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Coconino Coalition for Children & Youth
Arizona News
WASHINGTON - Gov. Janet Napolitano wants every struggling at-risk pregnant woman in Arizona to have a chance
to get parenting help before her child is born.
Speaking to an audience of national child advocates here, Napolitano promised to make a popular program called
"Healthy Families" available in every county across Arizona.
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article
Vouchers of $3,200 per child proposed
Lawmakers want state-funded aid for private tuition
The Arizona Republic
February 14, 2004
If you send your child to a private school, a group of Arizona lawmakers wants to give you $3,200 of state money
each year to help you pay tuition.
One East Valley legislator said it could save the state money. His bill also immediately prohibits public school
districts from raising money by asking voters' permission to sell bonds, which help public schools pay for additional
classrooms.
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entire article
Parents' rights in questioning of kids to get official opinion
AG asked to rule whether parents must be present
when police interview kids at school
The Arizona Republic
February 4, 2004
Two Arizona lawmakers have asked the state Attorney General's Office to weigh in on whether a parent should
be notified, and present, when police talk to their kids at school.
Read the entire
article
Teens getting drugs from stores' shelves
Over-the-Counter is easy, legal
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 25, 2004
As parents, we don't want our children anywhere near drugs, but kids only have to open the bathroom medicine
cabinet to find drugs that could get them high.
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article
Governor pushes all-day kindergarten
Lobbies East Valley group
The Arizona Republic
January 23, 2004
MESA - Gov. Janet Napolitano lobbied about 300 influential East Valley residents Thursday for support of her
all-day kindergarten proposal.
It is a controversial new proposal in Napolitano's $7.2 billion budget.
Read the entire
article
The anticipated exodus of teenage girls from the strife-torn, polygamist communities of Colorado City and Hildale,
Utah, began in earnest this weekend as about 10 fanned out to towns in southern Utah seeking protection, anti-polygamy
activists said Sunday.
The movement followed a ruling by a Maricopa County juvenile court judge late Friday that two 16-year-old teens
from Colorado City, who had fled to the Valley last week, would be allowed to stay in foster homes rather than
remain in state custody.
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entire article
Governor bets on economy
$7.2 billion budget plan wagers long-term gains will erase debt
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 16, 2004
Gov. Janet Napolitano placed her bets on a healthy state economy Thursday, unveiling a budget plan that would
boost the university system, pay for all-day kindergartens and give state workers a pay raise.
But the state still has a revenue shortfall of more than $330 million for current services. And her $7.2 billion
plan to build a "New Arizona" would increase spending by 11.3 percent, or $800 million, over last year.
She would use about $500 million of debt to help pay for it, gambling that an improving economy will provide money
to pay it all back down the road.
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article
Child-care wait list forces hard choices
Some parents have to quit jobs
The Arizona Republic
January 14, 2004
Parents of nearly 8,000 children on a waiting list for help with child-care costs are making tough choices about
what to do with their kids while they're at work.
One in 11 families is leaving children home alone, according to a survey released today by Children's Action Alliance,
a Phoenix advocacy group. The survey focused on 403 parents on the waiting list for state child-care subsidies.
Other parents are putting 9- and 11-year-olds in charge of younger siblings, and some single mothers are leaving
babies with boyfriends.
Read the entire
story
A far-reaching proposal unveiled Monday by Gov. Janet Napolitano in her State of the State address focuses on
improving education for young children in Arizona.
The plan would:
- Give parents more information about the quality of Arizona child-care centers by establishing a star rating system
- Provide state subsidies for child care to thousands of parents whose children are on waiting lists
- Add full-day kindergarten, starting in the poorest neighborhoods and phasing into all school districts over five years.
Proposal
for schools to pick books from list faces opposition
Arizona Daily Sun
December 29, 2003
Some educators worry a proposal to force Arizona schools to pick textbooks from a state-designated list will
undermine their ability to decide what's best for students.
Under a proposal by Sen. Robert Blendu, school districts and charter schools would use textbooks approved by the
Arizona Board of Education.
