Why It Matters: The proposed changes to Head Start would undermine the requirements that make it one of the nation’s most successful early learning programs. Changes could weaken safety protections, reduce essential health and developmental services, eliminate important mental health supports, and roll back other requirements designed to support the whole child and family. 

Arizona families deserve better. Head Start is more than an early learning program- it connects children and families to the supports they need to thrive. We need to protect the standards that have served generations of children and families. 

Take Action! 

We are joining our partners at the Arizona Head Start Association and the Arizona Early Childhood Alliance in calling on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to protect Head Start and preserve the essential services and safeguards that children and families rely on. 

Submit your comment by October 6th: act.stand.org/a/acf-save-head-start 

To celebrate 61 years of Head Start- let's make sure there are 6,100 voices speaking up for our children and families.   

The post Protect Head Start: Tell HHS to Keep Essential Services for Children and Families first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

These county profiles include important facts about the children in each Arizona county, such as:

 42.8% of children in Cochise County have health insurance through a public program like AHCCCS/Medicaid and KidsCare;

 50,704 children in Pima County gain the nutrition they need through SNAP; and

 47.3% of aged 3-4 year-old children in Coconino County are enrolled in school.

These are just a few examples of the data that we are making available to highlight the importance of health insurance programs, anti-hunger benefits, and expanding affordable early education and child care.

Children’s Action Alliance (CAA) is proud to be a part of the national KIDS COUNT® network of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which provides reliable, up-to-date data indicators on the well-being of children in Arizona and across the nation. Annie E. Casey Foundation does this through an annual report and by making data about children easily accessible to advocates, policy makers, and the public through their KIDS COUNT Data Center. By understanding these indicators and using them to guide policy decisions, we can build an Arizona where all children and families can thrive.

Visit the KIDS COUNT® page on our website to learn more about children in Arizona by clicking on a county in the state map.

The post New KIDS COUNT® Data: A Closer Look at Arizona’s Children first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

Veronica Reynoso serves as Director of Child Welfare and Prevention Services at Children's Action Alliance, leading advocacy, prevention, and policy work for the children and families of Arizona. She brings nearly two decades of dedication to Arizona's child welfare system, including 18 years with the Arizona Department of Child Safety. She started as a specialist working directly with families, then spent 14 years in leadership roles across the state, championing process and practice improvements to support better outcomes for children and families. She most recently served as Statewide Coordinator at EverGrow Child Advocates. Throughout her career, Veronica has been guided by a deep belief in an Arizona where every child and family feels safe, connected, and has the opportunity to thrive in communities that support them.

Children's Action Alliance is excited to expand our team. Let's give a warm welcome to Veronica!

The post Welcoming Our New Director of Child Welfare and Prevention Services! first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

But when it comes to supporting families, the United States’ standing remains in last place. 

Every country competing in the FIFA World Cup guarantees paid leave for new parents, except for one.  That's right - the United States remains the only country in this tournament without a national paid family medical leave policy. 

In fact, the United States is one of only 7 countries left in the world that lacks a national paid leave program, putting them in the same bracket as Marshall Island, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papau New Guinea, and Tonga.  
 
Research consistently shows that paid family leave improves infant and maternal health, 
increases workforce participation, and strengthens financial stability. Yet too many parents are forced to return to work just days or weeks after the birth or adoption of a child because they simply cannot afford to take unpaid time off.  

As United States’ fans cheer for their team in this Cup, we must shoot for another goal worth fighting for: ensuring every family can provide needed care for their family without risking their financial future. The 2026 World Cup reminds us that is far past time for the United States to stop sitting on the sidelines and join the rest of the world in guaranteeing Paid Family Medical Leave. 

Read more about the benefits of paid leave and information by clicking below.  

The post We Can’t Leave Families on the Bench: It's Time for Paid Family Leave first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

David previously served as the CEO/Director for the Arizona Department of Child Safety and in K-12 education leadership roles. David’s prior history with CAA began in 2016, as the inaugural director of The Arizona Center for Economic Progress to advance policies that create fairer tax codes and better economic opportunities for all Arizonans. He then was appointed by the board to serve as CAA’s CEO and President. Before joining CAA, David worked in public policy in Arizona for over 20 years in several roles including a former member of the state Senate and House of Representatives, as an attorney for a nonprofit assisting abused and neglected children, and as an assistant attorney general advising the School Facilities Board.

