Parents Anonymous
http://www.parentsanonymous.org/
As the nation’s premier child abuse prevention
organization, Parents Anonymous® Inc. is a
community of parents, organizations and
volunteers committed to strengthening families
and building strong communities, achieving
meaningful parent leadership and shared
leadership, and leading the field of child abuse
and neglect. In addition to a description of the
leadership initiative, publications, resources, and
related links, this site describes training programs
and technical assistance services for promoting
and implementing meaningful Parent Leadership
and Shared Leadership in communities.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Teen Pregnancy an Issue in NJ
Did you know the following about Teen Pregnancy?
Highest Black Teen Pregnancy in NJ: Among black teenagers aged 15–19, pregnancy rates were highest in New Jersey (209 per 1,000) source: Guttmacher 2006 report
• High incidence of unwanted pregnancy / abortion in NJ: Teenage abortion rates were highest in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Nevada and California. Fifty percent or more of teenage pregnancies end in abortion in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. (2006 report from Guttmacher)
Inadequate pre-natal care: About 1/3 of pregnant teens receive inadequate prenatal care; babies born to young mothers are more likely to be low-birth-weight, to have childhood health problems and to be hospitalized than are those born to older mothers. Teens who give birth are much more likely to come from poor or low-income families (83%) than are teens who have abortions (61%) or teens in general (38%).
Highest Black Teen Pregnancy in NJ: Among black teenagers aged 15–19, pregnancy rates were highest in New Jersey (209 per1,000) source: Guttmacher 2006
Through our information blog and parenting workshops, NENI hopes to improve the likelihood of a healthy childbirth and reduce the number of subsequent births during teen years. About 1/4 of teenage mothers have a second child within 2 years of their first. About 13% of all U.S. births are to teens. Our intention with this grant is to provide online and/or in person pre-natal education in partnership with educators and physicians. When our funding expands, we will add pre-natal workshops.
Main Statistics Source: The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_teen_sex.html)
Check out additional parent resources on our website at http://www.neni.us/
Highest Black Teen Pregnancy in NJ: Among black teenagers aged 15–19, pregnancy rates were highest in New Jersey (209 per 1,000) source: Guttmacher 2006 report
• High incidence of unwanted pregnancy / abortion in NJ: Teenage abortion rates were highest in the District of Columbia, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Nevada and California. Fifty percent or more of teenage pregnancies end in abortion in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. (2006 report from Guttmacher)
Inadequate pre-natal care: About 1/3 of pregnant teens receive inadequate prenatal care; babies born to young mothers are more likely to be low-birth-weight, to have childhood health problems and to be hospitalized than are those born to older mothers. Teens who give birth are much more likely to come from poor or low-income families (83%) than are teens who have abortions (61%) or teens in general (38%).
Highest Black Teen Pregnancy in NJ: Among black teenagers aged 15–19, pregnancy rates were highest in New Jersey (209 per1,000) source: Guttmacher 2006
Through our information blog and parenting workshops, NENI hopes to improve the likelihood of a healthy childbirth and reduce the number of subsequent births during teen years. About 1/4 of teenage mothers have a second child within 2 years of their first. About 13% of all U.S. births are to teens. Our intention with this grant is to provide online and/or in person pre-natal education in partnership with educators and physicians. When our funding expands, we will add pre-natal workshops.
Main Statistics Source: The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_teen_sex.html)
Check out additional parent resources on our website at http://www.neni.us/
Sunday, August 12, 2007
NJ School Report Card
There are several tools that parents can use to measure their school’s yearly performance in a comparative way. One is the New Jersey School Report Card produced annually since mandated by law in 1995. Report cards are issued for every public school, including charter schools and vocational and special services school districts. The report card contains statistical, demographic, programmatic, and local information in order to inform parents and other citizens about the progress of public schools throughout the state. Each school also is required to add a two-page narrative to the School Report Card to inform parents about exemplary programs and noteworthy achievements of that school. The school district may distribute the report card to parents, but all of the school data is accessible on the Department of Education’s Web site.
Beginning in August 2003 as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the department has issued disaggregated reports for each of the state assessments that include NJ ASK 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA); and the High School Proficiency Assessment HSPA). One measure of how well your school is doing is to look at past years’ scores for your school and determine whether the scores show an upward trend or not.
