• 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…”

Newark’s child poverty rate spikes 32 percent in 2009-10, By Jessica Calefati, December 16, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Newark has an unemployment rate nearly twice the national average, and a report on child welfare released Thursday shows joblessnes among adults has had an outsize effect on the city’s most vulnerable residents - its children. According to the report, produced annually by the non-profit Advocates for Children of New Jersey, the poverty rate among children in Newark exploded between 2009 and 2010, increasing by 32 percent. Statewide, the figure increased eight percent. Two of every five Newark kids now live below the federal poverty line, a rate higher than it’s been in the past eight years. For a family of four, that means a median household income of less than $22,000 a year…”

• Number of N.J. residents receiving food stamps doubled in last four years, By Eric Sagara and Stephen Stirling, November 27, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The number of New Jersey residents receiving food stamps has doubled in the past four years and is at its highest level in more than a decade as the nation’s still sputtering economy continues to take its toll on the poorest residents of the Garden State, state and federal data show. As of September, the most recent data released by the state Department of Human Services, more than 400,000 households and nearly 822,000 people were enrolled in the food stamp program, meaning nearly one out of every 10 residents in New Jersey receives assistance.As of September, the most recent data released by the state Department of Human Services, more than 400,000 households and nearly 822,000 people were enrolled in the food stamp program, meaning nearly one out of every 10 residents in New Jersey receives assistance…”
• Michigan ranks third in use of food stamps, By Maureen Groppe, November 21, 2011, Lansing State Journal: “Michigan households relied on food stamps last year more than all but two other states, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And the 16.9 percent of Michigan households that received food stamps in 2010 was up from the 14.5 percent that did in 2009. The figures released last week come from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey. Participants were asked whether anyone in the household received food stamps in the last 12 months…”
• Food stamp divide grows, By Bob Smietana, November 23, 2011, The Tennessean: “David Shelley of Nashville used to work two jobs to feed his wife and two children, but it still wasn’t enough. So, for a few months, they used food stamps to make ends meet. Two decades later, he’s a Baptist pastor and small businessman, and he’s joining a growing number of people critical of the food stamp program at the same time participation is at a record high. He fears it’s becoming an entitlement program people don’t try to leave. ‘If you are working and you are doing your best and you need food stamps, then God bless you,’ he said. Otherwise, he believes the Bible message is clear: If you don’t work, you don’t eat. Nearly 46 million Americans participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps. That’s up from 17 million in 2002 and includes 15 percent of households in Tennessee, according to the Census Bureau. The price of the program - about $68 billion annually - and the nation’s budget crisis have opened it to scrutiny and revealed deep divides in American culture…”
• Food stamp usage sticking, By Joan Garrett, November 25, 2011, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “As Tennessee families paused to give thanks around the dinner table Thursday, one of every six households was getting help from Uncle Sam. A new study found that Tennessee ranked second behind only Oregon in the share of households receiving food stamps, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Payments (SNAP), during 2010. The U.S. Bureau of Census reports that 45 states provided more federal help with groceries last year, swelling the number of U.S. households getting food stamps to 13.6 million…”

• Poverty rate growing in N.J.’s working-class towns, census data shows, By Stephen Stirling and Eric Sagara, November 3, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Danny Bryant has lived in solidly blue-collar Carteret for 46 of his 47 years. During that time, just about everybody worked. Jobs weren’t glamorous, but they put food on the table. The houses were modest, tidy and well-kept. Now Bryant, a former pool supply worker, survives on the $600 his girlfriend brings home every other week from her fast-food job and $200 a month in food stamps after being laid off last year. And his section of Carteret is not the town it used to be. There are a lot of Danny Bryants there now. ‘If you live here and are poverty stricken, it’s hard to get help,’ Bryant said. ‘There’s a big line between being middle class and being poor. Everybody is struggling.’ More than one in four of the residents in Bryant’s neighborhood in the Middlesex County borough now live below the poverty line. A study released today by the Brookings Institution shows the poverty rate in New Jersey’s working-class communities like Carteret, Union Township and Garfield has grown substantially in the last decade…”
• Pockets of severe poverty intensify and spread around Tampa Bay area, By Jeff Harrington and Darla Cameron, November 6, 2011, St. Petersburg Times: “Derrick Lewis lives in the hardest-hit slice of the Tampa Bay area. The poverty rate here jumped nearly threefold from 15 percent to 40 percent over the past decade, the cusp of what’s considered extreme poverty. Lewis, 50, considers himself lucky. He juggles a nighttime security guard job and a morning job making biscuits at Hardee’s, enough income to pay his landlady $250 to $275 every couple of weeks. Around the corner from his one-bedroom apartment lies a couple of boarded-up apartments, vacated after their latest residents were caught selling drugs. ‘I feel bad for them,’ he says. ‘You see it in tough times. A lot of people that never would have thought of doing something illegal before. Instead of being homeless, they do what it takes.’ This isn’t the inner city. It’s the suburbs. In a far-reaching analysis released Thursday, the Brookings Institution compared poverty rates in U.S. Census tracts in 2000 to their average poverty rates between 2005 and 2009. Among the report’s chief conclusions: Poverty is growing twice as fast in suburbs than in cities…”

