Arizona Accord aims to guide immigration dialogue

by Alia Beard Rau – Jan. 24, 2012 11:11 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com

Arizona is following in Utah’s footsteps as business and civic leaders push for public support of five principles they hope will guide Arizona’s immigration discussion in a new direction.

But Republican lawmakers say they’re not interested in that direction.

Called the Arizona Accord, the five principles mimic the Utah Compact created by business leaders in 2010.

The principles support developing federal solutions, focusing local law-enforcement resources on criminal activities as opposed to civil violations of federal law, keeping families together and improving the health and well-being of all Arizona children, acknowledging the economic role immigrants play as workers and taxpayers, and treating immigrants with humanity and inclusion.

“This is a broad set of guiding principles designed to frame the discussion both at the state and the federal level,” said Scott Higginson, who helped organize the Arizona Accord effort.

“It is our belief and hope that with the Arizona Accord in place, the dialogue can change and we might be able to find holistic solutions.”

Like in Utah, the Arizona Accord is being pushed by local business and civic leaders.

The goal is not to get the Legislature to pass it as a bill but to have the public sign the accord to show the Legislature what voters want.

In Utah, the compact’s influence resulted in the Legislature last year passing a state guest-worker program.

James Garcia, co-founder of the Real Arizona Coalition formed after Arizona passed Senate Bill 1070, said the principles reflect his organization’s desire for more comprehensive immigration reform.

“Immigrants are contributors to our society and not a detriment to society,” Garcia said.

Kevin Rogers, president of the Arizona Farm Bureau, said his group has worked on these issues for 15 years.

He said that the federal government must secure the border but that Arizona farmers also need immigration programs that allow for temporary workers, seasonal workers and long-term workers “for our economy to continue its recovery.”

On Tuesday, leaders ceremonially signed the accord and encouraged Arizonans to go to www.azaccord.com and sign it, as well.

Other supporters of the accord so far include the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, the Arizona Interfaith Network, Tolleson, the Mesa Human Relations Advisory Board, the Phoenix Human Relations Commission,Chicanos Por La Causa, East Valley Patriots, Sundt Construction and McCarthy Construction.

Higginson said the accord is intended to be political but nonpartisan.

He said his group has no plans to ask the Legislature to formally support the accord, but he hopes it will pay attention to public support for the accord and use it as a guide when considering immigration legislation.

Sen. Jerry Lewis, R-Mesa, who beat out SB 1070 author Russell Pearce in a November recall election, signed the accord.

But other lawmakers said they have no intention of paying the accord any notice.

The principles fly in the face of the enforcement-focused illegal-immigration legislation that Arizona lawmakers have passed in recent years, including SB 1070.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, said he isn’t familiar with the Arizona Accord but said the Utah Compact is deliberately vague and bad policy.

He said principles that support “being nice to everybody” just invite efforts to open the borders instead of secure them.

He said that he likely wouldn’t give the accord much thought and that he didn’t think the rest of the Republican caucus would, either.

“I think the majority of the caucus thinks, ‘What the heck? Get this out of here,’” he said.

Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, the author of many of the recent immigration enforcement bills, said that’s exactly how he feels.

“I don’t listen to business owners,” he said.

“I listen to what the people in the state have said. People want us to crack down on illegal immigration.”

Arizona Rep. Catherine Miranda, D-Phoenix, earlier this month proposed House Concurrent Resolution 2015 to support the five principles. House Speaker Andy Tobin, R-Prescott Valley, has not assigned the bill to a committee for hearing

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/01/23/20120123arizona-accord-aims-guide-immigration-dialoague.html#ixzz1kVOscJ25

Rising Number of Grandparents Raising Children: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Rising Number of Grandparents Raising Children: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Rising Number of Grandparents Raising Children

Updated: Monday, 16 Jan 2012, 9:28 AM MST
Published : Monday, 16 Jan 2012, 9:21 AM MST

Alexis Vance

By ALEXIS VANCE
FOX 10 News

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – “I think she’s a gift to us which we didn’t realize at the time.”

Kay Vergnetti and her husband Angelo raised their four children — it was time to travel, see Europe and go on cruises, but that all came to a screeching halt.

