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Federal

Reauthorizing CHIP is Vitally Important for Children’s Futures

  Since its inception in 1997 and reform in 2009, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has made monumental gains in reaching children living in poverty across the nation and ensuring that they grow up to be healthy and successful adults. According to our Family Bottom Line Report, eligibility levels…...

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2015 Priority Legislation

Last Thursday was the final day for individual senators to choose their priority legislation designation for the 2015 session. Each senator may select one bill as his priority, each legislative committee may select two bills, and the Speaker can select up to 25 bills. For an entire list of 2015…...

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2014 Kids Count in Nebraska Report

  The 22nd edition of the Kids Count in Nebraska Report continues to offer a visually-oriented look that brings data to life and makes finding information quick and easy. This year’s report also incorporates a few changes to help us tell the whole story of Nebraska’s kids....

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Significant Improvements Coming to Child Care Programs

Access to affordable quality child care is essential to both ensuring that children are prepared for school and allowing parents to work.  In Nebraska, the majority of children under the age of 6 have all available parents in the workforce.   This means that the majority of our kids are…...

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Paid Family and Medical Leave Would Make a Huge Difference for Nebraskans

As far as paid leave policy goes, the United States is ranked essentially dead last, a fact that both astounds and outrages citizens across the nation. U.S. workers must choose between family and work when faced with circumstances such as an illness in the family, aging parents, or a newborn…...

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SPARC: What’s next for child welfare in Nebraska?

Last week, just a few days after attending the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT conference in Baltimore with hundreds of child advocates from across the country, I found myself in a much smaller room in Washington D.C. for the convening of the State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center (SPARC)…...

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Time to Move Forward with Child Care Update

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) is the most significant source of funding for providing child care assistance to working families to help ensure kids are safe so parents can work. For families with young children, child care has become the largest expense in the family budget and…...

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HR 4980: Pathways to permanency

It’s rare to find an issue that draws unanimous bipartisan support among members of the U.S. Congress in the news today. Fortunately, when it comes to some children’s issues, politicians from both sides of the aisle often come to an agreement on the importance of investing in tomorrow’s generations. Last…...

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CHIP Helps Reduce Disparities in Access to Health Care

Access to quality affordable health care helps children prepare to be healthy and successful adults.  As a consequence of economic instability, children of color are less likely to have the health insurance coverage that they need.  New data released for 2013  showed that 7.6% of kids nationwide do not have health insurance.…...

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Children’s Health Insurance Program Critical for Rural Kids

The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was created in 1997 to provide health insurance coverage to U.S. children in families with an income too high to be eligible for Medicaid and inadequate to afford private health insurance. In Nebraska, children in families with incomes of up to 200% of the…...

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