• Rise in full-time workers receiving food stamps, By Jere Downs, October 12, 2011, Louisville Courier-Journal: “On her day off from work one recent Friday, Angela Carter stopped at Shively Area Ministries to pick up four bags of free food. She figured the noodles, bratwurst, cereal, canned goods, milk and beef stew would see her, her husband and two sons through until $350 is deposited in her food stamp account. ‘I have a full time job and I’m still broke,’ said Carter, whose paycheck for her $8.57-an-hour job as a Rite-Aid clerk comes twice a month. ‘One paycheck goes to rent, the next one goes to bills. I always run out of money for food.’ Her husband, seeking assembly line work, has brought home only three paychecks in the last 3 months. As the 13 Kentucky and Southern Indiana counties in the Louisville area experitence the end of a third year of more than 9 percent unemployment and flat wages, the working poor like Carter figure prominently among a sharp rise in the number of households receiving food stamps, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture…”
• N.J. relaxes rules on food stamps, By Ken Serrano, October 8, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Faced with an increasing number of people receiving food stamps, some states, like Kansas, have toughened eligibility requirements for their federally funded food assistance programs. But New Jersey has done the opposite. Gone is the requirement that people must list assets to apply. The annual gross income limit for a single person in New Jersey to be eligible to participate in its Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was raised in April 2010 from $14,701.50 to $20,146.50. Deductions for things like utility bills figure into the limits. The maximum allowable income for a family of three to participate went from $23,803 per year to $34,281…”
• Fingerprinting those seeking food stamps is denounced, By Kate Taylor, October 11, 2011, New York Times: “Taking aim at a practice she called unnecessary, costly and punitive, the speaker of the City Council, Christine C. Quinn, is asking the Bloomberg administration to justify requiring applicants for food stamps to be electronically fingerprinted. New York City, where 1.8 million people receive food stamps, is one of only two jurisdictions in the country that require applicants to be fingerprinted, according to Ms. Quinn’s office. The other is Arizona. California and Texas recently lifted a similar requirement; New York stopped using fingerprinting for food-stamp recipients statewide in 2007, but kept it in New York City at the Bloomberg administration’s request…”

N.J. ranks 46th nationally for participation in the National School Breakfast Program, By Nic Corbett, September 30, 2011, Star-Ledger: “A bowl of cereal, a cup of milk and some graham crackers can help a student start the school day off right, but New Jersey ranks 46th in the nation for participation in the National School Breakfast Program. Only 28 percent of New Jersey children eligible for free- or reduced-price meals were served breakfast at school last year through the federally funded program, according to a report by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey using data from the New Jersey Departments of Education and Agriculture. Executive Director Cecilia Zalkind said it’s difficult for students to concentrate on a reading assignment or solve a math problem without eating in the morning…”

• 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.

