1. Opportunities for Action in Virginia
Mary Beth Salomone Testa, Consultant
Voices for Virginia’s Children
May 2, 2018
VCPD Northern Region Annual Summit

2. The Role of Voices for Virginia’s Children
We champion public policies that improve the lives of VA’s children
Recognize the continuum-- prenatal through third grade-- and the comprehensive nature of early childhood
Serve as a policy “translator”- federal to state to local
Develop a unified voice and help shape message
Build awareness through electoral advocacy
Privately funded, nonprofit, nonpartisan
We champion public policies that improve the lives of VA’s children, especially in areas of:
Early care and education
Family economic security
Foster care and adoption
Health and well-being
Mental health
Childhood trauma

3. KIDS COUNT data
KIDS COUNT Data Center tracks more than 40 indicators of child well-being by locality
150+ more at the state level
Partnership with Annie E. Casey Foundation
Trends, charts, maps, comparisons

4. A Nearly a quarter of children under 5 live in Northern Virginia
Persistent childhood poverty
300,000 children in the Commonwealth - 16% of children across the state
44,000 more than during ‘08 recession
Northern region is not immune to this – 1 in 5 children in the Northern Region are in economically disadvantaged families
More than a third of kids under 6 are below 200% poverty
Toxic stress of poverty
A majority of children under 5 in NoVa are children of color
Nearly 40 percent of all children under 6 who live in immigrant families reside in NoVa
A majority of families have at least one working parent and must rely on some form of child care
Recent estimates are that 19% of Virginians experienced 2 or more adverse childhood experiences.
Economically disadvantaged kids are more likely to experience trauma.
We are experiencing demographic & economic shifts that increasingly complicate the needs:
increases in child/family poverty
increases in English language learner families
economic and racial disparities in access to services.
In Virginia, children in lower income families and children with disabilities are less likely to be ready for school.
Child population under age 5
2016

5. PALS-K Shows Declining Readiness Over Last 5 Years
We have persistent child poverty, increases in English language learners, an increasing number of children, but we have same slots for VPI, same payment, same same same

6. Substance exposed infants
Fron fiscal year 2015 to 2016, Virginia experienced a 21% increase in the number of substance exposed infants reported to the local departments of social services. That’s 1,334 reports of substance exposed infants in fy % of them in the Northern region. These babies are hurting, their mothers are struggling. Substance abuse also disrupts families – over the last 5 years more children have entered foster care due to parental substance abuse. Communities are stepping up to address this but there is more work to do.

7. With many at-risk children in NOVA,
home visiting efforts are not to scale
Fairfax
Arlington
Alexandria
One of the ways we can help is through evidence based early childhood home visiting programs.
Early Impact Virginia estimates, however, that current home visiting programs can reach less than 10% of the at risk families who could benefit.
Early Impact Virginia 2018

8. So, what’s being done about it?

9. Recent Policy Wins & Priorities
2015: Addressed safety in child care for the first time in 20 years– passed omnibus legislation bringing more oversight to small home-based child care and all programs accepting subsidy. 2016: Comprehensive package of early childhood investments including $9 M increase in home visiting and VPI per pupil increase. Established permanent School Readiness Committee. 2017: Established fingerprint background checks for all child care providers; Introduced concepts of reducing suspension & expulsion and promoting trauma-informed approaches. 2018: Continue the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet; define and explore state-level trauma-informed policy; strengthen Virginia Preschool Initiative

10. 2018 General Assembly Action
Foster care
School-to-prison pipeline
Child care safety
Children’s mental health
Substance-exposed infants

11. 2018 General Assembly…. Action?
Budget
Medicaid expansion
As the 60-day session came to a close, the House and Senate announced that they were not able to reach an agreement about providing health insurance coverage to uninsured Virginians.
Medicaid talks aren’t really happening.
They came back on April 11. The House worked on their version of the budget. Senate is coming back on May 14 and they’ll convene and reject the House budget, and have a Finance meeting, and they’ll determine if they should make their own version or work off the House version.
We were pleased that the House budget included a two-step approach to pulling down federal funds to provide health insurance to up to 400,000 working Virginians, many of whom are parents.
By pulling down these resources, the House budget also invests more in other areas.

12. Priority items in the budget
Medicaid expansion
Mental health
Childhood trauma
VPI
Home visiting
Substance-exposed infants
From the Senate budget, we support $2.5 million the first year and $4.5 million the second year to implement an alternative transportation system for adults and children under a temporary detention order (Item 311#1s)
We support the planned implementation of STEP-VA including two years of primary health care screening at community services boards as included in the Governor’s proposed budget.
we support the Commission on Youth’s original request to create an interagency workgroup to define best practices in trauma-informed care.
The House budget includes an additional $250,000 each year in general funds to Virginia’s Tiered Systems of Supports (VTSS) for teachers, administrators, and specialized instructional support personnel. VTSS addresses both the academic and behavioral needs of students; including students impacted by trauma. (Item 129 #1h)
With a number of proposals to strengthen Virginia’s early learning system on the table (a testament to the bipartisan and growing support for ece) we support adding additional responsibilities for the Jt. Subcommittee on VPI Reform to advise on early childhood policy. (Item 1 #1s)
Several proposal seek to improve the quality of the Virginia Preschool Initiative. We believe that the House proposal asking the Department of Education to develop a VPI improvement plan and identify needed resources is a good first step. (Item 136 #4h)
To help support the cost of a quality instruction in VPI, we support the Senate’s proposal to increase the VPI per pupil allocation to $6,500. (Item 136 #10s)
It is important to understand the quality of VPI programs. Both the House and Senate proposed additional funding for classroom observations in VPI. (Items 136 #5h &136 #11s)
And to help parents as their child’s first teacher we support the House proposal to strengthen Virginia’s voluntary home visiting network by investing TANF funds in the backbone organization, Early Impact Virginia (Item 340#3h)
both the House and Senate bills to coordinate the plan of services for substance exposed infants passed, including dollars for staff at the Department of Health to collect data and information on the plan of services for substance exposed infants (Item 297 #2h)

13. Trauma-informed Care
Goal: Improve state-level trauma-informed policy and expand promising practices
Policy Priority Proposal:
Develop a state framework to implement evidence based trauma-informed policy and practice. Use the framework to help identify innovations and interventions to support resilient children and communities.
Establish permanent Children’s Cabinet; potential to serve as interagency lead on trauma-informed approaches
3 year campaign
Goal – improve state-level trauma informed policy and expand promising practices
Lifting stories, examples locally
Connecting dots and replicating

14. NEXT STEPS Medicaid expansion and state budget
Implications for families
Implications for local budgets
Contacting Senators
Implementing the increased federal dollars for child care
School Readiness Committee recommendations
First Lady initiative
Trauma-focused policy agenda
VPI+ Funding

15. Stay in touch Voices for Virginia’s Children vakids.org
Mary Beth Testa
Emily Griffey