Happy Children’s Week 2025! We hope you joined some of the briefings and events, which tackled the metrics of early education, investing in foreign assistance for children, and the threats to children contained in the reconciliation package making its way through Congress.

But never fear: Here’s a recap — with links to the recorded sessions — for those who couldn’t join.

BRIEFING: Why Foreign Assistance Matters for Children: Development professionals, advocates and a former refugee highlighted the return on investment that foreign assistance delivers to children and to the world during this online briefing and demanded that Congress restore critical funding and avoid clawing back what’s left of foreign assistance, as requested by President Trump.

These experts also acknowledged that foreign aid must be reformed to better fit the nature of global crises that did not exist when the system was designed, such as climate disasters and online exploitation of children. “We’re not asking for unchecked increases, we’re asking for smart investments with proven return,” said Leila Milani, program director for Global Policy and Advocacy at Futures Without Violence, referencing programs that fight trafficking, child labor, online exploitation and other abuses. “These are targeted tools with measurable results.”

Highlights of this event included conversation with aid workers who were on the ground when U.S. funding screeched to a halt and with a Divine Irakoze, a youth advocate who grew up in a refugee camp in Malawi. Now a student at a U.S. university, Irakoze recalled overcrowded classrooms with very few books, and sitting on stones and under trees to attend class. “They (aid organizations) made a huge difference. They gave us the support we needed, not just to survive but to dream,” she said. “Educated refugees go on to start businesses, lead communities and give back. They are not a burden. They’re actually a blessing.”

Elana Banin, a former policy advisor at International Rescue Committee, and Lauren Murphy, a former senior technical advisor at USAID, shared on the ground experiences of children who are suffering or have died as a direct result of programming halted by the Trump Administration in February. They also outlined the need for reform in foreign assistance and its crucial position as part of U.S. global strategy. “Foreign assistance is not a handout, Banin said. “It is a cornerstone of U.S. strategy.”

Find the recorded webinar at this link.

BRIEFING: Invest in Children: During this briefing in cooperation with the Congressional Dads Caucus and the Congressional Mamas’ Caucus, advocates outlined how the budget reconciliation bill currently in the Senate will disproportionately hurt the nation’s children by cutting the programs that benefit them most. The House-passed bill slashes more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cuts that likely will not change much in the Senate, they said.

Michelle Dallafior, Senior VP Budget and Tax, First Focus Campaign for Children, Abuko Estrada, Vice President, Medicaid and Child Health Policy, First Focus Campaign for Children, and Salaam Bhatti, SNAP Director, Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) said the reconciliation would endanger the health care, food security and economic stability of millions of the nation’s children.

Federal spending on children accounts for just 8.87% of the total U.S. budget, according to Children’s Budget 2024, although children make up 23% of the population. But the programs Congress has targeted disproportionately serve children: 20% of Medicaid funding goes to children, 43% of SNAP funding goes to children, and of course, 100% of CHIP funding goes to children and pregnant women. Cuts to these programs will almost certainly push the share of spending on children much lower. During the first Trump Administration, the president proposed reducing this share to a record low of 7.32%.

Find a summary of the event here. Find the recorded briefing at this link.

BRIEFING: Early Gains, Lifelong Returns – What the Early Childhood Research Shows: Early education provides an economic engine for children, families and the country, experts told the audience at this Capitol Hill briefing, and it cannot succeed without public investment.

“Child care is one of the things that makes all other work possible,” Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) said. “There’s no market solution…There has to be investment and to me that’s a good investment. We’re still fighting for that funding.”

A strong body of research going back to the 1960s has found that early childhood interventions reduced crime, improved educational attainment, boosted cognitive development, increased employment, and improved health. The benefits for taxpayers were just as impressive, with $2.50 of savings for every $1 invested due to less need for support later in life. Read Research Confirms that Early Learning Investments Increase Benefits to Children, Lower Costs to Taxpayers.

Georgetown University professor Dr. Anna Johnson presented findings from her School Experiences and Early Development (SEED) study in Tulsa, Okla., which has identified academic and other gains among children who attend universal pre-K.

Dr. Susan Savage, research director of the Los Angeles-area Child Care Resource Center, outlined the cascading impact of subsidized child care, saying that it helps families pay rent, get jobs that give them access to health care, and even escape homelessness.

