With the first day of the 2022-2023 school year just around the corner, parents and caregivers across Colorado have many things on their minds and to-do lists, from readjusting to school year schedules to the excitement of being reunited with previous classmates and meeting new ones. Something they shouldn’t have to think about? How, or even if, they will be able to ensure that their kids have access to a nutritious breakfast and lunch during the school day.

Food for Thought

When kids are well-fed, their physical, mental, and social well-being increase and families are able to build Parental Resilience and Social & Emotional Competence of Children, two of the Protective Factors that support the prevention of child maltreatment and set the foundation for kids and families to thrive.

During the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a federal waiver provided access to free school meals for all students, increasing participation in school meal programs by up to 20%. Its expiration prior to the upcoming school year will leave Colorado students whose families’ income is too high to qualify for free or reduced-price lunch programs–but not high enough to afford school meals–hungry or with school lunch debt. For families who do qualify, the expiration of the federal waiver means dealing with burdensome enrollment paperwork and the stigma that comes with participating in free or reduced-price lunch programs.

What’s on the table?

House Bill 22-1414 Healthy Meals for All Public School Students, a bill passed during this year’s state legislative session, refers a question to the November 2022 ballot for Colorado voters to decide whether to make access to free school meals for all students permanent in our state, starting in the 2023-2024 school year. 

In addition to increasing the economic security of families and ensuring that all students are able to meaningfully engage in both the academic and social aspects of school, this measure would further strengthen Colorado families and communities by incentivizing the purchase of ingredients from local food systems, increasing wages for individuals employed by school meal programs and offering healthier meal options to students. If passed, the program would accomplish this by offering: 

• • An option to participate in a local procurement grant program that would provide schools with funds to purchase food from local farms and ranches.
  • An option to participate in a grant program that would enable schools to increase pay for the staff who serve and prepare meals for students.
  • Funding for equipment and training to provide students with healthier meals.

What can I do?

Here’s how you can support the efforts to make access to healthy school meals a reality for all Colorado students:

Vote YES on this November’s ballot question about providing school meals for all students. 

• • Make sure you’re ready to vote on this November’s ballot! In Colorado, you can REGISTER TO VOTE and vote in person up to 7 p.m. on Election Day, November 8th. In order to receive a ballot in the mail, the deadline to register to vote or update your registration is October 31.
  • You can also sign up for BallotTrax – a system promoted by the Colorado Secretary of State that will allow you to track your ballot from sent to accepted. Sign up for BallotTrax here!

Engage in the Healthy School Meals for All Campaign’s official campaign launch events (Stay tuned to Illuminate Colorado’s social media channels for more details!)

• • In-person in Denver on Thursday, August 11 at 10:30 a.m.
  • Regional kick-off dates and details to come!

Sign up to actively participate in the Healthy School Meals for All coalition’s efforts to pass the ballot initiative in November.

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While this year’s Colorado legislative session may be over, opportunities to advocate for policies that strengthen kids and families continue at the federal level. Raise your voice, and join Illuminate in advocating for the policies below!

Child Care and Early Learning Reconciliation Plan

Colorado and our nation prospers when our youngest children thrive, because they are our future leaders and community members. No matter where they live–the plains, mountains, rural areas or urban centers–children need high-quality experiences and loving relationships to support healthy development. Ensuring high quality child care is affordable and accessible for families is vital to ensuring a positive future for Colorado.

Conversations continue between Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), keeping hope alive that a reconciliation bill is a possibility. Reconciliation discussions include the revamped child care and early learning reconciliation plan, which largely focuses on expanding funding through the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), and advocates on the Hill are hopeful that it will be included as part of reconciliation.

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program Reauthorization

Home visiting programs are proven to positively impact maternal and child health outcomes–including by reducing child maltreatment, improving positive parenting practices, and improving family economic self-sufficiency. 

Unfortunately, the current funding level limits their ability to reach the children and families who need them most. Only 150,000 of the 18 million current and expectant parents who could benefit from the program receive services. In Colorado in particular, while some level of home visiting services is available in all counties, according to the Child Fatality Prevention System’s 2020 Annual Legislative Report, “Not a single county in Colorado… has home visiting programs to meet the overall needs of families in the county.”

