This newsletter was sent October 18, 2016. If you’d like to receive our next bi-weekly digest full of a curated collection of resources, workshops, policy highlights, and action items that affect children and youth with special health care needs, please sign up here.

NEWS

Request For Applications: Training Of Trainers Workshop For CA Organizations Serving Children With Special Needs

Family Voices of California is extending an invitation to California organizations serving families of children with special needs to send one representative to a two-day Project Leadership Training-of-Trainers Workshop in San Francisco or Los Angeles in January 2017. Project Leadership is a parent advocacy training whose overall goal is to increase the number of family members of children with special health care needs who are prepared and supported to become advocates for health care policy and service improvements. Please see the attached application for details. Project Leadership is funded by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. To review the request for application, click here.

Anti-Bullying Series Features Kids With Disabilities For Bullying Prevention Month

As part of October’s National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month initiated by the PACER Center, StopBullying.gov is taking this week to focus on how bullying can impact children and youth with disabilities by featuring youth stories on their blog. For more information on other populations who will be highlighted during this campaign, click here.

Related: October 26 webinar from Second Step: “Mean” Behavior And Aggression In Early Childhood: The Origins Of Bullying. More information and registration here.

Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump Answer Four Key Questions About Children’s Health

Presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have submitted answers to four American Academy Of Pediatrics questions on children’s health as part of the AAP’s #VoteKids campaign. To read their answers, click here.

RESOURCES

The Kaiser Family Foundation’s 50-State Medicaid Budget Survey

The Kaiser Family Foundation released its 16th annual Medicaid budget survey which provides an in-depth examination of the changes taking place in Medicaid programs across the country. It focuses on trends in enrollment and spending growth, developments in eligibility and enrollment policies, how states are using managed care, reimbursement rates and prescription drug costs, and payment and delivery system reforms. For the full report, click here, and to watch the recording of a briefing discussing the survey’s key findings, click here.

State Of Sickle Cell Disease: 2016 Report

The recently-formed Sickle Cell Disease Coalition has released their 2016 report which encompasses four priority areas: access to care in the United States, training and professional education, research and clinical trials, and global issues related to sickle cell disease. To read the report, click here, and to review a list of priorities, click here.

Policy Data Brief: Access To Durable Medical Equipment

This brief from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation identifies the primary barriers to accessing needed durable medical equipment and how to ensure that people can obtain what they need. The brief indicates that lack of insurance is not the primary reason people are unable to access adaptive equipment as 87% of people who reported problems were insured. To read the brief, click here.

OPPORTUNITY FOR INPUT

Five ABLE Act Stakeholder Meetings Set For Alameda County, Survey Seeks Input

The ABLE Act allows people with disabilities (acquired before the age of 26) to save up to $100,000 instead of $2,000 while still receiving Social Security Income or other benefits. Prior to the launch of ABLE accounts in California, the CalAble Board needs community stakeholder input. For more information on meeting dates and locations, click here. If you can’t make it to a meeting or live elsewhere, please complete this survey.