• The hidden homeless: Sheltered in motels, they wait, hope, By Edward Colimore, July 25, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Sometimes the problems are so overwhelming that Robert Cordero steps away from his children for a few minutes to pull himself together. While two sons and three daughters play in a cluttered Cherry Hill motel room, he turns up the radio, closes the bathroom door, and cries. ‘I can’t let them see me that way. . . . Who will they look up to?’ said the 40-year-old single father. ‘I have to go back and try to raise five kids.’ Cordero’s family has lived at the Hillside Inn for more than five months, along with a couple dozen other homeless people surviving on public assistance. He and his children - ages 8 to 16 - moved there after Cordero lost his home-remodeling job and they were evicted from a Woodlynne apartment…”
• No place for these students to call home, By Eric G Stark, July 24, 2011, Lancaster Newspapers: “Two boys sleep in a car and use an electric heater to keep warm, running an extension cord into their family’s crowded apartment. A girl showers at her high school rather than endure the long, cold walk to shower at a campground in winter. A family that can’t afford toilet paper resorts to using washcloths, and a boy shares his cousins’ underwear.These are real examples of how some families with children are living in Lancaster County. Just like city schools, where social workers have helped more than 1,000 homeless children this past school year, suburban schools dealt with hundreds more who did not have a permanent place to call home…”

• Criticism for cuts to programs that help people get off welfare, By Alfred Lubrano, July 4, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “In a GED classroom emptied by state budget cuts last Thursday, instructor Marylou Fusco began removing paper cutouts that her students - single mothers working to get off welfare - had made of their own hands that were tacked to a bulletin board. On the palms of the hands, the women had written their life goals: ‘Get off welfare.’ ‘Go to college.’ ‘Get my own place for me and my kids.’ After 15 years, the GED classes were quickly ended to reflect the new reality dictated by state budget line No. 5297.55: Cut the welfare-to-work program by $17 million - nearly 48 percent. The new reality postpones or ends the hopes and wishes scrawled across the women’s palms. Still more cuts were made in other programs meant to help the poor in a budget process that saw the Corbett administration push through a controversial last-minute Senate measure that shifts control of welfare funding from the legislature to his administration…”
• NJ reverses order to cut $15 from welfare checks, By Erik Larsen, July 6, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “The state of New Jersey has reversed an order to its 21 counties to make a $15 per person reduction in monthly welfare checks issued to single adults and childless couples. Mary Fran McFadden, director of the Ocean County Board of Social Services, said Tuesday that anyone affected by the change before the order was rescinded will be reimbursed. The benefits change was to begin last Friday, the start of the state’s new fiscal year. There are more than 3,100 county residents on General Assistance who stood to be impacted by the change…”

State orders $15 reduction per person in monthly welfare checks, By Erik Larsen, June 30, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Changes in the state budget for the new fiscal year that begins Friday will result in funding reductions to welfare programs that are administered by New Jersey’s 21 county governments. The reductions had been discussed as a possibility but are now official, according to Mary Fran McFadden, director of the Ocean County Board of Social Services. Letters have been sent to recipients to notify them of the changes. The state Division of Family Development has ordered the counties to make a $15 per person reduction in monthly welfare checks issued to single adults and childless couples…”

• Christie proposal to slash Medicaid by $540 million puts NJ at center of national debate, By Josh Lederman (AP), June 11, 2011, Washington Post: “As states across the country look for ways to trim billions off their spending on Medicaid, New Jersey is garnering particular attention for a proposal that opponents characterize as an unprecedented and draconian attempt to balance the state’s precarious budget on the backs of society’s most vulnerable populations. The debates taking place in statehouses, clinics and living rooms crystalize the unfortunate truth about economic recessions: Citizens rely most on public services just when the government has the least money to spend on those services. In New Jersey’s case, changes would mean a parent of two earning more than $103 per week would be ineligible…”
• Human Services officials release details on N.J. Medicaid program cuts, changes, By Susan K. Livio, June 10, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The Christie administration released a long-anticipated outline today of how the state proposes to drastically restructure New Jersey’s Medicaid program and cut more than $300 million to help close a deficit. In the most controversial element of the proposal, the Department of Human Services expects to save as much as $32.5 million by sharply limiting who is eligible for coverage. It was the first time that the state disclosed estimates of what each change would save. For instance, parents in a family of three earning more than $422 a month, or $5,000 a year, would be disqualified for earning too much money, according to a document summarizing the proposal. Currently the income cut-off is $24,600 for a family of three…”
• Advocates: ‘glitches’ keep Mass. kids uninsured, By Johanna Kaiser (AP), June 11, 2011, Boston Globe: “Forgotten paperwork, returned mail, and a lack of information are keeping thousands of Massachusetts children from receiving stable health care coverage in a state known for its far-reaching health care initiative. Although Massachusetts has the highest rate of insured children in the county — more than 99 percent — health care advocates and lawmakers say thousands of eligible children still go on and off the state’s Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, during the year because of administrative issues and other paperwork problems…”

