ACNJ Enews

Avoiding the School-to-Prison Pipeline
More than 350 members of the law enforcement, mental health professionals, education and court communities convened last month to identify ways to work together to prevent school discipline issues from landing youth in court and in the juvenile justice system.

Research shows that calling in law enforcement to deal with a student’s behavioral problems is an ineffective way to address these issues and could lead to harmful, long-term consequences.

The event was sponsored by the New Jersey Governor’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee, the New Jersey Council for Juvenile Justice System Improvement and Advocates for Children of New Jersey, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission and the New Jersey Alliance of Family Support Organization.

Read the news release.

View forum presentations.

Preschool Becomes a Priority
A bi-partisan group of state legislative leaders are making preschool a cornerstone of a plan to invest in New Jersey’s future. This is good news for tens of thousands of New Jersey’s young students, who have waited far too long for quality preschool to come to their town.

As support finally builds to fund this important early education, it is critical that we all speak up for our youngest students. The Pre-K Our Way Campaign, which ACNJ helps lead, is telling elected officials that it’s time to make good on the promise of preschool.

Show your support for the preschool campaign today.

Legislation Introduced to Combat Chronic Absenteeism
In September, ACNJ released Showing Up Matters, the State of Chronic Absenteeism in New Jersey. As a result of the report, the New Jersey Senate recently introduced a bi-partisan bill that would mandate changes to address chronic school absenteeism and improve student attendance across New Jersey.

The bill requires the New Jersey Department of Education to define chronic absenteeism as 10 percent or more of the days a child is enrolled in a particular school and to collect and publish district data. Under the measure, schools with 10 percent or more of its students deemed chronically absent would have to develop a plan to improve student attendance.

Stay tuned. More details to come.

NJ Achieves 75 Percent Jump in School Breakfast
A growing number of New Jersey schools are serving breakfast during the first few minutes of the day and, as a result, have achieved a 75 percent increase in the number of low-income students eating this all-important morning meal, according to the 5th Annual NJ School Breakfast Report, released in October by Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) and the NJ Food for Thought Campaign.

The number of New Jersey students eligible for free- or reduced-price school meals who ate a healthy breakfast at school rose from about 136,000 children in 2010 to 237,000 in 2015. That translates to roughly 100,000 more low-income children eating breakfast at school each day, the report said. Still, nearly 300,000 kids are still going without this all-important morning meal.

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November 2015	About Us \| Contact Us \| Donate
Avoiding the School-to-Prison Pipeline More than 350 members of the law enforcement, mental health professionals, education and court communities convened last month to identify ways to work together to prevent school discipline issues from landing youth in court and in the juvenile justice system. Research shows that calling in law enforcement to deal with a student’s behavioral problems is an ineffective way to address these issues and could lead to harmful, long-term consequences. The event was sponsored by the New Jersey Governor’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Committee, the New Jersey Council for Juvenile Justice System Improvement and Advocates for Children of New Jersey, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission and the New Jersey Alliance of Family Support Organization. Read the news release. View forum presentations. Preschool Becomes a Priority A bi-partisan group of state legislative leaders are making preschool a cornerstone of a plan to invest in New Jersey’s future. This is good news for tens of thousands of New Jersey’s young students, who have waited far too long for quality preschool to come to their town. As support finally builds to fund this important early education, it is critical that we all speak up for our youngest students. The Pre-K Our Way Campaign, which ACNJ helps lead, is telling elected officials that it’s time to make good on the promise of preschool. Show your support for the preschool campaign today. Legislation Introduced to Combat Chronic Absenteeism In September, ACNJ released Showing Up Matters, the State of Chronic Absenteeism in New Jersey. As a result of the report, the New Jersey Senate recently introduced a bi-partisan bill that would mandate changes to address chronic school absenteeism and improve student attendance across New Jersey. The bill requires the New Jersey Department of Education to define chronic absenteeism as 10 percent or more of the days a child is enrolled in a particular school and to collect and publish district data. Under the measure, schools with 10 percent or more of its students deemed chronically absent would have to develop a plan to improve student attendance. Stay tuned. More details to come. NJ Achieves 75 Percent Jump in School Breakfast A growing number of New Jersey schools are serving breakfast during the first few minutes of the day and, as a result, have achieved a 75 percent increase in the number of low-income students eating this all-important morning meal, according to the 5th Annual NJ School Breakfast Report, released in October by Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) and the NJ Food for Thought Campaign. The number of New Jersey students eligible for free- or reduced-price school meals who ate a healthy breakfast at school rose from about 136,000 children in 2010 to 237,000 in 2015. That translates to roughly 100,000 more low-income children eating breakfast at school each day, the report said. Still, nearly 300,000 kids are still going without this all-important morning meal. Find out how your district is doing! Click here to unsubscribe