“She remembers everything that happened that night at the altercation..every single thing,” said Kay.

Child Protective Services removed their granddaughter Courtney from her mother and father after a violent fight. She was only 2½ years old. Kay and Angelo stepped in to raise her and at first, it was a challenge.

“Tiresome, tiresome, I mean you wish you could take a nap at 4:00 and you couldn’t and it’s a 24 hour thing..you’re always on guard,” said Kay.

Then came all of the legal issues, getting a passport, health insurance and trying to enroll Courtney into a school.

“What we’re seeing more and more often is that school districts won’t take power of attorney, you need to be a guardian, so that’s when people turn over to guardianship, giving them the power of the parent,” said Adam Roberts of the Tarascio and Del Vecchio law firm.

Working with the courts and parents who don’t want to give up their rights can take a long time, but finally in 2007, the adoption was official and being a parent the second time around has its benefits.

“You’ve been through it all, you know what works, what doesn’t work and she’s got the benefit of all that..maybe that’s the way we should go..maybe all grandparents should raise children,” said Kay.

Here in Arizona, the latest census shows 70,000 children are being raised by their grandparents and there’s really no one reason for it.

“Economic factors, behavioral health of the parent, maybe child abuse, maybe substance abuse, there could be a lot of factors,” said Deidra Calcoate of the Department of Economic Security.

Courtney has blossomed into a beautiful young girl, a student at Horizon High School — and her grandparents wouldn’t change a thing.

“We stay in the loop..we know what’s going on, we don’t look from outside in, we get along with all of her friends, parents..we have a multitude from all walks of life and all ages that we consider our friends,” said Kay.

Why mediate family law issues?

1. Cost. This is a given and the one that most people think about. Litigation is extremely expensive and the average divorce costs $20,000 per person. That’s $40,000 that is no longer available to a family already strapped financially by slipping assets and adding an additional household to pay for. The average cost to mediate a divorce is $2500. The initial payouts are just part of the equation though. Many couples continue to return to court after a divorce to settle issues like enforcement and modifications, which brings me to my next point.

2. Relationship. If you have children, there is no such thing as a clean break. You and your partner will continue to be co-parents, and therefore, you will need some sort of relationship. Litigation pits two sides against one another in an adversarial relationship. Judges decide who wins and who loses. In families, everyone loses; each parent and your children will suffer the ramifications of litigation. In litigation, it is an attorney’s job to present you in the best possible light and also place the opposing party in the worst possible light. The result, as you can imagine, is that a family that is splitting up becomes even more broken.

3. Constraints. In a traditional family, you make up your own rules. You are not bound to parent or co-habitate in accordance with statutes or a judges ruling. Why, then, should co-parents who don’t live together be constrained to work within the statutory framework? In mediation, you can come up with any agreement that works for your family. Each family is unique and so should their agreement moving forward.

4. Confidentiality. A court case is open to the public and a record of all of the proceedings is then available. Many families would prefer not to have all of their personal and financial information readily available to the public. In mediation, all statements within the mediation remain confidential and cannot be used in court, in the event litigation takes place afterwards.

After spending five days in a 40 hour mediation training by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, I can truly tell you that my perspective on family law has shifted. The biggest factor for me is that families splitting up are restructuring, not ending. What better way to restructure then through beginning to communicate and make decisions one your own, with the help of a trained mediator?

The Obama administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to take up an appeal from a school district ordered to provide compensatory tutoring because it failed to identify a student’s disability.

The justices had asked the U.S. solicitor general’s office for its views last April on a question under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: whether a parent may bring a claim in a due-process hearing that a district violated the law’s “child-find” provision.

That provision requires that all children with disabilities who are in need of special education services be identified, located, and evaluated.

The case involves an appeal from the Compton Unified School District, in California. The district appealed lower court rulings that a mother had a valid legal claim under the IDEA that the district had failed to identify her daughter’s disabilities.

According to court papers, when the student was in 10th grade, her teachers became concerned that her work was “gibberish and incomprehensible” and that she had failed every class. The school district referred the girl to a mental health counselor, who recommended that the student be evaluated for learning disabilities. The district did not follow the recommendation, and it promoted the girl to the 11th grade.

