Latest news with #HouseBill460
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Child abuse awareness education bill gets a look after four sessions
The state Capitol in Harrisburg. (Capital-Star file) Pennsylvania schools would be required to integrate child abuse awareness and prevention into their curriculum under a bill being proposed in the state House of Representatives. 'We need to educate (children) when they are young. Sometimes by second grade, it's already too late. They've already been abused. But at least if they hear the program and they get it, we can then provide them with help,' said Abbie Newman, CEO of global and external affairs at Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center in Norristown. Newman testified Tuesday at a hearing for the legislation before the House Children and Youth Committee. No votes happened. Just an informational hearing with expert testimony. That's the furthest the measure has gone, though, with versions introduced during every legislative session since 2019. More than half of states already require schools to teach child abuse awareness and prevention, according to the bill's sponsor state Rep. Mary Jo Daley (D-Montgomery). The Department of Education would jointly develop the age-appropriate curriculum for students in kindergarten through high school with another state agency (likely Human Services) under the current version of House Bill 460, according to legislative researcher Ryan Kline. 'We want to make sure we get this right,' he said, noting the legislation probably will change. Proponents emphasized the need to engage experts — such as local child advocacy centers certified to provide preventative education — to help develop and deliver the curriculum. That could mitigate unintended consequences like traumatizing students and adding to the already overwhelming workload of public school teachers and faculty, they said. They also advised modeling evidence-based programs such as the Safe and Health Communities Initiative recently highlighted in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found rates of both substantiated and unsubstantiated child sexual abuse reports dropped after they'd implemented a three-pronged intervention in schools and surrounding communities across five counties in Pennsylvania. They reached nearly 15,000 second graders in the classroom and more than 14,000 adults through a combination of formal training and public education campaigns during 2018 through 2020. Asked how to improve the bill, one expert said a two-year launch seemed rushed. 'This is too important an issue,' said Benjamin Levi, a professor in the departments of humanities and pediatrics at Penn State College of Medicine. 'As a pediatrician, I've dealt with both reporting [and] the long-term consequences. As a researcher, I've looked at these issues. As someone who's developed educational programs, I know how hard it is to implement this. So I just want to caution that as we move forward, we need to be careful, deliberate, and evidence-based.' Levi noted, for example, the potential for reporting to increase. That could overwhelm the state's ChildLine reporting conduit if it remains resourced as is. He pointed out that ChildLine has about half the staff of its counterparts in Illinois and Michigan, which have comparable populations.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Idaho House passes budget for Vocational Rehabilitation program facing financial shortfall
Members of the Idaho House of Representatives hold a floor session on March 10, 2025, at the Idaho Capitol Building in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun) The Idaho House of Representatives voted Friday to approve next year's budget for the embattled Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX House Bill 460 is a 2026 budget enhancement for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. Vocational Rehabilitation is a state/federal program that seeks to help people with disabilities secure and retain employment, according to the division's website. At the time that the division's financial troubles came to light last year, Vocational Rehabilitation was serving about 8,000 Idahoans with disabilities. A year ago, at the very end of the 2024 legislative session, the former administrator of Vocational Rehabilitation suddenly told the Idaho Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that the division was out of money and would be unable to pay its bills, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, is a powerful legislative committee that sets the budgets for every state agency and department every year. Since the financial problems came to light publicly, the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration (which is part of the U.S. Department of Education) notified the state that the Vocational Rehabilitation grant was considered high risk because of significant concerns about the division's financial accountability, the Sun previously reported. In September, the Sun reported Vocational Rehabilitation was offered $10 million in emergency federal funding to help the division pay for people the division has already committed to helping. In order to fully access the federal funds, Idaho would need to provide $2.7 million in state funds. CONTACT US Fast forward to Friday, and House Bill 460 provides $35,000 in additional funding for the fiscal year 2026 budget for interpreter services and a one-time $4.4 million supplemental funding appropriation for the current fiscal year 2025 budget. The supplemental funding includes $2.7 million as a state match to allow Vocational Rehabilitation to access $10 million in emergency federal funds intended to help the agency stay afloat and $1.7 million for client services that have already been provided but are not eligible for federal reimbursement. Idaho's state government runs on a fiscal year calendar. The current 2025 fiscal year ends June 30, and the 2026 fiscal year begins July 1. Rep. Wendy Horman, an Idaho Falls Republican who serves as co-chair of JFAC, acknowledged the division's financial concerns Friday and said Vocational Rehabilitation is under new leadership. 'I must give praise to the interim director, who stepped into a difficult situation and is trying to make sense of what's going on, but it's a very complicated situation,' Horman said. Without any debate, the Idaho House voted 49-20 to pass the Vocational Rehabilitation budget bill. House Bill 460 heads next to the Idaho Senate for consideration. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Legislation filed in Kentucky would make pre-K education a reality for all 4-year-olds
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — On Friday, State Representative Anne Gay Donworth filed a bill to make publicly funded preschool available for all four-year-olds in Kentucky. If it were passed and signed into law, House Bill 460 would help reverse the statewide trend of undereducation in young Kentucky children. Kentucky bill could reverse efforts to curb puppy mill suppliers 'Even before the pandemic, only half of our children were 'kindergarten-ready,' meaning that half of our students were behind academically from the first day they entered school,' Rep. Donworth said. 'Today, those rates have dropped three percentage points when compared to 2019, an unacceptable decline that should alarm us all and will be felt for generations.' The bill would allow different school districts to cooperate locally to provide education access for all four-year-olds in the Bluegrass. According to a news release, HB 460 would also be aimed at reducing childcare costs. Rep. Donworth said childcare deserts are a problem throughout the Commonwealth in rural as well as urban areas. She said a rainy day fund with billions of dollars in revenue would easily cover the $172 million annual cost that would grant educational access to children in need in Kentucky. Kentucky bill taking away gender affirming care from inmates moves forward If passed, publicly funded preschool will be available for all four-year-olds beginning in August 2025. The full bill can be viewed here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
