Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Budget Priorities for FY 2025

Contact House & Senate Leadership and Your Legislators Today!

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT engages in information-based advocacy to achieve equitable public policies and programs for the improvement of children’s lives. Throughout this session, we have been advocating for budget priorities for FY 2025 that advance our mission. We are now in the final weeks of the session.

Now is the time to contact your legislators and House and Senate leadership to ensure that these important items are included in the budget.

Quick advocacy opportunities - take action with these easy tools:

• Raising Rhode Island
• RIght From the Start
• Healthy School Meals for All
• A Multilingual Rhode Island

Call or email your own State Representative/Senator. Visit vote.ri.gov to find your State Representative/Senator. You can also make a call or send an e-mail to Speaker Shekarchi’s office Rep-Shekarchi@rilegislature.gov (401-222-2447) and President Ruggerio’s office Sen-Ruggerio@rilegislature.gov (401-222-6655) to tell them you support these priorities.

Economic Well-Being

• Improve the RI Works Program by updating the cash assistance benefit annually, repealing the full family sanction, and restoring eligibility to legal permanent residents.+* H7686 (Handy); S2337 (Murray)
• Increase the State Earned Income Tax Credit.* H7589 (O'Brien); S2054 (Felag)
• Expanding the supply of safe, healthy, and affordable homes. Governor’s Proposed Budget, Article 5

Health

• Adopt continuous Medicaid coverage for children under age 6.* S2161 (Lauria); H7998 (Slater)
• Provide funding to sustain Mobile Response Stabilization Services to support mental health. H7874 (Tanzi); S2607 (DiMario)

Child Welfare

• Provide financial support to youth aging out of foster care by increasing funding for the higher education incentive grant and establishing a tuition waiver program. Governor’s Budget, Proposed Amendment 12; H7905 (Casimiro) S2962 (DiPalma)
• Stop charging parents for costs associated with their child being in foster care. H7904 (Casimiro)

Early Learning and Development*

• Solve the early educator staffing crisis. H7251 (Donovan); S2038 (Cano), H7123 (Diaz); S2344 (DiMario); H7291 (Shallcross Smith); S2142 (Cano)
• Expand and strengthen the RI Childcare Assistance Program. H7124 (Diaz); S2847 (Cano); H7122 (Diaz); S2459 (DiMario)
• Expand RI Pre-K equitably in Birth-Five context. Governor’s Proposed Budget; H7497 (McNamara); S2843 (Gallo)
• Sustain and strengthen Early Head Start and Head Start. H7496 (McNamara); S2843 (Gallo)
• End waiting lists for Early Intervention. Governor’s Proposed Budget, Article 9; S2359 (Valverde); H7334 (Cotter)
• Meet maternal and young children’s mental health needs. H7900 (Fogarty); S2608 (DiMario); H7204 (Shallcross Smith); S2072 (DiMario)
• Save First Connections newborn family home visiting. S2360 (Valverde); H7899 (Giraldo)

Education

• Increase access to mental health supports in schools. H7397 (Alzate), S2866 (Cano); H7545 (Shallcross Smith), S2597 (Sosnowski)
• Increase the amount and predictability of funding for Multilingual Learners in the school funding formula S2558 (Cano) ; H7907 (Felix) and create a dual language program fund to be administered by RIDE. H7514 (Felix); S2917 (Cano); H7594 (Morales); S2845 (Cano)
• Provide Healthy School Meals for All H7400 (Caldwell); S2320 (Cano)
• Increase access to affordable high-quality Out-Of-School Time programs. S2864 (Cano); H8047 (Shallcross Smith)

Overarching

• Expand the use of Equity Impact Statements in budget and legislative proposals. S2668 (Mack)
• Raise more state general revenue for child care/early learning, public K-12 and postsecondary education, and infrastructure.* H7338 (Alzate); S2355 (Murray)

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT is a statewide children’s policy organization that works to improve the health, economic well-being, safety, education, and development of Rhode Island children with a core focus on equity. | www.rikidscount.org

* RIght from the Start priority RIght From the Start is a legislative and budget campaign to advance state policies for young children and their families in Rhode Island.

+ Raising RI priority The Raising RI Coalition is dedicated to lifting children out of poverty by increasing the RI Works benefit and breaking the cycle of poverty by providing parents with education and training opportunities leading to well-paying, secure jobs.