As the Colorado chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA) and a member of our state’s Home Visiting Investment Task Force, Illuminate Colorado enthusiastically supports the importance of maintaining and bolstering the infrastructure necessary to offer high-quality home visiting services to families across our state and nationwide.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Respect Act

When children, adults, and families impacted by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) receive appropriate diagnoses, supports, and services, secondary impacts of FASD (e.g. dropping out of school, getting into trouble with the law, alcohol and other substance use, etc.) can be prevented, and impacted individuals and families can thrive. Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is the most commonly known cause of developmental disabilities in the United States, and recent research shows that up to 1 in 20 first graders in the United States are impacted by the resulting disability of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). 

While we know the importance of diagnosis and providing appropriate services for FASD, significant and concerning gaps in FASD-related diagnostic and clinical resources are common throughout the United States. Despite the clear need for more resources, federal funding for FASD prevention and intervention has declined from $27 million as authorized in the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Prevention Act of 1998 to just over $12 million in FY2021. 

Child Sexual Abuse Prevention

Globally, at least one in five girls and one in ten boys experience childhood sexual violence. Across Colorado, and in our own backyards, child sexual abuse is a major public health concern which must be addressed as a core element of child safety and family well-being. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the previous five years, the number of children who have been sexually abused had steadily risen in Colorado (1). From January 2014 through December 2020, more than 7,400 children in Colorado were identified as having been sexually abused (1).  In 2020 alone, a year when reports of child maltreatment were dramatically down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine and stay-at-home orders, over 1,000 children were substantiated as victims of child sexual abuse through the child welfare system in Colorado, which doesn’t account for all of the children who have not yet been identified (2).

We hope you’ll join Illuminate Colorado in speaking up at the federal level to ensure that:

• • Families have access to quality and affordable early learning/child care and home visiting services
  • Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) prevention, screening, identification, research, and support services are appropriately funded
  • Bold and transformative action is taken by our and other nations to end childhood sexual violence

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Some highlights from this session include:

Head over to the full 2022 legislative session recap for a closer look at these and many other legislative wins for children and families in Colorado!

We will all need to:   

• • Engage in stakeholder opportunities as part of implementation of bills that passed this session, especially: 
    • The stakeholder process required by House Bill 22-1289 Health Benefits For Colorado Children and Pregnant Persons to determine priorities for drawing down federal funds to improve perinatal and postpartum support
    • The Mandatory Reporting Task Force established by House Bill 22-1240 Mandatory Reporters to analyzing best practices and recommending changes to training requirements and reporting procedures and analyzing the effectiveness of mandatory reporting and its relationship with systemic issues
  • Get involved in the campaign efforts to encourage Coloradans to vote ‘yes’ on the ballot question referred to voters by House Bill 22-1414 Healthy Meals for All Public School Students to provide long-term funding that will ensure that our state’s students have long-term access to school meals by limiting state income tax deductions for people earning more than $300,000 a year.
  • Continue to advocate for primary prevention in federal and state budgets by investing in proven services and professional education that support families and keep kids safe–especially for preschool, child care, evidence-based home visiting programs, family resource centers, afterschool programs, medical and behavioral health care, and child sexual abuse prevention programs
    • This includes advocating federally for increased investments in proven child maltreatment prevention programs and services through MIECHV, CBCAP, and CAPTA
  • Continue to advocate for family economic security–especially access to housing, food, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), and tax credits
  • Continue to advocate for family friendly work policies, including livable wages for Colorado families.
  • Continue to advocate for expanded support for families impacted by intellectual and developmental disabilities, including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders 
    • This includes advocating federally alongside our national partners at FASD United to advance Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) research, prevention, and services at the federal level through the FASD Respect Act
  • Continue to advocate for expanded  support for families impacted by intimate partner violence
  • Continue to advocate for equitable access to services to support healing and recovery

We are so grateful to the many community partners for their leadership and advocacy, to the legislators who sponsored and/or voted in support, and to all of YOU for making your voices heard in order to make these family-strengthening policies a reality in our state. We hope you will join us in celebrating these wins and looking ahead to the next steps in creating and implementing policies that strengthen families and create the conditions for all of Colorado’s children and families to thrive.

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We hope you will make your voice heard for Colorado’s kids and families during the remaining days of this legislative session! As always, you can keep track of the progress of these bills and others that impact families using Illuminate’s bill tracker.

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