Latest news with #KentuckyYouthAdvocates
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US children struggle to catch up educationally while poverty further burdens Kentucky's kids
The Annie E. Casey Foundation's latest report on child wellbeing finds a decline in the share of Kentucky kids in preschool. (Photo by Getty Images) This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988. Kentucky's kids are struggling in school more than they did pre-pandemic, according to a new report on child wellbeing from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. While Kentucky children improved in the last few years on a few measures — more have health insurance, for example — every measure of education worsened, according to the KIDS COUNT County Data Book, released Monday. From 2019-2023, about 63% of Kentucky's children ages 3 and 4 were not in school, an increase from 58% from 2014-2018. In 2024, 67% of Kentucky's fourth graders were less than proficient in reading. That's up from 65% in 2019. That same year, most — 76% — of eighth graders in the state weren't proficient in math, up from 71% in 2019. From 2021-2022, 10% of high school students did not graduate on time, an increase from 9% in 2019, according to the report. Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, told the Lantern that this new data is a 'very authentic litmus test for legislators and the governor to put up or shut up when it comes to a commitment to kids.' 'The child poverty level is really … the canary in the coal mine. It tells you not just where kids are today, but it tells you where kids are going,' Brooks said. Kentucky is the 44th worst in the nation for child poverty; one in five Kentucky children live in poverty. 'That flat out means that that is an unacceptable condition — if we care, at all, about kids,' Brooks said. Lisa M. Lawson, the president and CEO of The Annie E. Casey Foundation, wrote in the latest national report that 'while progress is uneven, the direction is clear.' 'We know what kids need to grow up healthy and connected: stable homes, strong schools, nutritious food, meaningful relationships and opportunities to learn, play and grow,' Lawson wrote. 'These are shared needs across communities — and meeting them is a shared responsibility.' In several ways, Kentucky's data is similar to the national trends. In both, the education category fared the worst — 'consistent with the pandemic's well-documented toll on student learning and school experiences' — while family and community improved. Democrat Beshear renews push for universal preschool in Kentucky Trends for Kentucky, revealed in the report, include: One in five children live in poverty, ranking them 44th on this measure. From 2019-2023, 63% of young children were not in school. That number was 58% in 2014-2018. Kentucky Youth Advocates says this shows 'a continued need for a robust early childhood education infrastructure that prioritizes early learning and care for our youngest learners.' Last week, Gov. Andy Beshear signed an executive order to establish an advisory committee that will explore support for universal pre-kindergarten programs in Kentucky. There is an 'unprecedented learning loss following the pandemic and the toll of chronic absenteeism on academic performance' resulting in 67% of fourth graders scoring below proficient in reading and 76% of eighth graders not proficient in math. Kentucky has the third highest rate among the states of children who are covered by health insurance; in 2023, 3% of Kentucky children were without coverage. The death rate for children and teenagers ages 1-19 increased by 28% in 2023 from 2019. There are fewer kids living in homes with a household head who doesn't have a high school diploma — the number dropped from 11% in 2019 to 9% in 2023. There were fewer teen births in 2023, with a rate of 21 per 1,000 ages 15-19. Despite the drop, Kentucky Youth Advocates says, 'this remains the Commonwealth's worst-ranked measure relative to other states at 46th in the nation.' In 2023, there were more Kentucky babies born below optimal weight, which can lead to health problems, than in 2019 — an increase from 8.7% to 8.8%. 'This moment calls for focus, creativity and commitment,' Lawson wrote in the national report. 'It calls on leaders at every level to act boldly where improvement is needed and rely on what we know works.' The COVID-19 pandemic, which shuttered school buildings and sent kids home to learn remotely, certainly played a role in delaying youth, Brooks said. But, he added, 'to blame it on COVID is a cop-out.' 'I don't think we can continue to blame a virus for low academic achievement,' he said. 'It may have (been) exacerbated under COVID, but it wasn't created by COVID.' In the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, about 17% of Kentucky children were chronically absent, the Lantern previously reported, meaning they missed more than 10% of their enrolled time at school. During the 2022-23 school year, nearly 30% of Kentucky's students were chronically absent. During the 2023-4 year, it was down to 28%. Meanwhile, the Kentucky General Assembly is too focused on 'every hot button social issue there is,' Brooks said. They need to spend more time thinking about deep policy work that can improve education marks, he said. 'It's easy to criticize schools, but it takes some imagination to improve schools,' Brooks said. A retired educator and longtime advocate for children, Brooks said the poor education outcomes Kentucky is seeing now come from multiple factors, including children's poor mental health and an inadequate teaching workforce. Other items could use lawmaker attention, Brooks said, such as the SEEK formula for funding public schools, 'both in terms of adequacy and equity,' and assessment protocols. These aren't trendy policies to work on, Brooks acknowledged: 'The assessment system is deep policy work. It's not a way to grab attention.' 