Early Childhood

  • Early Childhood

    The Child Care for Working Families Act Will Support Children, Families, and Workers

    Last week, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Bobby Scott introduced the Child Care for Working Families Act of 2021 which would increase children’s access to high-quality learning opportunities, help parents and especially moms return to the workforce, and support an under-resourced and under-valued but critical workforce largely made up of women of color.

    | National
  • Child Health

    The American Jobs Plan Will Help Ensure a Strong Economy and Future for Our Children

    The American Jobs Plan is the first of a two-part effort to invest in our children’s future and build towards a stronger and more equitable economy—with provisions to address long-standing racial disparities and funding designated specifically for underserved Black communities and other communities of color. Congress must now build on President Biden’s proposal and invest in our nation’s most precious resource—our children— ensuring we do not return to a fragile and inequitable status quo.

    | National
  • Child Poverty

    The State of America's Children® 2021

    Since the Children’s Defense Fund last published our annual State of America’s Children report in February 2020, our children have experienced a year of unprecedented upheaval due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a racial reckoning years in the making. Every aspect of children’s lives has been impacted by these shifts more quickly than data can track; even the most recent available data sets do not fully encompass how this past year has shaped our lives. This, of course, includes our 2021 State of America’s Children report. Because, as one element of the report makes clear, “Our Children are Not Immune.”

  • Child Health

    What the American Rescue Plan Act Means for Children and Families

    Today, Congress took the final step to pass the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Biden is expected to subsequently sign into law. The $1.9 trillion relief package, for which President Biden’s proposal served as the foundation, marks a bold step forward in the fight for our children’s future. The American Rescue Plan Act will provide immediate relief for children and families, work to address the racial and economic injustices that COVID-19 has exacerbated, and take a long overdue step to address our nation’s shameful child poverty crisis, cutting child poverty in half in 2021.

    | National
  • Child Health

    Families Need Paid Leave During COVID-19 and Beyond

    The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the health and economic consequences of limited access to paid leave. Workers are often forced to go to work when they or a loved one is sick because they cannot afford to lose wages or risk job loss—which has significant impacts on public health and individual health and well-being.

    | National
  • Child Health

    President-Elect Biden’s COVID Relief Proposal Would Help Families in Crisis and Begin to Address Child Poverty

    Last week, President-Elect Biden released a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package to address the growing public health and economic crisis brought on by the pandemic, which continues to exacerbate the systems of economic and racial injustice that harm our children. Since the start of the pandemic, CDF has called on lawmakers to prioritize children in their response to the crisis and the President-Elect’s relief package would provide immediate relief while also taking a long overdue step to address our nation’s shameful child poverty crisis that could lead to the largest reduction in child poverty rates in decades. 

    | National