CAA announced in February that January Contreras, CAA’s current Executive Director, would be departing CAA this month. “We would also like to express our deepest gratitude to January Contreras for her leadership since 2023, and for her support of this leadership transition for the important work of CAA.”

We are excited to welcome David to our team!

The post CAA Names David Lujan Executive Director first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

Thank you to Mayor Kate Gallego for the fun and special proclamation naming June 17^th, 2026 as January Contreras Day, and to Congressman Greg Stanton for sending a Congressional Certificate of Commendation.

Our special thanks to the partners and supporters who joined us last night and who stand up for Arizona’s children every day beside CAA.

The CAA team thanks January for her many contributions and the lasting impact she’s had on those we serve!

The post Celebrating January's Leadership at CAA first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

The final budget includes some key investments and preserves vital critical services, but it also falls short of meeting the scale of the challenges facing children across our state. Too many opportunities to strengthen child care, early learning, education, kinship families, and economic security were left on the table.

Extended Foster Care Funding was Increased, but Kinship Families Were Overlooked

Win: The FY27 budget continues and expands support for extended foster care coaching at $8.2M, which helps young people transitioning out of foster care navigate adulthood, access services, pursue education and employment opportunities, and build long-term stability.

Lost Opportunities: The budget did not include an increase to the Kinship Care Stipend, missing an opportunity to better support grandparents and other relatives who step in to care for children during difficult circumstances, even as they face significant financial challenges while providing stable homes for children. The budget also failed to restore federally funded Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance for kinship caregivers, limiting support for relatives caring for children outside the formal foster care system.

Looking Forward: Children's Action Alliance will continue advocating for policies that strengthen kinship families. Increasing the Kinship Care Stipend and restoring TANF assistance for kinship caregivers are both proactive, cost effective, and remain critical priorities for ensuring relatives have resources to care for children and prevent unnecessary placement in congregate care. These investments support better outcomes for children.

K-12 Education Received Wins, but Early Gaps Are Creating Lasting Impacts

Wins: K-12 Education: There was important investment in K-12 education by funding the School District Additional Assistance and Opportunity Weight funding for the third year in a row. The $37M and $29M appropriations provide targeted support to students to help address longstanding resource gaps. Continued funding for two years foruniversal school meals is also appreciated at a time when we have seen that almost 200,000 children have lost access to nutrition benefits in the last several months.

Affordable Child Care: For the second year in a row, the budget invests almost $45M for child care assistance. While this allocation of state funds is one of the highest state investments in affordable child care in more than 15 years, families are struggling with the affordability crisis and the waitlist for assistance has grown to 13,000 children. CAA and our partners advocated for $160 million in child care assistance to eliminate Arizona's growing child care waitlist, and it is a disappointment to miss out on the opportunity to help children, families, and our economy thrive through affordable child care.

Lost Opportunities: Children’s Action Alliance is disheartened to see no investment for early literacy coaching to help more children reach reading proficiency by fourth grade. Investments that provide targeted support for teachers and students are proven strategies for improving educational outcomes. The evidence is clear that literacy coaches help strengthen classroom instruction and have been associated with improved reading proficiency rates in schools and states across the country.

A clean renewal of Proposition 123 remains essential to maintaining stable funding for Arizona's K-12 schools. With Proposition 123 expired and not renewed for a second year in a row, Arizona is required to backfill the amount that was originally generated from the state land trust to public schools. We must keep working to renew Prop 123.

Looking Forward: Arizona's future depends on the well-being of its youngest children. Early investments in child care, early learning, and literacy improve long-term outcomes for children, families, and Arizona's economy.

This year, Arizona missed key chances to move these priorities forward. HB2239, which would have expanded child care and early learning infrastructure in rural and underserved communities, stalled in the Senate after passing the House. Yet families cannot fully participate in the workforce when quality child care is unavailable, and children need strong early learning opportunities to enter kindergarten ready to succeed.

