Washington D.C. – Today, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), joined by Senator Casey (D-PA),Mark Shriver from Save the Children, and Bruce Lesley from First Focus, announced the plan to release an annual report card on the state of America’s children. The primary goal of the report card will be to make America first among nations in child well-being over the next decade by consistently monitoring the status of children. Results from the report card will be used to set forth new public policy ideas aimed at improving our nation’s performance in caring for the next generation. First Focus and Save the Children are partnering to spearhead the development of the report card.
The State of Our Children Report Card will highlight and track data that provide a holistic picture of child well-being and identify the unmet needs of America’s children. The report card will identify key indicators of child well-being and set benchmarks for progress over time in four key domains: child health and safety; social and emotional development; education and intellectual development; and economic security. The content of the report card is intended to support federal action to improve children’s well-being by: providing current information about the status of child well-being and measuring progress over time; highlighting where child well-being is improving overall and where there is need for continued improvement; and proposing policy recommendations to improve child well-being.
“It’s in our nation’s best interest to raise the most healthy, most educated, best-prepared children in the world for the challenges that lie ahead. Yet on virtually every index, America’s children are falling behind. Today in America one in five kids is born into poverty, 30 percent of students fail to graduate from high school, and 8 million children lack health insurance,” said Bruce Lesley, President of First Focus. “A report card will bring much needed attention to children’s issues, provide a holistic picture of how children are faring, and hold us accountable for improving child well-being in America.”
“We must fight to keep children not only at the forefront of our hopes for the future of this country, but at the forefront of its national agenda,” said Senator Dodd. “We must establish lasting and rigorous measures to help guide our progress on these issues and hold policymakers accountable. Today’s announcement—and the new partnership that will continue the work going forward—means that we will measure not only whether we are making sound policy, but also whether we are, indeed, fulfilling the American promise to our children.”
“There is a decades old and very robust debate about the role of government in helping families living in poverty. But three year olds don’t even have bootstraps to pull on,” said Mark Shriver,Senior Vice President for Save the Children’s U.S. Programs. “Now is the time to give every American child an equal start in life and this report card is an important first step.”
Last month, Senators Dodd and Casey called for the creation of a National Council on Children, a permanent federal entity that will focus on addressing the needs of America’s Children. The State of Our Children Report Card will support the Council’s long-term efforts by tracking indicators of child development, providing a clear picture of how children are faring in America today, and offering recommendations to improve the status of the next generation.