Children prenatal to age 5 and their families have their basic needs met.

Support continuous Medi-Cal health care coverage for children under 5 years old.

• The 2022 enacted budget made a commitment to permanently provide continuous Medi-Cal eligibility for young children. However, funding was only allocated in 2024—and contingent on the failure of Proposition 35, which when passed by voters last November, resulted in the set-aside funding being redirected into the state’s general fund.
• Multi-year continuous Medi-Cal eligibility for children 0-5, a change that – long discussed and having demonstrated effectiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic – would ensure children have uninterrupted access to health care services, regardless of fluctuations in family income or other administrative barriers, where losing access to care, even for short periods, can cause children to miss vital preventative health services.
• In LA County, 78% of children are enrolled in Medi-Cal, and and 79% of all people enrolled in Medi-Cal are people of color.
• To ensure stable health care access and promote more equitable health outcomes, continuous Medi-Cal coverage for young children must be restored.

AB 607 (Rodriguez, C) CalWORKs: Home Visting Program. Makes statutory changes to the California Department of Social Services’ (CDSS) CalWORKs Home Visiting Program (HVP), including extending the length of HVP participation to allow families to participate through the model’s recommended duration and extend the enrollment window from up until a child is 24 months of age to 36 months.

• CalWORKs HVP provides evidence-based, voluntary home visits along with training and referrals to resources that support prenatal, infant and toddler care; infant and child nutrition; child development screening and assessments; parental education and job readiness.
• Current stringent eligibility cutoffs mean that the CalWORKs HVP cannot maximally support families with young children. Research shows children who participate up to age 5 have improved language and cognitive development, improved math and reading scores, reduced absenteeism, and decreased school suspensions.
• Expanding the enrollment period for the HVP will allow for more families to be eligible to enroll, thereby utilizing more enrollment slots and maximizing the resources, without changing the budget amount while at the same time allowing for model fidelity. This is especially vital given that underutilization was used to justify reductions to funding for the CalWORKs Home Visiting Program in the final 2024-2025 budget.

Children prenatal to age 5 nurturing relationships and environments.

SB 626 (Smallwood-Cuevas) Perinatal health screenings and treatment. Requires health care service plans and health insurers to modify their perinatal mental health programs to include case management and care coordination for patients that screen positive for perinatal mental health (PMH) conditions during the perinatal period and annually report/publish case management services outcomes and utilization. Health plans would also be required to provide coverage for at least one FDA-approved medication and one digital therapeutic specifically for perinatal mental health conditions.

• In California, one in five pregnant and postpartum people experience PMH issues, but 75 percent do not receive treatment. When PMH disorders go untreated, both parent and child face adverse outcomes, including poor parent-infant bonding and attachment, and delayed physical, mental and emotional growth and development in the child. Suicide is the leading cause of maternal death, and this is much more likely to occur when postpartum depression goes untreated. These risk factors make access to mental health services extremely important.
• SB 626 will make resources more accessible, improve service coordination and support a more holistic, comprehensive approach to care for postpartum people. This bill focuses broadly on health care plans and insurers, which includes populations covered by Medi-Cal, and ultimately seeks to establish new standards that promote an integrated approach to care to improve health and well-being outcomes for children and families.

Children prenatal to age 5 have foundations for will-being, lifelong learning and success

Implement rate reform for child care providers.

• Current reimbursement rates for child care providers do not sufficiently cover the full cost of providing enriching care to young children. Early Care & Education providers set their fees based on how much families can afford to pay, also known as the Regional Market Rate, and the state then determines a percentage of that fee to “reimburse” child care providers for income eligible families.
• The Governor’s January Budget Proposal maintained funding to continue the Cost of Care Plus Rate monthly payments for state-subsidized child care programs, however, the Administration must continue to prioritize the implementation of a single rate structure using an alternative methodology that reflects the true cost of care.

Support the development of a new English Language Proficiency Screener for transitional kindergarten students.

