| Overview | Health and Nutrition |
State policies that promote health, education, and strong families can help the early development and school readiness of America's youngest citizens. This profile highlights Virginia's policy choices alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.
Trends1
Virginia has maintained income eligibility for health insurance, covering young children in families up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. However, working parents only qualify for insurance if the family income is below 31 percent of the federal poverty level. Local jurisdictions have maintained the income eligibility for child care subsidies in recent years, which range from 150 percent to 250 percent of the federal poverty level in 2008. Funding for state prekindergarten increased from $18 to nearly $53 million (nominal dollars), between 2002 and 2008.
Recent Developments1
Virginia’s 2010 budget includes a $10 million increase for the Virginia Preschool Initiative for at-risk 4-year-olds, for a total of $68.7 million. Classrooms are now required to follow revised early learning standards. A $2 million allocation from the state’s CCDBG infant-toddler earmark launched a network of infant-toddler specialist in 2009. Ten specialists in eight regions now provide assistance to child care providers.
| Health and Nutrition |
Data Notes and Sources
Last Updated: June 16, 2009
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- The trends and recent developments come from personal communications with state advocates, administrators, and policymakers. The following publications were also consulted:
Donna Cohen Ross, Aleya Horn, and Caryn Marks, Health Coverage for Children and Families in Medicaid and SCHIP: State Efforts Face New Hurdles: A 50-State Update on Eligibility Rules, Enrollment and Renewal Procedures, and Cost-Sharing Practices in Medicaid and SCHIP in 2008, Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, January 2008 http://www.kff.org (accessed April 11, 2008).
W. Steven Barnett, Jason Hustedt, Allison Friedman, Judi Stevenson Boyd, and Pat Ainsworth, The State of Preschool 2007, National Institute for Early Education Research, 2007.
Karen Schulman and Helen Blank, State Child Care Assistance Policies 2007: Some Steps Forward, More Progress Needed, National Women's Law Center, September 2007.
National Center for Children in Poverty, Map and Track State Initiatives for Young Children and Families, 2000 Edition, 2000
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2005, June 2006
National Conference of State Legislatures, Child Care and Early Education Legislation Highlights 2006, unpublished draft
National Governors Association, Front and Center education articles, 2006, http://www.nga.org
ZERO TO THREE, The Baby Monitor, 2006 Policy and Advocacy News Archive, http://www.zerotothree.org - State data were calculated from the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (the March supplement) of the Current Population Survey from 2006, 2007, and 2008, representing information from calendar years 2005, 2006, and 2007. NCCP averaged three years of data because of small sample sizes in less populated states. The national data were calculated from the 2008 data, representing information from the previous calendar year.
- National and state data were calculated from the 2007 American Community Survey.