Advocates For Children & Youth Inc

Programs: Education: successfully advocated for state funding policies that increase resources for maryland and baltimore city schools; worked to engage and educate stakeholders about the importance of creating a strong school funding formula that provides adequate resources to meet the needs of low-income students and those children with special needs. Acy has been at the forefront of school climate and discipline work in maryland, spending much of this last year working to implement the state board of education's discipline regulations, focusing on developing measures that identify the disproportionate impact of discipline on students of color and students with disabilities and reporting requirements for school arrests and referrals to law enforcement. In addition to these initiatives, we had strong success during the 2017 legislative session. Among our achievements in education were: 1. The hunger free schools act whereby state lawmakers reauthorized and updated the hunger free schools act of 2015 to increase eligibility for students in low-income areas to receive free breakfast and lunch at school. In addition the budget allocated 6. 9 m for the maryland meals for achievement allow, a state/federal funded school. 2. An adult high school pilot program for students who left school prior to obtaining a high school degree was established. This pilot will include wrap around services designed to support their achievement (child care, behavioral health services, life skills, job coaches, etc. ) 3. A law prohibiting the suspension or expulsion of prekindergarten, kindergarten, first grade, or second grade students from public schools except if required by federal law health: acy actively worked to support an innovative, cost-effective proposal to close the gaps in access to oral health care for children and families in maryland by allowing for the authorization of a midlevel dental provider known as a dental therapist. Dental therapists are providers who, like nurse practitioners and physician assistants, provide preventive and routine care (filling cavities, placing temporary crowns, and conducting simple extractions of primary teeth) under the supervision of a dentist. Dental therapists are trained to provide direct care to underserved patients in schools, nursing homes and other community-based settings. Acy has worked to build a robust coalition of advocacy partners on this issue and will move this legislation forward in 2018. Worked to determine the causes of chronic absenteeism, including examine school climate and culture, and understand student perceptions of attendance and school social norms. Regarding nutrition policies and physical activity practices in child care centers in baltimore city, acy has worked to develop a survey tool that will help advocates and policy makers better understand the impact of the hepaa legislation on child care centers in baltimore city. The responses to questions regarding the types of food and drink served and the amount and type of exercise encouraged by child care center staff will allow advocates and lawmakers to assess the need for reform and to craft evidence-based improvements to the current law governing nutrition and physical activity policies in child care centers in maryland. Child welfare: our most successful work over the last year was improving access to higher education for foster youth and unaccompanied homeless youth. As a result of our outreach and advocacy, more than twice as many current and/or foster youth utilized the college tuition waiver in the 2015 school year (217 youth) than in the 2014 school year (106 youth). We also updated the informational hand out that provides information about tuition waiver for unaccompanied homeless youth (uhy) and foster youth. Acy surveyed all the colleges and universities that accept the tuition waiver to analyze the array of supportive services on these campuses for uhy and foster youth. Acy has also trained almost 350 people about the tuition waiver. For our efforts to ensure that the preventing sex trafficking and strengthening families act's implementation incorporates best practices, we developed training materials on how to prevent foster youth from becoming victims of sex trafficking and on new provisions of the law. Juvenile justice acy chairs the maryland juvenile justice roundtable, leading a coalition of juvenile justice advocates. We faced strong opposition in our attempts to increase diversion of youth and reduced the charging of youth as adults. Acy intends to move forward by expanding the set of organizations and individuals we work with, and by shifting focus to more community engagement. We will work to support a movement aimed at transforming our states' response to young people at risk of system involvement. Economic sufficiency we promoted an increase in state funding for school breakfast and lunch. Acy was also part of the coalition which achieved the passage of the healthy working families act, earned sick leave.