'In a lot of ways, forces around education are playing chicken with one another and seeing who blinks first,' Brooks said. 'And that's not the landscape for positive change.' There are some immediate policies Brooks would like to see Kentucky lawmakers consider in 2026, which is a budget year. Those include a state earned income tax credit and also a dependent child care tax credit to address childhood poverty. 'The '26 budget is probably being crafted in the General Assembly right now. I want to see if there's any dedicated effort to address childhood poverty in this budget, as well as what the governor presents,' Brooks said. 'If there is such an attempt, then kudos go to whoever is proposing that. If not, frankly, Frankfort leaders just need to be quiet about childhood poverty because they don't really care.' Not every issue facing Kentucky's kids can be fixed with a 'magic wand' from Frankfort, Brooks said, including the high mortality rate among children. The death rate for Kentucky youth 1-19 increased by 28% in 2023 from 2019. In 2023, there were 395 deaths per 100,000, the data shows, which includes suicides, accidents and homicides. There were 22,841 deaths nationally per 100,000. The pandemic hit kids hard, leading to high rates of depression and anxiety in those separated from peers and support networks. In addition, as the Lantern has reported, access to guns and medications kill kids. 'What we see is an alarming rise in children dying either because of access to medication — and I'm not talking illicit drugs, I'm talking (about) what they get out of the medicine cabinet in their parents' bathroom — and also unsafe storage of guns,' Brooks said. A variety of medications — including over the counter pain relievers like Tylenol — can hurt kids if not taken according to directions. Experts recommend securing all medications where children cannot access them, keeping bullets separate from guns and using gun locks. 'While there's certainly an abundance of responsibility that (goes) to lawmakers and the governor, there's also an abundance of responsibility to go to moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas,' Brooks said. 'Be diligent. Use common sense when it comes to making sure that little boy or little girl can't get to your gun and shoot themselves, and they can't get to your medication and overdose.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
1 year after passage, Kentucky kinship care law remains in dispute
FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — A year after the passage of a kinship care law, it remains unenforced and unfunded. 'These are issues that are bipartisan. Bicameral. I mean, the governor signed it into law. I mean, this is not controversial stuff,' Sen. Julie Raque Adams told FOX 56 News. It was a bill meant to give financial support for relatives and close family friends of children in foster care to keep that child in that trusted person's home. Kentucky Youth Advocates estimated last year there were about 55 thousand Kentucky children being raised by relatives or fictive kin. At an administrative regulations review meeting this week, Sen. Adams asked why there is still no progress implementing 2024's Senate Bill 151. Kentucky Senate candidate calls ethics investigation 'weaponizing government': Here's why 'This is a joke, that the cabinet has full discretion to implement what they want to implement,' she said. The impasse appears to come back to the 2-year state budget passed in 2024, which didn't specifically direct funds to the program. Crystal Staley, director of communications for Gov. Andy Beshear, told FOX 56 in a statement, 'The most recent state budget provides specific funding for the increase to therapeutic foster care rates. It contains no such funding for relative caregivers.' She added that the state supreme court has previously said the state can't implement programs and policies without the funding to do so and that letters were sent by the administration to the legislature pointing out a shortfall in advance of the budget's passage, which Sen. Adams supported. 'That budget piece that they are referring to can fit therapeutic, and it can fit kinship foster care too,' she said in response to the statement. Adams said the bill was specifically written to comply with the budget language and also requires the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to create regulations, essentially designing the program and better understanding how it should be paid for. Those have so far not been produced. 2 arrested in Central City with nearly 350 grams of methamphetamine Lexington police seek info on 'vehicle of interest' after shots fired call Virginia man accused of choking woman, abusing kid outside Pike County church 'As we head into the next budget session, if they don't work on those regs, then we're going to be in the exact same place. But the law requires them to put forth regs, and we're hoping that they will do that,' Adams said. Adams said she wants to work with the administration on getting the law implemented, saying the first step is to create those regulations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Proposal for protecting KY kids from nicotine products draws cheers as children's advocates rally
