Extending Postpartum Medicaid Coverage Ensuring Healthy Moms and Babies Brian Schmidt, Kids Win Missouri Pregnant women in Missouri are eligible for Medicaid or health coverage through the Show-Me Healthy Babies program if they earn less than 305% of federal poverty level ($62,281 for a family of three). Unless the new mothers have incomes below 23% of…
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Protecting Missouri’s Youngest Children Comprehensive Background Checks for Child Care Providers Jessica Seitz, Missouri KidsFirst In Missouri there are over 300,000 children under six with working parents. During the day, these children stay with family and neighbors or in one of the almost 8,000 home and center-based child care facilities across the state. Children…
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The Need for Pre-K Collaboration Jerry Kitzi, Retired Director of Early Learning at Kansas City Public Schools High quality early education programs have a positive impact on child development. In fact, an analysis of the body of research on early childhood education was best summarized in the report, From Neurons to Neighborhoods, authored by…
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Helping Children and Families Thrive Home visiting helps families meet children’s needs during the most critical first years of life. And the results pay off. Alison Gee, Parents as Teachers The premise of home visiting is simple–pair families who are looking for parenting support with trained professionals, often early childhood specialists, mental health professionals, social…
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Early Childhood Education Important for National Security General (Ret.) Frank J. Grass, U.S. Army On January 17, I had the opportunity to speak with Missouri legislators in Jefferson City about the importance of early childhood education to national security. I spoke in my capacity as a member of Mission: Readiness, an organization of over 700…
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An Earned Income Tax Credit for Missouri Policy to Help Missouri’s Working Families Hart Nelson, St. Louis Regional Chamber The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a forward-thinking economic policy designed to assist our most economically disadvantaged working families by helping them break the cycle of poverty. It benefits low-income families and…
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Of Great Minor Importance Increasing the odds for young people to succeed by raising the age of juvenile court jurisdiction Ruth Ehresman, Vision for Children at Risk I would there were no age between sixteen and three and twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but…
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Equipping Parents and Kids for Success Judy Dungan, Kids Win Missouri Forty-five states have early childhood quality assessment and rating systems. Missouri is one of only eight states without a framework for assessing quality, and prior to 2016 was the only state that banned quality assessment. As a result, parents in Missouri seeking childcare for…
Read More Policy Priorities Kids Win Missouri members span the child well-being landscape and benefits from expertise in early education, pediatric health, mental health and safety, foster care and adoption and more. Our members spent the summer and fall months thoughtfully developing policy priorities for the 2018 session of the Missouri General Assembly with the goal…
Read More Welcome to Kids Win Missouri’s Blog! We look forward to providing you with information on issues that impact children in the Show-Me State. Our blog will be regularly updated with contributions from practitioners, experts and leaders in the child well-being field. Their posts will encompass topics including education, health, family, development and safety. …
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