The mother later made a request for an individualized education program for her daughter, and the district determined that the girl was eligible for special education services for a learning disability.

The mother brought an administrative claim under the IDEA, arguing that the school district failed under the law’s “child-find” requirement to identify the girl’s disabilities sooner. An administrative law judge largely sided with the family, ordering as much as 150 hours of compensatory tutoring for the girl’s lost educational opportunities.

The school district appealed in Compton Unified School District v. Addison (Case No. 10-886).

The justices sought the views of the United States, and in a brief filed Nov. 18, U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. said the court should not take up the school district’s appeal for several reasons.

First, Verrilli said an administrative-law judge conducting a due-process hearing under the federal special education law has the authority to consider claims that a district violated the “child find” requirement.

Verrilli said the Compton district is mistaken to argue that the provision covers only a school district’s refusal to act to identify eligible children, not its failure to act.

Second, the solicitor general said a 2010 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, does not conflict with other federal appeals courts on the issue.

Finally, Verrilli said the Compton case would make a poor vehicle for deciding the issue. The case does not really present the issue that districts would be subject to a form of “educational malpractice” claim, as Compton contends.

“Whether or not parents are permitted to initiate due process procedures for violation of the child-find requirements, school districts already are subject to claims that their educational decisions fail to comply with the IDEA,” the solicitor general said.

Now that the solicitor general has chimed in, the justices have put the case on the agenda for their Jan. 6 private conference for possible action.

Department of Education Announces first ever Office for Early Learning

Dept of education
Last week at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Conference, Senior Advisor on Early Learning Jacqueline Jones announced the Department of Education’s plan to create the first ever Office for Early Learning. The object of this new office will be to correct the isolation in which federal early learning programs and funds have functioned and provide the strong coordinated collaboration necessary to dramatically improve early learning services.

The Office will provide institutionalized and coordinated federal support for high-quality early learning and enhance management and support for the early learning community and early learning education systems throughout the country. The Department of Education has been working tirelessly to recruit the best practitioners and partners in the field to bring the widest depth and scope to the conversation on early learning.

This effort met with its first break through with the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge, a $500 million federal commitment that supports states efforts to create comprehensive plans to improve early learning and development programs that will allow all children to enter kindergarten ready to succeed. 35 states in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico submitted applications for these funds, demonstrating their commitment to successful early learning for every child.

In this year’s State of the Union address, the President posited that “if we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they are born until the last job they take – we will reach the goal that I set two years ago: By the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.”

The Department of Education’s commitment to the Office for Early Learning acknowledges the fundamental understanding that a child’s success begins in the earliest stages of his or her development. Through this Office, the Department of Education can continue to ensure that all students are given the skills and abilities to succeed throughout their lives, regardless of what they were born with.

Visitation and the Holidays

The holidays can be chaotic under the best of circumstances, however, when you are juggling the additional hurdle of children visiting with non-custodial parents, the holidays can become unbearable. For the sake of your sanity and the benefit of your children, remember these tips to ensure smooth transitions and maximum enjoyment.
1. Stay flexible. Even when you have a written plan, things change and unanticipated situations arise. The pre-planned pick up and drop off times may not work or it may be better to trade on a particular year depending on vacations or family in town. Staying flexible and cooperative can maximize your time with your child and ensure future goodwill.

2. Communicate. Parenting children is challenging when parents live together. It is especially challenging when they don’t get along, much less live together. Frequent, honest communication prevents misunderstandings and can make the holidays easier on everyone. Be prepared to make some concessions and ask for concessions in return.

Finally, when originally coming up with a plan or in times of serious or ongoing disagreement, it’s a good idea to consult an attorney. Other times to see an attorney include: If there is an in-balance of power within the relationship, if one person is withholding parenting time or alienating the other parent. Family law attorneys have had the advantage of seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Many times we can anticipate problems or make suggestions to solve problems and deescalate conflicts.

How to Appeal a Health Insurance Denial

October shares a number of different awareness initiatives. Did you know about this one?