Students from Capital Day School in Frankfort get ready for their vocal performance in the Capitol rotunda as part of Kentucky Youth Advocates Children's Advocacy Day, March 5, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Sarah Ladd) FRANKFORT — Hundreds rallied in the Capitol rotunda Wednesday for Children's Advocacy Day, calling on lawmakers to pass youth vaping protections and other policies to improve the quality of life for Kentucky's kids. Terry Brooks, the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which organized the rally, said about 80% of KYA's legislative priorities are on track to become law this session. Those priorities include shoring up sexual exploitation laws, keeping nicotine products out of the hands of minors, paving the way for Kentucky to get freestanding birth centers and more. 'We are so close to making Kentucky the best place in America to be young,' Brooks said on day 22 of the 30-day legislative session. The state currently ranks high in child abuse and neglect and low in health. 'You see the friction in Washington,' Brooks said. 'You hear rumors that nothing gets done in Frankfort. I want to tell you that, at least that second narrative, is absolutely wrong.' Zach Crouch, a Taylor County High School student who works with Kentucky Youth Advocates, the organization that organized the rally, said too many in his community are 'victim(s) of the tobacco industry.' 'Our number one problem in Taylor County is vaping,' he said. 'It's gotten to the point where you can see it anywhere, anyhow.' He believes a Republican Senate bill to regulate vape retailers 'will help' protect children. Gov. Andy Beshear called on those gathered to advocate for universal pre-K, which he's long supported. He also spoke again in support of 'better, more competitive salaries' for public school teachers and said, with so many children on state health insurance, 'we must protect Medicaid.' 'There is nothing more important to me than creating a better commonwealth for our kids,' said Beshear. Senate President Pro Tem David Givens, R-Greensburg, focused his brief remarks on praising the advocates for their work on the behalf of children. 'Voices matter. And your voice matters a lot,' he said. 'You have the chance to help create a new reality for a young person or a colleague or a friend. Offer to see in them something they don't see in themselves. See a special talent, see a special gift.' Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, who chairs the House Families and Children Committee, called on the Beshear administration to fund a 2024 law aimed at helping families who are caring for a minor relative — known as kinship caregivers. 'While the governor gave us some work, I'm going to give him some work too,' she said. 'We've got to make sure that we're funding kinship care and that we're helping kids. This isn't a political thing. This is putting our future first.' Lawmakers and the Beshear administration have gone back and forth for months over that law, which was unfunded thanks to what several lawmakers have called a miscommunication from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. 'I believe that one of the greatest responsibilities that we have as lawmakers,' said Heavrin, 'is protecting and uplifting our children.'
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Yahoo
Kentucky urged to increase criminal penalties, education to protect kids from ‘sextortion'
From October 2021 to March 2023, there were at least 13,000 national cases of sexual extortion, according to Kentucky Youth Advocates data. (Getty Images) This story discusses sexual extortion. Report sexual extortion to the FBI at 1-800-335-5324. The Human Trafficking help hotline is 1-888-373-7888. Chat live: FRANKFORT — Kentucky's laws haven't caught up to the digital age and rampant sexual extortion targeting children, advocates said Wednesday. That's why they're pushing for swift passage of Senate Bill 73, which makes sextual extortion — or sextortion — a felony. The bill would also make it easier to collect legal damages from a perpetrator and require schools to educate children about what sextortion is. Sexual extortion is when a perpetrator obtains a sexually explicit photo and threatens to release it if the victim doesn't meet their demands, which could be monetary, sexual or other kinds of blackmail. SB 73 sponsor Sen. Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, called the practice 'calculated' and 'cruel.' 'Being a kid today is very different than when we grew up,' Raque Adams said during a news conference at the Capitol Annex. 'Social media and technology have changed the way young people connect, but it's also opened the door to new dangers that we never had to face before.' The current punishment for sextortion can be a 'patchwork' of legal charges, said Jaime Thompson, the program coordinator of People Against Trafficking Humans (PATH) Coalition of Kentucky. Putting something specific on the books would deter more predators, she and others said. From October 2021 to March 2023, there were at least 13,000 national cases of sextortion, according to Kentucky Youth Advocates data. Child victims of sextortion sometimes end their own lives, advocates said, because of shame and fear. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988. Advocates, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations offer these tips for staying safe online: Close or cover the camera lens on cell phones, computers and other devices, especially when undressing or changing clothes. Assume cameras can be activated remotely. Do not undress with a camera lens pointed at you. Be careful what you share online. Report suspicious behavior. Block suspicious accounts. Don't accept a friend request from anyone online that you don't know in real life. Don't give any personal contact info to anyone you don't know in real life. If someone you don't know asks for personally identifying information, do not comply. Do not share your passwords with anyone. Don't use passwords that may be easy to guess. Don't click on links in emails when they come from people you don't know. For parents: teach kids to report threats. Discuss online safety with them and encourage them to disclose when they receive suspicious communication. 'Sexual extortion is one of the most dangerous and rapidly growing crimes targeting our young people today,' Raque Adams said. 