require people laid off in South Carolina to pass a drug test to receive unemployment benefits, then volunteer 16 hours weekly with a charity or public agency to keep receiving a check. Though the panel heard testimony that both proposals would likely conflict with federal law, its chairman, Sen. Kevin Bryant, said afterward that doesn’t matter…”
• Jobless may be forced to take drug tests and volunteer, By Tim Flach, January 11, 2012, The State: “A legislative tug-of-war started Tuesday over proposals to require laid-off workers to take a drug test initially and sign up for community service later to receive unemployment payments.  Both proposals won approval from a Senate panel despite warnings the steps probably would be challenged by federal labor officials as too harsh on many of South Carolina’s nearly 214,000 jobless. The drug-test requirement breezed to initial acceptance amid complaints it is punitive. Making a test a condition for benefits doesn’t send ‘the right message,’ said Sue Berkowitz, who runs a Midlands legal service for the poor…”

Quinn signs earned-income tax credit, By Sophia Tareen (AP), January 10, 2012, Springfield State Journal-Register: “Legislation aimed at helping poor Illinois families keep more of what they earn was signed into law Tuesday, a month after Gov. Pat Quinn signed companion legislation granting tax breaks and incentives aimed at keeping two big employers in the state. The new law, which is effective for the 2012 tax year, expands the state’s earned-income tax credit. It’s now 5 percent of the federal credit and will climb to 7.5 percent next year and 10 percent the year after. State officials said it would eventually translate to an average of about $100 a year per family. Currently about 900,000 families meet income guidelines in Illinois, but some advocates estimated 1 million will qualify this year…”

Middle class dropouts, By Tami Luhby, January 11, 2012, CNNMoney.com: “Nearly one third of Americans who were raised in the middle class dropped down the economic ladder as adults — and that’s before the Great Recession hit. ‘Being raised in the middle class is not a guarantee that you’ll have that same status as an adult,’ said Erin Currier, project manager at Pew’s Economic Mobility Project. ‘With all the economic turmoil in the past four years, there’s good reason to think that downward mobility is more severe.’ Pew looked at children born in the early- to mid-1960s and assessed their economic status roughly 40 years later. Being middle class in the parents’ generation meant a household income of roughly $33,000 to $64,000 in 1979. But their children had to earn between $54,000 and $111,000 to maintain their relative standing in society in the mid-2000s…”

• Pennsylvania to impose asset test for food stamps, By Alfred Lubrano, January 10, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania plans to make the amount of food stamps that people receive contingent on the assets they possess - an unexpected move that bucks national trends and places the commonwealth among a minority of states. Specifically, the Department of Public Welfare said that as of May 1, people under 60 with more than $2,000 in savings and other assets would no longer be eligible for food stamps. For people over 60, the limit would be $3,250. Houses and retirement benefits would be exempt from being counted as assets. If a person owns a car, that vehicle also would also be exempt, but any additional vehicle worth more than $4,650 would be considered a countable asset. Anne Bale, a spokeswoman for DPW, said the asset test was a way to ensure that ‘people with resources are not taking advantage of the food-stamp program,’ funded by federal money…”
• Thousands in Philadelphia eligible for food assistance never sought it, group says, By Alfred Lubrano, January 5, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “In hard times, it seems unthinkable that people would miss out on millions of dollars to which they’re entitled. But that’s precisely what’s been happening with food stamps in Philadelphia. An estimated 180,000 city residents who were eligible for food stamps in 2010 never enrolled in the program, known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to new calculations by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. That’s up from 150,000 in 2008, according to coalition numbers, the latest available…”

• State stops seeking refunds for overpaid welfare, By Marisa Lagos, January 10, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle: “The state will no longer allow counties to seek refunds from former welfare recipients who were minors when their caregivers were overpaid, officials announced in a partial win for advocates who had sued on behalf of the recipients last year. The announcement was welcome news for one of the plaintiffs in that suit, a 19-year-old Riverside County woman whose was being asked to repay $766 mistakenly given to her mother four years ago. But the other family named in the lawsuit, headed by Fresno County resident Clarence Ayers - who receives $334 a month to help raise his 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Irene - will still be on the hook, said attorney Patti Prunhuber. That’s because the state decided only to halt collections from former recipients, she said. In cases where the recipient is a minor who is still receiving welfare, county welfare agencies will be allowed to continue pursuing the debt, said Prunhuber. The Public Interest Law Project in Oakland, where she works, filed the suit in November…”
• State will stop trying to recoup past erroneous food stamp overpayments to poor, By Catherine Candisky, December 21, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state will no longer try to recoup food stamp overpayments made in error to poor families prior to Jan. 1, 2000. The announcement comes a month after Gov. John Kasich dumped efforts initiated by his predecessor to collect more than 10-year-old overpayments of cash assistance to former welfare recipients. State officials said the rationale for both policy changes is the same - they don’t want to create further hardship for vulnerable families by trying to collect non-fraudulent debts more than a decade old…”

