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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

State faulted on child issues

Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer

BOISE – Idaho’s Legislature has fallen short in recent years in addressing early childhood issues, according to a new report from Idaho KidsCount.

The group, which compiles information on the well-being of children, studied all legislation introduced in Idaho regarding early childhood from 2001 to 2004 as well as existing laws and regulations, and concluded that Idaho needs to do more and suffers by comparison to two neighboring states.

“When compared to Oregon and Utah, young children in Idaho appear to come up on the short end of the stick,” said Sue Reents, a public health consultant and former state senator who wrote the report.

In particular, fewer Idaho youngsters are enrolled in preschool, day care standards are more lax and fewer children have health insurance, she noted. Yet, she said, the Idaho Legislature’s record in the past four years shows scant attention to most early childhood issues.

KidsCount is a national, foundation-funded effort to track indicators that show the well-being of children in each state and provide that information to the public and policy-makers.

From 2001 to 2004, 33 bills or resolutions regarding early childhood were introduced in Idaho, but just 42 percent passed. The KidsCount report found that when the bills were divided into three categories, those regarding child welfare were most likely to pass, with nine of 10 passing. But of 13 proposals on child health and safety, just four, or 31 percent, passed. And of 10 on early learning and development, only one passed, a 2001 measure to set statewide goals for reading assessments in grades K-3.

Overall, 50 percent of the non-appropriation bills introduced in the Legislature during those years passed into law.

The report found most early childhood proposals in Idaho originated in the Senate – though 61 percent of legislative proposals overall originated in the House. Reents said that suggests Idaho needs a child advocacy group – like successful ones in Utah and Oregon – to help educate legislators, with particular focus on the House.

Senate Health and Welfare Chairman Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, said the results didn’t surprise him, particularly after his experience this year, his first as the committee chairman.

“We had a bill that we passed out of the Senate … aimed at Medicaid mothers and babies, and it was to enhance the prenatal care, and also to provide advice and counsel to mothers about pregnancy. … Oregon says they saved $20 million a year with this bill,” Compton said.

But after passing the Senate, “It never even got out of committee on the House side,” he said. “Then the same people come back and say we’re spending too much on Medicaid.”

This year’s legislative session – which wasn’t included in the new KidsCount report – saw the introduction of day-care licensing legislation that would have imposed minimal safety and child-staff ratio standards, but it, too, died in the House Health and Welfare Committee. That measure was sponsored by Coeur d’Alene Rep. George Sayler and was backed by a wide array of child-care providers and others from North Idaho.

Compton noted that many Idahoans, and Idaho legislators, dislike regulation in general. “We oftentimes don’t give things a fair hearing because in principle we just don’t like regulation,” he said.

Reents found in her report that Idaho fared better than Oregon and Utah in two areas: possible child abuse cases that are reported, and the percentage of female-headed families that receive child support or alimony.

Her report also faulted Idaho for its vehicle child-safety restraint laws, which until this year covered only children up to 4 years or 40 pounds. However, this year’s Legislature expanded the requirement for child-safety seats to all children up to 6 years old.

Compton said the solution to getting lawmakers to look seriously at early childhood issues may simply be “an enlightened Legislature.” He said the idea of a child-advocacy group to educate legislators sounds good on the surface, but he’d like to know more.

“I’d like to see how they function in those other states and what results they were able to generate,” he said. “I would like to know more about it, and I think we ought to take a good look at it.”