Beginning in August 2003 as required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the department has issued disaggregated reports for each of the state assessments that include NJ ASK 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA); and the High School Proficiency Assessment HSPA). One measure of how well your school is doing is to look at past years’ scores for your school and determine whether the scores show an upward trend or not.
NJ Governor’s Education News Service - free e-mail news service for parents
The New Jersey Department of EducationAnnounces The Launch of the Governor’s Education News Service
gens-public
You can have the latest news and information from the New Jersey Department of Education automatically e-mailed to you as soon as it is publicly released to the media.
Instead of searching newspapers or the DOE Web site for the latest news and information about state actions that affect your local schools, now you can enjoy the advantage of having first-hand education news and information automatically delivered directly to you electronically whenever it is issued.
The New Jersey Department of Education is inviting all New Jersey residents to subscribe to gens-public -- our comprehensive e-mail news service to keep you informed of education news in New Jersey.
Who should subscribe to gens-public? -- parents, students, and all other citizens with an interest in education.
By subscribing to this free service, you will receive news releases, reports, speeches, testimony, opinions, administrative code, and data, as well as any other information that the department distributes to educators and the media. The DOE’s gens-public will also be a source of information about upcoming events and award ceremonies.
All gens-public information will be transmitted to you by e-mail, as soon as the information is released. With this feature, you also will know when there is new information on the department’s Web site at www.nj.gov/education.
To sign up for this free service, go to http://www.state.nj.us/education/parents/
gens-public
You can have the latest news and information from the New Jersey Department of Education automatically e-mailed to you as soon as it is publicly released to the media.
Instead of searching newspapers or the DOE Web site for the latest news and information about state actions that affect your local schools, now you can enjoy the advantage of having first-hand education news and information automatically delivered directly to you electronically whenever it is issued.
The New Jersey Department of Education is inviting all New Jersey residents to subscribe to gens-public -- our comprehensive e-mail news service to keep you informed of education news in New Jersey.
Who should subscribe to gens-public? -- parents, students, and all other citizens with an interest in education.
By subscribing to this free service, you will receive news releases, reports, speeches, testimony, opinions, administrative code, and data, as well as any other information that the department distributes to educators and the media. The DOE’s gens-public will also be a source of information about upcoming events and award ceremonies.
All gens-public information will be transmitted to you by e-mail, as soon as the information is released. With this feature, you also will know when there is new information on the department’s Web site at www.nj.gov/education.
To sign up for this free service, go to http://www.state.nj.us/education/parents/
Thursday, August 2, 2007
language dictionaries
Language Dictionaries http://www.yourdictionary.com/languages.html
There are over 6,800 known languages spoken in the 200 countries of the world. 2,261 have writing systems (the others are only spoken) and about 300 are represented by on-line dictionaries as of May 11, 2004. This site by yourDictionary.com presents its currently list. New languages and dictionaries are constantly being added to yourDictionary.com; as a result, this site contains one of the widest and deepest set of dictionaries, grammars, and other language resources on the web.
There are over 6,800 known languages spoken in the 200 countries of the world. 2,261 have writing systems (the others are only spoken) and about 300 are represented by on-line dictionaries as of May 11, 2004. This site by yourDictionary.com presents its currently list. New languages and dictionaries are constantly being added to yourDictionary.com; as a result, this site contains one of the widest and deepest set of dictionaries, grammars, and other language resources on the web.
Monday, May 28, 2007
NJ Child Welfare Updates
Update from state officials below:
Dear Colleagues,Governor Corzine and I are pleased to share the latest round of data on the child welfare system, which continues to point toprogress in a number of key areas. You can find the new data on our Web site by visiting this link:http://nj.gov/dcf/home/childdata/index.html (if the link does notdirectly open, please cut and paste into your Internet browser).This is our largest single production of data to date, andincludes demographic information on children, substantiation andoutcome data, information on DYFS caseloads for every office in the State, adoption data, and referrals from the hotline to DYFS and the Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit (IAIU).