• Cuts to MaineCare, welfare approved in spring 2011 taking effect, By Kathryn Skelton, January 5, 2012, Lewiston Sun Journal: “Changes in the state budget approved last spring and now in effect include cutting MaineCare coverage for hundreds, stopping food stamps for some and, in two weeks, telling 2,500 people receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Your time’s up. Also coming soon: new rules that end TANF benefits for some immigrants and a measure to drug-screen TANF recipients with drug-related felonies dating back to 1996. With three of the five changes affecting legal noncitizens who have been in the U.S. fewer than five years, one advocate said Portland and Lewiston will be hardest hit…”
• New study disputes LePage administration on MaineCare’s childless adults, By Jackie Farwell, January 9, 2012, Bangor Daily News: “The childless adults Gov. Paul LePage has proposed dropping from MaineCare are far from young and healthy, despite rhetoric to the contrary, according to a report released Monday by an advocacy group for the poor. More than 40 percent of childless adults covered through MaineCare are older than 45 and many have serious medical conditions, states the report prepared by Maine Equal Justice Partners. Known as ‘noncategoricals’ because they don’t fall under categories of mandatory coverage, the childless adult group consists of beneficiaries ages 21-64 with no dependents in the home who don’t qualify as disabled under federal guidelines…”

• Extended jobless benefits likely to end soon for 4,777 in area, By Richard Craver, January 7, 2012, Winston-Salem Journal: “The final unemployment-benefit lifeline for about 23,000 North Carolinians appears likely to be cut off as scheduled on Jan. 28. Although Congress agreed Dec. 23 to extend federal benefits for two months, it appears unlikely that the General Assembly will agree to allow North Carolina to borrow more money from the U.S. Labor Department. As of Dec. 29, North Carolina had borrowed $2.67 billion from the federal government - the fourth-highest amount among 27 participating states - to pay up to 20 weeks of state-extended unemployment benefits. Those benefits are available only after claimants exhaust up to 26 weeks of initial state benefits and up to 53 weeks - representing four tiers - of federal benefits. There are 4,777 people in the Triad and Northwest North Carolina in the extended state benefit level. The state’s unemployment rate was 10 percent in November. The national rate was 8.5 percent in December, officials announced Friday…”
• Extra jobless benefits in peril, By Catherine Candisky, January 7, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “More than 20,000 long-term unemployed Ohioans will lose up to 20 weeks of jobless benefits unless state lawmakers agree to take advantage of a more-favorable formula for determining which states qualify for the federal aid. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is urging legislators to make the fix, which will cost the state nothing because the benefits are funded entirely by the federal government, said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman for the state agency which oversees unemployment benefits. The Republican-controlled General Assembly is expected to oblige…”

Harder for Americans to rise from lower rungs, By Jason DeParle, January 4, 2012, New York Times: “Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. ‘Movin’ on up,’ George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion. But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage…”

• US ended year with a surge of hiring, adding 200,000 jobs; unemployment rate at 8.5 percent, Associated Press, January 6, 2012, Washington Post: “Four painful years after the Great Recession struck and wiped out 8.7 million jobs, the United States may finally be in an elusive pattern known as a virtuous cycle - an escalating loop of hiring and spending. The nation added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate down two notches to 8.5 percent, its lowest in almost three years, and led economists to conclude that the improvement in the job market might just last…”
• U.S. economy gains steam as 200,000 jobs are added, By Shaila Dewan, January 6, 2012, New York Times: “Maybe it is time to start calling the glass half full. The United States added 200,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday, a robust number that came on the heels of a flurry of heartening economic news. Consumer confidence has lifted, factories have stepped up production and small businesses are showing signs of life. The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, its lowest level in nearly two years. It was the sixth consecutive month that the economy showed a net gain of more than 100,000 jobs - not enough to restore employment to prerecession levels but enough, perhaps, to cheer President Obama as he enters the election year…”

Illinois may alter child support formula, By Bill Ruthhart, December 30, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “State officials for the first time in decades are pushing a major overhaul of a system that touches one of the most volatile of all family issues: how child support is calculated. The move aims at making the process fairer by considering both parents’ incomes and time spent with the child, but some advocates already are arguing to change - or scrap - the new proposal, which won’t be finalized until next spring. If Illinois switches the calculation, it would join 38 other states that already have adopted versions of what’s known as the ‘income shares’ formula…”

