Important public policy isn’t always headline grabbing. Often dry-sounding bureaucratic reforms go a long way toward making life better for children & families. So today let’s unpack 3 recent system wins for young children that your state might be wise to consider: 🧵
We’ll begin in Oregon, where this week the federal government signed off on a groundbreaking pilot program to change to Medicaid eligibility for young children. To help put it in context, here’s a little background…
Medicaid is the nation’s public health insurance program for low income families - and is, accordingly, means tested. One associated challenge is that as work and income come and go for families, so too can Medicaid eligibility.
In plain English, if you make a little too much you can lose your coverage. This is a particular problem for families whose income hovers near the cutoff.
Disruptions in Medicaid coverage are common and can lead to periods of uninsurance, delayed care, and less preventive care.
Recognizing that this would be particularly bad for infants - 42% of whose births are covered by Medicaid - over half of states allow children continuous coverage for 12 months, even if income changes.
So how is Oregon proposing to innovate? Under a new demonstration program approved this week by the feds, eligible Oregon children will qualify for uninterrupted coverage until their sixth birthdays.
After that, children 6 years old and older, as well as adults, can stay enrolled for two years at a time, regardless of changes in their finances or other family circumstances.
It’s a potentially huge advance for the wellbeing of young children - and other states may soon follow Oregon’s lead. You can read more about it here. washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/…
Next let’s turn to Kansas where @LauraKellyKS and @KCCTF have taken action to overcome a persistent challenge for #childcare providers and their employees.
For the protection of young children, the Federal Office of Child Care requires a comprehensive background check for all people living, working, or volunteering unsupervised in #childcare facilities. This background check includes fingerprinting - and appropriately so.
The problem - as most anyone working in the field will attest - is that this background check process can be a logistical nightmare. Prospective staff often travel great distances to get fingerprinted, and antiquated systems can mean delays of weeks or even months in the process.
During a child care teacher shortage, it’s not uncommon for individuals to be offered jobs contingent on a successful background check only to have them drop out and move on to other employment opportunities before the results are returned.
One cause for the delay is the process of mailing ink and paper fingerprints from agency to agency.
This week Governor Kelly announced that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), in collaboration with the Department for Children and Families (DCF), will now offer digital fingerprinting to child care staff, which will significantly accelerate this process.
A pilot program over the past year has significantly sped the approval process, allowing providers to fill vacancies both safely and efficiently. If your state is still drowning in ink pads and physical index cards in 2022, you can learn more here: governor.kansas.gov/kelly-administ…
Finally, let’s turn to California, where this week Governor @GavinNewsom signed legislation making it easier for children to qualify for both preschool and child care subsidies.
It’s not uncommon across the country for services for children and families to be spread across multiple state agencies, creating huge bureaucratic barriers to access for families.
Not only must families often travel from location to location to apply for services, but frequently they must re-document the same income and other eligibility information already provided to the state.
Introduced by Sen. @MoniqueLimonCA, the new law streamlines access to both the California State Preschool Program & subsidized child care system by granting automatic eligibility to families enrolled in SNAP, Medicaid, WIC or Head Start, cutting layers of red tape for families.
You can read more here: edsource.org/updates/califo…
Congratulations to all three states on making the world a safer, healthier, and more streamlined place for kids and families this week.
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