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article
The state legislature passed a compromise CPS reform bill on December 13,
avoiding layoffs of case workers and mandating CPS investigations of all reports of possible child abuse and neglect.
To assuage concerns of financial mismanagement on the part of some legislators, workers from the Auditor General's
office will be placed within the Department of Economic Security. Read more key provisions of the bill here
House GOP won't fund CPS reforms
Speaker Flake refuses to schedule Republican caucus
Arizona Daily Sun
December 11, 2003
PHOENIX -- House Republican leaders refused Wednesday to accept Senate changes to legislation to reform Child
Protective Services, dimming prospects for any action at all this year.
Speaker Jake Flake said the Senate plan, approved Wednesday by a large margin, is unacceptable to the majority
of House Republicans. He said the problem is not only the Senate's decision to add more than $18 million to the
price tag but the refusal of senators to force open all court hearings involving custody.
Read the entire
article
Senate passes CPS Bill
The Arizona Republic
December 11, 2003
PHOENIX - The state Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan compromise to provide more money
and make numerous policy changes intended to help protect children from abuse and neglect.
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entire article
Governor, Senate leaders cut CPS deal
Fight expected in House
The Arizona Republic
December 10, 2003
After two days of intense negotiations with Gov. Janet Napolitano, the Senate struck a deal on Tuesday to revamp
Child Protective Services with an infusion of $21 million that will let the troubled agency hire caseworkers and
help increase pay to foster parents.
Read the entire
article
Local school districts in Arizona would lose the authority to choose their own textbooks under a plan promoted
by a state senator and endorsed by the state superintendent of public instruction.
The bill would give the state Board of Education the responsibility of selecting textbooks for children in kindergarten
through 12th grade. The ultimate goal: stricter regulation of what students learn so they will improve their scores
on standardized tests.
Read the entire article
House
OKs CPS bill, but few funds
Fight now moves to Senate
The Arizona Republic
December 5, 2003
The House narrowly passed a wide-ranging passel of reforms for Child Protective Services on Thursday, but with
a fraction of the $35 million Gov. Janet Napolitano requested to revamp the troubled agency and avoid layoffs.
The House bill faces a tough road in the Senate, where leaders are negotiating with Napolitano on a compromise
plan.
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entire article
CPS
reform still awaits action in Legislature
The Arizona Republic
November 30, 2003
Two bills to reform Child Protective Services await the return of lawmakers to the state Capitol on Monday,
though no one seems happy with either one.
Senate President Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, says Republican and Democratic leadership will sit down first thing to
negotiate something that could please a majority of lawmakers and get past the governor.
Read the entire
article
Medicating
kids a hot topic in Senate
Arizona Daily Sun
November 25, 2003
PHOENIX -- A fight over the rights of parents to medicate -- or not medicate -- their children is taking center
stage in the battle over revamping Child Protective Services.
Sen. Mark Anderson, R-Mesa, is pushing a provision to spell out in law it is not abuse or neglect for a parent
to refuse to put a child on a psychiatric medication. That would preclude CPS from taking the child from a home.
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article
Children's advocates concerned about reforms
Fear Legislature will 'destroy' CPS
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 20, 2003
Child advocates worry that lawmakers in special session to reform Child Protective Services won't give the financially
strapped agency enough money to pay for the changes.
"Don't give us new mandates without giving us the resources," said David Berns, director of the Department
of Economic Security, which oversees CPS. "Otherwise, we take a broken system and just destroy it."
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entire article
Funding
sparse in CPS bills
Legislators push fixes, not cash
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 20, 2003
Five weeks into a special legislative session in which little has been done to reform Child Protective Services,
lawmakers now are pushing two bills that would revamp the state agency.
The problem: There's little money to pay for the changes.
Read the entire
article
A group of political and business leaders unveiled a plan Tuesday that would significantly increase spending
for early-childhood care and education programs in the hope that Arizona can climb from the bottom of the education
heap.
It recommends that the state pay for parent-education programs, finance full-day kindergarten, offer financial
and educational incentives to child-care workers, and provide health checkups for Arizona's children.
