Senate Approves Resolutions on Child Abuse Awareness, Early Childhood Education

On April 20, the Senate approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution (S. Res. 163) designating the third week of April 2007 as “National Shaken Baby Syndrome Awareness Week.”

Sponsored by Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), the resolution contains a number of findings, including:

900,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect in the United States in 2005, causing unspeakable pain and suffering to our most vulnerable citizens;
children aged one year or younger accounted for approximately 42 percent of all child abuse and neglect fatalities in 2005, and children aged three years or younger accounted for approximately 77 percent of all child abuse and neglect fatalities in 2005;
abusive head trauma, including the trauma known as “Shaken Baby Syndrome”, is recognized as the leading cause of death of physically abused children;
Shaken Baby Syndrome often results in permanent, irreparable brain damage or death to an infant and may result in extraordinary costs for the provision of medical care to the infant in just the first few years of life of the infant; and
the most effective solution for ending Shaken Baby Syndrome is to prevent the abuse, and it is clear that the minimal costs of education and prevention programs may prevent enormous medical and disability costs and immeasurable amounts of grief for many families.The same day, the Senate also approved, by unanimous consent, a resolution (S. Res. 164) designating the week beginning April 22, 2007, as “Week of the Young Child.”
The resolution contains a number of findings, including:
low-income children who have enrolled in quality, comprehensive early childhood education programs improve their cognitive, language, physical, social, and emotional development;
although state and local governments have responded to the numerous benefits of early childhood education by making significant investments in programs and classrooms, there remains a large unmet need for those services and a need to improve the quality of those programs; and
according to numerous studies on the impact of investments in high-quality early childhood education, the programs reduce the occurrence of students failing to complete secondary school and future costs relating to special education and juvenile crime.