NEW YORK - This month is the culmination of a drive to let the Obama administration and Congress know there's widespread support for the president's plan to spend some $75 billion enhancing the future for America's tiniest citizens.

In New York and around the nation, the message is to support funding for early childhood care and education.

Already, the National Women's Law Center has seen that 30,000 letters were sent to the White House. The group's director of child care and early development, Helen Blank, said many were from children.

"We had someone who asked for a play date with Sasha and Malia," Blank said. "We got someone who wanted to play basketball with the president. Just an extraordinary outpouring of support."

In addition to President Obama's push for pre-kindergarten for all, his initiative includes investments in services for families of infants and toddlers. Betty Holcomb, co-chair of Winning Beginning NY, said about 100 groups around the state have signed a letter in support.

"Civic groups, business groups, United Ways, an Urban League. We even got an auxiliary of an America Legion post upstate," she said. "Just broad, broad support."

Holcomb said countless studies have shown that investing in early care and education saves communities, states and the U.S. economy in the long run.

"Everyone is speaking up about how this would help and support healthy development and education for the children in their community," she said, "and there is just enormous, enormous unmet need for these services."

The national organization Zero to Three is planning what it calls a "Virtual Baby Rally," a Google Hangout-type event broadcast on YouTube, bringing together people to speak for the youngest Americans. The group's director of government relations, Pat Cole, was asked if those once-popular Internet "dancing babies" will be involved.

"Well, I had thought about the E-Trade babies," she said, "but I hadn't thought about the dancing baby. But yes, we would like to have people visualizing whole crowds of babies jumping up and down because someone is focusing on their needs."

In the Empire State, Winning Beginning NY says 10 events are planned to show that there is widespread backing for investing in getting America's toddlers off to a good start in life.


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More than one million children in Texas no longer have health insurance through Medicaid, despite being eligible for coverage, according to a new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states were not allowed to cancel coverage - then last year, state health departments were tasked with rechecking the eligibility of Medicaid recipients.

Brittney Taylor-Ross, senior policy analyst with the advocacy group Every Texan, said despite the option to slowly complete the task, Texas chose to do it in one year's time.

"We didn't take up a lot of the flexibilities that were offered, so that was a state choice at the leadership level. We also chose to go through this unwinding process pretty quickly. Other states have paused their process when they've seen that things don't look right," Taylor-Ross said.

The report shows Texas has disenrolled more children than any other state. Anyone who lost coverage must reapply. Taylor-Ross said as of April, the median amount of time to process a new Medicaid application is 95 days. Federal law requires this number to be 45 days or less.

Most families don't realize they no longer have coverage until they go to the doctor's office.

Joan Alker, research professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, and executive director, Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said the problem affects not only families, but the pediatricians and clinics that treat them.

"Kids are going to miss out on those well-child visits, they're going to miss out on getting the medications they need - be it an inhaler for their asthma or an ADHD medication. And that really sets them back, both in their health and their success in school," she said.

Because of the unwinding, more than 4 million fewer children are enrolled in Medicaid. One out of four of those children lives in Texas.

Wyoming's suicide rate ranks first in the nation, according to the most recent data, and state lawmakers are taking steps to improve access to mental health care. The state budget recently passed by legislators prioritized ten million dollars for investments in mental health for K-12 students.

Rep. Jon Conrad, R-Evanston, was also able to earmark nearly $11 million for the Wyoming 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Conrad said children are more vulnerable now than ever before.

"The challenges that they face - with not only peer pressure, but world events, local events, bullying - have really led us to a point where we are seeing an increase in suicides, unfortunately," he said.

Suicide is the seventh leading cause of death in Wyoming, but it's the second leading cause of death for residents between the age of 10 and 44. Nationally, more than 49,000 people died by suicide in 2022. That's one death every 11 minutes. The Biden administration recently launched a new national suicide prevention plan to address what it calls an urgent and growing public health crisis.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, please call 9-8-8, or text W-Y-O to 741-741.

More than 20% of high school students seriously considered suicide in 2021, and nearly one in ten tried to take their own lives. Conrad was unable to secure $40 million in this year's budget for the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, enough to permanently fund the program. Conrad says since August of 2022, the lifeline has answered more than 15,000 calls from Wyomingites.

"And only 2% of those required elevation to the next level, specifically ambulance, or law enforcement, etc. So it is working, the challenge for us and me is to get it to be permanently funded," Conrad said.

Stigma has long been a barrier for people struggling with suicidal thoughts, depression and anxiety disorders, and other mental-health challenges. Conrad believes the prevailing sentiment that individuals should "man up" or "cowboy up" needs to change.

"But you know what, I think manning up and cowboying up is reaching out a hand of fellowship to that person that seems a little distant - whether you like him or not - but someone you see disengaging, and reaching out and saying, 'How can I help?' " Conrad said.


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A new report from Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families says nationwide, 4.16 million fewer children were enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The report tracks the impacts of lifting COVID-19 coverage protections on Medicaid enrollment, showing that Tennessee experienced more than 59,000 disenrollments.

Michele Johnson, executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center, said 76% of people in Tennessee who've lost coverage did so due to procedural reasons, meaning the state doesn't know whether they're eligible or not.

"A couple of weeks ago, we had a two-year-old who had recently had a heart transplant. His family got the packet, they mailed the packet back, and then the response they got back was, 'The income you submitted showed you were over the income.' The two-year-old with a heart transplant got a notice that said, 'Because you never responded to the packet, you're losing coverage,'" she lamented.

Johnson added a persistent issue they are seeing is, the state has been sending Medicaid renewal packets to the wrong addresses, causing families to lose coverage, and continuing the process without fixing the issues.

Johnson said half of children in Tennessee rely on Medicaid for their health coverage. While Tennessee is a low-income state, the Medicaid income eligibility threshold allows many children to qualify for this insurance program, which is crucial for their well-being.

"We know with comprehensive health coverage, children do better as adults, are more likely to finish college, and they're more likely to have jobs as adults that don't require them to ever be on public assistance," Johnson explained. "At least 60,000 children have lost coverage -- and probably more like 100,000 children -- have lost coverage."

Joan Alker, research professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, and executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, said they have closely monitored how ending the pandemic's continuous Medicaid coverage policy has affected children's enrollment. She called it a lack of political leadership, since governors are ultimately accountable for administering Medicaid and CHIP programs in their states.

As Alker put it, "States that saw a really large number of children disenrolling, I place that squarely on the governor -- because the folks doing the work needed the resources, they needed the staffing, they needed the procedures and the effort to make this a smoother process than it has been."