Upcoming Michigan House of Representatives meetings related to young children:
Committee: Appropriations
Location: Room 352, House Appropriations, 3rd Floor, State Capitol
Date: Wednesday, 12/12/2007
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Agenda: Supplemental. Presentation on budget process by Senator Pappageorge. SJR E

Upcoming Michigan Senate Committee meetings related to young children:
None at this time.

Committee meetings are often added or agendas changed after the update is sent. Check the legislature's committee calendar for additions and changes.

Current actions on Michigan bills related to young children:
SB 174 LEAD-CONTENT TOY BAN (Kahn) Prohibits manufacture, sale or exchange of toys with lead content in excess of amount permitted by federal regulations. Passed with Substitute S-2 adopted (11/27/07). Referred to committee on health policy (11/27/07).

SB 730 Handicappers in Schools (Gleason) Amends the revised school code to change reference to handicapped person to person with a disability. Reported in the Education committee with Substitute S-1 (10/16/07). Passsed with Substitute S-1 adopted (10/23/07). Received by the House and referred to Education (10/23/07). Reported in Education Committee With Substitute H-2 (11/27/07). Referred to second reading (11/27/07).

SB 918 SCHOOL AID SUPPLEMENTAL (Jelinek) Provides supplemental appropriations for school aid for 2007-08. Am. Secs. 11 and 17b, PA 94, 1979 (CL 388.1611 and 388.1617b) as amended by PA 137, 20076. Introduced and referred to Appropriations (11/27/07).

Budget Bills
SB 838 Service Tax Repeal (Cassis) Repeals new tax on services. Introduced and referred to Finance Committee (10/18/07). Reported with substitute S-1 (11/06/07). Passed with S-1 adopted (11/07/07). Received by the House and referred to Tax Policy (11/07/07). Notice given to discharge committee (11/8/07). Motion to discarge committee postponed for day (11/26/07).

Bill abstracts provided by Voices for Michigan’s Children. See the status of other bills at Michigan's Children.

Upcoming Events
For the release of the Kids Count in Michigan Data Book 2007, the Michigan League for Human Services is hosting a public policy forum on:

The Future of Children in Michigan: Making a Difference through Policy and Investments

Tuesday, December 4th from 10 a.m. till noon
at the Lansing Community College West Campus
5708 Cornerstone Drive, Lansing, Michigan 48917

Have you Heard? – Weekly additions
For Additional reports and findings please visit the MiAEYC web site:
www.miaeyc.org/News/Have_You_Heard.html

None at this time.

In the News– Weekly additions
For Additional reports and findings please visit the MiAEYC web site:
www.miaeyc.org/News/The_News.html

Preschool programs face state fund cuts
About 150 school districts across Michigan are facing state funding losses for this year's School Readiness preschool programs, leaving systems like Lincoln Park scrambling to find additional money or drastically reduce their programs. Due to the late signing of the state's 2007-08 budget, districts just recently learned their School Readiness funding amounts. Detroit News

Senator’s bill would get tough with third-graders
Michigan students who are not reading at a third-grade level should not be promoted to fourth grade, according to a bill sponsored by state Sen. Wayne Kuipers. The Grand Rapids Press

AH-CHOO! Preventing seasonal allergies in children
Forty percent of U.S. children have seasonal allergies. When a parent has allergies, his or her child will probably have them too. Most allergies tend to appear in childhood. So, if you have seasonal allergies as an adult, you probably started getting them as a kid. Fox News

Extent, effects of kids’ cyberbullying debated
As many as one in three U.S. children have been ridiculed or threatened through computer messages, according to one estimate of the emerging problem of cyberbullying. CNN

MSU researchers link low lead exposure to ADHD
Very low levels of lead in the blood – previously believed to be safe – could be contributing to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a Michigan State University study of 150 children in the Lansing area. MSU Today

When ‘no’ means ‘yes’
Until toddlers are about 13 months old, they may not know the difference between yes and no. And even after they learn, "no" still may be their go-to response, says Barbara Polland, Ph.D., author of "No Directions on the Package: Questions and Answers for Parents with Children From Birth to Age 13." "They're discovering they can make their own decisions. Detroit News

Unhealthy habits puts kids’ at bone-breaking risk
Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It is an anti-bone trifecta. And for some children, shockingly, it is leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century. MSNBC

Pre-K learning sets a foundation for life
An issue that deserves our attention and should become a priority is providing access to affordable, high-quality pre-kindergarten programs for all children to develop their foundation and ensure their readiness for kindergarten and beyond. Holland Sentinel

Education not significant '08 issue, analysts say
Eight years ago, President Bush made education a signature issue in his first presidential campaign, and this year, Congress has been considering reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act, Bush's signature piece of legislation on the issue. Nonetheless, education has thus far not emerged as a major issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, and analysts are divided over whether it will. Crosswalk.com