• When universal transitional kindergarten (UTK)—a free, state-funded early learning program for all 4-year-olds—was implemented in California, it became a second year of kindergarten, making students in this program subject to the federally mandated English language proficiency testing. The current tool that the state uses, called the English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC), however, was created for 5-year-olds and therefore not an accurate measure of language development in younger children. Misidentifying English Learners (ELs) can lead to short- and long-term, harmful consequences, including, but not limited to, anxiety, stress, and poor academic outcomes.
• In 2024, F5LA supported AB 2268 by Assemblymember Muratsuchi, exempting children enrolled in TK from the ELPAC until a developmentally appropriate tool could be created. This bill passed with an urgency clause to ensure exemptions went into effect ahead of the 2024-2035 school year. To complete the enactment of this law, in the Governor’s 2025-2026 January Budget Proposal, $10 million was indicated for the development of a proper screener.

Support lowering the child to adult ratio in transitional kindergarten classrooms.

• The support children receive from adults during ages 0-5 helps shape the foundation for life-long learning and success. Lower ratios of children to adults in early learning settings mean more individualized attention and care for each student, which is crucial during this key window of social-emotional and brain development. At the age of 4, children are still refining their gross and fine motor skills, and the range for hitting certain milestones is much wider. Currently, the ratio of children to adults in California TK classrooms is 12:1. As part of the full implementation of UTK, the Governor has proposed funding in the January Budget to lower that ratio to 10:1, which brings the state closer to reaching the golden ratio of 8:1 recommended by experts.

Support AB 49 (Muratsuchi) Schoolsites: immigration enforcement. Seeks to prohibit school officials or employees of a local educational agency from allowing an officer or employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter a school site without providing valid identification, a written statement of purpose, and a valid judicial warrant. This bill would also require ICE to receive approval from the superintendent of the school district or county office of education, or principal of a charter school. Lastly, if ICE is permitted onto the site, they must be limited to areas of the facility where children are not present.

• California is home to greatest number of immigrants in the United States, with the majority residing in Los Angeles County and who contribute vastly to the state’s social and economic robustness. Since the first day of this federal administration, however, President Trump has signed a litany of executive orders targeting immigrant communities. Research has shown that increased immigration enforcement can lead to more fear-based behavior from communities, including, but not limited to, school absenteeism and loss of trust in public institutions. This is counterintuitive to the well-being of children and their families.
• AB 49 by Assemblymember Muratsuchi provides guidance to educators, staff, and faculty on how to engage with immigration enforcement that attempt to enter school sites, allowing for educators to better protect the students in their care.

Support AB 421 (Solache) Immigration enforcement: prohibitions on access, sharing information, and law enforcement collaboration. Prohibits California law enforcement agencies from collaborating with, or providing information to, immigration authorities and any immigration enforcement actions when the actions could be or are taking place within a one-mile radius of a child care facility, religious institution, place of worship, hospital, or medical office. If passed, it would take effect immediately.

• The federal administration has revoked the “sensitive locations” policy, which protected individuals from immigration actions in certain places, such as schools, hospitals, and churches. The intent was to avoid a chilling effect on people’s willingness to access essential services, however, with this policy no longer in place, it means that ICE could now conduct enforcement actions at these once protected areas.
• AB 421 by Assemblymember Solache builds on the California Values Act and would prohibit California law enforcement from cooperating with and providing information to immigration authorities if an immigration enforcement action is happening within a one-mile radius of specified sites, helping to somewhat mitigate the impact on families’ access to essential services like child care and medical care.

FY 2026 Appropriations

Protect and strengthen critical federal programs supporting young children, specifically by increasing funding for:

Head Start and Early Head Start

• Head Start and Early Head Start are critical pillars of California’s early childhood system, delivering high-quality learning and comprehensive supports to children from birth to age five.
• These programs are essential to California’s early learning system that promotes the school readiness of children birth to five and prioritizes families with greatest need.

The Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG)

• Child care and early education is essential to the success of young children, working families, and early learning providers.
• While current CCDBG funding helps support 11,000 children in California, there are approximately 2 million children from birth through age 12 who are eligible for child care in California but are not being served. CCDBG is currently only serving 12 percent of eligible children five and under.
• Increased CCDBG funding can help close the gap between need and access, stabilize the child care sector, and better support working families and providers.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B and C

• Children with disabilities deserve timely, appropriate developmental supports.
• IDEA Parts B and C provide early intervention services beginning at birth, helping young children with delays or disabilities reach critical developmental milestones.