Read the entire
article
The Arizona State Board of Education gave the nod Monday to a new elementary and middle school math and reading
test that combines the state AIMS test with the national Stanford 9.
The new test would not affect the high school AIMS test, which students must pass by 2006 to graduate.
Read the entire
article
Arizona's charter schools will be required to turn in a list of academic goals each year and details of how
they will achieve those goals.
It's a new requirement for Arizona's nearly 500 charter schools, passed unanimously Monday by the Arizona State
Board for Charter Schools.
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article
Arizona students are foundering in the bottom third of the nation in reading and mathematics at the same time
that students across the country are earning record high scores in math.
The Nation's Report Card on reading and math, released Thursday, tested a sampling of fourth- and eighth-graders
in every state. It offers an apples-to-apples comparison of academic performance, because students in each state
are tested on the same material.
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entire article
PHOENIX -- In 1998, the state launched a new program to respond to a gap that left thousands of reports a year
of child abuse or neglect unattended because of a shortage of state investigators.
Now, six years later, state officials say there's still a gap of sorts, two in fact, despite the creation of the
Family Builders program.
Read the entire
article
PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano took a seat on a rocking chair at Creighton School in front of an eager crowd
of 6-year-olds. She in her pearls, they in their uniforms, read together, This House Is Made of Mud, by Ken Buchanan.
When it was over, they applauded, and Napolitano told them to keep the book, it was theirs.
"You are the first first-graders to get this book," she told them.
For some, it might be the first book they've ever had. Teachers at Creighton School in east Phoenix estimate that
80 percent of the kindergartners don't have books at home.
Read the entire
artilcle
After decades of special interest groups pushing their own plans for education reform, groups as varied as their
causes are agreeing that the No. 1 cause for Arizona should be improving early childhood education.
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article
Arizona
school funding gap assailed
Study says wealthy kids get much more
Horne calls study "Irrelevant"
The Arizona Republic
October 30, 2003
National education researchers scolded Arizona for widening the funding gap between its rich and poor students
at a time when most states are closing the divide.
Read the
entire article
Some caseworkers say half the reports made to Child Protective Services are fake, usually filed by vindictive
spouses embroiled in child custody cases and grandparents unhappy about how the grandchildren are being raised.
On Tuesday, Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Chandler, filed a bill to make filing false reports a crime that, upon conviction,
would carry a penalty of up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
Read the
entire article
School
chief's idea for 1 test given cold shoulder
The Arizona Republic
October 28, 2003
The Arizona Board of Education gave a chilly response Monday to state schools chief Tom Horne's proposal to
create a new, shorter standardized math and reading test.
Read the entire
article
Arizona schools chief Tom Horne wants to create a new standardized test to measure how well students are learning,
saying his proposal would save the state up to $1 million and cut testing time in half.
Read the entire
article
Arizonans are all for Gov. Janet Napolitano's plan to spend $35.5 million to reform Child Protective Services,
according to a new statewide poll, but they are divided about paying $26.4 million for prisons.
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article
Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to spend more than $60 million to lock up criminals and protect children, a plan
praised by the public but criticized by the Republican-led Legislature for pushing the cash-strapped state deeper
into debt.
The disagreement takes center stage today when a special legislative session starts. Napolitano wants to revamp
Arizona's much-maligned Child Protective Services. Her $35.5 million plan would pay more money for caseworkers
and foster families and let the agency investigate every case that comes across its desk.
Read the entire article
A state lawmaker will ask the Legislature next week to spend $3.5 million annually to help hundreds of grandparents
struggling financially to care for grandchildren who would otherwise end up in foster homes.
Rep. Leah Landrum Taylor, D-Phoenix, will try to add the funding request to Gov. Janet Napolitano's sweeping legislation
aimed at reforming Child Protective Services. Under Landrum Taylor's proposal, grandparents would get $250 per
child per month. Hundreds could initially benefit.
"It's really not a lot of money," Landrum Taylor said. "We're talking about our most valued population,
our elderly and children."
