Special Edition: Prioritizing Young Children Under the Gold Dome in 2025
Happy New Year and welcome back to Cobb Collaborative’s Blog! If you are new to Cobb Collaborative’s Blog, we post twice a month with topics ranging from Mental Health to Children and Families, as well as highlighting local organizations committed to that work. And if you are new to Cobb Collaborative in general, we are a local non-profit focused on educating, engaging, and empowering the community to improve the well-being of children and families. We do that through our 3 main initiatives: Mental Health, Literacy, and Civic Engagement.
For the first Blog Article of 2025, we are honored to have a Special Edition piece on what kinds of policy work GEEARS, Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, is doing in 2025. GEEARS is a nonprofit organization operating to inspire and provide leadership for a statewide movement on quality early learning and healthy development for all children ages birth through five. Policy and advocacy play a critical role in shaping the systems and supports that children and families rely on every day. From access to quality education and healthcare to ensuring safe and nurturing environments, effective policies can create lasting change and equity. Advocacy amplifies the voices of families, ensuring their needs and perspectives are at the center of decision-making, ultimately fostering healthier, more resilient communities for generations to come. Thank you Hanah Goldberg, Research and Policy Director with GEEARS, for being our first special guest of 2025!
“At GEEARS: Georgia Early Education Alliance for Ready Students, we are ramping up for the 2025 Legislative Session, which begins on Monday, January 13th. Our 2025 policy priorities were shaped by the experiences of families and caregivers across Georgia shared through polling, focus groups, surveys, and direct testimonials. Here’s what we know: Georgia’s families with young children face significant challenges affording and accessing child care, health care, and basic necessities. In fact, our recent poll found that eight in 10 Georgia parents with young children struggled to afford a basic need during the prior year. With a record budget surplus, now is the time for Georgia’s legislators to prioritize the needs of its families and bolster the future of our state.
What might that look like? GEEARS has some ideas:
- Meaningfully fund child care, specifically Georgia’s Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) Program, which provides child care scholarships to some low-income families.
- Enact continuous Medicaid eligibility for children from birth through age 3, ensuring they don’t experience lapses in coverage during this crucial time in their development.
- Raise reimbursement rates for Babies Can’t Wait Service Coordinators and Special Instructors, who provide crucial early intervention services to young children and have not received a rate increase in decades.
- Create a refundable Georgia Child Tax Credit, which would help offset the growing cost of raising young children.
(You can read more about these and GEEARS’ other priorities in our 2025 Policy Agenda.)
What can you do to promote family-friendly policymaking in Georgia?
- Share your story. Parents, service providers, and early educators can utilize our storytelling platform to make their voice heard, or reach out to GEEARS directly for support crafting and sharing early childhood stories.
- Stay connected. Sign up for key early childhood updates and action alerts. Join GEEARS and our partners in advocating for state and federal policies that support young children and their families.
- Get to know your elected officials. Legislators want to hear from you, their constituent, about the needs of children and families in their district.
GEEARS looks forward to an energizing and productive legislative session. We hope you’ll join us in advocating for the needs of the youngest Georgians when our legislators assemble beneath the Gold Dome on January 13th.”
GEEARS is a nonprofit early childhood policy, research, and advocacy organization. Learn more at https://geears.org/
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