Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

PARENTING

Oct 18, 2002

**Parenting: A New Glass Ceiling?
A new father caring for a newborn and a critically ill wife has won a lawsuit against his employer, who claimed that he was not eligible for emergency family leave as a father. ABC News reports this is an example of an emerging trend in gender discrimination law, with parents suing employers over bias against workers with family responsibilities.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/discrimination020829.html

**Health Tips for Parents and Caregivers
October is Children's Health Month. To help families celebrate, the President's Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks has developed action steps?—one for each day of the month?—ranging from disease and injury prevention to environmental safety and school health.
http://www.childrenshealth.gov

**National Family Week Toolkit
Families can plan their own activities to celebrate National Family Week beginning November 24, but this is also a time for local organizations to draw attention to the community services and public policies that support strong families. This how-to guide offers ideas for reaching policymakers, the media and the community to bring attention to critical policies and local accomplishments that help families thrive. http://www.nationalfamilyweek.org/html/events_and_resources/how_to_guide.html

**Jim Steyer on "The Other Parent"
The Media Access Project in Washington, DC is hosting Jim Steyer at the Benton Foundation, October 23, to speak on the influence of media on children. Steyer's book "The Other Parent" offers an in-depth look at the effects of TV, video games and the Internet on today's kids, and is a call to action. http://www.mediaaccess.org

**Managing Anxiety in Times of Crisis
The HHS Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has designed a special Web site to help families, schools, community organizations and the general public deal with the effects of the recent shootings in the DC region.
http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/ChildrenAnxiety

Connect for Kids has gathered resources for talking to children about their fears and worries in response to traumatic public events.
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_show.htm?attrib_id=374&doc_id=120823#Helping


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KIDS AND POLITICS

**Special Treatment for Guns
Congressional reporters say that, in the midst of serial sniper shootings in the DC area, Congress has tabled action on legislation to render gun makers immune from liability for their products. Advocates say there is never a good time to give special legal protection to the gun industry.
http://www.childrensdefense.org/ss_listarch.php#federal

**Tracking Guns Used to Kill
In response to the D.C. area shootings, the Brady Campaign is calling for renewed efforts to enact ballistic fingerprinting laws to help trace the source of guns used to kill people.
http://www.bradycampaign.org/press/release.asp?Record=429

**Seven States Will Go to Polls to Pick School Chiefs
When they go to the polls on November 5, 2002, voters in Arizona, California, Georgia, Idaho, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming will choose their top education officers, positions that are becoming increasingly powerful as the role of standards and federal mandates for testing increase.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=06chiefs.h22

**States Urge Congress to Extend Welfare Funding
With the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare reform reauthorization stalled on Capitol Hill, state policymakers and welfare advocates are urging Congress to save the program from the chaos that uncertainty brings by passing a three-year extension of current law. http://www.stateline.org/story.do?storyId=263870

**Take Action on Social Services Block Grant
As time runs out for this Congressional session, advocates report that lawmakers need to hear support for adequate funding for the Social Services Block Grant.
http://www.chn.org/alerts/evdetails.asp?evid=31

Don?’t forget to check out ways you can get informed on the issues and the candidates with the Kids and Politics 2002 feature on Connect for Kids. Make your vote count for kids on November 5!
http://www.connectforkids.org/resources3139/resources_subject.htm?doc_id=82346