With the North Carolina General Assembly back in session, advocacy organization NC Child is fighting to make sure lawmakers keep the children of North Carolina in mind.
They recently released their 2019 Opportunity Workplan, with the top five priorities being Medicaid expansion, early childhood education, “Raise the Age” funding, census funding and suicide prevention.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for children between the ages of 10 and 17 in the state, and deputy director for NC Child Rob Thompson says suicide prevention training for all school employees is just the beginning.
“I think this suicide prevention training that we’re trying to implement for school employees will be a small step forward,” says Thompson. “I think we need significant reform of our mental health system. In North Carolina there are too many kids out there right now who aren’t getting the care they need.”
Thompson says addressing other factors that influence kids mental health, such as bullying, social media and even poverty is a long term goal for NC Child.
The advocacy group has also requested $31 million to expand early childhood education, which would help 6,000 kids get off of waiting lists for childcare subsidies.
“We’ve seen multiple studies nationwide and here in North Carolina showing that access to high-quality early education improves kid’s chances to succeed later on in school, both in terms of reading outcome, graduation rates, and there’s even been linkages to later physical health in life,” says Thompson.
Thompson says with the Democrats newfound negotiating power in the legislature, he sees a realistic path forward on issues like Medicaid expansion.
The full workplan is available an ncchild.org.
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