• State, feds square off in Medicaid battle, By Heather Gillers, June 5, 2011, Indianapolis Star: “Before he signed a bill cutting Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding last month, Gov. Mitch Daniels said the group could keep the funds if it gave up providing abortions. If Planned Parenthood wanted Medicaid money, in other words, it would have to play by Indiana’s rules. Then, the federal government turned the tables. Federal Medicaid officials rejected Indiana’s Medicaid plan because its provision to strip funding from Planned Parenthood violates federal law. If Indiana wants Medicaid money, the federal government said, the state would have to play by federal rules…”
• New Jersey seeks to shrink Medicaid, By Joel Rose, June 7, 2011, National Public Radio: “Cash-strapped states are rethinking how much health care coverage they can afford to provide for their neediest residents. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie wants to cut $500 million in Medicaid spending - in part by freezing more than 20,000 state residents out of the program. Critics say the cuts would hurt those who can least afford it. For years, New Jersey expanded health care coverage for low-income residents - people like Deborah Shupenko of Passaic. But last month, after 10 years of state-funded health insurance, Shupenko got a letter in the mail…”
• More Medicaid cuts on way: Payments to doctors will be reduced; some visits to cost patients $1 more, By Renee Dudley, June 7, 2011, Charleston Post and Courier: “Medicaid payments to doctors will be reduced by up to 7 percent and patient co-payments for some doctor visits will increase by $1 as the South Carolina Medicaid agency cuts an estimated $125 million in state costs for the fiscal year that begins next month, agency officials announced Monday. Beginning July 1, patient co-pays will increase from $2.30 to $3.30 — the maximum amount allowed by federal law — for doctor, clinic, home health and optometrist visits. And for the first time, people enrolled in some programs for the elderly and disabled will be required to make co-pays for some medical services. Starting July 8, Medicaid reimbursement rates to doctors, dentists and most hospitals will be cut for the second time in three months…”

• N.J. high court’s Abbott ruling means other school districts will still be short funding, By Jeanette Rundquist and Jessica Calefati, May 25, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling means the state’s 31 poorest districts get to share $500 million in additional state aid.  But it also means some 550 districts will go without. ’Once again, districts like Woodbridge and Piscataway have been left out in the cold,’ said John Crowe, the superintendent in Woodbridge. He said it is ‘disheartening to think a student who is born into poverty in Woodbridge somehow requires less assistance than a student born into poverty in another district.’ Crowe, along with other suburban superintendents, said Tuesday’s ruling short-changed their district despite the fact they, too, may educate at-risk children…”
• Tracing the history of rulings on school funding in poor N.J. cities, By Jeanette Rundquist, May 25, 2011, Star-Ledger: “In 1875, in an effort to get control of a patchwork public school system, the New Jersey state Legislature amended New Jersey’s constitution and made it the state’s responsibility to provide a ‘thorough and efficient system of free public schools.’ For more than 100 years since, the state’s courts and elected officials have wrestled with those eight words.  The participants and dollar amounts have changed over the years, but the issue has largely been the same: how to give children in New Jersey’s poorest cities the same level of education as those in its wealthiest communities.  The state Supreme Court took another stab at the issue Tuesday, ordering the state to increase school funding to poor districts by $500 million. Here is a look back at decisions leading up to Tuesday…”
• N.J. high court orders more school funding, By Rita Giordano, May 25, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “New Jersey’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state to come up with $500 million more to aid certain poor and largely urban school districts next year, finding that the state did not enforce its own law or live up to promises made to the court. However, the justices, in their highly anticipated decision, declined to restore the full amount of the state’s aid shortfall - about $1.6 billion - that could have benefited many districts, including others with low-income children. The strongly worded, 3-2 ruling requires the additional funds for only the 31 former Abbott districts, which through more than two decades of corrective court orders had come to receive a large share of state aid. They still do, but the state funding formula, enacted under Gov. Jon S. Corzine, sought to spread money more evenly to other districts with poor children…”

