State Action –
Take Action by June 15
​to support young children who experience homelessness

Need you to contact your lawmakers by June 15!

​There are 9,000 children ages 0-5 experience homelessness in Pennsylvania, and less than 1 percent are in high quality early learning programs. Without the benefits of high quality early childhood education programs, homelessness tends to physically and emotionally hurt these children.

Why this is important:

• Experiences of homelessness and housing instability in early childhood are associated with delays in children’s language, literacy, and social-emotional development.
• Families experiencing homelessness confront more barriers to accessing child care and other early childhood education programs than impoverished families who have stable housing.
• Mothers who have experienced homelessness are less likely to access subsidized child care than those at-risk of homelessness or those with stable housing.
• Pennsylvania’s homeless 3rd graders score half as well as their peers on standardized math and reading tests.

​Why early learning programs:

• More than forty years of research demonstrates the long-term economic benefits of high quality early learning programs.
• Recently, Congress revised Head Start, Child Care, and home visiting regulations to increase access to these programs for young children experiencing homelessness. But now states are called upon provide those resources.

 
Action Needed: Please contact your state Senator and Representative and urge them to increase funding for Head Start Supplemental, PA PreK Counts, Child Care, and home visiting programs for Fiscal Year 2019.

Find your State Senator and your Representative

Pennsylvania’s homeless 3rd graders score half as well as their peers on standardized math and reading tests.