More than 66 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, our public schools are more segregated today than they were in the 1960s. Yesterday, the House of Representatives took a promising step to address this by passing the Strength in Diversity Act (HR 2639) with bipartisan support.
Read MoreAfter decades of hard-fought progress bringing the rate of uninsured children to an historic low, today the Census Bureau reported that an estimated 5.7 percent of children under age 19 were uninsured in 2019—an increase of 320,000 more children without health insurance since 2018. This data also confirms what we feared: millions of children and families lacked health insurance even before the COVID-19 crisis hit. And we know loss of health insurance has only worsened in recent months, as high unemployment rates mean many families are losing access to job-based health insurance.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, September 22, the Children’s Defense Fund, First Focus on Children, and the U.S. Child Poverty Action Group are hosting a webinar from 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm EST entitled 2019 Census Child Poverty Data and What COVID-19 Means for Kids.
Read MoreLast month, the Department of Education under the leadership of Secretary DeVos issued a rule that would redirect pandemic relief funding from public schools to private schools. This week, we get to celebrate a small win: a federal judge has ruled this effort illegal and has struck down the policy.
Read MoreLearning losses prompted by COVID-19 could lead to decreased lifetime earnings for the children impacted and could exacerbate our country’s shamefully stark income inequality, according to a recently published Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) paper.
Read MoreThe COVID relief bill brought to the floor today was an unserious proposal that offered little more than an insult to the millions of families that are continuing to suffer the impacts of this pandemic. Despite the failure of the bill, some Senate Republicans are preparing to head home instead of negotiating a proper package with the Democratic minority. That’s unacceptable.
Read MoreCDC and HHS announced an order to prohibit most evictions nationwide for the rest of the year, which will provide some protection for the 30 to 40 million renters at risk of losing their homes by the end of the year but does not provide them with any resources to cover back rent, utilities, or fees. If nothing more is done, this action will simply postpone, not prevent, the coming wave of evictions. Congress and the White House must return to work and pass key housing provisions.
Read MoreAs part of its anti-immigrant cruelty, the Trump administration has continuously attempted to end or weaken the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which offers work authorization and temporary relief from detention or deportation for individuals who arrived to the US as children.
Read MoreWe will continue to demand accountability and systemic change on behalf of Black children and families across this country. We urge elected officials at all levels of government to enact policy that pushes further and to seek radical change to dismantle the systems that create tragedies like these.
Read MoreThis week, the Children’s Bureau released the 27th annual report from AFCARS, the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System.
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