With years of experience working to improve the health, education and well-being of California’s kids, Children Now prides itself on being ready to do whatever’s necessary to fight for policies that get kids and families the supports they need. In 2024, that adaptability was put to the test. Just over a week into the year, the Governor’s January budget proposal saw a wide range of drastic and untenable cuts to California’s most vulnerable kids. With these new threats to our children’s future in front of us, our team immediately got to work.  

Looking back on 2024, we are immensely proud of how our efforts helped reject those proposed cuts and protect funding for critical kids’ programs while we continued to push for children to be better prioritized in California policymaking. 

Foster Kids Kept Their Helpline 

When the Governor released his January budget proposal, foster kids and their families across California were dealt a potentially devastating blow. Proposed was the complete elimination of the Family Urgent Response System (FURS), the 24/7 helpline created for foster families that provides in-person support whenever they call, for whatever they need. FURS responds to nearly 5,000 calls a year, and now all were poised to go unanswered. 

To save FURS, our Government Relations team worked tirelessly to make sure elected officials knew how critical it is to foster families. The Children’s Movement got 1,020 Pro-Kid organizations to sign on to and send a powerful, collective message to the Governor and Legislature that FURS needed to be protected. Our Communications team flooded traditional and social media to educate and activate the public. And when the final budget was signed, FURS was fully funded, and foster kids still had someone to call for help. 

Other Severe Cuts to Kids’ Programs Got Reversed 

FURS was just one of the many kids’ programs this year’s state budget proposal came after, with drastic cuts proposed across childcare, education, youth mental health, and child welfare. By implementing our proven whole-child advocacy model, we were able to help convince lawmakers to change course and reverse more than $9.8 billion in proposed cuts to kids (while adding over $1.5 billion in new funding). That included protecting the State’s commitment to expanding childcare by 200,000 slots, securing over $8.4 billion for public education (including transitional kindergarten and community colleges), and keeping an estimated 90,000 kids under age 5 from losing their health coverage. 

The Children’s Movement Celebrated Ten Years of Victories for Kids 

A decade ago, the Children’s Movement was created to address a pressing need. With tens of thousands of nonprofits, businesses, and organizations in California focused on kids, advocacy for children was widespread but disjointed. The Children’s Movement set out to bring these voices together to speak as one, strengthen the demand to prioritize kids in policymaking, and achieve major victories for kids. 

Now with more than 5,600 members across California, the Children’s Movement has grown to be the most powerful and diverse kids’ advocacy network in the country. Over the past ten years we’ve helped deliver transformational policy changes within childcare, education, health care, and child welfare, culminating with our budget wins this past year. We’re already building off that momentum by demanding kids be prioritized in the 2025-26 budget. We’re proud that the fight to push policymakers to act on behalf of kids is more coordinated and powerful now than a decade ago, and energized for the next ten years and beyond.  

The Opportunity Institute Continued its Legacy at Children Now 

Under the leadership of Maria Echaveste and the late Christopher Edley Jr., the Opportunity Institute has been a remarkable leader in advocating for policies that address racial disparities in education and increase opportunities for youth. This past year, we were thrilled to announce a new alignment where OI’s work will live on through Children Now, allowing us to continue its mission of advancing equity for kids and confronting the barriers that stand in their way of reaching their full potential. We celebrated this new chapter and commemorated the incredible legacy of Christopher Edley Jr. at the UC Berkeley School of Education in November. 

Bills Helping Kids Crossed the Finish Line 

Children Now co-sponsored and advocated for many Pro-Kid bills this past year, and with support from our many invaluable partners we were able to get many of them signed into law. Here are just three examples: 

• AB 51: More kids will now benefit from Universal Preschool by increasing support for early learning and care providers 

• AB 2630: More kids will now be connected to dental care by increasing access for kids entering transitional kindergarten 

• AB 2711: More kids will now feel safer to disclose drug abuse and get help by prohibiting suspensions for voluntarily revealing use 

Our Informed Policy Solutions Pushed for Change 

Throughout 2024, our dedicated policy teams thoroughly researched critical issues affecting California’s kids and put forth effective and actionable policy solutions in a wide range of reports and briefs, including: 

California Children’s Report Card: Our bi-annual Report Card grades California on its performance supporting kids across 33 wide-ranging issues 

Big Feelings: Focused on the behavioral health needs of children under age 5, Big Feelings presents impactful takeaways from conversations with parents and caregivers on their children’s brain development 

In Defense of Children and the Planet: Building off decades of work by community organizers and leaders, our report presents an action plan for improving kids’ health through environmental justice 

Reimagining Respite Care for Children and Youth in Foster Care: Through listening to youth and caregivers with experience in foster care, our report shares ways kids in foster care can be cared for on a short-term basis by another caregiver more effectively. 

Preventive Services for Kids in Medi-Cal: Our chartbook highlights areas where Medi-Cal can improve on delivering basic preventative care to kids through key takeaways from recent data published by the Department of Health Care Services   

Caregiver Perspectives on Closed Loop Referrals: Through listening to caregivers of kids with special health care needs, our report presents ways Medi-Cal’s Closed Loop Referral policy can be more effective 

Policy Pathways to Strengthen School-Based Oral Health Education & Screening Implementation: Our report highlights the critical role oral health plays in students attending and learning in school, as well as policy solutions to improve oral health education  

Children Now Action Fund’s Pro-Kid Scorecard and Candidate Questionnaire: Our sister organization, the Children Now Action Fund, developed the Pro-Kid Scorecard and Candidate Questionnaire: Providing a transparent view on where California legislators stand on supporting kids, the Pro-Kid Scorecard scores all legislators’ records on kids’ policy issues, while the Candidate Questionnaire provides legislative candidates’ positions on a wide range of issues affecting kids.

We are proud of how we’ve positively impacted kids’ lives this past year. But our work is far from over. Please consider making a donation to Children Now and fueling our work throughout 2025 and beyond at childrennow.org/makeagift.