Getting to the Source of State-Dedicated Funding for Kids

Ensuring that all children in the United States have the opportunity to grow and thrive requires significant public spending at all levels of government. With major federal investments for kids set to decline in the coming years, advocates need to explore new strategies to maintain, sustain, and expand support at the state level. One promising approach is creating state dedicated funds—public revenue streams set aside by state legislatures or voter approval to support programs and services for children and youth. These funds offer a more stable and protected source of funding outside the annual budget process, and may insulate child and youth programs from political and economic churn. Join Children’s Funding Project to learn more about state dedicated funds as we share highlights from our forthcoming paper State Strategies for Sustained Investment in Kids: A Landscape of Dedicated Funding, which takes a comprehensive look at dedicated state-level funds for child and youth programs outside of the K-12 school day. In this webinar we’ll speak to some of the advocates highlighted in the paper and discuss the range of approaches states have taken to dedicate funding to kids. Attendees will leave with a sense of the decision-making, coalition building, and advocacy that made these wins possible and with concrete strategies that state leaders and advocates can use to identify what might work in their own state. Everyone who registers for the webinar will receive a copy of the recording.