How is bullying defined? – Bullying is when someone aggressively uses their “power” to target another individual with repeated, unwanted words or actions. Those targeted are hurt either physically or emotionally and have a hard time stopping what is happening to them.

If you suspect your child may be the victim of bullying ask him or her to tell you what's going on. You can help by providing lots of opportunities to talk with you in an open and honest way.

It's also important to respond in a positive and accepting manner. Let your child know it's not his or her fault, and that he or she did the right thing by telling you. If your child is aware of someone who is being bullied, encourage him or her to notify someone and get help.  Other specific suggestions include the following:

• Ask your child what he or she thinks should be done. What's already been tried? What worked and what didn't?
• Seek help from your child's teacher or the school guidance counselor. Most bullying occurs on playgrounds, in lunchrooms, and bathrooms, on school buses or in unsupervised halls. Ask the school administrators to find out about programs other schools and communities have used to help combat bullying, such as peer mediation, conflict resolution, and anger management training, and increased adult supervision.
• Don't encourage your child to fight back. Instead, suggest that he or she try walking away to avoid the bully, or that they seek help from a teacher, coach, or other adult.
• Help your child practice what to say to the bully so he or she will be prepared the next time.
• Help your child practice being assertive. The simple act of insisting that the bully leave him alone may have a surprising effect. Explain to your child that the bully's true goal is to get a response.
• Encourage your child to be with friends when traveling back and forth from school, during shopping trips, or on other outings. Bullies are less likely to pick on a child in a group.

States are trying to weaken child labor protections

 For most of us, the idea of young children working in dangerous jobs with no legal protection belongs to the past, consigned to the pages of history and Dickens novels. 

EPI shines a light into the dark corners of our labor market to expose injustice. Please help EPI spread the word by sharing this chart with your networks and, if you are able, please consider making a gift to support EPI’s important work.

Unrepresentatives Launch with Rachel Maddow

On Monday, Rachel Maddow praised Indivisible activists for doing “some of the most practical, strategically interesting organizing in the country.”

the President’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget

The Biden-Harris Administration today released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The Budget details a blueprint to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, lower costs for families, protect and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, and reduce the deficit by ensuring the wealthy and big corporations pay their fair share—all while ensuring no one making less than $400,000 per year pays more in taxes. 

"Still, the scope of the budget—which includes significant funding for the climate, childcare, democracy, education, healthcare, housing, violence prevention, and more, made possible in part through tax hikes for wealthy individuals and corporations—was celebrated by the likes of Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities" (CBPP).

For more information on the President’s FY 2024 Budget, please visit: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.

New Policies Support Communities Most Affected by Chronic Asthma

Asthma is a condition where the airways become constricted or narrow. The inflammation in the area will keep the airways from being open, thus triggering breathing issues. The body will produce mucus that can stick in the airways and will be hard to cough up. 

PHI’s Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) program advanced two critical Medi-Cal policies to provide coverage for home-based asthma education, environmental trigger assessments and asthma remediation supports. "Both policy wins have major implications for increased access to home visiting services for people with poorly controlled asthma, which will improve health outcomes, reduce asthma disparities, and decrease healthcare utilization costs," said RAMP director Anne Kelsey-Lamb. Read more here

What Are ESAs?

School districts use vouchers to enable white students to attend private schools, which could (and still can) limit admission based on race. As a result, the schools that served those white students were closed, and schools that served black students remained chronically underfunded.

Education savings accounts are a kind of super-voucher. While traditional vouchers give parents a chunk of taxpayer money that they could use for tuition at the school of their choice, an ESA gives parents a chunk of taxpayer money that they can spend on private school tuition or a variety of other educational expenses.

Jersey Jazzman: "Kingdom Gain" Through School Vouchers: It's Already Working

ESAs, like vouchers, have proven to be a way to use public tax dollars to fund private religious schools. In fact, in states where voucher programs exist, vouchers primarily fund religious schools (particularly Catholic ones). While the separation of church and state, when it comes to education, is already being increasingly whittled away, ESAs, like vouchers, allow states to circumvent that wall entirely.

Claim your FREE "I Read Banned Books" sticker!

These were the five most banned books in America in 2022.

1. Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, traces the author's life from adolescence to adulthood, including Kobabe's exploration of their gender identity and sexuality.
2. All Boys Aren't Blue, by George M. Johnson, chronicles Johnson's life growing up as a queer Black man in New Jersey and Virginia.
3. Out of Darkness, by Ashley Hope Pérez, explores themes of segregation and chronicles a teenage love story involving a Mexican American girl and a Black boy.
4. The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison, tells the story of a young Black girl growing up following the Great Depression who is consistently regarded as "ugly" due to her dark skin.
5. The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas, traces the life of a 16-year-old Black girl from a poor neighborhood who attends an elite, white private school and witnesses a white police officer shoot and kill her childhood friend. 

Notice some common themes? Racism, segregation, gender identity, police violence, and sexuality are among the most pressing issues facing our society. These critically acclaimed books deftly and thoughtfully engage issues that we want our students to wrestle with. Instead, the GOP wants to erase these discussions—and even punish teachers.

Claim your FREE "I Read Banned Books" sticker! |👈Click the link👈: Fill out the form, and receive your free "I Read Banned Books" sticker. Then consider chipping into help power the campaign to stop the right-wing politicians behind these attacks on our schools.