Preschool extends disadvantaged kids' years in school
Early childhood education is one of the issues the presidential candidates are jousting over this campaign season. And while there is plenty of scientific evidence that intensive early education interventions targeted specifically to disadvantaged children have significant benefits, there is now evidence that preprimary education leads to more years spent in school, based on the experience of children from relatively disadvantaged households in Uruguay. Washington University in St. Louis

Head Start renewal
There's not much that Congress and President Bush agree on these days. So the unanimity surrounding the reauthorization of Head Start says much about the worth of the preschool program. And, that, in turn, should help fuel the movement for states to expand and enhance education in childhood's critical early years. Washington Post

Tutors for Toddlers
Preschoolers and kindergartners are among the fastest-growing markets for after-school tutors as anxious parents hope the early assistance will help their children get into the best colleges. Some child-development experts worry the trend is age-inappropriate, but a recent study may bolster the movement: Entering kindergarten with elementary math and reading skills was the best predictor of later academic success among nearly 36,000 U.S., Canadian and British preschoolers, according to the researchers' findings. Time

Babies may make social judgments
A new study found that infants can tell the difference between naughty and nice playmate, and they know which ones to choose. According to researchers at Yale University's Infant Cognition Center, babies as young as six to 10 months showed crucial social judging skills. Yahoo! News

Study: ADHD kids' brain areas develop slower
According to a recent study, crucial parts of the brain in a child with attention deficit disorder develop more slowly than other childrens' brains. The lag can be by as much as three years, a phenomenon that earlier brain-imaging research missed. CNN

Toy recalls, iffy economy bring bad tidings for toy sales
It was bad enough having more than 21 million Chinese-made toys recalled for high levels of lead, but now after Aqua Dots being recalled because they are coated in the date-rape drug GHB, retailers are expecting toy sales to be low this year. The good news? Because of the bad reputation many toys are getting, a lot of retailers are bombarding shoppers with free shipping offers and huge discounts as rivals like Wal-Mart and Toys "R" Us try to out do each other. CNN

Sweeping the Clouds Away
The earliest episodes of Sesame Street are now available on DVD, however be warned, these are not suitable for children. According to the warning on Volumes 1 and 2, "Sesame Street: Old School" is for adults only. These early episodes are intended for adults and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child. The New York Times

Removing tonsils may not be best for kids
Removing the tonsils of children with mild or moderate throat infections is more expensive and has fewer health benefits than simply watching and waiting, Dutch researchers said on Monday. In a study involving 300 children aged 2 to 8 advised to have their tonsils out, those who avoided surgery had fewer annual visits to doctors and lower resulting medical costs due to fevers and throat infections. MSNBC

Poverty by the Numbers: By Race, White Children Make Up the Biggest Percentage of America’s Poor
The National Center for Children in Poverty released a fact sheet that shows that at least one-third of the 13 million children living in poverty are white, contrary to some common stereotypes of America's poor. AScribe

Early Academic Skills, Not Behavior, Best Predict School Success
Children entering kindergarten with elementary math and reading skills are the most likely to do well in school later, even if they have various social and emotional problems, say researchers who examined data from six studies of close to 36,000 preschoolers. Children's attention-related skills also mattered, the researchers found. Science Daily

A Movement Transformed
Preschool has grown up. Just five years ago, the question of whether to provide quality pre-kindergarten to our nation's 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds was a relatively obscure policy dilemma viewed primarily as a child-care issue. Today, the discussion is not whether to make it available, but how -- and it is a robust conversation among policy-makers, educators, business leaders, police chiefs, and others who view early learning as pivotal to education, public safety, and America's economic prosperity. American Prospect

Changing the Climate on Early Childhood
In certain respects, the threat of lost human potential and the science of early childhood development are much like the threat of global warming and the science of climate change. Can the human development movement take a few useful lessons from the global warming movement? Can we more effectively engage science to advance a progressive politics of early childhood development? American Prospect

Playing it safe
You might have thought after this year's string of high-profile recalls that there wouldn't be many dangerous toys left on store shelves. But safety consultant Alison Cassady still managed to spend about $700 during her annual shopping expedition for unsafe toys. Washington Post

Strings and other things
Plymouth-Canton school district third graders are being treated to the sounds of a woodwind and string quartet this month, however the future of next year's program could be in jeopardy due to reductions in state funding. The Plymouth-Canton school district education coordinator hopes this program will not be cut because "music education is a vital component of early childhood education." Hometown Life

Is This the End of Cursive Writing?
Many feel that it's dangerous to teach that the only way to communicate is electronically or with printed letters. Cursive handwriting teaches how letters connect and a different type of hand-eye coordination. Yet more and more children are using keyboards in school instead of writing by hand. ABC News