Read the entrie
article
East
Valley tech school may face civil-rights complaint
The Arizona Republic
October 18, 2003
An East Valley technical school's decision to prohibit students from speaking Spanish in class has drawn the
ire of a Latino civil-rights group, which plans to file a federal complaint over the incident.
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entire article
An East Valley technical school is prohibiting students from speaking Spanish in class, a move a Phoenix attorney
said oversteps Arizona's English-immersion mandate while highlighting the challenges of implementing the controversial
law.
"This is a lawsuit waiting to happen," civil rights attorney Stephen Montoya said. "Forbidding a
student from speaking their native language, even in a classroom setting, violates the free-speech clause of the
First Amendment."
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article
Polygamist wives who gather the courage to run from beatings, apes and illegal "spiritual" unions
are beginning to use a time-tested tactic to fight back.
They're starting to sue. For millions.
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entire article
The Arizona State Board for Charter Schools on Tuesday approved a tough new system to monitor most of the state's
nearly 500 charter schools and made it harder to open a new one.
The changes come in wake of significant criticism.
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entire article
PEORIA - It's easy to see how Ron Clark keeps his students' attention.
Throughout the 75-minute talk, Clark recapped his teaching career - from rural North Carolina to Harlem - and explained
his theory of education in what seemed like a fast-forward presentation.
"As teachers, we have one shot, one year to change these kids' lives," he said recently while pacing
in front of Frontier Elementary's packed auditorium. "We don't know who's going to teach them next year."
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article
CPS
caseworkers stretched to physical, emotional limits
The Arizona Republic
October 12, 2003
Child Protective Services caseworker Germaine Abraham-LeVeen is sitting in an empty classroom, knee-to-knee
with a little boy who has something to tell her.
Read the
entire article
The Legislature's top two leaders told Gov. Janet Napolitano on Wednesday they want a strict accounting of the
Child Protective Services' budget before they will support her plan to spend $35.5 million on reforms and to avoid
laying off caseworkers.
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entire article
Napolitano
faces preschool battle
Money will be biggest hurdle
The Arizona Republic
October 8, 2003
RALEIGH, N.C. - Gov. Janet Napolitano and 12 Arizona business leaders and lawmakers this week toured North Carolina's
best child-care facilities and talked with legislators about how they managed to maintain a $200 million-a-year
program for children despite a big budget deficit.
Napolitano, who is impressed by the strides North Carolina has made in 10 years to turn around its early-education
program, wants to introduce some kind of initiative in Arizona for children up to age 5.
Read the entire
article
RALEIGH, N.C. - Gov. Janet Napolitano got some frank advice here Monday on how to fund an early-education program
for Arizona children: alk about it until politicians and business leaders beg her to stop.
Early education must be a long-term budget priority and it must be a top priority, former North Carolina Gov. James
B. Hunt told Napolitano and 12 Arizona business leaders, politicians, and educators during the first day of a fact-finding
mission.
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article
The owner of Discount Tire Co. and his wife say they will donate $1.15 million over five years to find out why
Arizona students are dropping out of high school at record numbers and how to reverse the trend.
Read the entire article
Gov. Janet Napolitano unveiled a bold plan Tuesday to remake Arizona's beleaguered Child Protective Services
into a model for the rest of the nation, but its $35.5 million price tag and some recommendations drew criticism
from legislators and other officials.
Read the entire
article
Reports of child abuse and neglect have jumped by about a third since school has been back in session.
As regular as meet-the-teacher night and back-to-school sales, investigators at Child Protective Services prepare
themselves every August for an onslaught of reports after summer vacation.
Abuse and neglect don't stop when school lets out, but there are no teachers, nurses and bus drivers around to
report them. State law mandates that school personnel report suspected mistreatment to CPS or police.
Read
the entire article
Napolitano
plans Oct. 20 special session
Focus on CPS reform
The Arizona Republic
September 25, 2003
Gov. Janet Napolitano plans to summon lawmakers for an Oct. 20 special session focused on overhauling the state's
much-criticized child-protection system.
