BY ALEXIA CARRASCO & ANDREA DAVIS Kid Stuff

BIG DATA
The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund Foundation
has partnered with Analytics Partners (AP),
a local analytics and data warehouse firm,
to better understand how programming
impacts families tackling childhood cancer.
AP’s relationship with the Jay Fund
started out many years ago with only two
volunteers. They are now one of the orga-
nization’s main supporters and recently
donated over $115,000 to build an
advanced analytics solution allowing them
PAPER to better prioritize and grow the scope of
their programs to serve families dealing

TRAIL
Parents registering their kids for
with the unthinkable.
"Our entire organization fell in love
with the mission of the Jay Fund from our
school in Florida this year may have very first encounter," Analytics Partners
been surprised by a new require- CEO Lisa Davis says. “From the beginning, my entire team was always looking for
ment: children are now asked ways to do more. As a smaller firm, a large donation of capital wasn’t in the cards,
whether they’ve ever been referred however I was willing, and so were my amazing employees, to donate their time,
for mental health services. knowledge and services to produce an analytics solution that would provide value
e new requirement is part of a and help the Jay Fund to continue helping families.”
law rushed through the state legisla- That initial volunteer opportunity has now grown into a metrics database that
ture in the wake of the February will allow the organization to understand the full reach of its work.
shooting at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in Parkland.
While advocates say it will help keep
students safe, others worry that a
child’s mental health history could
be held against him.
In a statement, the Florida
Happy Meals?
School Board Association says there While fast food chains lately have been proud to promote their healthier offerings
is a need for balance in implement- (carrots in lieu of fries, for instance), most parents don’t seem to be buying them. at’s
ing the rule. “While this language according to a new study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at the Univer-
passed in an effort to increase early sity of Connecticut, which asked 871 parents from diverse racial and economic back-
intervention for students by utiliz- grounds about their fast-food purchases. According to responses, 91 percent of parents
ing collaborative services, families take their kids to one of the four largest fast-food chains (McDonald’s, Burger King,
and school districts have definitely Wendy’s and Subway) at least once per week—up from 79 percent in a 2010 survey.
expressed concerns regarding stu- While all four chains have made commitments to healthier foods, only 26 percent of
dent data privacy," says executive di- parents reported purchasing those options. One problem, according to researchers, is
rector Andrea Messina. "From a that restaurants might not be doing enough to support parents. While all four restau-
safety perspective, we all want to rants have added health eats,it’s the unhealthy staples, like fries, cheeseburgers and
have early intervention and the pro- soda, that kids find hard to resist.
tection of student data. e chal-
lenge is finding an appropriate and
effective balance.”
While Florida has been histori-
cally among the lowest ranked
states in terms of providing money
for mental health care, the new law
provides some $70 million to in-
crease access to mental health serv-
ices in schools.

YOUR 5