Explore Our Policy Priorities
The Children’s Defense Fund champions policies and programs to improve the odds for America’s children. We focus our advocacy on the whole child because we believe children don’t come in pieces. We seek to end child poverty, give every child a healthy start, a quality early childhood experience, a level education playing field, and safe families and communities free from violence—with special attention to children involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Our policy and advocacy work includes raising awareness, gathering and analyzing data, publishing reports and research, highlighting promising practices, seeking legislative and administrative improvements and, perhaps most importantly, implementing policies so they truly benefit the most vulnerable children. Through this work, we seek to advance and achieve our mission to Leave No Child Behind®.
We work to create an America where no child lives in poverty and all children have the opportunities they need to reach their full potential.
We work to ensure all children in America have access to physical and behavioral health coverage and care that is child-specific, comprehensive, affordable and easy to get and keep regardless of income, zip code, place of birth or immigration status.
We work to eliminate discriminatory education policies and practices and the inequitable distribution of resources that undermine equal educational opportunities for all students, especially poor and low income students, children of color, children with disabilities, English language learners, children who are homeless, children in foster care and those returning from juvenile detention.
We work to give every child a safe start in a permanent nurturing family and community and to prevent the crises that bring children to the attention of the child welfare system, provide quality care for children who need foster care and ensure all children a permanent home for with birth, kin or adoptive families.
We work to ensure every child a right to a continuum of high-quality, early childhood development and learning opportunities to help them succeed in school and in life.
We work to ensure more humane and rehabilitative prevention and treatment for all children who come in contact with the juvenile justice system, especially children of color who historically have been disproportionately impacted.
We work to end the gun violence epidemic in America and ensure all children a right to live, learn and grow up safely.