'It is calculated, it is cruel and it thrives on fear and silence.' Her bill has been assigned to the Judiciary committee, and is on Thursday's agenda. A sister bill in the House has also been assigned to the House Judiciary committee. Frankfort Police Detective Ricky Lynn said it's become increasingly difficult for parents to guard and monitor what children are exposed to through online games and social media. Children as young as 11 are exposed to pornography online, he said. Through the internet, he said, 'sexual boundaries get blurred.' 'When someone finds them on the internet and talks to them about sending a naked picture or receiving a naked picture, now, all those boundaries are blurred, and most parents don't have the tools to even govern that, because we don't have any laws that govern that,' Lynn said. Lady Tee Thompson, who works with several organizations to combat human trafficking, said Kentucky is a 'fertile ground' for 'predators to weaponize shame and isolation.' The 'insidious' crime, she said, is 'a gateway to human trafficking.' 'When an individual is coerced into providing explicit images, videos or acts under threats of exposure, harm or blackmail and a party profits in the form of money, drugs or something else of value, often beginning online, it traps victims into cycles of fear, forging compliance and enabling traffickers to escalate controls, leading to in-person exploitation and trafficking,' Thompson said. Advocates said there has recently been a ' steep climb' in 14-17-year-old boys targeted in this manner, though anyone can become a victim. Perpetrators often pose as a romantic interest, luring in boys who think they're speaking to girls their age. Shannon Moody, the chief policy and strategy officer at Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the extortion leaves 'many children feeling ashamed and too scared to seek any help.' More than half of minors find online grooming common, according to KYA data, 'really highlighting the widespread nature of how prevalent this is,' Moody said. This is 'not a theoretical issue at all,' Thompson said. 'This is a crisis that is not just devastating,' she said. 'It is preventable, and yet we are not moving fast enough. We are allowing the predators to outpace our protection.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Associated Press
29-01-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
Foster kids in Kentucky have been sleeping in government offices. The state auditor wants answers
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Dozens of foster children in Kentucky ranging from teens to toddlers spent nights sleeping in social services buildings while awaiting placement by a state agency, according to a preliminary review that has spurred the state auditor to order a broader investigation. The investigation analyzed 49 cases of foster children spending the night in state office buildings during a four-month period ending in late October. The review found that those 49 kids spent a combined 198 days in state offices, state Auditor Allison Ball, a Republican, said Tuesday. The average stay among the sampled children was four days, although six children spent 10 or more days in Cabinet for Health and Family Services buildings, Ball said, citing the ombudsman's report. The average age was 13, but children as young as 1, 2, and 3 spent days in offices, the review found. Almost half the children stayed one day, while the longest stay by a child in a state office building was 35 days, it found. 'The data discovered by the ombudsman revealed deeply concerning issues impacting foster children across Kentucky,' Ball said in a release. 'The systemic failures need urgent action.' The auditor's office said it has received reports that some kids were being housed in hotels or other nontraditional places, and those additional locations will be included in the deeper investigation. The report was a snapshot of the four-month period in 2024 but there's enough evidence to indicate that it continues to be a problem in Kentucky, Ball's office said Wednesday. The issue flared in the summer of 2023 amid media reports that some unplaced foster children in Kentucky were sleeping on cots in state office buildings. At that time, at least 64 children had spent at least one night in an office building, the new report released by Ball said. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear called the situation unacceptable, but a year and a half later, his administration acknowledged the ongoing difficulty of placing some foster children who have behavioral or mental health issues. 'We're working to provide more funding to secure additional safe, short-term care options for youth,' the Cabinet for Health and Family Services said in a statement late Tuesday. It reflects a broader problem that some other states, including Georgia, have faced. Georgia officials have said the situation is improved, thanks in part to increased funding. But some juvenile court judges have said they were pressured to keep certain kids locked in juvenile detention centers instead of releasing them for foster care placement. Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, praised Ball for digging into the issue of what some of the state's most vulnerable children are facing, and letting policymakers and advocates know that the picture is still incomplete. 'What barriers are keeping foster parents and agencies, or family members, from opening their doors to these children — and how can CHFS best support them?' Brooks said in a statement. His organization bills itself as an independent voice for Kentucky children. The preliminary findings were compiled by the Commonwealth Office of the Ombudsman, which is attached to the auditor's office. 'I have encouraged the ombudsman to look further into the type of supervision, if any, that is being provided to these children, including but not limited to medications, proper hygiene and other basic needs,' Ball said. 'These questions should be addressed by a full investigation.'