• Cumberland County ranks last in children’s health issues, By Caitlin Dineen, May 23, 2011, Press of Atlantic City: “Cumberland County ranks 21st of New Jersey’s 21 counties in terms of overall child well-being, and Atlantic and Cape May counties also rank poorly, according to the New Jersey Kids Count annual rankings released Monday. The survey, which is published by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, compares counties on 15 measures including child poverty, health, safety and education. Cumberland - which ranked 20th last year - slipped to last place due to a combination of increasing childhood poverty, students having the lowest passing rates for state tests and an increased infant mortality rate…”
• Child data reveals county in last place, By Matt Zager, May 24, 2011, Vineland Daily Journal: “Cumberland County has slipped to last in the state in an annual ranking of child well-being, according to the latest Kids Count report released Monday. ‘That we’re still last is disturbing,’ said George Sartorio, Cumberland County health officer. ‘We all need to do a better job to get better outcomes.’ The data were collected as part of an ongoing effort known as Kids Count conducted by Advocates for Children of New Jersey. It compares the state’s 21 counties on 15 categories, including child poverty, health safety and education…”

• Report: Fewer NJ residents in poverty getting legal aid, By Susan Loyer, April 26, 2011, MyCentralJersey.com: “Fewer low-income residents are receiving the legal representation they are entitled to receive in civil cases, according to a report released by Legal Services of New Jersey. ‘The Civil Justice Gap,’ released Tuesday, examines the shortfalls in legal aid for New Jerseyans living in poverty, its consequences and offers solutions. ‘There are many more people in poverty because of the recession,’ said Melville D. Miller Jr., president of Legal Services of New Jersey. ‘The newly poor, who lost jobs and were middle class, are dealing for the first time with things like foreclosures, evictions and domestic violence, all of which is induced by the new poverty. As a result, the demand for our services is up sharply.’ With a 20 percent to 45 percent increase in the demand for free legal services statewide and funding down by 35 percent during the past few years, Legal Services i forced to turn people away, Miller said…”
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s budget plan cuts legal services for poor, By Paul Srubas, April 25, 2011, Green Bay Press-Gazette: “A proposed funding cut to the state’s computerized court records system is part of a larger plan that would eliminate funding of a program that provides free legal aid to the poor. Gov. Scott Walker has proposed reallocating money collected as a fee when certain documents are filed in circuit courts around the state. The $21.50 filing fee currently pays for a variety of state programs. Under law, the amount is divided up, with each portion going to a specific program, such as $6 of every $21.50 going to the Consolidated Court Automation Program. The program, called CCAP, serves as the information technology department for the court systems throughout the state and makes court records available online through the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access database. A program providing civil legal services for the poor receives $4 from each $21.50 fee…”

NJ Kids Count report on children shows some progress, but more live in poverty, By Michael Symons, March 23, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Fewer children in New Jersey are dying as infants, missing out on preschool and being arrested as juveniles, according to a report card published Wednesday that also warns that the number living in poverty, missing recommended immunizations and being repeatedly abused is rising. In all, the first New Jersey Kids Count Report Card, added this year to the annual Kids Count report by Advocates for Children of New Jersey, found conditions have improved for children in four of 15 areas examined, worsened in seven and stayed level in four. Cecilia Zalkind, the executive director of the advocacy group, said some of the areas of improvements are particularly important, including the increase in the number of children with health insurance - which was up by 44,000 between 2005 and 2009, leaving 9 percent of kids, more than half of them low-income, uninsured in 2009…”

