Issues
The Children's Coalition of the Lehigh Valley advocacy agenda focuses on an integrated set of issues that fundamentally impact the well being of children and families in the region and the state. Our essential goals in this advocacy are to:
- Support parents in meeting the demands of early childhood development and education
- Guarantee quality public education to all students
- Assure that our children grow up healthy in stable and safe families
Towards these ends, the CCLV has advocated for action on the following issues:
- Access to quality early childhood education opportunities for all children
- Meaningful childcare support both for families transitioning from TANF and low income families not on TANF
- Stable and effective funding for home visitation and parent support programs
- Adequate investment of state resources in vital basic education services kindergarten through 12th grade
- Greater equity in public school finance
- Full funding of Educational Accountability Grants directed at helping districts meet state and federal education standards
- Full funding of Education Foundation Supplements directed at augmenting the resources of economically disadvantaged school districts.
- Access to health care for all Pennsylvania children including the enactment of the Cover All Kids initiative
- Maintenance of Medicaid funding for children including secondary coverage for many children with special health needs including those with complex conditions and those who are dependent on technology for their care.Enforcement of meaningful quality health care measures in Medicaid and CHIP
- Prevention of abuse and neglect of children through funding of county public welfare agencies at a level significantly higher than that which only permits crisis intervention.
- Access to timely multidisciplinary intervention services for abused and neglected
- Establishment of a Children's Advocacy Center in Northampton County (there is currently one in Lehigh County)
- Development of stable and ongoing funding for Children's Advocacy Centers
- Increased availability of funding to support the housing and nutrition needs of homeless and low income families
