8 Questions on Kids’ Issues for TX Lege Candidates

Asking questions to candidates for the Texas Legislature — at public events, over email, when they knock on your door, or however works for you — is a great way to advocate for Texas kids. Posing a good question can educate candidates about the issues, let them know what’s important to you, and help set the agenda for the next legislative session. For further updates and information, we encourage you to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and sign up for our email updates.

Here are eight questions about state children’s issues that we encourage you to ask candidates to the Texas Legislature, including current legislators:

1. What will you do to reduce the uninsured rate for Texas kids?

Access to consistent and timely health care is critical to keeping children healthy and in school. Health insurance is key to reaching that goal for Texas kids, including for those whose parents work in low-wage jobs that don’t offer affordable insurance to families.

Unfortunately, Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation for children, and it’s getting worse. It’s a problem that includes children of all backgrounds, communities, and race/ethnicities.

During the 2019 legislative session, the Legislature passed zero bills to reduce the uninsured rate for kids. Texas can reduce the uninsured rate for children by reducing red tape for eligible children in Medicaid, restoring outreach efforts, or using Medicaid expansion funding to cover low-wage adults, which indirectly covers more children.

2. What will you do to support healthy moms, healthy pregnancies, and healthy babies?

Texas women need adequate health care and support before, during, and after their pregnancies to ensure that they are healthy and their baby is healthy.

Unfortunately, Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation for women of childbearing age. Under current state policy, Medicaid insurance is typically only available to low-income uninsured women during their pregnancy and for approximately 60 days after childbirth.

During the 2019 legislative session, on a vote of 87-43, the Texas House passed HB 744 in an attempt to extend health coverage to mothers for a full year after childbirth, as recommended by the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force. Unfortunately the Senate did not take up the bill and it failed to become law. The House also voted down an amendment to accept federal Medicaid expansion funding to provide an affordable insurance option to low-wage adults.

3. What will you do to ensure more children are safe with their families?

One of the most important roles that the state government plays is protecting children’s safety — and sometimes their lives — when they are at risk of abuse or neglect in their homes. In some cases, Child Protective Services (CPS) must remove children from their homes. In 2016 and 2017, following high-profile child tragedies, state leaders wisely invested in reducing caseloads for CPS child abuse investigators, an investment that paid off with more timely investigations, safer kids, and lower caseworker turnover. Legislators must ensure that CPS continues to have the ability to conduct effective investigations and remove children from unsafe homes when necessary.

Policymakers should also work to keep more children safely with their parents and out of foster care, but it must be done in ways that protect the safety of children and prioritizes prevention. Texas has services that provide support to at-risk families to help them try to stay together safely — such as Family Based Support Services, substance use and mental health treatment for parents, home visiting, and support for teen parents in foster care — but many of these services need additional funding to serve more families. Texas should fully invest in these programs. Part of that strategy should be taking the steps necessary to draw down more federal funding for these kinds of prevention services through the new federal Family First Act.

4. What will you do to ensure children in foster care are safe, supported, and healing?

When children are removed from their homes by CPS and placed in foster care, their lives should get better.

Unfortunately, many children have experienced further abuse in foster care, as documented by the state’s ombudsman and in testimony during the lawsuit against the state’s foster care system. Additionally, during their time in foster care, many children miss out on the stability, nurturing, mental health support, and education that they need in order to recover from trauma and grow up to be healthy, successful young adults. All of these foster care challenges are particularly acute for teens or children with higher needs, who are often placed in group homes and residential treatment centers rather than with families.

To meet these challenges, the state must invest in fulfilling its agreement with the federal court to keep foster care caseworker caseloads low enough to provide each child in foster care with adequate attention. Texas must also work on placing more children with foster families or in family-like foster placements, both to better serve high-needs children and to comply with new requirements under the federal Family First Act.

5. What will you do to ensure working parents can find affordable high-quality child care?

High-quality child care plays a critical role in helping working families give their toddlers the social, emotional, and learning tools they'll need for school and life. Access to child care also ensures that parents have the ability to work and provide for their families.

Yet the cost of child care for one child often exceeds college tuition, meaning that many families are unable to find care or forced to settle for low-quality care during this critical early childhood stage of brain development. And, for many reasons, the quality of child care options are often low: The state's current child care standards allow one adult to supervise 11 two-year-olds, threatening children’s safety and undermining learning. The low pay for child care workers makes it difficult to attract and retain caregivers with the training and skills needed to appropriately nurture, protect, and lead engaging activities with little children. Additionally, while the state’s child care quality rating and improvement system (called Texas Rising Star) helps improve quality, it needs more child care providers to participate in the system.

In 2019, the Texas Legislature started to take a few steps to address child care, such as improving oversight and safety and boosting child care nutrition standards. But much more work remains to be done to address the child care challenges outlined above.

6. What will you do to ensure ECI programs stay open for babies and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays?

The state’s Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) program contracts with community groups to provide therapies to children under age three with autism, speech delays, Down syndrome, and other disabilities and development delays. It’s been an effective program to help kids learn to walk, speak, prepare for school, or meet other goals.

Unfortunately, a number of community groups shut down their ECI services in recent years after state funding cuts.

In 2019, the Legislature increased funding for ECI, but it did not provide the full amount that the Health and Human Services Commission said was necessary. The state must ensure that these programs have the resources they need to continue to serve babies and toddlers.

7. What will you do to build on the progress Texas made on pre-k last session?

Full-day high-quality pre-k ensures that more children start kindergarten with the academic, social, and emotional skills they need to succeed in school and become strong readers by third grade.

Fortunately, the Legislature took a big step forward during the 2019 session by extending pre-k to full-day for students who meet the state’s current eligibility standards.

However, there is more work to do on pre-k, such as helping communities include three-year-olds in pre-k in addition to four-year-olds; addressing the high number of children who are not eligible for Texas pre-k; establishing limits on student-teacher ratios to ensure that pre-k programs are effective; and implementing student mental health strategies and other efforts to improve behavior and reduce early childhood suspensions.

8. What will you do to build on the progress Texas made on student mental health last session?

There’s a growing recognition that schools play a critical role in helping all students develop skills for managing conflict, stress, and anxiety and providing more robust support to students with more significant needs. By effectively addressing student mental health, schools can boost learning and academic performance, improve behavior, reduce suspensions, prevent suicides, and support student health and safety.

Fortunately, the Legislature took important steps in 2019 to provide school districts with additional resources and guidance to support student mental health.

However, additional work is needed so that all students and school staff have the support they need so children can learn in an effective, supportive environment. The Legislature must provide districts with dedicated funding to support school mental health efforts. Lawmakers must also increase the availability of training, technical assistance, and consultation services for school administrators and teachers on implementing schoolwide and classroom practices that promote student learning, behavior, and well-being, including among our youngest learners.