Student Well-Being

News in Brief: A Washington Roundup

September 22, 1999 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Clinton Announces $100 Million In Grants Against Youth Violence

President Clinton has announced the awarding of more than $100 million in grants to 54 communities nationwide for projects aimed at reducing youth violence.

“We need nothing less than a national campaign that draws on all our resources and demands all our commitment,” Mr. Clinton said in discussing youth violence and the grant initiative during his Sept. 11 radio address.

The school-based community-partnership program known as the Safe Schools/Healthy School Initiative is part of a joint effort by the departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services.

It aims to help communities work with school districts to design and implement comprehensive educational, mental-health, social-service, law-enforcement, and juvenile-justice services for young people.

Grantees plan to use the $106 million in funding in a variety of ways, including hiring school resource officers and expanding after-school and mentoring programs.

Two communities that were the scenes of fatal school shootings in 1998--Jonesboro, Ark., and Springfield, Ore.--received grants this year.

This year’s grants, announced in Mr. Clinton’s Sept. 11 radio address, will underwrite the first year of three-year projects.

--Adrienne D. Coles


Effort Targets Student-Loan Defaulters

The departments of Education and the Treasury have launched a $970,000 media campaign to encourage graduates who default on their college loans to pay up.

The campaign, announced this month, will pilot television and radio spots targeting graduates in Austin, Texas, and Baltimore, two cities that have some of the largest concentrations of students with federal loans.

Currently, 14 percent of government-backed student loans, worth some $24 billion, are in default across the nation, the Education Department reports.

“Paying back your student loan helps keep your credit rating in good standing,” Milton G. Wright, the president and chief executive officer of the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corp., said in a statement.

“The best way to avoid defaulting and to maintain good credit is to seek help as early as possible if you have difficulty maintaining your student-loan-repayment program,” Mr. Wright said.

--Julie Blair


HHS Approves Last State CHIP Plans

All 50 states, and six U.S. territories, are now participating in the Children’s Health Insurance Program--the federal initiative to provide health coverage for uninsured children.

Washington and Wyoming, the two final states to have their CHIP plans approved by the Department of Health and Human Services, came into the program this month.

Signed into law in 1997, the five-year, $24 billion program was designed to expand health insurance to children whose families earn too much for the traditional Medicaid program but don’t make enough money to afford private health insurance.

Officials estimate that a year from now, states will be providing health insurance to 2.6 million more children. About 1.3 million children are now covered through the program.

Under CHIP, states were given three options: expand current Medicaid programs, design a new health-insurance program for children, or set up a combination of both.

--Linda Jacobson

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Student Well-Being Opinion 4 Steps Students Can Take to Help Make Tough Decisions
When students feel stuck, they can harness the power of the nonconscious mind to help them move forward.
Kennon Sheldon
2 min read
Images shows a stylized artistic landscape with soothing colors.
Getty
Student Well-Being From Our Research Center Students Think Social Media Is Fine, But Teachers See a Mental Health Minefield
It's important for adults to recognize and understand teens’ perspectives in order to teach healthy social media habits.
8 min read
Custom illustration showing a young female student floating above a cell phone while in a protective bubble that looks like a split happy and sad emoji. Digital and techie textures applied to the background.
Taylor Callery for Education Week
Student Well-Being Q&A 'It Terrifies Me': Clinical Psychologist on Tech Overuse in the Age of AI
Lisa Strohman has dedicated her career to connecting the dots between tech overuse/misuse and mental health problems.
4 min read
Custom illustration showing a young female student wearing a book bag and standing inside a protective bubble that looks like a split happy and sad emoji.
Taylor Callery for Education Week
Student Well-Being From Our Research Center Social Media Is Hurting Social-Emotional Skills. How 4 School Districts Are Fighting Back
A majority of educators believe social media negatively impacts students’ social-emotional skills, an EdWeek Research Center survey found.
7 min read
As part of a SEL lesson, 6th grade students at Swope Middle School in Reno, Nev., practice online safety measures.
As part of a social-emotional-learning lesson, 6th graders practice online safety measures at Swope Middle School in Reno, Nev., on March 19, 2024.
Emily Najera for Education Week