As many of you know, we experienced our first net gain of 209 resource families in 2006, and we have already surpassed that netgain in the first three months of this year - 331 new families between January and March of this year.Caseloads continue to decline across DYFS. As of March, 60percent of our DYFS offices complied with caseload standards forintake; 68 percent complied with caseload standards for ouradoption practice; and 71 percent complied with caseloadstandards for permanency (ongoing) work. Sixty-five percent of our offices complied with supervisor to staff ratios (5 to 1),not counting the casework supervisors in each office. When thecasework supervisors are included, every office complied. Ourinternal tracking indicates that we will see significantimprovement in every category by July.Another indication of progress in reducing caseloads is thedecline in the number of DYFS staff serving more than 30families. As of this March, 0.7 percent of our staff served morethan 30 families, compared to 6 percent of DYFS staff a year ago.Ten percent of DYFS staff served 21 to 30 families in March ofthis year, compared to 20 percent last year. Forty-nine percentof DYFS staff served 11 to 20 families this March (last year itwas 41 percent) and 40 percent of DYFS staff served one to 10families this March, compared to 33 percent last March. The data indicates modest improvement in placing sibling groups togetherin foster care, and placing children within 10 miles of theirhomes when they are removed from their families. I'm eager to see bigger advances in these areas as we implement the case practice model.
The data also indicates a continued downward trend in the number of children who are abused or neglected in foster care, and asharp reduction in the number of legally free children awaitingadoption from January 2006 to March 2007. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but we're heading in theright direction.
Kevin M. Ryan
NJ Commissioner Department of Children and Families
Dear Colleagues,Governor Corzine and I are pleased to share the latest round of data on the child welfare system, which continues to point toprogress in a number of key areas. You can find the new data on our Web site by visiting this link:http://nj.gov/dcf/home/childdata/index.html (if the link does notdirectly open, please cut and paste into your Internet browser).This is our largest single production of data to date, andincludes demographic information on children, substantiation andoutcome data, information on DYFS caseloads for every office in the State, adoption data, and referrals from the hotline to DYFS and the Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit (IAIU).
As many of you know, we experienced our first net gain of 209 resource families in 2006, and we have already surpassed that netgain in the first three months of this year - 331 new families between January and March of this year.Caseloads continue to decline across DYFS. As of March, 60percent of our DYFS offices complied with caseload standards forintake; 68 percent complied with caseload standards for ouradoption practice; and 71 percent complied with caseloadstandards for permanency (ongoing) work. Sixty-five percent of our offices complied with supervisor to staff ratios (5 to 1),not counting the casework supervisors in each office. When thecasework supervisors are included, every office complied. Ourinternal tracking indicates that we will see significantimprovement in every category by July.Another indication of progress in reducing caseloads is thedecline in the number of DYFS staff serving more than 30families. As of this March, 0.7 percent of our staff served morethan 30 families, compared to 6 percent of DYFS staff a year ago.Ten percent of DYFS staff served 21 to 30 families in March ofthis year, compared to 20 percent last year. Forty-nine percentof DYFS staff served 11 to 20 families this March (last year itwas 41 percent) and 40 percent of DYFS staff served one to 10families this March, compared to 33 percent last March. The data indicates modest improvement in placing sibling groups togetherin foster care, and placing children within 10 miles of theirhomes when they are removed from their families. I'm eager to see bigger advances in these areas as we implement the case practice model.
The data also indicates a continued downward trend in the number of children who are abused or neglected in foster care, and asharp reduction in the number of legally free children awaitingadoption from January 2006 to March 2007. There is a lot of work ahead of us, but we're heading in theright direction.
Kevin M. Ryan
NJ Commissioner Department of Children and Families
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
NJ Troubled Youth Get a Helping Hand from State Program
Youth transitioning from foster care, homeless youth and children with behavioral health needs benefit
TRENTON - Department of Children and Families Commissioner Kevin M. Ryan announced the expansion of residential facilities and services to aid youth who are homeless or transitioning out of foster care, as well as children with highly specialized behavioral health needs. This expanded capacity, working in partnership with the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), will allow the department to accommodate an additional 200 youth in residential settings and is the state's largest ever one-time expansion.
to view the state's full press release, go to http://www.state.nj.us/dcf/news/press/approved/070502_residentialbedexpansion.html
TRENTON - Department of Children and Families Commissioner Kevin M. Ryan announced the expansion of residential facilities and services to aid youth who are homeless or transitioning out of foster care, as well as children with highly specialized behavioral health needs. This expanded capacity, working in partnership with the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and the Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA), will allow the department to accommodate an additional 200 youth in residential settings and is the state's largest ever one-time expansion.
to view the state's full press release, go to http://www.state.nj.us/dcf/news/press/approved/070502_residentialbedexpansion.html
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