State Resources
state and city efforts to establish child poverty targets
Current as of December 2, 2021
*If you have state or city efforts to add to this list, please e-mail Carab@firstfocus.org
California
California’s Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Act (2017) established the Lifting Children and Families Out of Poverty Task Force, and mandated the task force to come up with a plan to cut chid poverty in half as well as end deep child poverty.
The End Child Poverty Plan was release in November 2018
The End Child Poverty California campaign is leading advocacy work to carry out this plan
Connecticut
A Child Poverty and Prevention Council was established in 2004 and tasked with designing a plan to cut child poverty in half within a decade. It sunset in 2015 and is no longer active.
Delaware
The State of Delaware Child Poverty Task Force was established in 2007 and tasked with coming up with a plan to cut child poverty in half within a decade. It is no longer active.
Illinois
The Illinois Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security was established in 2020 through the Intergenerational Poverty Act and includes a goal of eliminating child poverty by 2031.
Previously the Commission on the Elimination of Poverty was established in 2008.
Maine
The Invest in Tomorrow Campaign was established in 2017 by a set of organizations, businesses and individuals with the goal to cut child poverty in half within a decade.
The campaign worked to pass two bills in 2019, An Act to Reduce Child Poverty by Leveraging Investments so Families Can Thrive (LIFT) and An Act to Secure Transitions to Economic Prosperity for Maine Families and Children (STEP).
The campaign has a set of 2021 goals.
Minnesota
A Commission to End Child Poverty by 2020 was established in 2007 but is no longer active.
The commission included a goal to cut child poverty in half by 2014.
New York
Governor Kathy Hochul signed the Child Poverty Reduction Act in early December 2021, after the bill passed the state Assembly and Senate with overwhelming support. The bill sets a state target to cut child poverty in half within a decade, with a focus on racial equity. It would require the State’s budget director to consider the child poverty ramifications of policies and budget decisions. The legislation would create a child poverty reduction advisory council to lead this effort.
See the press release from our colleagues at the Schuyler Center on Analysis and Advocacy for more detail.
Puerto Rico
The House and Senate unanimously passed legislation in 2021 to establish a target to cut child poverty in half within a decade (P.S. 293) as well as a committee to come up with an agenda to meet this target. This bill is now on Governor Pierluisi’s desk awaiting signature.
Vermont
The Vermont Child Poverty Council was established in 2007 and was tasked with coming up with a plan to cut child poverty in half within a decade. The Council sunset in 2017 but was reauthorized by the Vermont legislature in 2018 and renamed the Advisory Council on Child Poverty and Strengthening Families.
Final progress report of Child Poverty Council – December 2017
A coalition of child advocates is currently working to reduce child poverty and increase cash assistance to families in Vermont.
Wisconsin
End Child Poverty WI Campaign – ongoing grassroots effort to build support for legislation to establish child poverty target.
Cincinnati, OH
Child Poverty Collaborative – established in 2015 with the goal of helping 10,000 families get out of poverty in 5 years.
Dallas, TX
Child Poverty Action Lab – a group of organizations and stakeholders working to cut child poverty in Dallas County in half within a generation.
San Diego, CA
San Diego for Every Child: The Coalition to End Child Poverty was formed in 2020 by community leaders and local organizations with the goal of cutting child poverty in half by 2030.
What are the Roadmaps to Cutting Child Poverty In Half in Your State?
On February 28, 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released a consensus study, A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty, which has been described as “the most important report on child poverty in years.” Congress mandated the National Academies to analyze the negative developmental outcomes and economic consequences of child poverty, the effectiveness of current efforts to reduce child poverty, including both domestic and international efforts, and then come up with a set of recommendations to cut our child poverty rate in half within a decade.
The study committee finds that no single policy or program change on its own can cut our national child poverty rate in half within a decade. However, the study committee models four different combinations of policy and program changes and finds that, using an adjusted Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), two of these combinations can achieve this goal.
To accompany the study, the NASEM released a data explorer tool that models the impact of the four policy and program combinations on SPM state child poverty rates, including deep child poverty.
We also created a set of tools for state advocates fighting child poverty, including state-by-state fact sheets with key indicators on child poverty, as well as two resources that utilize the NASEM data explorer tool to show the effect of the four policy packages on state child poverty and deep child poverty rates.
These combined resources are designed to help advocates utilize the study findings that are most helpful based on the contextual factors in your state.