The Trump Administration’s FY 2026 budget proposal would eliminate several preschool development block grants and a program that helps college students with children afford child care. It would also “flat-fund” the Child Care and Development Block Grant and the Head Start program, leaving investment at FY 2025 levels, which amounts to a cut.

“Flat funding, especially in this current economy, is essentially a cut,” said Casey Peeks, senior director, Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress. “You will see less families receiving subsidies, Head Start teachers unable to get wage increases, and you’ll see Head Start programs close classrooms. “Long-term,” she added, “we want universal, free, birth-through-5 early childhood education. It’s important to call it ‘education’. This is setting kids up for success. If we have a free and universal K-12 system, we should also have free, universal pre-K.”

The post The Kid Angle: Experts Outline ROI on Foreign Assistance, Early Education, Other Programs appeared first on First Focus on Children.

Meanwhile, we’ve gathered members of Congress and fellow advocates to celebrate Children’s Week 2025, which starts Sunday and runs through Saturday, June 14. The week will feature a series of briefings and events with lawmakers, advocates, and academics on subjects including the metrics of early education, investing in foreign assistance for children, and the threats to children contained in the reconciliation package making its way through Congress. Events include:

MONDAY, June 9 | Welcome Reception

Monday, June 9, 5:30 pm ET

Join First Focus on Children, members of Congress and other advocates for food and drink to celebrate the kick-off to Children’s Week. Register here.

TUESDAY, June 10 | Why Foreign Assistance Matters for Children

Tuesday, June 10, 12:00 pm ET, VIRTUAL

As Congress considers critical decisions on the FY 26 appropriations, join us for a timely and urgent webinar exploring the real-world consequences of foreign assistance cuts on children across the globe. Hosted in conjunction with Georgetown University Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues. Register here.

WEDNESDAY, June 11 | Invest in Children Briefing

Wednesday, June 11, 10:00 am ET

Join First Focus Campaign for Children and the Congressional Dads Caucus for a briefing on the ways the budget reconciliation package puts the health, nutrition, economic security, and education of children at risk. Register here.

THURSDAY, June 12 | Early Gains, Lifelong Returns – What the Early Childhood Research Shows

Thursday, June 12, 12:00 pm ET

Join First Focus on Children and policy advocates for a briefing demonstrating the effectiveness and strong return on investment of federal early childhood programs. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) is scheduled to provide opening remarks. Register here.

For a full list of events, please visit our registration page: https://firstfocus.org/childrens-week-2025/.

The post The Kid Angle: Briefings Spotlight Challenges to Children appeared first on First Focus on Children.

• From 2020 to 2022, COVID-19 was the 7th leading cause of death for 1-17 year olds in America, killing an estimated 1086 children.
• Even if children recover from a COVID-19 infection that caused mild or no symptoms, they are still at risk of long COVID, also called post-COVID condition or PCC. Currently, more than 1 million children in the U.S. have had long COVID with 80% experiencing activity limitations.
• Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in children (MIS-C), is a rare but serious condition that can affect children infected with COVID-19. A child with MIS-C may have severe inflammation in multiple parts of their body, including their heart, lungs, and brain. The only way to protect against MIS-C is to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
• COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. The benefits for getting vaccinated far outweigh the risk of side effects.

Learn more about COVID and kids, as well as the weak and misleading evidence behind the Administration’s decree, in this analysis from First Focus on Children’s Senior Director of Health and Nutrition Policy Advocacy Maxwell R. Rowshandel.

In other news, the terrible horrible no good very bad budget bill moves to the Senate when Congress returns next week. Among the most egregious elements that advocates are urging lawmakers to correct are:

• Several provisions that would significantly alter Medicaid and CHIP, jeopardizing health care access for over 37 million children, including waiting periods, lock outs for parents who can’t keep up with premiums, and caps on annual and lifetime benefits. The package also would reduce the federal matching rate for adults in Medicaid expansion states to 80% if the state provides health care benefits to residents who are ineligible because of their immigration status — even if the states are using money from their own taxpayers.
• The bill’s threat to the food security of at least 4 million children living in households at risk of losing some or all of their food and nutrition benefits as a result of increased work requirements.
• The bill’s uneven Child Tax Credit, which increases the maximum refund from $2,000 to $2,500, but simultaneously prevents 20 million of the nation’s poorest kids from receiving the full credit — 2.5 million more kids than previously. It also disqualifies 4.5 million U.S. citizen babies and children because their parents don’t have a Social Security number.
• Inclusion of the Educational Choice for Children Act, which would create a federal private school voucher program. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, this provision could lead to a 120 percent match or more for upper-income families  while decreasing funding in state and federal budgets. In addition to the lost capital gains revenue, the measure would spend $5 billion a year in taxpayer funds, totaling $20 billion over a four-year period.
• The claw back of up to $16 million in grants from the Inflation Reduction Act to reduce air pollution and monitor and improve indoor air quality in schools.