Beyond child care accessibility and affordability, the state should strengthen funding for early childhood, like Arizona’s early childhood agency First Things First, whose tobacco-tax revenue has declined over time, limiting services for children and families. Closing the loophole on taxing vape and nicotine products through HB4032 would help restore funding for critical early childhood programs.

Protecting Health Care and Nutrition Assistance

Wins: The FY 27 budget supports the health of Arizonans by fully funding caseload growth, including for individuals with developmental disabilities, and protecting against across-the-board agency cuts in health and human service agencies such as AHCCCS, DES, and DHS. It also provides funding needed to implement the disastrous federal bill H.R. 1 (formally known as the One Big Beautiful Bill) which forces significant cost shifts to states and makes it harder to access Medicaid and nutrition assistance benefits. State funding is critical to allowing eligible Arizonans continued access to health and food assistance programs as state agencies work to implement costly, federally required administrative hurdles.

This budget also provides important continued investments in the 9-8-8 Suicide & Crisis Line ($4M) and the AZ Psychiatry Access Lines which provides behavioral health support for perinatal, postpartum, and pediatric patients. It also continues investment in programs supporting rural health care such as Critical Access Hospitals ($4.3M).

Lost Opportunities: The FY27 budget fails to invest in needed medical services in maternal and oral health, such as lactation consultation services and comprehensive adult dental. It is also concerning that the 2-1-1 line is not funded, which helps to connect Arizonans with needed services such as health care, housing, food assistance, and other social services.

Looking Forward: For more than a year now, Children’s Action Alliance has brought attention to the harm of H.R. 1, and we now see this with children all across Arizona at risk of not having enough to eat. The cuts and red tape get worse in future years. While this budget provides the requested funding, it is still imperative that Arizona’s agencies work hard to minimize the harm to Arizonans who are eligible for benefits. Funding for staffing, technology, and enrollment support can help ensure eligible children and families do not lose health coverage or food assistance because of administrative barriers. In taking on a difficult task, DES has failed to mitigate the harms of H.R. 1 implementation, leaving 400,000 fewer Arizonans – many of whom are still eligible – without access to SNAP benefits, including 180,000 children. State agencies must do better, and Children’s Action Alliance will be monitoring how agencies utilize the technology and staffing resources provided in this budget.  Since day one, it was clear that the federal passage of H.R. 1 would bring pain to Arizonans, and it is now up to state leaders to work with urgency to restore SNAP benefits for those who are eligible and prevent a similar problem with health coverage when AHCCCS provisions go into effect in early 2027.

Investing in Arizona's Future Means Investing in Children and Families

Facing financial uncertainties and significant cost shifts caused by Congress, Arizona’s FY27 bipartisan budget has wins and lost opportunities. It provides funding needed for caseload and enrollment growth in education and health and human services programs – but fails to meet the need for child care assistance. It provides the funding needed to implement H.R.1 but still risks Arizonans losing access to health and food assistance benefits they are eligible to receive. It provides funding for some K-12 programs but fails to renew Pro 123 or to invest adequately in literacy and early childhood programs. This budget increases funding to support foster youth as they age out but fails to invest in kinship families to improve the outcomes and placement while in the state’s care.  

Just this week, the 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book was released and ranked Arizona 40^th in the nation for overall child well-being. It makes clear that too many Arizona children continue to face barriers to economic security, educational success, and healthy development. Arizona's ranking underscores that investments in children are not optional – they are essential to the state's future. While these challenges will not be solved in a single budget cycle, every investment in children's health, education, and economic security brings Arizona closer to becoming a state where every child can thrive.

The post FY27 Budget Wins, Lost Opportunities, and Everything In Between first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

“Families who are working so hard to rise above the poverty line are also facing higher costs for food, gas, housing, and child care. When a family’s purchasing power is decreasing, it’s hard to catch up and feel peace of mind. The tough decisions that come with financial stress impact the whole family, including kids,” said January Contreras, Executive Director of Children’s Action Alliance, a member of the Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT network.

