Advocacy Corner

Advocacy Newsletter

Hello advocates! We are so happy to provide you with information about what's happening at the state level regarding advocacy, action alerts, upcoming events, and more!

See the Activism Corner below for more information about this week's contest

State Updates

We’re halfway through the legislative session and things are starting to heat up! This week legislators will be busy voting on the bills that passed out of the committees. Negotiations on the budget are happening behind closed doors as the House and Senate prepare to reveal their budget proposals next week. These next two weeks are very important for advocacy - legislators are hearing from advocates on many issues, and the more noise we make the better we can make sure they pay attention to our requests. And more than anything, it’s important for legislators to be reminded of the impact these decisions have on real people and kids in their communities. Check out the Activism Corner and please take a few minutes this week to ask legislators to invest in early learning!

Monday was the cut-off date for bills to pass out of the fiscal committees (Reminder: These are the committees where legislators deliberate whether these bills are a good use of state funds). I'm happy to say a few of the bills CCR supports continue to move forward:

SB 5793 is the bill that would change the law so that people with lived experience who participate on state planning tables and oversight boards can be compensated for their time. This bill is important for making such providers, families, and caregivers have a say in what our early learning system looks like, and it's waiting to be voted on by the full Senate before starting the process all over again in the House!
HB 1881 creates a certification for birth doulas that would allow them to be Medicaid-reimbursable, making birth doulas more accessible for low-income families. This bill was developed by the Doulas For All coalition led by doulas of color who are doing amazing work to support access to birth doulas for BIPOC communities. This bill is also waiting to be voted on by the House before going over to the Senate.
SB 5838 provides additional cash for families receiving TANF to cover the cost of diapers if they have a child under the age of 3. We hope it will get voted on by the Senate this week and move on over to the House.

A lot of good bills don't make it through this cut-off, and we're sad to see some important ones not move forward. However, advocates are always creative and will be finding other ways to keep the issues alive:

HB 1771 would change the law so that family child care providers can bargain for retirement benefits as part of their union contract. This bill didn't get a hearing in the fiscal committee so it can't move forward. But advocates are working to find a way to keep working on this through a budget request.
HB 2009 would have created a Guaranteed Basic Income program to cover the cost of rent for a two-bedroom for low-income individuals for three years. This would have been an amazing program to help families secure financial stability, but there is work to try to make a budget request for this as well.
SB 5438 would have created an unemployment program for individuals with undocumented legal status but didn't make it through either. We know that undocumented families are often unable to access Working Connections as well, and will hope this bill passes next year to give this community the supports they need - especially during the pandemic.

Thank you for advocating! And as always if you have any questions, please reach out to Sarah: brady@childcare.org

Activism Corner

This week your action will get you a chance to win a $25 Visa gift card!

Child Care Aware of Washington needs our support! Please take two minutes to use their template to let our representatives know we all want high-quality care for our children!

Link to the action page in English

Link to the action page in Spanish

Support Family, Friends & Neighbor caregivers! Help us show the legislature that there is a lot of momentum for our request to expand Play & Learn groups. Here are two ways you can support:

Post on social media! Child Care Aware created these great tools to help us craft a message to put on social media (Click here for a toolkit in English and a toolkit in Spanish). Choose the platform you want to use (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and then click through the different message options. Make it your own and then post!
Write a letter to your lawmaker! In just a few minutes you can send a thoughtful email to your legislator. Here is the auction link in English and the link in Spanish.

Activism Corner contest details: Simply reply to this email and let us know you took one of the above actions. You will be entered into a raffle to win a $25 Prepaid Visa Gift card. The winner will be notified via email on February 17th. Entries will be accepted until February 16th at midnight PST.

Upcoming Events

Celebrating Black History Month: Feb. 21st: African American Legislative Day!

We invite our community to participate in this day of mobilization in support of African Americans across Washington! This is a virtual event that will include opportunities to what from fellow advocates, members from the Legislative Black Caucus, and advocate for ways to address the needs of African American communities in our state. Register here, and check out the website for more info!

Feb. 15th & 23rd: Advocacy 101 Training for Providers (STARS)

Advocacy 101, An Introduction to Advocacy, is a free STARS training hosted by Child Care Aware of Washington. It is open to providers and other interested participants across the state. This training will take place on Zoom, on February 17th (English) and February 23rd (Spanish). If you are interested in learning more about what advocacy is, the basics of state and federal government, and how you can help shape better child care policies, please register at https://ccacwa.org/upcomingclasses/. See the attached flyers for more information.

Email CCA of WA Mobilization Manager, Alex Hanel, with any questions: alex@childcareawarewa.org.

Bill Tracker

Want to know more about the bills and budget requests we are following this session? You can find our bill tracker at this link!

It includes the numbers for the bills, any updates on upcoming hearings for these bills, and how they are moving through the process.

This week we want to give a big shout-out to Jenny Cimbalnik, a child care center director from Seattle. Jenny has been an amazing participant in the advocacy pods. She’s helped to highlight the challenges of how systemically underpaid child care providers are through the experience of the teachers at her program. We appreciate you for taking the time to advocate and for all you do for the families you serve!

Advocacy Pods

An Advocacy Pod is a group of early learning

practitioners (child care providers, parents,

Family, Friend & Neighbor caregivers, CCR staff and board members, and partners from early learning organizations) whom all live in the same legislative district. The CCR advocacy team organizes opportunities for groups to meet with their district legislators and to directly share with them the challenges and changes needed to support the children in our communities. This is an opportunity to share what is on your mind with those who are elected to create change! Advocacy Pod members will receive regular invitations to share their stories and participate in advocacy.

Click below to view more information about our Advocacy Pods in your preferred language:

English: Join our Advocacy Pods

Russian: Присоединяйтесь к Advocacy Pod.

Traditional Chinese: 成為 Advocacy Pod 的一分子。

Simplified Chinese: 加入 Advocacy Pod。

Arabic: انضم إلى منصة Advocacy Pod.

Somali: Ku biir Advocacy Pod.

Vietnamese: Tham gia một nhóm Advocacy Pod.

Spanish: únase a un grupo de abogadores.

Our Company | Contact Us | FAQs | Privacy Policy

Child Care Resources | 1225 S. Weller St. Ste 300, Seattle, WA 98144

Unsubscribe brady@childcare.org