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Compassion and public policy
January 21, 2004

Janklow began a program which mailed some 26,000 Bright Start Boxes to the families of every newborn baby in the state. The box includes books, music, and resources for new parents. (MPR Photo/Cara Hetland)

During his 16 years as governor of South Dakota, Bill Janklow created and promoted endeavors that supporters say demonstrate his compassion for the people of his state. This list was provided by his Congressional office staff.

Sioux Falls, S.D. —

•Through his "Bright Start" early childhood initiative, he:

*Mailed over 26,000 Bright Start Boxes to families of newborn babies.

*Created a statewide childhood immunization database that helped increase age-appropriate immunizations from 62 percent in 1994 to 80 percent when he left office in 2003.

*Responded to the fact that only 13 percent of children between the ages of 19 months and 36 months in South Dakota were immunized for chickenpox, by securing a new law that adds chickenpox to the list of immunizations required for school entry, and obtaining state and private funding for a campaign that immunized over 30,000 children during his final two years in office.

*Provided early intervention screenings to all South Dakota children up to age 3.

*Secured specialized equipment so that 95 percent of all babies born in South Dakota get hearing screenings before they leave the hospital.

*Established the Home Visitation Program, resulting in over 6,000 home visits by nurses to at-risk pregnant women and new mothers.

*Started the Responsive Parenting Classes for parents with children up to age 3. (By the time he left the governor's office, over 650 parents had taken the class.)

•While most public officeholders in America fly over natural disasters from 20,000 feet, he responded with immediate and massive organizational support -— and frontline personal involvement -— to tornadoes, floods, forest fires, wind storms, and blizzards. At many disaster scenes, he worked shoulder with shoulder with volunteer workers from every corner of the state.

•He promoted the nation's first-ever statewide Diabetes Screening Project, at which over 1,000 people at 590 sites in 222 communities administered free blood glucose tests to 31,536 adult South Dakotans. A majority of the locations also performed blood pressure tests.

•He responded to a statewide shortage of affordable housing by using prison inmates to build 1,000 "Governor's Houses" for senior citizens, for the handicapped, and for low-income people. The program, which allows prisoners to learn valuable job skills and good work habits, has also produced 45 day care facilities.

•He developed scores of programs that put prison inmates to work, learning good habits and preparing them for lives outside the prison walls. He put prisoners to work on projects like wiring the state's schools, roofing and tuckpointing buildings, renovating state buildings, refurbishing the State Fairgrounds, rebuilding bicycles and wheelchairs, assembling emergency lighting units, and constructing lifts and ramps for the handicapped -— over 15.6 million hours of productive work during his third and fourth terms.

•He increased the number of organ donors by over 55,000 by getting legislation passed, honoring families of organ donors, and energetically promoting an organ donation program.

•He started the State Children's Health Insurance Program, that since 1998 has been responsible for providing an additional 22,000 children of income-eligible parents with no-cost health care coverage.

•He encouraged the state Legislature to create, fund, and later expand the Advanced Reading Enhancement Approach (AREA) training for first, second, and third graders. He talked the Legislature into investing $6.6 million in the program.

•He extended the Common Sense Parenting Classes (for parents with children over 3) to include free classes for TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients, and free classes for all parents receiving services from the state's Office of Child Protection Services.

•He funded 84 Out-of-School-Time projects serving over 6,000 students at 158 sites, with grant awards totaling over $4.8 million between 1998 and 2003. Twenty-two of those projects were funded by a $1 million special appropriation, approved by the 2001 Legislature at his request.

•He initiated a Child Safety Seat Distribution Project in 1996 that, by the time he left the governor's office in 2003, resulted in over 34,000 infant, convertible, and booster seats being distributed through over 80 local organizations.

•He started a statewide breast and cervical cancer screening program in which over 800 health care providers and over 230 health care facilities provided free mammograms and pap tests to over 5,000 women who met age and income guidelines, and who were underinsured. He also expanded the program to include Medicaid-funded treatment to those diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer.

•He expanded, three times, the Social Workers in the Schools program that works with children, parents, and siblings to build bridges between the home and the school.

•He encouraged the 1998 Legislature to pass two bills that help prevent fetal alcohol damage to children, and also help mothers straighten out their lives.

•He started a statewide crackdown against drinking drivers, using both enforcement and education to substantially lower the state's alcohol-related traffic accidents and fatalities.

•He began a coordinated statewide initiative against Family Violence, targeting the perpetrators of spouse abuse, child abuse, and sexual abuse.

•He contained a 1997 measles outbreak in central South Dakota to eight cases with a massive vaccination campaign that immunized 7,500 people in just four days. He then secured more than $950,000 in MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control to provide recommended second doses to over 61,000 school children in grades five through 12 that autumn.

•He personally promoted the state's program for the Adoption of Children with Special Needs, resulting in scores of young people with physical and emotional disabilities being taken from the care of the state and placed into loving homes.

•He formed the Internet Crimes Against Children enforcement unit, to help families protect their young children against sexual predators who use the Internet to prey upon them.

•He worked with the Legislature to set up and fund the new Physician Tuition Reimbursement Program, which helps provide family doctors for rural communities.

•He helped make South Dakota a recognized national leader in the employment of citizens with disabilities.

•He instituted the national award-winning Alcohol and Drug Diversion Program for first-time juvenile alcohol and drug offenders.

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