The current and prior KIDS COUNT DATA Books show that:

• In 2024, the share of children in Arizona living in poverty remained unchanged from the prior year’s 15% in 2023. The national rate is 15%.
• The share of children in Arizona living in households with a high housing cost burden remains stubbornly high at 29%, nearly one out of every three children. The national rate is even higher at 31%.
• The share of children in Arizona who are uninsured continues to be among the highest in the country at 9%. The national rate is much lower at 6%.
• The share of three and four-year old children not in school in 2020–2024 in Arizona is 65%, significantly higher than then the national rate of 54%. 
• 36% of children in Arizona live in single-parent families compared to the national rate of 34%.

According to the KIDS COUNT Data Center, the median income by family type varies widely: In Arizona, the median income for a two-parent household with children is $121,930; for a single father with children is $60,300; for a grandparent raising a grandchild without a parent in the home is $51,211, and for a single mom with children is $44,093. Policymakers must understand that disparities in family income often impact a child’s opportunities and access to health care, food, housing, and child care.

In addition to comprehensive data available at the Data Center, the Data Book reports on 16 indicators of child well-being based on data from 2019 to 2024. Arizona’s highest ranking was in economic well-being where the state ranked 31st, and its lowest ranking was in education, where Arizona ranked 47^th, among the five lowest scoring states in the country, according to the 2024 data in the Data Book.

Children’s Action Alliance recognizes important actions taken by Governor Hobbs and the Arizona State Legislature including increased funding for affordable child care, and expansion of Kids Care for children in working families, and ensuring school meals are available to eligible children. We encourage lawmakers and communities to unite across party lines and respond at all levels of government by investing in young people.

As the Governor, legislature, and local leaders set the course for Arizona, Children’s Action Alliance urges policies that include:

• Staffing, technology, and public education to ensure that eligible children and families are not prevented from basic services through Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) simply due to costly and complicated administrative burdens imposed by new federal laws and regulations;
• Increased access to affordable child care;
• Increased access to affordable housing; and
• Increased support through the kinship stipend to support grandparents and kin raising their grandchildren; and
• Full funding for K-12 education.

The post Arizona Ranks 40th in 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.

A new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) shows that more than 43,200 children ages 0-6 were uninsured in Arizona in 2024. The report shows that 9 percent of Arizona’s children under age 6 were uninsured in 2024, compared to 7.4 percent in 2022. Unfortunately, Arizona ranks well above the national share of 5.3 percent and has the third highest rate of uninsured children under 6 in the nation. 

The findings highlight what’s at stake for our youngest children:

• More young children are losing coverage. Babies, toddlers, and preschoolers are seeing sharper coverage losses than older children just as they need important check up appointments. 
• Coverage protects families from rising costs. Health insurance helps families afford care, avoid medical debt, and give young children a healthier, more stable start.
• Without action, more children could lose coverage. Medicaid cuts and new administrative hurdles could make it harder for families to get and keep health insurance for their children.

Research shows that Medicaid coverage for children is linked to better access to care and improved health, educational, and economic outcomes in adulthood. Access to health care is especially important for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, who require frequent visits to the doctor during their earliest years of life. When young children are insured, families have a better chance of detecting developmental delays and other health issues that can affect a child’s ability to learn. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 12 checkups by the time a toddler turns 3, helping ensure children are developing properly and receiving the preventive care they need.

More recent enrollment data adds to the concern. Georgetown CCF’s Medicaid and CHIP enrollment tracker has recorded nearly 75,000 fewer children (-11.3%), enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP since January 2025 in Arizona.

The situation in Arizona could have been even worse, but Governor Hobbs and the Arizona Legislature scored a bipartisan win for children when they expanded the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) – Kids Care – to 225% of the Federal Poverty Limit beginning in 2024, allowing over 22,000 more children to qualify for health care coverage.

Coverage matters for parents, too. When parents lose their health coverage, their children are more likely to become uninsured, putting the whole family at risk of financial hardship.

We can all agree that no child should have to go without health care. Children’s Action Alliance urges Arizona lawmakers to take action to reduce the number of uninsured young children and ensure eligible children can get and keep affordable health coverage. As Arizona’s budget negotiations are finalized, it is critical Arizona’s leaders provide funding for AHCCCS and DES to meet the implementation challenges of H.R.1 and prevent even more children from losing health care coverage.

The post Uninsured Rate for Our Youngest Children Rising at an Alarming Pace first appeared on Children's Action Alliance.