What If We Centered Kids in Our Policy Decisions?
As Americans, we love to say that kids are our highest priority. Yet our response to the pandemic has provided contradictory evidence—not inconsistent with data and reports from years before the pandemic—that have consistently ranked the United States toward, if not at, the bottom when comparing child well-being with other developed countries. While kids are generally less seriously ill with coronavirus, we cannot ignore the myriad ways that all our children and young people have been affected by the pandemic.
I often think about what it would look like if the health and well-being of kids were centered in our policy and program decisions. With the passage of President Biden’s American Rescue Plan and the introduction of the proposed American Families Plan, I am encouraged by the increasing inclusion of children’s issues in national-level policy discussions. Importantly, there is also a growing awareness of the costs associated with raising a child and in viewing government as a helpful partner in ensuring that children what they need to grow and thrive. As we begin shifting from crisis toward recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have an opportunity to do better by our kids—to center their needs in our policy decisions and to create meaningful opportunities for young people to have a voice in the programs that affect them.
When we realized the severity of COVID-19, one of our first decisions was to physically close schools and transition to distance learning. This action further exposed the already existing educational inequities across states, school districts, and classes. Roughly 30 percent of our 47 million school-aged children lacked internet access or a device required to participate in virtual learning. All kids felt the absence of socialization with teachers, counselors, and peers and the loss of extracurricular activities, sports, and milestone celebrations. As we prioritized reopening restaurants, bars, and even Disneyland, more than 56 million students remained at home as schools debated how and when they could safely reopen for in-person classes.
Today, a year into the pandemic, playgrounds are open and sports have resumed. There are, however, still wide variances by state, county, and school districts, as to the number of children who have returned to in-person learning. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona recently tweeted: We shouldn’t go back to the schools of March 2020 – that’s a low bar. Right now, we have the chance to be bold – stronger mental health support, better training, and the opportunity to address inequities that existed long before COVID-19.
We now have the opportunity to re-imagine not only the way our kids are taught and learn, but also who the stakeholders are, who provides input and guidance, and the way in which we evaluate success. As we move forward, let’s:
Address the digital divide. Federal funding from the CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan, coupled with local philanthropic efforts distributing hotspots and electronic devices are helping to ensure that students have access to online learning platforms and classrooms and children’s families are able to receive important health and safety information. We must continue to bridge the divide to ensure that all our kids, especially those in rural areas, have internet access—and as they become more digitally immersed, are protected/safe online.
Provide meaningful opportunities for students to share their perspectives, experiences, and ideas. Student Voice, a youth-led nonprofit organization that advocates for student-driven solutions to educational inequity and representation in the system that impacts them, made a case for “why student voice in the U.S. Department of Education would meaningfully improve their schooling experiences” and called on Secretary Cardona to partner with students to develop solutions for schools’ challenges. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Education released new guidance and rules about how states and school districts must seek input from students, educators, and community groups, as they make plans for the funds from the American Rescue Act. This is not a novel request: this spring, Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, launched The Big Ask, an online survey asking young people ages 4-17+ to “show the government what [they] think, and what children need to live happier lives.” Why don’t we have someone in our government whose responsibility is to proactively interact with our kids, and take on a project like this one to better advocate on their behalf?
Prioritize young people in future COVID-19 surges and responses to coronavirus variants. We must follow the science and use known information to help formulate plans that center the health and well-being of kids, and to think and act collectively on behalf of all children.
In countries where kids’ outcomes are better than here in the United States, young people are talked about (and to) by elected leaders and in the media. Policies and programs reflect this, and practices such as child impact reports ensure that decisions are made with the best interests of children in mind. As I’ve noted, in recent months, there is a growing openness in the U.S. to include kids’ issues in policy conversations and an awareness that federal programs have the potential to impact children’s well-being. The American Rescue Plan is the single largest investment made to improve the lives of kids and recognition of government having a supportive role in doing so has not been recognized since FDR’s New Deal and Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.” President Biden’s proposed American Families Plan further supports this idea.
The pandemic is providing an opportunity not only to evaluate how children and young people are faring but to challenge our expectations of what can be done. We can demonstrate that we prioritize the health and well-being of kids if we:
Make permanent the expanded child tax credit in the American Rescue Plan. The child tax credit has the potential to cut our child poverty rate in half, because the credit is non-refundable and does not have an earnings floor. Importantly, it is not just the poor who will benefit from the credit, as more than 90 percent of all families with kids can receive additional resources from this legislation. In short, it has the potential to change the trajectory of millions of children’s lives. A permanent tax credit acknowledges the financial cost of raising children and demonstrates that government can play a role in helping to ensure that all children have what they need to grow up healthy and thrive.
Address food insecurity and stigma by making permanent the provision of safe, healthy meals free of charge to school-aged children. As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to safely reopen schools, the USDA recently announced the expansion of an initiative that enabled all school-aged children—there are no eligibility requirements or enrollment forms to complete, reducing stigma and promoting inclusion—to receive lunch at school. The implementation of universal school lunch is a cultural example of what it looks like not only when we say we prioritize our kids, but when kids are actually doing well. The financial costs are high for programs like this, but the moral costs of not having them are even higher.
Increase mental health services at schools through on-site counseling and outreach. Despite not becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 itself, the impact of the pandemic has greatly impacted our kids’ mental health and well-being. Young people were asked to physically distance from extended family and friends; saw parents, grandparents, and loved ones get sick and die from COVID-19 (with Black and brown kids more severely affected); and missed out on “regular” events, extracurricular activities, and milestone celebrations. In a recent survey of more than 11,000 K-12 students, 38 percent of respondents reported being more concerned about their mental well-being, 51 percent reported an increase in stress, and 39 percent shared that they feel lonelier since the start of the pandemic. In addition, the effects of not only COVID-19, but traumatic events related to racial injustice have further impacted children, especially Black and brown kids. Mental health curriculum and support must be as much of a focus as academics as our children head back to in-person school.
Keep kids in the conversation about vaccine safety and distribution. Not only are young people asking about vaccines and speaking up about ways to build trust in the vaccine, but we need kids to get vaccinated if we want to achieve the herd immunity required to bring the pandemic to an end.
As we build our pandemic recovery plans, we must make sure that we consider the needs of young people and make decisions that reflect this. When we talk about investing in the well-being of our children, what are the actions behind these words? How do our policies reflect this? And when we look at our cultural norms, what are the illustrative examples of our kids doing well? Let’s move from being a society that says kids are our priority and challenge how we are showing that they are one.