• Food stamp use, poverty rates sharply rise among N.J. children during recession, By Megan DeMarco and Salvador Rizzo, March 23, 2011, Star-Ledger: “The Great Recession pushed thousands of New Jerseyans below the federal poverty level in 2009, causing the state’s rate to spike to the highest it’s been since at least 2002, a report released Tuesday finds. The recession also took its toll on the state’s youngest residents, according to a separate report to be released today by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey. Close to one-third of the state’s 2 million children were living in low-income families, more youths were out of both school and work, and slightly more children were abused or neglected, the group found. In 2009, 9.4 percent of the state’s residents lived in poverty, compared with the national average of 14.3 percent. New Jersey’s rate has not risen above 8.7 percent since 2002, the first year it was calculated under the formula now used…”
• Report: 1.1 million in N.J. live on the edge of poverty, By Michael Symons, March 22, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “Nearly 800,000 state residents were living in poverty in 2009, with another 1.1 million New Jerseyans in households with incomes above the poverty line but low enough to be considered poor, according to a report released Tuesday. Though New Jersey is the nation’s second wealthiest state, nearly a quarter of its residents had household incomes in 2009 that were less than twice the poverty threshold, which advocates for the poor say is still not enough for someone to achieve self-sufficiency in a high-cost state such as New Jersey. Job losses and stagnant wages resulting from the recession that began at the end of 2007 appear to have taken a toll on the middle class, according to the annual report from Legal Services of New Jersey’s Poverty Research Institute…”
• Study finds record poverty levels for Cumberland County, Bridgeton, By Greg Adomaitis, News of Cumberland County: “Cumberland County had 7.2 percent of its residents living in severe poverty - the highest in the state. Bridgeton had 15.4 percent of its 25,349 residents living in ’severe poverty’ - second only to Camden. Meanwhile, New Jersey had the second highest median household income in the country - $64,918. A study released Tuesday found this, and many more sobering statistics, within the 165 page document. The study, ‘Poverty Benchmarks 2011. Assessing New Jersey’s Progress in Combating Poverty’, was done by Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute…”

• Report shows fourth-grade students in N.J. public, charter schools have same passing rates, By Rohan Mascarenhas, November 10, 2010, Star-Ledger: “Some public schools in Newark are among the best in the city, performing as well as charters in certain areas, according to the annual Kids Count survey to be released today. Comparing test scores and demographic data, the report found public schools had the same passing rates on average as charters at the fourth grade level, thanks to a decade of significant academic gains. The data appears to contradict the prevailing assumption about the consistent high quality of charter schools and their reputation as a panacea. It also belies the rhetoric from politicians and educators that Newark schools are uniformly bad…”
• Newark rents rise, incomes are stagnant, and more kids on food stamps, report shows, By Rohan Mascarenhas, November 11, 2010, Star-Ledger: “A study released today painted a grim picture of social and economic struggles in the state’s largest city. Rents in Newark have spiked, and more city kids are on food stamps, while income levels are remaining stagnant, according to the annual Kids Count survey published by the Advocates for Children in New Jersey. The report found that median rents rose 22 percent between 2005 and 2009. At the same time, the average income for Newarkers increased only one percent. Compiling statistics on welfare and demographic data, the survey offers a snapshot of the recession’s impact in Newark, where the unemployment rate hovers around 15 percent. Over the past five years, the number of Newark children on food stamps has jumped sharply, rising 33 percent, the report said…”

• Atlantic and Cumberland counties rank last in Kids Count ‘well-being’ survey, By Juliet Fletcher, June 7, 2010, Press of Atlantic City: “Children growing up in Atlantic County face greater challenges to their health and welfare than in any other county statewide, a new analysis says. The Association for Children of New Jersey, or ACNJ, which publishes an annual Kids Count study evaluating 16 factors that affect children’s well-being, ranks counties every three years to reflect children’s relative advantages and disadvantages in health, safety, education and economic circumstances. This year, Atlantic County dropped to last place in the ranking, as the study’s authors warned that the worst effects of the economic recession were not yet reflected in its data and predicted a further slide in the next report. Cumberland County placed next to last…”
• Study finds economy directly influences N.J. children’s well-being, By Meredith Galante, June 7, 2010, Star-Ledger: “A study released today on New Jersey children’s well-being illustrates how the economy is compromising New Jersey families’ abilities to provide and care for their children. The 2010 Kids Count report, released by the Association for Children of New Jersey, saw the most drastic changes in the 16 indicators it monitors in unemployment rates, children living below the poverty line and housing costs…”

