Infants and Toddlers

Children’s Budget Shows Some Improvements

On November 3, 2021, First Focus on Children hosted the Children’s Budget Summit to highlight the release of their 15th annual Children’s Budget Analysis. Over the last 10 years, the Children’s Budget analysis has documented federal spending for children. Typically, this means watching federal spending for children be cut at a high rate. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused devastation across the world, Congress was compelled to make investments in early childhood, child care, education, family

CWLA Joins Group Over 300 in Child Care Support

CWLA joined over 300 other state and national organizations in calling on Congressional leadership to support the historic inclusion of the child care and pre-kindergarten expansions in the Build Back Better plan. The groups tell Congress:   “The historic investment and policies outlined in the framework would support the transformative work of building a strong,

Reconciliation Bill

Early on Thursday, October 28, 2021, the White House released a new final framework for the reconciliation bill, the President’s Build Back Better agenda. The rest of the day was spent working out details and strategies with the end game still not finalized. The good news for the President was that the House Progressive Caucus

Reconciliation Bill

Negotiations continued into the weekend as the White House and Democratic leaders from the Senate and House continued to work on what gets in the final reconciliation legislation. Most if not all proposed programs will be at least reduced in size or length of time while other issues could be left out altogether. One of

The Future of the CTC

The Democratic strategy to try and keep as much and as many parts of the original House reconciliation bills, meant that many program will be reduced in length. Perhaps the prime example is the fate of the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Continuing and making permanent the CTC has been one of CWLA prime issues this

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Parent Penalty

As very high-level negotiations continue over what should be included in a final reconciliation bill one of CWLA prime issues is the CTC. The internal debate is how to reduce the overall cost of the reconciliation bill (even if paid for by tax increases and other revenue).  One easy way is to simply drop a

Paid Leave Would Cut Health Care Costs

New research, Paid Leave Would Cut Healthcare Costs, by the National Partnership for Women and Families, argues that a paid family and medical leave bill will save the economy over $64 billion if it becomes law. The House Ways and Means Committee version of the proposal would create a national paid family and medical leave

Webinar On the Child Tax Credit and Child Welfare

On Monday, September 27th, CWLA hosted a Child Tax Credit (CTC) webinar that was sponsored by the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN). In the webinar Debbie Weinstein, the executive director of the Coalition of Human Needs, explored the benefits, logistics, challenges, and eligibility for the Child Tax Credit.   In March 2021, The American Rescue

Economists, Business Leaders, House Members Call For Child Care Reconciliation

As the reconciliation bill is fought over, several prominent groups are weighing in support of a major expansion of child care as part of the final reconciliation. In the past two weeks, more than 120 economists, forty-five business leaders, and 100 House members have called on Congress to include the robust child care expansion that

Foster Care Entry Rates Grew Faster for Infants than for Children of Other Ages

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) released a new report, Foster Care Entry Rates Grew Faster for Infants than for Children of Other Ages, 2011-2018, that found that infants accounted for more than 70 percent of the total increase in foster care entries in recent years at the national, state, and

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