Lawmakers also will be asked to take action on prison crowding and a tax-withholding issue, officials said Wednesday.
Read the entire
article
Even as they face resistance from parents, food companies are marketing more candy and other high-calorie products
to schools than ever before, a new national study says.
Companies spend billions of dollars influencing the food choices of children, which can be destructive to their
health and the quality of their education, says an Arizona State University report set for release Monday.
Read the entire article
Parents unprotected in Charter School process
The Arizona Republic
September 21, 2003
Parents shopping for a charter school assume a state-approved school has a sound budget, academic program and
business plan.
That's not always true in Arizona.
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entire article
Buckeye suspends
10 for steroid use
The Arizona Republic
September 19, 2003
Ten Buckeye High School varsity football players were suspended Wednesday for the remainder of the season for
using steroids, their coach said.
According to Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Director Harold Slemmer, this is the first time Arizona
high school athletes were suspended for use of the illegal muscle-building drugs.
Read the entire article
Students'
tobacco use drops, Napolitano says
The Arizona Republic
September 19, 2003
Arizona high school and middle school students are using less tobacco, Gov. Janet Napolitano announced Thursday.
A survey of about 3,600 high school and middle school students found a 37 percent drop in smoking for public high
school students, which Napolitano attributed to the state's anti-tobacco efforts.
Read the entire
article
CPS
reform: Hard choices
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 13, 2003
A Phoenix baby's death by crack cocaine two years ago has sparked one of the most controversial proposals state
lawmakers will face next session as they try to reform Child Protective Services.
At issue is whether a positive drug test on a newborn means the baby has been abused.
Read the entire
article
Arizona's 2003 AIMS results showed a discouraging trend in the education exam, where nearly two out of three
of last year's high school sophomores flunked the math test.
About 60 percent did pass reading and writing, but unless this season's sophomores pass all three sections of the
state exam by the time they're seniors, they won't graduate.
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article
More traditional public schools in Arizona are jumping into the latest education trend of cyberschooling, giving
students and parents more choices in public education.
Three school districts - Peoria, Tempe Union and Tucson - have won approval from the State Board of Education to
start educating high school students using the Internet. There are openings for two more district-run schools under
an Arizona pilot program to see how well cyberschools teach children. Peoria and Tucson plan to start enrolling
students in cybercourses right away, while Tempe Union officials will take this school year to plan for a virtual
high school that opens next year.
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article
AIMS
causing worry, dread
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 31, 2003
For Arizona's 50,000 high school sophomores, the first AIMS test scheduled for February seems distant and graduation
a lifetime away.
But members of the Class of 2006 will be judged in a historic way. They will be the state's first students who
must pass a high-stakes test before they can receive their diploma.
The requirement for every sophomore to pass the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards test by their senior year
is driving dramatic changes in the way high schools are operating. No principal wants to be the one to deny a tearful
student a high school diploma. And while students think their graduation day is a long time off, for principals
and teachers, it's just around the corner.
Read the entire
article
More
CPS stories you should know
E.J. Montini
Arizona Republic Columnist
Aug. 31, 2003
Last week, the bureaucrats at Arizona's Child Protective Services refused to discuss with me the cases of two
children who had been under their supervision for years. Neither case had made the newspaper before. One involved
an abused girl. The other a neglected boy. But you know the drill. You've read stories about the terrible situations
that have gone on under the nose of CPS. You've seen the agency hide behind things like "confidentiality."
This time, however, the stonewalling didn't work. Sources at CPS provided me with the names of the kids involved.
Each has been in the system for years. Each has lived through circumstances no kid should have experienced. Each
has had to deal with supervisors, caseworkers, foster-care professionals and more. But they're older now, living
on their own and free of any state-imposed gag orders. So I asked one of them, Regeanna Mwansa, 26, to describe
her long experience with CPS. "It was great," she said.
Read the entire
article
Panel
skeptical of school tax credits
Associated Press
Aug. 30, 2003
PHOENIX -- A commission studying the state's tax code is turning a critical eye toward numerous tax breaks,
including several used by thousands of Arizonans for savings on school donations and fees.
