Parent leaders called and Mayor Bowser answered - read about the investments for #ParentPriorities and how parents are keeping UP their advocacy!
TODAY'S ACTION ITEMS:
Your voice is NEEDED: Take 30 seconds to sign these petitions and tell our District leaders you care about Out-of-School Time (OST) Programs and School-Based Mental Health (SBMH) supports!
On Saturday, 53 parent leaders hosted a PAVE Budget Forum to keep the drumbeat going for their top budget priorities! Chairman Mendelson, Councilmember Trayon White, the DME’s Director of Budget and Performance Management Michelle Yan, and SBOE Reps Frazier O’Leary and Ruth Wattenberg joined us. Read more about the powerful day below.
To the countless PAVE parent leaders who brought us here by giving your time, your passion, your stories, and your ideas: Thank you. We love you so much and are consistently in awe of each of you! Now let’s keep pushing to bring this year of advocacy over the finish line!
TODAY parents are meeting with staff from the Committee on Health and from Councilmember Robert White’s office! Check out updates from these meetings by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!
Parent leaders then led crucial conversations with policymakers and their staff to ask about their plans to support #ParentPriorities in the final FY23 budget.
These investments will no doubt have an incredible impact on the lives of children, families, educators, and the entire DC community and for that we can’t thank PAVE parent leaders enough!
... So what’s NEXT?
Parents know the work does NOT END HERE. There are still investments to be made and family-centered policies to be set to ensure DC meets the needs of all kids.
Celebrate how far we have come since 2017! PAVE parent leaders have been advocating for increased OST funding in DC for years, and we are so happy to see that Mayor Bowser continues to hear parents’ calls for these critical programs.
Produce and distribute an updated needs assessment to identify existing OST program gaps/needs, and looking at both location and program type.
Build accessible community engagement to inform expansion plans and allocation of funding for programs.
Pay clinicians what they need and deserve ($80k grants per CBO clinician for a total investment of ~$2.4M).
Right now, we are in a mental health provider shortage nationwide. Mayor Bowser’s proposed budget includes dollars to hire more clinicians, but lowers each CBO grant to ~$70k! Some DC schools still don’t have a clinician at all. We want to keep existing providers in DC schools and continue to attract new folks to fill vacancies - which means we need to pay them accordingly.
Provide at least $300K to fund a cost study to determine the true cost of the SBMH program now and in the future.
This includes determining the needs of individual schools, providers, and communities which impact program costs through a needs assessment.
Create a strong accountability system for any agency/organization providing mental health supports in schools in partnership with families and youth.
Coming up:
Parent leaders will continue to host meetings with Councilmembers and their staff, testify at upcoming hearings, write blogs and op-eds, keep the energy up on social media, and more.
Be sure to follow us on social media(@dcpave) to stay up to date on all the action, advocacy, and #ParentPower!