N.J. advocates for poor, disabled question Gov. Chris Christie’s budget cuts, By Susan K. Livio, April 15, 2010, Star-Ledger: “With millions of dollars in proposed cuts to health care, housing and public assistance programs, Democratic lawmakers and advocates for poor and disabled people today questioned Gov. Chris Christie’s contention that his budget represents “shared sacrifice” for all state residents. Democratic members of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee pressed Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez to defend reductions in what they called key safety net programs. Those cuts include saving $15.3 million by taking the entire monthly disability check provided to developmentally disabled people; eliminating the $200 monthly check to spouses of permanently disabled partners to save $6.7 million; and saving another $1.8 million by halving the $1,000 grant that allows grandparents raising grandchildren one-time expenses like furniture and moving costs…”

Budget cuts could hit low-income NJ residents, By Geoff Mulvihill (AP), March 15, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “New Jersey’s days as a place where the government is unusually generous to the needy may be numbered as a new governor pushes wide-ranging spending cuts to solve a deep budget crisis. Gov. Chris Christie is set to unveil his first spending plan Tuesday after months of preaching shared sacrifice. From what he’s done so far, it’s clear that applies to lower-income people, too, in a state that’s among the most generous in the nation when it comes to unemployment benefits and taxpayer-funded health care for the working poor. Already, he has cut the state’s mass-transit subsidy and stopped enrolling some lower-income adults in a subsidized health insurance program. He’s also proposed reducing weekly unemployment checks and, even before he was sworn in, hinted that food banks could see their state aid cut and told hospitals their reimbursements for treating the indigent will be cut in June…”

• N.J. families seeking government assistance surged during height of recession, By Susan K. Livio, January 20, 2010, Star-Ledger: “One in eight New Jersey children lived in poverty during the height of the recession in 2008, creating a surge in demand for government programs that help people feed their families and pay their utility bills, according to an annual report on child well-being. Food stamps helped feed 254,000 children last year, 70,000 more than in 2005, according to the Kids Count report released yesterday by the Association for Children of New Jersey, a family advocacy group. And with the state doubling the amount it spends on energy assistance programs, it helped pay utility bills for an estimated 252,000 people last year, about 100,000 more than in 2005, according to the report…”
• More NJ children slipping below poverty line, By Robert Stern, January 20, 2010, Times of Trenton: “New Jersey experienced an increased rate of child poverty at the onset of the nation’s economic downturn in 2008, according to a new report by the nonprofit Association for Children of New Jersey. More than one in eight children, 13 percent, were in a family living in poverty in 2008, up from 12 percent the previous year, according to the latest yearly version of the group’s annual statewide report, ‘New Jersey Kids Count 2010.’ Regional numbers on the increase in child poverty will not be available until later this year. Poverty is defined, for a family of four, as households living on $21,000 per year or less. New Jersey’s high housing costs put pressure on low-income families (defined as those below double the poverty level, or $42,000 in annual income for a family of four)…”

• Energy aid requests at record high, By Ruth Longoria Kingsland, December 30, 2009, Peoria Journal Star: “The number of low-income people needing energy assistance reached record highs in 2009, for the second year in a row, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. About 6.1 million people required help with heating and cooling bills in 2008, and 8.3 million received help in 2009. In Illinois, the numbers also saw a big increase. Households helped with heating costs by the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program went from 319,828 in 2008 to 415,669 in 2009. Add in the cooling increase from 56,080 in 2008 to 63,746 in 2009 and you have an overall heating and cooling increase of 27.5 percent, or 103,507 more households requiring assistance, the NEADA data shows…”
• More people seek help with heating bills, By Erik Ortiz, January 6, 2010, Press of Atlantic City: “While temperatures eclipsed 30 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, Robert Seligman relaxed in his Hammonton home with the thermostat at a pleasant 74. But an incessant string of chilly days and chillier nights had him concerned about whether he can pay his heating oil bill through the winter. ‘I’m 73. I got to live as comfortable as possible,’ said Seligman, wearing a flannel shirt on top of a sweater and T-shirt. Seligman is one of hundreds of thousands of New Jersey residents who rely on grants each year to help cover their energy bills. But with demand expected to surpass that of a year ago - and only so much funding available - more people could face the threat of a winter without any heat…”

