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Following up on Children’s Behavioral Health (LB 603)

On October 30, 2012, The Children’s Behavioral Health Committee discussed the progress in the implementation of LB603.  LB603’s intention is to address the lack of support for families with children dealing with a behavioral health crisis.  Support systems have been created, however barriers and gaps continue to exist within the…...

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Cutting Our Future: Behavioral Health Services

  In 2008 during our state’s Safe Haven crisis, parents relinquished custody of 36 children to the state of Nebraska. Most of these children were struggling with behavioral health challenges that had left their families feeling helpless. The message was clear: Nebraska’s families and children weren’t getting the help they…...

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Child’s View “Summer” 2012

Our latest issue of Child’ View is available online (and should be arriving in mailboxes shortly). In this issue: KIDS COUNT National Data Book  Letter From the Executive Director 25 Years, 25 Milestones Spotlight Gala Celebrates 25th Anniversary  Issue Brief: Children’s Behavioral Health Voices Welcomes New Staff [issuu width=420 height=272 embedBackground=%23000000 backgroundColor=%23222222 documentId=121029153104-b5a5e6f9040b413bb2a314b71aa207d1 name=cv_summer_2012-web__1_…...

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Cutting Our Future: Prenatal Care for Low-Income Mothers

As you might remember, during the last legislative session, a bill was passed to restore prenatal care coverage under Medicaid for all low-income mothers regardless of immigration status or other issues of the mother.  A large and diverse coalition of groups came together to support the restoration of this care. …...

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Virtual Candidate Forum

In an effort to educate and motivate Nebraskans for the upcoming Unicameral election Voices for Children has put together a candidate forum so that the people of Nebraska can better know their candidates and where they stand on children’s issues in this state....

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Cutting Our Future: The Need for Juvenile Justice Reinvestment

Nebraska’s juvenile justice system may just be on the verge of a dramatic transformation. It’s not only the reform initiatives that are underway in certain parts of the state that signal change being around the corner. Buried on pages 419-429 of the recent Health and Human Services preliminary budget, is…...

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Early Education Supports Military Readiness

Last week, two retired generals from Nebraska called on policymakers to support high-quality early childhood education.  At first glance, it seems an odd topic for generals to be speaking out on, but it’s part of a growing recognition about the wide-ranging importance of early childhood education.  Lately, it seems everyone from…...

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Cutting Our Future: How Budget Cuts Affect Nebraska’s kids

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” We all know that preventing something bad from happening is better than fixing a problem after it starts.  Time and time again, best practices and research show that intervening early in the lives of vulnerable children can prevent problems from…...

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The Real Issues on Sesame Street

If you’ve been following the presidential election lately, it’s hard to miss the talk lately about subsidies for public television and the popular children’s television show, Sesame Street. What’s missing from this conversation (and in many campaigns so far), is how we really are failing Sesame Street by failing its viewers — kids....

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A better response to child maltreatment in Nebraska

The first goal of any child welfare system is simple—protecting children from abuse and neglect. But how states respond to reports of child maltreatment is changing significantly. Fewer states are relying solely on traditional investigations of abuse and neglect, and are instead opting for a variety of approaches that allow…...

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