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…”

• Survey: New Jersey is among the best states to raise and educate kids, By Megan DeMarco, August 17, 2011, Star-Ledger.
• NH still No. 1 in child well-being, but poverty up, By Kathy McCormack (AP), August 17, 2011, Boston Globe.
• Kids Count: RI children affected by unemployment, foreclosures, By Kimberley Donoghue, August 17, 2011, Providence Business News.
• Study: Economy hurting children, Kids Count Data Book shows Pennsylvania fared worse in several categories, By Andrew M. Seder, August 17, 2011, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
• Study: Md. child poverty among lowest in U.S.; death rates higher, By Steve Kilar, August 17, 2011, Baltimore Sun.

Minimum wage debate gains momentum in Md., By Lorraine Mirabella, April 10, 2011, Baltimore Sun: “Bridget Highkin works as hard now as she did two years ago. But then she brought home $800 a week from her waitressing job and today she’s lucky to clear $300. For now - until she completes a part-time nursing program and can find a job as a nurse - financial relief for her family hinges on a proposal to increase Maryland’s hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.75 over three years. A few more dollars an hour would allow her to stop receiving assistance for day care and food, Highkin says. ‘I live just under paycheck to paycheck,’ said Highkin, 25, who works at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Bel Air and is a single mother of two. ‘At the end of each week, I’m scraping together my last pennies in hopes that the next week I can do it again.’ Proponents of the minimum wage increase see momentum growing in its favor. Though proposed legislation has gone nowhere in the General Assembly session that ends Monday, backers say they have built support for another try next year. They also say low wages are dragging down not only individuals and their families but the broader economic recovery…”

Fewer black males are dropping out of school in Baltimore, By Liz Bowie, October 20, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “After a push to get dropouts back in the classroom and to provide students with a greater choice of schools, Baltimore has seen marked improvements in both the graduation and dropout rates for black males. In 2007, for every diploma the city handed out to a black male student, another had dropped out. In 2010, the city handed out two diplomas for every one who dropped out…”

Voucher program for chronically homeless loses funding, By Jessica Anderson, September 25, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “Joseph Hill proudly shows off his new home - a one-bedroom McCulloh Street apartment that is his first stable housing in 15 years. Hill, 45, who had been homeless for a third of his life, now has a place to display his collection of battered family photos and the certificates of progress marking the two years he’s been clean of drugs. But city officials and homeless advocates who hoped to duplicate Hill’s success have run into problems. Money for a voucher program that is paying the rent for Hill and nearly 400 other formerly homeless city residents has dried up. While those already enrolled in the Housing Choice Voucher program administered by the city’s Housing Authority will continue to receive benefits, the initiative is closed to new applicants…”

Social safety net to be quicker by June, By Brent Jones, March 26, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “Baltimore social service offices are planning to install an online intake system by June that could make the processing of food stamps and medical benefits applications up to 10 times faster, according to state human resource officials. The program was introduced at the city’s Hilton Heights office two months ago and is to expand to the seven other city offices in the summer. With the system, the center in West Baltimore has improved its rate of compliance with a state law governing the delivery of food stamps by more than a third, says Molly McGrath, the city’s director of social services…”

State further behind handling food stamps, medical benefits, By Brent Jones, March 15, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “Three months after a judge ordered the state to speed up delivery of food stamps and medical benefits to low-income Maryland residents, the problem has worsened, court filings show. At the end of January, the state’s Department of Human Resources was operating at an 81 percent compliance rate processing those requests, down 2.5 percentage points from the previous month, according to papers filed in Baltimore Circuit Court…”

• A matter of fairness, Editorial, March 12, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “The last time Maryland updated its guidelines for calculating child support, Ronald Reagan was in the White House, ‘The Cosby Show’ was at the top of the ratings, and Corey Haim was at the pinnacle of his film career. The year was 1988, and under pressure from the federal government, Maryland developed a matrix of how much parents were expected to spend for their children’s food, clothing, housing and so on, based on their combined income level. The idea was that children should not have to suffer a lower standard of living just because their parents were divorced or separated, and that the parents should bear a responsibility for the costs proportionate to their income. The states were supposed to update their guidelines every four years based on changes in costs and spending patterns, but Maryland never did…”
• Md. is behind the times and the cost of living on child support, Editorial, March 12, 2010, Washington Post: “The last time Maryland calculated what parents should reasonably pay in child support was 1988. That’s when the price of a stamp was 22 cents, the average cost of a new home was $138,300 and a gallon of gas went for $1.08. It is time Maryland stop shortchanging children and approve a long-needed update of the guidelines governing child support…”