See our full analysis of the budget reconciliation package here.

The post The Kid Angle: Consigning Kids to COVID and its aftermath appeared first on First Focus on Children.

These cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have received an appropriate amount of attention. But several of the bill’s other provisions are nearly as cruel and demand much more notice. For instance:

Children in poverty are punching bags: Sure, the bill increases the amount of the Child Tax Credit, at least a little. But it also denies that credit to 20 million children whose parents make too little to quality. It also denies the credit to 4.5 million babies and children who are U.S. citizens because they had the temerity to be born into a mixed-status household. These are the same children who will lose Medicaid coverage. And food provided by SNAP. And access to the other support programs triggered when children are enrolled in these two programs. So, the bill actively, deliberately, drives more children into poverty. And then grinds them even further down.  

Public schools raided for tax breaks: The bill aims to decimate public education by promoting a federal voucher program that is specifically designed to help wealthy people avoid capital gains taxes. The proposal — which will spend $5 billion a year in taxpayer funds, totaling at least $20 billion over a four-year period — prioritizes wealthy donors over the 90% of U.S. students attending public schools. Research shows that private school vouchers undermine public schools, particularly those in rural areas. Vouchers do not increase academic achievement, mostly benefit students already attending private schools, and lack accountability.

It’s also important to stay focused on one of the bill’s big lies: Politicians keep saying that the cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other programs won’t affect kids. That they’re just coming after lazy, able-bodied adults. It’s Just. Not. True.

As noted in the new report Children Under Attack, led by UnidosUS and coauthored by First Focus on Children and the AFL-CIO, nearly 45% of the country’s kids, or 34 million, rely on Medicaid for health insurance, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for food, or both. Children are the ones disproportionately covered by these programs. Regardless of what disingenuous politicians say, it is mathematically impossible to cut a combined $1.1 trillion from these programs and not touch kids.

The final kicker: Gun violence is currently the leading cause of death among all U.S. children. What better time to pass a budget bill that reduces fees on gun silencers?

The post The Kid Angle: Day 2 Stories on the House Budget Bill appeared first on First Focus on Children.

“In a moral nation, no such quintuple threat to children can be allowed to stand,” First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley said earlier this week. “Congress must abandon this plan to sacrifice babies for billionaires and find another way to meet the Trump Administration’s lopsided demands.”

Learn more about the impact these cuts will have on kids.

And, coming Monday, we’ll release the first analysis of the impact that combined Medicaid and SNAP cuts will have on America’s children. Join First Focus on Children and UnidosUS on Monday, May 19 at 1pmET for the virtual release of “Children Under Attack: How Congressional Assaults on Health and Food Programs are Endangering the Youngest Americans,” a new report that details the impact these cuts will have on the 45% of U.S. children served by these two programs. Rep. Kathy Castor, Co-Chair of the Congressional Children’s Caucus, will join UnidosUS senior vice president Eric Rodriguez and First Focus on Children President Bruce Lesley for the virtual press conference at 1pmET. You can register at this link.

Meanwhile, SCOTUS today heard arguments related to President Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship. Although the case centers not on the meat of the issue, but on the limits of judicial power, the harm that ending birthright citizenship will inflict on the nation’s children cannot be ignored.

Eliminating birthright citizenship would:

• Require every one of the 3.6 million babies born annually in the U.S. to apply for citizenship.
• Deny newborns and infants essential services like health care, nutrition, and child care — at the very moment they need it most.
• Create a massive bureaucracy to decide which babies “belong” here and which do not.
• Leave hundreds of thousands of children stateless, making them vulnerable to exclusion and exploitation, and stripping them of the opportunity to thrive.

Find a full rundown of the way ending birthright citizenship endangers all of the nation’s children at this link.

The post The Kid Angle: Congress is pushing a “quintuple threat” to kids appeared first on First Focus on Children.