Posamentier & Adams: The result could be more chaotic kindergarten classes and diminished social readiness that will extend to HS and beyond.

For the Children, Why Washington State Voters Should Vote NO on Initiative 001…

Read First Focus on Children's press release at the link below. It links to our brief at the end. #KidsFirst #ProtectChildren #AllMeansAll @brucelesley.bsky.social…

When ‘Parental Rights’ Means Letting a Child Die https://brucelesley.substack.com/p/when-parental-rights-means-letting?r=f8l9&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

An issue brief from Report for Youth Justice synthesizing six recent studies on what teens and young adults say about news coverage of young people — and seven steps newsrooms can take.

Thank you to @brucelesley.bsky.social at @firstfocus.bsky.social for this great commentary on the Trump admin's latest attack on babies/unborn children. "Apply the One Question — “is it good for the…

Parental Rights Bills Forgot Children Have Rights, Too https://brucelesley.substack.com/p/parental-rights-bills-forgot-children?r=f8l9&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web A useful…

August 11, 2026

The American people do not believe that children should be sick, in pain, or without preventive care like vaccinations and annual check-ups based on the wealth of a child’s parents, their zip code,…

The 1997 Flores ruling requires immigrant children be released from detention after 20 days. Trump is keeping some for as long as 323 days, new filings in a lawsuit state.

Please join the Center for American Progress and America’s Voice to hear from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and a panel of experts on the Trump administration’s cruel and reckless…

Comments on OMB's proposed grants rule close July 13. Here's why First Focus on Children is urging the Administration to withdraw it.

Explore the 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book, with child well-being state-level data in four areas: economic stability, education, health, and family/community…

Texas lawmakers need to change policies to improve the lives of children, according to a recently released report.

Our research shows that school closures disproportionately impact Black students and those from low-income communities.

A residential treatment center in Missouri advertises to adoptive parents that it can help heal struggling children.

Group has banded together to rescue data as Trump administration has removed or altered data on climate change, reproductive health, LGBTQ+ people and more

School officers across the state turned to heavy-handed tactics on children, often in response to minor misbehavior, our investigation shows.

Lawmakers increasingly view disciplinary alternative programs as a solution to behavior problems. Critics say they harm students.

"The framing of homeschooling as entirely beyond public accountability is harmful to children." Grateful for @brucelesley.bsky.social's discussion of homeschooling in this piece.…

Children Are Not Property: The Case for Children’s Fundamental Rights…

With third-highest number of books banned, state removes renowned work about slave trade from library shelves

“Convenient mythologies require neither evidence nor logic.” — Edward S. Herman, “Manufactured Consent: The Political Economy of Mass Media” In a number of articles on its website, PEN America…

State Letters Threaten to End All Federal Medicaid Funding The Trump Administration’s decision to freeze more than a billion dollars in Medicaid funding

New data shows more nonfiction and LGBTQ+ titles targeted in book bans across the U.S.

NC Child Fatality Task Force 2026 report urges stronger laws, funding on car seats, mental health, guns, safe sleep and child care as preventable child deaths p...

Original science news reporting in Plain English.

And I wish Robert F. Kennedy Jr. did too.

Rx Kids, a community-wide cash prescription program for pregnant women and new parents that began in Flint, Michigan, was associated with a major drop in investigations of child maltreatment in…

Today’s “parental rights” absolutism is actually a departure from the country’s constitutional history and tradition.

Newspaper columnists instructed generations of citizens about the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, the country seems to have forgotten how clear the law is.

One of seven reasons for optimism: “The evidence base for investing in children has never been stronger.” [contains quote post or other embedded content]

Florida’s KidCare expansion has been stuck in legal limbo since February 2024. Since then, the number of uninsured children in Florida has risen to 400,000 — one of the highest state tallies.

HIV clinician decries upending of long-running AIDS program for low-income countries

American retirees receive over twice as much in total federal outlays as working-age adults and six times more than children and young adults. These ratios are even larger on a per-capita basis.…

Get our weekly newsletter, The Week in Brief, featuring a roundup of our original coverage, Fridays at 2 p.m. ET.

BruceLesley.bsky.social and I on Chiles v. Salazar. TLDR: the SCOTUS majority got this very, very wrong. But Colorado can still win at trial. Don't sleep on that. [contains quote post or other…

Congressional Republicans appear ready to put SNAP benefits even MORE at risk for kids and their families for the next 10 years, in order to pay for ONE HOUR of war in Iran. I wish I were making this…

House and Senate Democrats are holding a forum to highlight the American children who have been caught up in the government's immigration dragnet, with some being handcuffed, held at gunpoint, or…

Unable to sleep and concentrate on school, teens say they are increasingly anxious — and have trouble planning for the future.

I entered this profession just as the storm clouds of the current book-banning push were starting to gather; now I’m in the middle of it.

The state of our nation’s children is dire: homelessness is rising rapidly among infants and toddlers, child poverty has nearly tripled in recent years,

Punishing Children: Why the Attack on Plyler v. Doe Is an Attack on America’s Core Values…

First Focus on Children joined the American Academy of Pediatrics, Children's Defense Fund, and five other organizations in urging the Centers for