On July 1, major cuts to child care supports go into effect causing 8,700 families to lose child care assistance each month. Helping families pay for child care makes it more likely they can get and keep a job.
The state has also stopped new applications for the Kinship Care Program, which provides financial support to non-parental, relative caregivers, like grandparents. Research shows that children who have been abused and neglected experience less trauma when placed with someone they know than with strangers, even well-intentioned strangers.
These cuts are bad for Kentucky families, bad for the state budget and bad for the economy. Now is the time to remind the Governor that Kentucky children need his help. We need you to speak up and ask him to restore funding for these important programs for children.
Please call Governor Beshear on Monday, July 1 at 502-564-2611 and leave the following message:
“Cuts to child care and kinship care are hurting Kentucky’s families. Please add restoring the child care and kinship care funding to the special session agenda. Kentucky kids can’t wait until 2014 for these cuts to be restored.”
Help spread the word on Twitter.
On Monday, tweet that you want Governor Beshear to restore the cuts to child care and kinship care. Use the hashtag #nocuts2kids. The Governor’s twitter handle is @GovSteveBeshear.
Also, tweet at your state lawmakers and ask them how they plan to work to restore these cuts. Use the hashtag #nocuts2kids.
Finally, share your story about how the cuts will affect you or someone you know here.
Remember, your voice could make the difference.
As a director taking time at the end of the day to prepare for tomorrow I opened this e-mail that ask for a comment on the child-care cuts we are facing. I took the time to go online to look at some of our state sites that have all the do’s and don’ts in child care and came across this on the CHFS website:
“Mission Statement: To provide leadership in building high quality, community based access to child care and early learning that enhances health, safety, permanency, well being and self-suffiency for Kentucky’s children and families.” Along with a Vision Statement that wants to “increases available quality child care that is developmentally appropriate, affordable, healthy and safe; Provides access to early care and education; Provides safe child care services which support stability and self-sufficiency of families; Utilizes technological resources to promote the improvement of outcomes in child care; Expands data collection and management systems that allow for evidence based management decisions. Perhaps someone needs to provide our Governor and lawmakers of the mission and vision statement for children in Kentucky. I think they missed this part of their job description.
Brenda, such a great comment. Thanks for taking the time to look into this and bring it everyone’s attention!
I work as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children through the family court system. Good, safe, quality and affordable child care are essential for families but CRUCIAL for families in crisis, foster parents, grandparents and other family members trying to provide a safe stable home for children. Please restore funding for this crucial safety net for families.
Gail, you make such a great point. We need to help families ensure children are in a stable environment and with a growing number of kids in kinship care, supporting these families is crucial.