As the school year starts, over three million children in the Bronx are on their way back. Growing concern over the nation-topping asthma rates in the schools has led to a new bill signed into law by Governor Eliot Spitzer.
The legislation, backed by Bronx Assemblyman Peter M. Rivera and Senators Andrew Lanza and Marty Golden, will prevent idling of school vehicles on school grounds and requires school nurses to maintain specialized asthma medical equipment for chronic sufferers. The presence of a nebulizer to treat chronically ill children will result in less expensive hospital visits and cut down on absences from the same children. The Commissioner of Education, Richard Mills, said, “This new law improves the air quality in our schools and protects the health of children, allowing them to keep their focus where it belongs, on learning.” According to the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation over 50,000 New York City school-age children are asthmatic. The average asthmatic misses over 30 days of school due to health problems and the lack of a nebulizer on school grounds.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.