Many wealthy towns choose to opt out of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) — and its strict standards and requirements — altogether.
Julia Werth
Posted inJustice
Getting the dad involved, a new focus for DCF
Da’ee McKnight was in prison for his daughter’s entire childhood. Now he’s working to connect other dads with their kids.
Posted inHealth
Starting the conversation, parenting through the opioid crisis
Ginger Katz founded The Courage to Speak Foundation in 1996, shortly after her son died of a drug overdose. With support from the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services’ $22 million State Opioid Response Grant (SOR), Katz will be delivering her message, “Parenting Through the Opioid Crisis and Beyond,” at numerous events scheduled throughout the coming year.
Posted inJustice
The difference a visit can make, the effect of parental incarceration on children
Suzi Jensen When Suzi Jensen went to see her mom in prison at the age of 12 she was only allowed to hug her twice, once at the beginning of the visit and once at the end. “They just had tables and you had to sit across the table from her,” said Jensen, now in […]
Posted inNews
Community Conversations: Revitalizing Cities
At Community Conversations in Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven and Waterbury earlier this month, a wide swath of residents discussed their ideas for revitalizing Connecticut’s cities, and the benefits that would bring to surrounding towns.
Posted inHealth
School-based health centers take leading role in fighting teen suicide
Although the number of youth in Connecticut who have committed suicide has fluctuated in recent years, mental health professionals who work with teenagers say that depression and anxiety – the typical reasons for suicide – are definitely on the rise.
Posted inNews
Number of juveniles in detention for minor offenses has dropped since 2015
The number of youth incarcerated in the state’s juvenile detention centers for minor offenses dropped significantly between 2015 and 2017, pulling Connecticut from its number two ranking in a national study tracking juvenile confinement.
Posted inEducation
Still no state child care rating system, parents left guessing
Children enrolled at Rhonda Strycharz’s home day care program. When Rhonda Strycharz first opened a day care 18 years ago in her New Hartford home, only a few states had a rating system to help parents choose a child care provider. Connecticut was not among them. By last year, 41 states had a county or state-wide Quality […]
Posted inHealth
Can we do better? The state’s ongoing search for ways to treat drug addiction
After serving a three-year prison sentence and completing three years of probation, Bridgeport resident William Kelly found himself back in lock up in 2016 on another round of drug charges. But this time, things were different. Instead of more jail time, Kelly was offered a spot in a state-sponsored treatment program and began his path to recovery within a day of being arrested.
Posted inJustice
Adjudicated juveniles will stay in pre-trial detention centers for foreseeable future
Despite plans to provide them with alternative and more suitable housing, juvenile offenders who require secure facilities will continue to reside in the two state pre-trial detention centers for the indefinite future.
Posted inHealth
Advisory council stunned to learn about parallel health information exchange efforts
Members of the council charged with creating a health information exchange for Connecticut seemed stunned Thursday as they realized the state Department of Social Services is continuing to create its own products for exchanging this information.
Posted inHealth
Bringing legitimacy to a workforce: the road to certification for community health workers
Despite their value to the health care system and the underserved communities they reach, however, there is still no sustainable funding for the majority of community health workers because their services are not covered by insurance. That’s where the move for certification comes in.
Posted inNews
Judicial eliminates Supreme Court police, including position held by union president
The judicial branch has eliminated the four-person Supreme Court police force, prompting accusations of retaliation from the union over its ongoing complaints about employee safety at the state’s two juvenile detention centers.
Posted inNews
After CJTS closure, juvenile detention officer injuries increase
Employees at the state’s two juvenile detention centers are being injured and going out on workers’ compensation at significantly higher rates than usual, leading to increased risks for the remaining staff and the children held in the facilities, union officials say. Those able-bodied staff remaining are left to work mandated overtime shifts multiple times a week, resulting in exhaustion and potentially unsafe conditions for the juveniles housed in Bridgeport and Hartford.
Posted inHealth
A decade of delays, $23 million spent, as state makes fourth try for health information exchange
The idea of a single health information exchange across the state of Connecticut seems simple: Gather all health information in one place and make it available to every practitioner involved with a single patient to provide the best care possible. Unfortunately, in Connecticut this process has been anything but simple. Instead, it has been enormously expensive and time-consuming — costing the state $23 million and 11 years of work which, to this date, have yet to produce an exchange.