• Jobless benefits change to start this week, By Josh Lintereur and Chad Dally, January 2, 2012, Wausau Daily Herald: “A new state budget provision requiring a one-week waiting period before unemployed workers can begin collecting unemployment benefits takes effect this week. The new provision will affect the newly unemployed and those already collecting benefits. In some cases, it will result in a laid-off worker receiving one less check than he or she would have in the past. State lawmakers made the change as part of the 2011-13 biennial budget, meaning Wisconsin will join more than three dozen states that already have instituted waiting periods. State labor officials said the delay will save an estimated $45.2 million a year by allowing additional time to determine eligibility and reduce improper payments, and by pushing the payment schedule back…”
• Many of state’s jobless struggle: No benefits, no job and no luck finding one, By Scott Davis, December 29, 2011, Lansing State Journal: “Thousands of Michigan’s unemployed have a renewed lifeline with last week’s extension of federal jobless benefits. But Virona Brown could be among the thousands who will begin the New Year with no job prospects, unreturned calls on employment applications and no unemployment check to pay basic necessities. Though Michigan’s unemployment rate dipped to 9.8 percent last month, the Lansing woman and several others say they are still struggling to find employment in the region…”

Medicaid rolls in Colorado at “all-time historical high” in November, By Tim Hoover and Kristen Leigh Painter, January 5, 2012, Denver Post: “Nearly 615,000 Coloradans were on Medicaid in November, by far a record high, officials said Wednesday, attributing the vast bulk of the growth to economic hard times rather than recent eligibility expansions. ‘We’ve had a mushrooming of clients,’ Sue Birch, director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told members of the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee. Birch said the 614,146 Coloradans enrolled in Medicaid in November represented a 57.7 percent increase over January 2007. ‘This is an all-time historical high,’ she said. Added to the 71,988 children and pregnant women covered under the state’s CHP+ program - a 42 percent increase over January 2007 - it means roughly 13 percent of all Coloradans are covered by state health-insurance programs. The spike hasn’t gone unnoticed in the benefits line…”

Judge allows thousands to join child support lawsuit, By Bill Rankin, January 3, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Thousands of parents facing possible jail time for failing to pay child support can join a lawsuit that says lawyers should be appointed to represent them if unable to afford counsel, a judge has ruled. In a Dec. 30 order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter granted class-action status to a suit filed last year against the state by five parents who had been jailed for child-support debt. Georgia is one of the few states nationwide that does not provide lawyers for indigent parents facing civil contempt in child-support proceedings. The state already struggles, because of budget shortfalls, to provide lawyers to indigent people charged with criminal offenses. The lawsuit contends Georgia is creating modern-day debtor’s prisons for those jailed when they have no ability to pay because they have lost jobs or are disabled and unable to find work…”

Deluged nonprofits help needy get food stamps, By April Hunt, January 3, 2012, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Teresa Ashe took a break from looking for work on a recent rainy morning to fill out the necessary paperwork that would get her a week’s worth of food. But the laid-off housekeeper didn’t rush home to tuck into the offerings of tinned stew or boxes of mac and cheese from the Christian Aid Mission Partnership, or CAMP, food pantry in Austell. She waited in the office so she could meet with an expert to help her apply online for food stamps. If approved, she will be eating more fresh vegetables and meat for her new year job hunt. ‘I don’t know what’s going to come next,’ said Ashe, whose unemployment benefits ran out the week before Christmas. ‘It’s going to be thin until I can find a job. I can use the help.’ Ashe is hardly alone. Faced with a record number of hungry Georgians, food-bank operators and state officials have teamed up to find more potential recipients of the food stamp program, officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…”

Child welfare agencies across country revamping foster parent role, Associated Press, December 31, 2011, Washington Post: “For decades, it was common for officials around the country to approve foster parents by room and board criteria: Did they pass a background check? Is their home clean? Are their dogs safe and vaccinated? Now several states including Florida, California and Wisconsin are trying to find ones who they know upfront will help with homework, sew Halloween costumes and accompany kids to doctor appointments. Complicating the efforts is the longtime problem of finding enough adults to house children in need…”

Nation’s largest welfare state makes deep cuts, By Sheila V Kumar (AP), December 28, 2011, Sacramento Bee: “Advocates of welfare reform in California often cite one, eye-popping statistic as they have pressed for cuts and changes to the program in recent years: The state has one-eighth of the nation’s population but one-third of all welfare recipients.Yet steps taken in recent years to cut costs and get more recipients back in the workforce have run head-on into the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Recipients have been left with fewer training programs, shrinking welfare checks and a shorter period during which they are eligible to receive assistance at a time when employment prospects for even highly qualified job-seekers are dim.That has led to fear and uncertainty among welfare recipients, many of whom have spent a year or more in job-preparation programs without success…”