More than 1000 diverse organizations from across California signed on to a letter calling on state leaders to take long over-due actions on behalf of kids, including prioritizing every unrestricted dollar for supports for kids in the upcoming state budget and coordinating an all-hands-on deck, urgent approach to re-opening schools.

The needs of kids – across the early childhood, family and economic supports, health, K-12 and higher ed, housing and child welfare domains – must be California’s top priority because kids, especially kids of color and those living in poverty, have been disproportionally impacted by COVID-19; and California unfathomably sits near the bottom of the country in most measures of child well-being.