SB 1047 Sample Support Letter

Date

The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
1021 O Street, Suite 9000
Sacramento, CA 9581

RE: SB 1047 (Limón) Early learning and care.
REQUEST FOR SIGNATURE

Dear Governor Newsom:  

[Your Organization or Name] is pleased to support Senate Bill 1047 which would expand access and eligibility for Early Learning and care programs in California to better meet the needs of working parents and their children, particularly infants and toddlers.

The first five years of life set the foundation for future learning, and high-quality Early Learning programs can have a transformative impact. From birth to age 5, a child’s brain develops more rapidly than any other time in life. Young children’s experiences shape the architecture of the brain and set the foundation for lifelong health, well-being, and success. Unfortunately, disparities in learning and development start at birth, fueled by the opportunity gaps and toxic stress caused by poverty, inequality, and adverse experiences. Two-year-olds from families in poverty could be up to six months behind their peers in language development.  By age 3, children with college-educated parents or caregivers often have vocabularies 2 to 3 times larger than those whose parents had not completed high school.

California currently allows too many infants and toddlers from low-income backgrounds to fall through the cracks without access to the high-quality child care and crucial supports that they need to thrive. Ensuring access to quality Early Learning and care, especially for those children and families most marginalized and excluded from opportunity, can help mitigate the impact of systemic racism and poverty and narrow disparities based on income and race.

Families with young children will benefit from strengthening the mixed-delivery Early Learning and care system, including family child care, community-based programs, and schools.

SB 1047 expands access and eligibility for child care programs. 

SB 1047 aims to increase efficiencies in the direct contracting Early Learning and care system by removing barriers to serve more children in quality programs and strengthen the family child care system to give our youngest learners a strong start. Considering COVID-19’s devastating impact on families and early childhood providers, we must build a stronger, more equitable Early Learning and care system for California’s children, families and providers.

Specifically, SB 1047 would accomplish the following:

• Enable low-income families to more easily enroll in subsidized child care and preschool. This bill expands categorical eligibility for subsidized child care for families who are already enrolled in CalFresh, Medi-Cal, WIC or Head Start. This will significantly reduce the paperwork and administrative burden on families and providers.
• Make it easier for families to maintain access to subsidized child care and preschool. The bill also extends eligibility for subsidized child care from 12 to 24 months to improve continuity of care for families and children.

SB 1047 will expand access to high-quality Early Learning and care programs by leveraging existing state and provider resources. This is particularly true for families receiving aid, where the unmet need is most acute. For these reasons, [Your Organization or Name] strongly supports SB 1047 and respectfully asks for your signature on this important legislation.

Sincerely,

Your Name
Title
Organization

1. Stanford Report (2014). Language Gap Between Rich and Poor Children Begins in Infancy. https://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/september/toddler-language-gap-091213.html 
2. Center on the Developing Child (2009). Five Numbers to Remember About Early Childhood Development. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/five-numbers-to-remember-about-early-childhood-development/