For Immediate Release

The new Congress has a real opportunity to improve the lives of children and youth, and NCYL is ready to help lawmakers seize it.

Over the past two years, young people across the country have felt the effects of weakened civil rights enforcement in schools, prolonged detention of children in immigration custody, and threats to the health coverage they and their families depend on, such as food support for families experiencing poverty. This Congress can take action and begin to reverse that harm. Lawmakers can restore civil rights enforcement so students who experience discrimination get a real response, protect Medicaid and CHIP for the families who rely on them, and use their oversight authority to make sure children in federal immigration custody are treated safely and humanely.

NCYL has fought for children in courtrooms and before Congress for 55 years. We look forward to bringing that experience to this work, and we will measure our shared progress by whether children are safer, healthier, and better protected a year from now.