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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Dual Approach Recommended for Family Stability in Idaho

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Wednesday, November 12, 2014   

BOISE, Idaho - It takes a family approach to lift kids out of poverty. That's the premise of a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation that recommends coordination between programs - public, nonprofit and private - that focus on high-quality early childhood education, as well as job quality, training and education for parents.

LeAnn Simmons, executive director with Idaho Voices for Children, says programs tend to be fragmented, focusing on just children or just their parents.

"Children don't come in a vacuum, they come in a family," Simmons says. "It's important we strengthen families; that families have the ability to earn a living."

Simmons says keep in mind a child's success in life is strongly tied to family stability. Idaho has the fourth-highest percentage of families with young children who are low-income, at 53 percent. The state's poverty rate for families where resident parents are working is the second-highest in the country; Simmons attributes that to the state's low wages.

She says high-quality, affordable child care is often the biggest stumbling block to a family's ability to move up the career ladder.

"That's offering the opportunity for that family to work," says Simmons. "But the child should also be able to be in high-quality child care; being able to meet both needs at the same time."

Recommendations in the report take a two-generation approach to address the three major challenges facing low-income working families: inflexible and unpredictable low-wage jobs, high stress levels for parents and children, and a lack of access to affordable, high-quality child care.


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