2018 Legislative Agenda
April 2018
In 2018, NC Child focused on suicide prevention, additional funding for school nurses, and closing the health care coverage gap.
NC Child produces publications that document trends in child well-being and the impact of public policy decisions on children and families.
In 2018, NC Child focused on suicide prevention, additional funding for school nurses, and closing the health care coverage gap.
NC Child’s county data cards provide local snapshots of child well-being by county. County data cards present the latest data for key indicators in five areas of children’s well-being: A Strong Start, Family Economic Security, Nurturing Homes and Communities, Health and Wellness, and High-Quality Education. They also compare county data to children in the state as a whole.
This brief explores the impact of dental caries on children’s overall health and academic success, and how North Carolina can take steps to improve children’s oral health through the use of school-based sealant programs.
The North Carolina Child Health Report Card tracks key indicators on access to care, healthy births, safe homes and neighborhoods, and health risk factors over time and by race and ethnicity.
Safe pregnancies and healthy babies are inextricably tied to the pre- and post-conception health of mothers. Data show that maternal health factors are a leading contributor to birth outcomes such as fetal viability and infant mortality. Unfortunately in North Carolina, barriers to affordable and consistent healthcare for women pre- and post-conception contribute to stubbornly high rates of fetal and infant death each year, despite advances in clinical care.
In 2016, NC Child published a brief outlining the potential positive benefits of expanded health care coverage on infant mortality. This brief builds upon that work, exploring the similar potential of expanded women’s health insurance access and utilization to affect fetal outcomes as a result of improved maternal health.
NC Child worked with our partners to achieve big victories for kids in the 2017 legislative session.
Download our 2016 Annual Report to celebrate the big policy wins we achieved for kids in North Carolina. Thanks for being a voice for children!
When children come to the attention of the child welfare system, they have invariably experienced significant trauma that demands a robust array of services and support to help them recover. Just weeks ago, North Carolina passed sweeping child welfare reform legislation to improve our state’s level of care for these children. Unfortunately, pending federal health care reform threatens to undermine our state’s good work to protect children from abuse and neglect and to help victims recover.
The Senate budget (SB 257) includes a provision that would restrict pathways to SNAP eligibility for children and families and unnecessarily increase the program’s administrative burden. If enacted, this change would result in the loss of SNAP assistance for 133,000 North Carolinians—including more than 51,000 children.3