Nearly 40% of children who were found to be victims of mistreatment in 2021 were under the age of 5. Regardless of their age, all children deserve to grow up in safe and loving homes.

Over the past decade, racial disparities in high school graduation rates between students of color and white students have shrunk. Let’s keep working until all young people enter adulthood with the tools they need to succeed.

More than 1 in 10 infants born in the U.S. are born preterm, which can increase the likelihood of developing health complications in childhood. We must continue working to ensure all parents can access the health care their child needs, both before and after birth.

“[The child care crisis] is costing us $3 billion annually in lost employment, lost earnings… This is not just a temporary problem. This is long-term underinvestment in our child care infrastructure.” – Anne Kuhnen, @‌MichLeague Kids Count policy director bit.ly/3NFUOAu

A single parent of one young child spends over one-third of their income on average on child care. It’s essential that we work to make child care more accessible to all types of families.

“Our theory is that people generally believe that higher education will get them a better job or a higher wage, and yet they feel like the system of higher education is flawed in a rather significant way.” bit.ly/3Or8aAN

The challenges of remote schooling during the early days of the pandemic didn’t just make learning more difficult for students, it also limited the opportunities teachers got to receive feedback on their classroom instruction. bit.ly/4749dy8

More than half of working parents who have infants or toddlers say they’ve been late to work or had to leave early within the past three months because of child care issues. to.pbs.org/3O3GUHf

In late 2022, more than 30% of Black families, Latino families, and Asian families were facing food insecurity as a result of rising food prices. It’s essential we continue working so that no child goes hungry.

“For most kids coming into kindergarten, they’ll have a different elementary principal when they finish elementary school. It has a negative effect on teachers and students because there is no continuity in schools.” bit.ly/3O4jyRN

At the start of the pandemic, the unemployment rate for parents jumped. Let’s keep fighting to ensure that all parents can find secure, reliable work that helps them provide for their families.

Across the board, a higher percentage of eighth-graders are not proficient in math now than pre-pandemic. We must continue our work to help children recover from this pandemic-era learning loss.

No matter what area of the country they live in, all students deserve access to a high-quality education that will prepare them to succeed in the future.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all response, but there are playbooks that guide the way… let’s do more of what works.” bit.ly/43kuml4