Latest Coverage

"The Kansas Senior Farmers' Market Nutrition Program is providing low-income seniors with a $30 check that can be used during the 2012 harvest season to purchase fresh, unprepared, locally grown fruits, vegetables, herbs and honey at local farmers markets, according to a news release."

"In its latest publication, Lazy Days of Summer: A National Security Threat?' the group calls for expanded summer programs as well as at-home reading initiatives and greater parent involvement in their children's literacy and wellness. It cites a long-term study by a Johns Hopkins University researcher who found that, by the ninth grade, two-thirds of the test score disparities between low-income children and their middle-income peers could be traced back to the summer months."

"The Urban College of Boston, a two-year school that educates working women from low-income and immigrant backgrounds, is on the verge of closing amid deep financial troubles and a scuttled alliance with Endicott College."

"The California Community Foundation is to announce Friday that it has received $1.5 million from the Ford Foundation to give children in impoverished communities the same enriched learning activities typically enjoyed outside school hours by their wealthier peers. The California foundation also contributed $200,000 to the efforts."

"Herald-Leader reporter Linda Blackford on Sunday provided some insight into why the graduation rate of low-income students fell from 46 percent to 35 percent: The legislature routinely raids lottery funds intended for need-based financial aid to balance the state budget."

"Most of the schools' homeless students are defined as unaccompanied youth,' temporarily living with another family or adult who is not their legal guardian, or alone without an adult. Some are unsheltered youth,' without a stable place to sleep every night. The Orleans Parish School Board provides services for homeless students: free lunches, school supplies and uniforms, referrals for housing, jobs and medical attention."

"HOPES CAP in Hoboken received $20,000 for its HOPES on the Road program, which introduces residents of low-income neighborhoods to services that include one-on-one counseling, weekly health education events, lunch-and-learn workshops, translation services, and transportation to health care facilities."

"Watts learned about BELL when then-Superintendent Peter Gorman tapped her to lead Spaugh Middle, a high-poverty school where test scores were among the district's weakest. After researching what could help her kids, she used federal money to bring BELL to Charlotte in 2009, with a six-week summer program for 60 rising sixth-graders. It was the first BELL program in North Carolina."

"The smoke detectors and alarms are installed at no cost to city residents. The primary recipients are to be senior citizens, low-income households, physically impaired and household with children 14 years of age and younger."

"For many Elmont families, the abrupt cancellation of youth programs has meant more than a disruption of child-care schedules. It's also meant a loss of academic and cultural opportunities in one of Long Island's most diverse communities. Elmont's population of 30,000 has more than 50 ethnicities and includes many recent arrivals from the Caribbean, Central America and South Asia. Half of the community's school-age children live near or below the poverty line."

"The pattern is all too obvious and entirely too familiar: The schools with the lowest scores are all Title I schools -- that is, those with the most students living in poverty. The schools with the highest scores -- and four topped the state average in every subject in every grade -- are all non-Title I schools. The correlation between poverty and educational struggle is familiar everywhere. But it seems to be worse, and getting worse, here."

"Consider this: One in five U.S. children lives in poverty, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, meaning about 16 million kids could show up for school unprepared. And the National Retail Foundation says the average U.S. family spends between $80 and $90 on school supplies to ensure kids are ready for class."