Children's Movement announces 2012 agenda

The Children’s Movement of Florida announced its 2012 legislative agenda this afternoon, after a read and greet with two local childcare classes at the Early Learning Coalition of the Big Bend.

The agenda for the non-partisan movement was centered on the five original goals it was founded on in 2009—health insurance, screening and treatment for children who may have special needs, the quality of Florida’s prekindergarten program, and increasing availability of high-quality and best-practice mentoring and parent skill-building programs.

The new agenda, constructed after meeting with community leaders across Florida, focuses on those goals specifically. The agenda items include:: parent skill building through a public awareness campaign on the importance of early development; developmental screening, diagnosis and treatment for children with special needs through online screening and tools for families and a statewide implementation plan for timely screening diagnosis and treatment; use of evidence-based curriculum in every classroom and required assessment in voluntary prekindergarten classrooms; targeted enrollment efforts and mentoring initiatives focused on reading by third grade.

The movement identified the parent skill-building, screening and VPK agenda items would cost the legislature about $28.5 million, an amount the movement referred to as a “fraction” of Florida’s $69 billion budget. Mentoring and health care agenda items would not call for legislative funding.

David Lawrence, chair of the Children’s Movement, joined Mel Jurado, director of the Florida Office of Early Learning, and Dominic Calabro, president and CEO of Florida TaxWatch, to discuss the movement’s agenda.

“Florida’s Office of Early Learning feels blessed to enjoy the company of great partners like Dave Lawrence of The Children’s Movement,” Jurado said in a release. “The enthusiasm and passion of our many stakeholders around the state for achieving high-quality, positive outcomes for our youngest, and often most vulnerable citizens, are goals we all rally around.”

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