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Dear everyone,

Hurricane season ends in just a few weeks and, despite a few threatening
storms, the United States was thankfully spared the kind of catastrophic
event for which we are simply not prepared.

Indeed, the *National Commission on Children and Disasters*, which I chair,
officially delivered a milestone report to President Obama and Congress,
which found that there is no national strategy for meeting the unique of
needs of children during disasters.

Among the most alarming evidence was a study that found that only six
percent of emergency rooms have adequate medical equipment for children.
The report also pointed to Save the Children’s U.S. Programs 2010 report
card that revealed that only 12 states meet minimal requirements for
protecting children when they are in child care or in school.

Most important, our advocacy on both the Commission and Save the Children
reports is getting the attention of the Obama Administration, Congress,
state legislatures and the public.


- In late September, Massachusetts State Senator Richard Moore, President
of the *National Conference of State Legislatures*, sent a letter to the
organization’s thousands of members, urging them to adopt Save the
Children’s standards. I have attached a copy of Senator Moore’s letter for
your information and thank him for his terrific leadership on this issue.


- We are working closely with the *State of Louisiana *to help them adopt
our child care preparedness standards and we think this action may happen by
mid-2011.


- Last week, the *Children’s Health Fund* and the *American Academy of
Pediatrics* released a new poll that found that three quarters of
Americans want kids to have priority over adults when tough medical triage
decisions are made during disasters.


Here is some of the media coverage of the Commission report:

*USA Today:* *http://usat.ly/bpn5q1
**Times-Picayune:* *http://bit.ly/crVK8w
**CNN:* *http://bit.ly/aQ6nRO
**Huffington Post:* *http://huff.to/cTwcd0
*
The debate about education reform continues to heat up, particularly with
the release of the documentary film, *Waiting for Superman*. Our artist
ambassador *Jennifer Garner* and I weighed in on the debate with our own
perspective, tying everything back to the importance of early childhood
education.

You can read our opinion piece – *Waiting for Superbaby* – that was part of
the launch of *The Huffington Post’s* *new education section *here: *
http://huff.to/b5sHyQ*. As you’ll see, there was a heated debate in the
comments section, proving that we still have a great deal of education to do
with the public on this issue!

Finally, the recent Census data showing a record number of Americans living
in poverty continues to make waves, including in the states where Save the
Children’s U.S. Programs works. Just a few weeks ago, I authored an *op-ed
in the* *Chattanooga Times Free Press* about these developments. You can
read the op-ed here: *http://bit.ly/aKkxGw*. I was also interviewed about
the Census poverty news by journalist Jonathan Capehart as part of the
*Washington
Post’s Opinion Leaders *website video series. Take a look: *
http://wapo.st/cE9Sfu*.

That’s all for now. As always, please feel free to send me your thoughts or
ideas.

Warmly,

Mark

Mark K. Shriver
Senior Vice President, US Programs
2000 L Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036 USA
Phone: (202) 640-6627
Fax: (202) 640-6950
www.savethechildren.org/us