Children living in financially secure families are more likely to succeed in school, stay healthy, and achieve economic self-sufficiency as adults. To ensure family economic opportunity, North Carolina must prepare our children for the future by building a world-class birth through college education system and by maintaining a strong system of work, income, and asset-building supports.
NC Child promotes access to high quality early care and education, and works to make such programs accessible to all children. While children from all backgrounds benefit from the availability of high quality, affordable child care, at-risk children (such as those from low-income families or with disabilities or limited English proficiency) often show the greatest gains in cognitive, language, and social skills.Specifically, NC Child works to protect and strengthen the key components of North Carolina’s early childhood care system, which includes Smart Start, NC Pre-K, and child care subsidies.
Resources and Helpful Links:
NC Early Childhood Foundation
NC Smart Start
NC Pre-K
NC Division of Child Development and Early Education
Child Care Services Association of NC
To achieve this goal, NC Child is working to establish refundable tax credits for low-income working families. Tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) provide additional income to families who are working hard but struggling to make ends meet. Both these policies have been proven to lift children out of poverty.
Additionally, NC Child is working to close the health insurance coverage gap to ensure that over 350,000 working adults, thousands of whom are parents, have access to health insurance that can prevent catastrophic medical debt.