After months of initial discussions, public hearings and research, the Citizens Finance Review Commission has begun
considering specific policy proposals, starting with those related to income taxes on individuals and businesses.
Read the entire article
in the Arizona Daily Sun
Napolitano pledging quick reform of CPS
The Arizona Republic
Aug.29, 2003
Gov. Janet Napolitano criticized the state Legislature's handling of Child Protective Services and vowed to
make changes as early as this fall.
Read the entire article
Arizona
dropout rate next to last
The Arizona Republic
Aug.29, 2003
Arizona's dropout rate gained national attention again Thursday. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 15 percent
of Arizonans ages 16 through 19 were not in high school in 2000 and didn't have a high school diploma. That's one
state away from dead last. Nevada had 16 percent of its young people not graduating.
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entire article
Romley considers
convening grand jury for probe of CPS
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 27, 2003
Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley may call for a grand jury investigation of Child Protective Services, saying
too many children are being hurt, even dying, on the state's watch.
He said Tuesday that he is sickened by the case of Phoenix twin boys found in filthy cages Saturday and a 2-year-old
beaten to death in Mesa last week. All three children had prior contact with CPS.
Read the entire article
The nation's high school class of 2003 showed historic gains on SAT exams, and Arizona students outshone their
national counterparts on the verbal and math portions of the college entrance exam.
"This is great news for us," said Penny Kotterman, president of the Arizona Education Association, the
state's largest teachers union.
"It helps dispel the myth that our kids aren't learning what they need to know to be successful. It also speaks
volumes of our teachers' abilities when you consider we're ranked 49th in the country in terms of education funding."
Read the entire
article
State educators who want schools to offer more granola bars and grape juice and less chocolate and sodas ran
into trouble when they tried to sell the proposal to the State Board of Education on Monday.
The proposed voluntary guidelines, aimed at reducing the growing number of overweight kids, call for increasing
the amount of fruits, vegetables and low-fat foods students can find in the cafeteria and eliminating soda and
high-fat foods at sports events and in vending machines.
The Arizona School Board Association, representing hundreds of elected officials who run districts across the state,
sent its lobbyist to ensure the state board faced reality: In many districts, soda contracts mean big money, up
to $1 million a year.
Read the entire
article
Junk
food ban sought for schools
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 24, 2003
The state Board of Education may ask school districts to voluntarily ban unhealthful food in an effort to combat childhood obesity.
The board will discuss a proposal Monday that would prohibit schools from selling soda, gum and certain candies
at school and school-sponsored events.
Reat the entire
article
Jacque Steiner, advocate for children, dies
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 21, 2003
Jacque Steiner, who championed the causes of children in her role as a state legislator and president of the local Girl Scouts council, died Tuesday of brain cancer.
"I haven't known anyone in my lifetime with such an incredible commitment of improving the lives of abused
and vulnerable children," said Carol Kamin, executive director of the Children's Action Alliance in Phoenix.
Steiner had served as the organization's president for the past three years.
"Jacque cared about the kinds of kids that no one else cared about," Kamin said.
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entire article
Motel
kids
A small room is home on a mean city street
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 17, 2003
It's bad enough that adults live along this rough stretch of Van Buren Street in Phoenix where prostitutes pace
the sidewalks and drug dealers do quiet business. But children live here, too, their bikes thrown down in the dirt
yards of pay-by-the-week motels next to plastic play pools filled with hazy water.
The little kids shy from the women with red eyes who ask questions that don't make any sense and the men with handguns
tucked into their pants.
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article
Rules to ease for teacher fingerprinting
The Arizona Republic
Aug. 17, 2003
More than 300 certified teachers with criminal convictions are working in public schools in Arizona.
They are teachers who once were found guilty of offenses ranging from robbery and assault to driving while intoxicated
and drug use or sale.
And one of the few indicators of their criminal past, a special class of fingerprint cards, will be eradicated
Oct. 1 because of recent legislation. The card, called a Class 2, does not indicate the type of crime, only that
the bearer has a criminal past.
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entire article
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