More Maryland renters caught amid foreclosure, By Jamie Smith Hopkins, December 30, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “Marjorie Benedum and her husband, Mel Harris, knew their landlord was facing foreclosure but were reassured when he said they could keep renting the Southwest Baltimore house after his family lost it. Then Harris, who is 79 and retired, came home from church three weeks ago to find a sheriff’s notice on the door. Get out in 10 days, it said, or be evicted. ‘We weren’t sure what we were going to do,’ recalled Benedum, 62. More and more renters have been caught up in the national foreclosure crisis, and lenders taking back those homes nearly always want them gone. That has proved tremendously disruptive for the tenants, despite state and federal laws enacted in May to try to ease the pain. Maryland law requires that lenders notify renters before foreclosing on landlords, but - as was the case for Benedum and Harris - the letters do not always get into the right hands…”

• City judge rules against state in food stamp processing lawsuit, By Brent Jones, December 11, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled Thursday that the state has failed to deliver food stamps and medical benefits in a timely manner to thousands of Marylanders, and he ordered a corrective action plan to be filed by late January. Judge Barry Williams ruled that the Department of Human Resources needs to fully comply by the end of 2010 with a law that requires that emergency and medical benefits be received by applicants within 30 days. The case was brought by a Baltimore County woman who sued the state after she applied for food stamps in February but did not receive the services until April, more than 60 days after the request…”
• No food stamps blamed on Md., By Henri E. Cauvin, December 11, 2009, Washington Post: “A Maryland judge ruled Thursday that the state government is failing to provide food stamps and other public benefits as promptly as federal and state law requires. Thousands of families have been affected by the delays over the last few years, and in announcing his decision, Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams said the Maryland Department of Human Resources had engaged in a pattern and practice of violating the law. The judge gave the department 45 days to provide a plan to correct the problems and a year to bring the agency into full compliance with the laws governing food stamps, temporary cash assistance and medical aid…”

• Need is up, but funding plummets for legal aid, By Mary Pat Flaherty, December 7, 2009, Washington Post: “For accountant Jose Burgos, who was laid off in October, the free legal advice he’s received in Montgomery County could make the difference in whether his family keeps its Silver Spring condominium. For the legal staff, Burgos, 41, is one more complicated bankruptcy consultation in a year of many — and that is where the stress hits. At the very time that more newly poor people need help with the likes of mortgages, rent disputes and battles over wages, clinics across the country that help with noncriminal cases are enduring sharp funding drops…”
• Report: Insufficient funding for legal aid, By Scott Daugherty, December 7, 2009, The Capital: “The weak economy is cutting into a vital source of funding for legal aid in Maryland, leaving many area residents without any help to navigate the courts in civil matters, according to a state panel. A report released last month by the Maryland Access to Justice Commission found the Interest On Lawyers Trust Accounts program, which historically provided about half of the state’s funding for legal aid, is generating about 70 percent less revenue than it did two years ago. The program, which diverts interest from many attorney-held bank accounts, is expected to pull in about $2 million this fiscal year, down from $6.7 million two years ago…”

For Marylanders, insurance affordability will depend on subsidies, By Kelly Brewington, September 7, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “Even if lawmakers can agree on how to overhaul the nation’s health care system, the hope of universal coverage could crumble if individuals can’t afford their share. Take Howard County. Less than five months into an innovative program to give low-income people access to medical care for as little as $50 a month, nearly one in 10 participants is at risk of being cut off because they can no longer afford the cost. Howard officials say their fledgling program, called the Healthy Howard Access Plan, provides a cautionary lesson for federal policymakers battling over how to re-imagine the nation’s health care system and extend insurance to some 47 million Americans. While the major congressional proposals would require that nearly everyone have insurance or pay a penalty, low-income people could qualify for subsidies to help cover the cost of premiums. But lawmakers are wrangling over who would get financial help - and how much. If the subsidies fall short, millions of Americans could continue to struggle without health insurance, say advocates for the uninsured. Besides, if people in Howard County - among the richest localities in the nation - can’t manage $50 a month, how could those struggling elsewhere afford the plans under consideration in Washington that would require a much higher out-of-pocket cost?…”

• State Medicaid coverage, costs grow, By Sarah Fisher, July 2, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “A year into a new effort to expand health coverage, recession-weary Marylanders are flocking to the state’s Medicaid program in numbers far greater than expected, costing the state $50 million more in the process…”
• A healthy start, Editorial, July 2, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “At a time when some cash-strapped states are contemplating reducing Medicaid coverage, Maryland has boldly moved in the opposite direction. Today marks the first anniversary of a program that has brought taxpayer-financed medical assistance to more than 44,000 low-income parents, the vast majority of whom lacked health care before…”