FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 23
Contact: Maria Mejia, (510) 763-2444 x108, [email protected]
Children Now Statement on the 2020-21 State Budget Agreement
Ted Lempert, President, Children Now, issued the following statement in response to the 2020-21 state budget agreement:
“The state budget agreement protects critical investments for kids, including providing a hold harmless provision and keeping rates whole for child care, restoring funding for a crisis hotline for youth in foster care and other essential child welfare programs, maintaining payments for kids’ health services and providing additional supports for students from low-income households, English Learners and schools operating in the midst of the pandemic.
While we commend the Governor and Legislature for these provisions, California still lags the rest of the nation in quality supports for kids. Given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19, systemic racism, poverty and immigration threats on children and the systems that serve them, the state must go further to prioritize kids, especially those impacted most, and our collective future.”
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Children Now is a non-partisan, whole-child research, policy development and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting children’s health and education in California. The organization also leads The Children’s Movement of California, a network of more than 3,600 direct service, parent, civil rights, faith-based and community groups dedicated to improving children’s well-being.