By, Erika Witt | First 5 LA Policy Analyst
May 22, 2025
On April 28, 2025, First 5 LA returned to the State Capitol for its annual Advocacy Day, delivering a clear message: California must continue to invest in young children, especially as families face rising challenges and fiscal uncertainty.
President and CEO Karla Pleitéz Howell and Vice President of Community Engagement & Policy Aurea Montes-Rodriguez, along with a delegation of staff from the Public Policy and Early Care & Education (PPECE) Department spent the day meeting with legislators from Los Angeles County and beyond. Additionally, they met with representatives from the California Legislative Women’s Caucus and other state officials, including California Health & Human Services Secretary Kim Johnson. With a focus on families in L.A. County, the team underscored how state decisions in the coming months will shape outcomes for all of California’s youngest residents.
Above: Ofelia Medina, Aurea Montes-Rodriguez, Karla Karla Pleitez Howell, Assemblymember Sade Elhawary (57th Assembly District), John Bamberg, Esther Nguyen, Anais Duran, Erika Witt
This year’s Advocacy Day unfolded against the backdrop of multiple challenges—ongoing wildfire recovery, rising costs of living, and threats to federal safety net programs, which are likely to heighten California’s fiscal challenges and force lawmakers to make tough decisions over preserving competing priorities in coming years. First 5 LA used these conversations to elevate how the overlapping pressures are felt most acutely by families with young children, and how early investments can make a lifelong difference.
Throughout the day, First 5 LA emphasized the need to not only protect the systems that serve children and families, but also strategically strengthen them, uplifting data from across the county to ground policy conversations in the real experiences of families. Advocacy Day also offered space to spotlight recovery efforts following this year’s wildfires, and to share First 5 LA’s 2025–2029 Policy Agenda and legislative and budget priorities across several key areas:
Supporting the Early Care and Education (ECE) Workforce
First 5 LA reiterated its commitment to advancing a well-compensated and culturally responsive ECE workforce, uplifting early educators as essential contributors to California’s educational and economic infrastructure. Discussion centered on the need to implement sustainable compensation models by maintaining funding proposed in January’s budget for the implementation of a single rate structure using an alternative methodology for state-subsidized child care programs to reflect the true cost of care.
Improving the Rollout of Transitional Kindergarten (TK)
As California continues to scale its universal TK program toward full implementation in the 2025-26 school year, First 5 LA emphasized the need for a rollout that meets children where they are developmentally – advocating for maintaining funding allocated in the January Budget Proposal to create an English Language Proficiency screener for four-year-olds and reduce classroom ratios from 12:1 to 10:1 to help ensure young learners receive individualized attention in the early years.
Enhancing Identification and Support for Perinatal Mental Health
Acknowledging that one in five new parents experiences a perinatal mental health condition, but only a quarter of those diagnosed receive necessary treatment, First 5 LA voiced support for SB 626 (Smallwood-Cuevas), which would require health plans to provide case management and care coordination for patients who screen positive for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders. Early detection and treatment are vital to both parent and child well-being.
Safeguarding Medi-Cal for Young Children
With budget threats on the horizon, due to anticipated federal cuts to state Medicaid funding, First 5 LA called on state policymakers to preserve access to Medi-Cal services for children ages 0–5. The team highlighted the importance of continuity of care during key developmental windows and urged the restoration continuous Medi-Cal eligibility for young children, a provision that was included in the 2022 enacted budget, but ultimately redirected to the state’s General Fund upon the passage of Proposition 35 in 2024.
Strengthening the CalWORKs Home Visiting Program (HVP)
Home visiting programs provide critical support for promoting healthy development, strengthening parent-child relationships, and increasing family stability. First 5 LA urged legislators to adopt AB 607 (Rodriguez, C), which would expand eligibility thresholds for the CalWORKs HVP, and allow families more time to benefit from these services—helping maximize use of existing home visiting resources and reach more families during a child’s early years.
Supporting Immigrant Families and Children
Continuing a longstanding commitment to immigrant families, First 5 LA championed AB 421 (Solache) and AB 49 (Muratsuchi); bills aimed at protecting immigrant families’ access to safe, essential services by preventing law enforcement from collaborating with immigration authorities during enforcement actions near sensitive locations such as child care centers, places of worship, and medical facilities as well as guiding schools on responding to immigration enforcement. In a climate of heightened immigration enforcement and fear, these protections are especially vital in L.A. County, which is home to the nation’s largest undocumented population.
To amplify the reach of these advocacy efforts, First 5 LA partnered with BARÚ, a multicultural marketing agency, to launch a targeted digital advocacy campaign. Timed to coincide with First 5 LA’s Advocacy Day, digital ads highlighting core themes of the Policy Agenda were featured in prominent state policy platforms including CalMatters, the Capitol Morning Report, and the Sacramento Bee. The digital ad placements directed viewers to First 5 LA’s Policy Agenda webpage. The campaign was specifically designed to elevate visibility among state decision-makers and to generate momentum ahead of the Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision of the state budget. First 5 LA is proud to report that the campaign garnered significant traffic and engagement across platforms, and it will continue to serve as a cornerstone of the advocacy communications strategy leading into the final budget negotiations in June.
