Children Now

Education: Children Nows education program aims to ensure every child has access to high-quality early learning opportunities, a rigorous TK-12 education, including high-quality STEM, afterschool and summer programs, and access to affordable higher education. Through research and analysis, policy development, education and outreach, communications, convenings, and advocacy, we have worked to dismantle inequitable and racially discriminatory systems and achieved the following: ensured millions of dollars in funding commitments from the State to increase reimbursement rates for child care providers; supported significant progress towards building a transparent and student-focused education accountability system that helps ensure all children graduate from high school ready for college, career and civic life; continued to play a leadership role around the effective implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), working to ensure dollars intended for English Learners, students in poverty, and youth in foster care actually reach those students and help close achievement gaps; helped implement important revisions to the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) template to promote effective fiscal transparency; continued to promote transparent and accessible data in the development of the states longitudinal integrated data system, including support for a student growth model and higher standards for English Learner outcomes; led policy and funding advocacy to reduce the barriers to becoming a teacher that disproportionately affect teachers of color and promote diversity within the states teacher workforce; expanded the membership of the California STEM Network and engaged the Network in key STEM issues, including increasing access to STEM education and preparing new STEM teachers, early math instruction and educator professional development, afterschool programs in computer science, and high school to community college pathways in STEM; continued to lead efforts to help ensure the implementation of Next Generation Science Standards, which updated standards, accreditation and testing for teacher preparation and credentialing; and promoted substantial improvements to K-12 course access and instructional quality around math and science to increase access to higher education for all students.

Child Welfare: Children Nows child welfare program works to address the comprehensive health, education, and social service needs of children in the child welfare system. Through our research, policy development, education, and communications efforts, we have achieved the following: restored important education rights to youth on juvenile probation and in temporary emergency custody of a child welfare agency; worked with the State and counties on the effective implementation of the Family Urgent Response System (FURS), a statewide, 24/7 hotline to support foster youth and their caregivers in times of crisis; examined the impact of the pandemic on the educational experiences of students in foster care and the critical need for effective strategies and supports to address learning recovery through surveys with caregivers; expanded access to child care for parenting youth in foster care; elevated opportunities to address barriers to employment experienced by transition age youth; worked to stabilize foster youth housing by securing $34 million in the 2022-23 State Budget to expand the Transitional Housing Program and the Housing Navigation and Maintenance Program to connect more youth currently or formerly in foster care to the stable housing they need; engaged with the State around additional reform efforts to better meet the health needs of children and youth in the child welfare system; continued to work to highlight barriers and develop solutions to address the disparities in K-12 educational attainment of students in foster care by elevating the importance of transparency and targeted supports in improving educational outcomes for students in foster care; and helped facilitate the California Foster Youth Education Task Force, a statewide network of child welfare and education stakeholders dedicated to improving education outcomes for Californias students in foster care.

Health: Children Nows health program focuses on ensuring that children birth to age 26 have meaningful and equitable access to high-quality, culturally responsive, affordable health care, including physical, behavioral, and oral health care services, and other key services like home visiting and developmental screenings that are vital for Californias youngest children. Through our research, analysis, policy development, education, outreach, and advocacy efforts, we have achieved the following: led efforts to improve Medi-Cal access to and quality of care for children and families, including successfully defending against proposed cuts to Medi-Cal that support childrens access to health services, canceling premiums for hundreds of thousands of kids and adults, and supporting family advocates as they work with the State to inform Medi-Cal policy; continued our leadership efforts to promote developmental screenings and early interventions for Californias infants and toddlers by strengthening Medi-Cal compliance; secured a $30 million increase for the CalWORKs Home Visiting Program (HVP) and engaged in field research to increase overall access to home visiting programs; continued to make progress on integrating medical-dental systems in Medi-Cal; highlighted the need for culturally appropriate screening resources and for providers to adopt trauma-informed practices within a clinical setting; expanded access to trauma screenings and continued to work to maintain and increase statewide investment in trauma screenings; worked to increase state investment in school-based mental health (school-county partnerships) and mental health services for students; ensured that special funding allocations for mental health support were set aside for very young children and their families; and developed a childrens environmental health program to address health justice issues related to the environment, such as air quality and lead in drinking water at schools.