• Homeless children a growing statistic, By Joseph Gidjunis, November 30, 2009, Courier-Post: “For the second time in Tracy Adkins’ life, she and her children are homeless. The 26-year-old has held several jobs, but she’s lost them in this recession. Rent remains expensive, as is every utility, she said. Now she and her two children, one 6, another 3, are sharing a room at the Anna Sample Complex in Camden, an in-demand shelter run by Volunteers of America Delaware Valley. Adkins’ 3-year-old attends preschool in Camden and her 6-year-old rides a bus to Woodbury Public Schools. Her daughter takes the bus at Woodbury’s expense to minimize separation and missed schooling. If feasible, federal law requires districts to do what is in the child’s best interests, despite the cost, officials said. More than a year into the national housing crisis and recession, Adkins’ family story isn’t rare. While some recovering economic indicators such as the country’s Gross Domestic Product and stock market offer hope that the financial crisis is on the rebound, state and local officials said they expect to see peak counts of homeless children this year…”
• Ind. sees more homeless students as economy slumps, By Deanna Martin (AP), December 1, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “The number of Indiana public school students who are homeless has jumped in recent years — and is expected to climb further — as high foreclosure and unemployment rates leave more parents struggling to provide stable homes for their children. During the 2005-2006 school year, Indiana public schools recorded 7,547 homeless students, according to an issue brief released Wednesday by the Indiana Youth Institute. The number jumped to 8,249 the following year and to 8,480 during the 2007-2008 school year — marking a 12 percent increase over two years. Those numbers do not include younger students who are not of school age or ‘unaccompanied youth’ who are especially difficult to count because they are living on their own and often do not seek help from shelters…”

• Ga. work program grows, attracts followers, By Christine Vestal, September 10, 2009, Stateline.org: “As states struggle to help legions of jobless workers find employment, some are seeking advice from Georgia, where a growing number of people are landing jobs as a result of free tryouts sponsored by the state unemployment system. The program, dubbed Georgia Works, is so simple that experts say other states should have no problem replicating it…”
• As unemployment benefits run out, Jersey’s jobless wait for extension, By Trish G. Graber, September 11, 2009, Star-Ledger: “Unemployment insurance benefits will dry up for an estimated 33,000 New Jerseyans today, and the state estimates another 3,500 to 4,000 will receive final checks each week through the end of the year as residents exhaust their benefits. Help for the unemployed now rests with Congress, where pending legislation would extend benefits, probably for another 13 weeks. In the Garden State, and many other states, out-of-work residents can collect unemployment for 79 weeks. In New Jersey, the maximum weekly benefit is $584, and the federal stimulus law allows for an additional $25…”

• Stars aligning on school lunches, By Kim Severson, August 18, 2009, New York Times: “Ann Cooper has made a career out of hammering on the poor quality of public school food. The School Nutrition Association, with 55,000 members, represents the people who prepare it. Imagine Ms. Cooper’s surprise when she was invited to the association’s upcoming conference to discuss the Lunch Box, a system she developed to help school districts wean themselves from packaged, heavily processed food and begin cooking mostly local food from scratch…”
• N.J. schools bag funds with free lunch, By Ashley Milne-Tyte, August 18, 2009, American Public Media: “New Jersey’s formula now works like this: the state provides about $9,700 to educate each child to meet academic standards. But poor students in poor districts can get an extra $5,000 on top of that. That’s where free lunch comes in…”

• Free lunch?, By Simone Sebastian, July 5, 2009, Columbus Dispatch: “More poor children are eating free at school, but that’s actually a good thing for many districts’ finances. The reason? Federal subsidies increase.  A week rarely went by last school year without a plea for help from another newly poor family in South-Western schools. Parents were losing their jobs and wanted to know how the district could help…”
• N.J. offering free meals to kids from low-income families throughout summer, By Kristen Alloway, July 8, 2009, Star-Ledger: “Eleven-year-old camper Bryan polished off his baked chicken, vegetables and corn bread and eagerly headed back for seconds.  For Bryan, and more than 40 other children from predominantly low-income families at the Salvation Army in New Brunswick, it was their second free meal of the day — breakfast was pancakes — courtesy of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey and the federal government…”
• More Wichita kids go hungry, By Roy Wenzl, July 5, 2009, Wichita Eagle: “The recession has hurt Wichita’s poor people and their children much harder and faster than social service agencies predicted when it started last year, food charities say.  Agencies that track poverty are compiling rapidly rising statistics about Wichita children going hungry, prompting the Wichita Community Foundation to call a July 13 summit of local leaders to figure out how to feed them…”