Prevention is Powerful

Children deserve to be safe and healthy with every opportunity to thrive. This is what motivates our work at Children’s Action Alliance to influence policy and budget decisions. Every day policymakers have an opportunity to build supports or obstacles for children. As we recognize Child Abuse Prevention Month in April, we remain committed to policy change that can and does prevent child abuse. 

Here are just some of the powerful ways that policy can protect children: 

• State SNAP policies that improve and stabilize household resources are associated with reductions in CPS involvement and use of foster care.  
• Paid family leave reduced reports of infant maltreatment by about 14 percent. 
• Families with young children are 27% less likely to experience homelessness when they participate in home visiting support. 
• Targeted tax credits also make a difference. For each additional $1000 in per-child EITC and CTC tax refunds, state-level rates of reported child maltreatment declined in the week of and 4 weeks following refund payments by an overall estimated 5.0%. 

As stated by Prevent Child Abuse America: When we invest in prevention, children grow up safer, families stay together, and communities thrive. Primary prevention focuses on strengthening families early by reducing stress, increasing connection, and ensuring parents have what they need before challenges become crises.

Arizona’s own Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva is working on a bi-partisan bill that would ensure that tribal nations receive more equitable access to federal child abuse prevention funding and allow for programing that is holistic and impactful for the children and families in each tribal community. 

At the Arizona legislature, some bills have passed including Senate Bill 1126 to improve communication between DCS caseworkers and schools, creating access to vital information that can help keep children safe, and Senate Bill1125 to facilitate the sharing of information between tribes and DCS about the placement of children in Tribal custody. Creating greater transparency can make a difference for children. 

Yet, there are still important bills that have yet to make it out of the legislature including House Bill 2041 which creates safeguards so that a family is not separated due to poverty, and Senate Bills 1602 and 1603 which both would ensure more support for grandparents and other kin who step up to care for children in a period of crisis. Policy and budget decisions to protect access to help with groceries through SNAP and access to health care through Medicaid/AHCCCS and other concrete support for families will also make a difference. 

We will keep advocating for the well-being of every child, and we thank you for your role in your own families, work places, and communities. Prevention is powerful in keeping children safe.