The Office of Children, Youth, and Families is offering Family First Prevention Act Training to has once commissioners, CYS agencies, providers, and others interested in learning more about Family First and Pennsylvania’s implementation efforts. You can learn more and register here.

Start Strong PA kicked off 2020 by delivering a New Year’s resolution frame to every member of the general assembly, asking them to sign the frame in support of the healthy development of all Pennsylvania infants and toddlers and show their commitment to ensuring all children start strong. Read here to see how you can help.

The House Education Committee held a public hearing the week of January 19, 2020, on HB 1897. The bill, authored by Chairman Curt Sonney (R-Erie), would require all school districts to offer full-time cyber education programs by the 2021-22 school year, as well as set regulations for school district-run cyber education programs. Three panels of education experts testified on the proposed legislation and offered opinions on whether or not the bill should become law. Continue reading here.

Pennsylvania was one of ten states selected in April 2019 to develop a comprehensive prenatal-to-age-three policy agenda as part of the Pritzker Children’s Initiative 9-month planning grant process.

Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children formally submitted Pennsylvania’s policy agenda and implementation plan. The overall goal of the project is to increase the number of children and families receiving high-quality services by 25 percent by 2023 (or just about 45,000 kids and their families) and 50 percent by 2025.

From Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children:

“We’d like to thank our partners who helped lead the work at the collaborative table with us, including: Allies for Children, the Maternity Care Coalition, Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) and the United Way of Pennsylvania, as well as our partners in our ongoing campaigns in the Early Learning Pennsylvania Coalition – Childhood Begins at Home and Start Strong PA – and our health care table, the Medicaid and CHIP Watch Group. We were also thrilled to submit with our application letters of support from Governor Wolf, U.S. Senator Bob Casey and several of our in-state early learning funders: The Grable Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, the Hillman Family Foundations, Vanguard and the William Penn Foundation.”

Five states will be selected for a 3-year implementation grant, and Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children hope to share news by the end of March.

In the last census, Pennsylvania undercounted 25,197 kids, resulting in nearly $44 million in lost federal funding. The 2020 Census is approaching and it’s critical to #CountAllKids. When we miss young children in the census, it has serious consequences for them, their families, their communities and our nation – with many of those consequences lasting for at least 10 years; most of their childhood.

Download the 2020 Census toolkit and help to spread the importance of counting every child in Pennsylvania. Together, we can ensure an accurate and fair share of federal funding for education, health care, child care and more. Find more information here.