Each Child. Every Community.

Each week during the month of October, First Focus will release a selection of papers from our new series entitled, Big Ideas: Game-Changers for Children.

The papers released this week propose ideas for Government Accountability, and include:

Change in Sight: Child Well-Being as a Policy Development Framework
In this essay, Michael Schmidt and Julie Coffey of the Shelby County Office of Early Childhood and Youth detail the strategy to combat child welfare issues by creating the Shelby County Child Impact Statement Reporting System, a web-based software application that evaluates the effectiveness of policy decisions on behalf of children.

Commission on Children
Elaine Zimmermanthe executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Children, discusses the transformation of policy and programming within the state since the Commission’s inception, as well as provides recommendations for its replication at a national scale.

Good Policy Requires Good Data: Assessing Child Well-Being in Every State
This report, by Michael Laracy, Kristin Anderson Moore, David Murphey and Deborah Stein, details the steps taken in national data collection and analysis through the National Survey of Children’s Health, and how and why it should be expanded.

A U.S. National Ombudsman for Children
Howard Davidsonthe director of the American Bar Association Center on Children and Law, proposes the creation of a U.S. National Ombudsman for Children to protect the rights of our children. Davidson discusses both the legal parameters (ABA standards), as well as UNICEF’s suggested practices and actions of a protective human rights agency for children.

A Champion for Children and Young People: The Work and Impact of the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland
In this essay, Tam Baillie Scotland’s current Commissioner for Children and Young People, uses Scotland as an example to display the effective formation of a national institution to protect the rights of children and youth.