Advocate for Children
It takes a collective effort to ensure all infants and toddlers are not neglected, and reach their full potential.
Advocate for children and families by sending a message to your Congress members, asking them to take concrete action to promote children’s health and protect children from neglect and abuse in our country.
FIND YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS
Enter your zip code and find your United States Senators and Representatives
Children are the most vulnerable citizens in our society and they must be protected. Child abuse and neglect begins early. According to the latest available national report babies under 1 years of age are impacted most. It's easy for you to contact Congress about policy issues most important to children and families.
Convention on the Rights of the Child
THERE’S ONLY ONE COUNTRY THAT HASN’T RATIFIED THE “CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD:” THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Let Your Voice be Heard:
Help our children by sending a message to your Congress members, asking them to take concrete action to promote children’s rights and welfare to protect children from abuse and neglect in our country.
SUPPORT the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act
Introduced in House (06/18/2019)
Washington, D.C., June 18, 2019—Today, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Deb Haaland (D-NM) introduced the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, which would guarantee affordable, high-quality child care for all children under age 5. In addition to making child care and early learning centers and family child care homes available to all families, the bill would invest in training, professional development, and increased compensation for the child care workforce.
All families, particularly those with low incomes, need high-quality, affordable child care that fosters children’s development and supports parents’ ability to work or go to school. Yet, affordable child care is out of reach for far too many families. Today, only 15 percent of families eligible for child care assistance get any help because of insufficient funding. When families struggle to find and afford quality care, parents may be forced to trade off child care against food, rent, medical care, or other basic necessities.
This ambitious legislation would transform the economic security of families and children while also promoting children’s healthy development. Under the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, families would pay no more than 7 percent of their income for child care—and those with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty line would have zero cost, compared to the 18 to 30 percent of income that families in households with low incomes pay for child care today.
Greater public attention to the critical need for affordable, high-quality child care is long overdue. While child care matters for all families, it is particularly crucial for low-income families and families of color, who are most likely to earn low wages and to risk losing a job if they are unable to find stable care.
We need your voice to contact your Senators and remind them of the importance of investing in key programs for young children in 2020.
Enter your zip code and find your United States Senators and Representatives
SUPPORT Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
HR3180 - RISE from Trauma Act: To improve the identification and support of children and families who experience trauma.
Sponsor: Rep. Davis, Danny K. [D-IL-7] (Introduced 06/10/2019)
Committees:House - Education and Labor; Energy and Commerce; Judiciary
Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health
The bipartisan group of Senate and House members joined together to introduce the Resilience Investment, Support, and Expansion (“RISE”) from Trauma Act (S. 1770, H.R. 3180) to expand the trauma-informed workforce and increase resources for communities. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), joined by Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), sponsored the bill in the Senate, while Representatives Danny Davis (D-IL) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) did so in the House.The bill gives specific attention to the needs of trauma-affected young children, and the specialized training required for clinicians who work with them.
“State policymakers across the country are grappling with extreme infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) clinical provider shortages and doing their best to leverage limited resources to expand the size, capacity, and quality of the clinical workforce.”
Now is the time to contact your Members of Congress about the crucial need for investment in the IECMH workforce.
Find your Members of Congress and ask them to cosponsor the Trauma Act.
SUPPORT Child Care for Working Families Act
For families across the U.S., finding quality childcare that's affordable has become a nearly impossible task.
In 28 states and the District of Columbia, infant care costs exceed the average cost of in-state college tuition at public four-year institutions, shows data collected by Child Care Aware of America, a non-profit organization focused on improving the affordability of childcare in the U.S.
And childcare costs have increased 24 percent in the past decade, according to Federal Reserve data analyzed by The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning policy institute focused on promoting economic mobility. The average bill for a year of full-time care now amounts to almost $9,600....
(Child Advocates Applaud Reintroduction of Child Care for Working Families Act to Senate - 02/26/2019)
SUPPORT Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act - the FAMILY Act
American families across our country are struggling to make ends meet, yet our nation fails to provide the support they need to manage the demands. As Congress considers a number of paid leave proposals,The FAMILY Act offers a solution to addresses the needs of working families and their children. Just 17 percent of the workforce has paid family leave through their employers. (Reintroduced to Senate - 02/12/2019)